Discarded Favorites Reinstated 
l^Y EBEN E. REXFORD 
T hose of us who have a fondness for old 
plants are always glad when discarded 
favorites find their way hack into public 
favor, as they are sure to, sooner or later, for genuine 
merit wins its way in the long run. 
One of the old-time greenhouse favorites. Daphne 
odora, is now much sought after, hut is hard to hnd. 
Finding little sale for it some years ago, because 
newer candidates for favor had crowded it into the 
background, florists ceased to propagate it, as for¬ 
merly and the limited stock has been drawn on by 
those who remain faithful to old friends, until now 
few dealers can supply it. But here and there we 
And a few plants of it, and these are being bought 
up at good prices. 
I’he Daphne has the merits of being attractive all 
the year round. Out of bloom, its rich, thick glossy 
foliage makes a plant of it extremely ornamental. 
In bloom it is exquisitely lovely, with its thick- 
petalled flowers, produced in clusters, showing with 
charming effect against the dark foliage. Few 
flowers have a more delightful fragrance. It gen¬ 
erally blooms in spring and its flowers last for a 
long time. It is of shrubby, compact habit of growth, 
if pinched hack when small and made to take on a 
bushy form. It does best in a soil of loam and sand, 
into which considerable vegetable matter has been 
thoroughly- worked. It should he given good 
drainage. It retjuires only a moderate amount of 
water at its roots, hut delights in frequent showering 
of its foliage. While most successfully grown in the 
greenhouse, it is quite well adapted to culture in the 
living-room, if the red spider is kept from injuring it, 
as he can he by the liberal use of water on its foliage. 
Old plants, three and four feet high, and well 
branched, are extremely ornamental when in full 
bloom, and those who see such specimens will he 
eager to own one. It does best in partial shade, and 
a comparatively low temperature. 
The Bouvardia is another old-time favorite which 
ought to'be found in every collection, hut which, of 
late years, has almost dropped out of notice. There 
is some reason for this neglect, 1 admit, for few 
plants arc more susceptible to injury from the mealy¬ 
bug. 1 he aphis will attack a Pelargonium in 
preference to any other plant, and the mealy-bug has 
{]uite as decided a liking for the Bouvardia. But I 
have found it cpiite an easy matter to keep this pest 
under control by the use of the home-made insecticide 
I so frequently and so confidently recommend for 
general use—ivory soap, melted, and mixed with 
water, and applied m the form of a spray. If it is 
used once a week, throughout the season, few mealy¬ 
bugs will he found on your plants - never enough to 
do any damage. 
fl'he Bouvardia is not a showy flower, because it 
lacks size and brilliance of color, hut it is a very 
beautiful one. Its blossoms are shaped very much 
like those of the lilac, being tubular, and having four 
petal-like divisions at the tip. They are borne in 
clusters of ten to twenty, at the extremity of the 
branches. The season of bloom is from January to 
March, under ordinary culture. The plant does best 
in a soil of rich loam. It is not much given to 
branching. As a general thing, it sends up several 
stalks from a sort of crown, and these stalks, by 
judicious pruning, can be made to throw out a few 
side branches, hut one must depend on a quantity of 
shoots sent up directly from the roots, for flowers, 
rather than on the results of pruning. T herefore cut 
away none of these shoots as they appear, thinking 
to throw the strength of the plant into the produc¬ 
tion of many branches from one stalk. 
There are four colors represented in the Bouvardia 
family—white, rose, scarlet and pale yellow. The 
pure white and the rose varieties are grown much 
more extensively than the scarlet and yellow ones, 
though the latter are really fine, in all respects, and 
a large collection of plants ought to include them. 
There are double and single forms, in the white and 
pink varieties. Which form is loveliest it would he 
hard to say, for both are extremely beautiful. For 
choice cut flower work, we have few better plants. 
1 would he glad to have my flower-loving readers 
procure a specimen of either the pink or white 
variety, and grow it on for winter use, for I know 
they would he delighted with it. A cluster of Bou¬ 
vardia makes a most charming corsage decoration, 
and is e(|ually as desirable for buttonhole use. 
How do you treat your callas during summer 1 
Some keep them growing the year round, hut com¬ 
plain that they get very few flowers from them. 
Others pur them out in the garden, where they grow 
well, hut when they are lifted in the fall, the plants 
get a setback from which they do not recover until 
late in the season. T he fact is, the calla is one of 
those plants which will live on, indefinitely, under 
almost any treatment you see fir to give it, hut living 
is one thing, and blooming quite another. Aly plan 
of growing it is this: In June or July, I take the pots 
f)Ut-of-doors and turn them down on their side, under 
a tree. There I leave them until about the middle of 
September, giving them no attention whatever. Of 
course the old foliage dies off, because the soil be¬ 
comes dry, hut this does not matter. I he root 
is raking a rest. That is the main thing to he 
