Hugh Evans 
Perhaps we could do with a little more simplicity 
in our lives and in our tastes and also in the names 
of our plants. Some years ago, at a flower show, 
there was exhibited a small Lily, staggering under 
the name of ‘Lilium umbellatum thunbergianum 
bulbiferum var. nigro-maculatum.'' | have not en- 
countered this unhappy plant recently, and | fear 
the poor thing has given up the unequal struag!e 
for existence. Compare a name of this kind with 
the scholarly simplicity of the great botanist Lin- 
naeus who named the mighty English oak ‘Quercus 
robur'’ and when he was asked to choose a plant 
to bear his own name, chose ‘'Linnaea,'' a creeping, 
humble sub-shrub. That the botanical names of 
plants, as of drugs, should be fixed in a dead lan- 
guage is right and proper and indeed essential, so 
that the name is Fteligible to nationals of any 
country and readily recognizable. But a little re- 
straint in nomenclature is desirable. 
| admire and revere botanists and like to spend 
time in their society—after all, they cannot very 
well change my name without my consent and that 
of the Court—but when it comes to the names of 
plants they reign supreme. Even while your back 
is turned the curse has fallen! Some fine plant known 
and loved for years by a seemly and melodious 
name, has had that name changed; in the circum- 
stances we can hope that the plant is unconscious 
of the liberty taken! But enough of this: | do not 
want to be regarded as indulging in facetiousness, 
of which | have a horror. 
True gardeners are Nature's Priests, and while 
"There is a Divinity which shapes our ends’ ana 
those of our plants, also we, to a large extent, have 
in our keeping their well-or ill-being. While | am 
a profound admirer of lush tropical foliage and 
plants which ordinarily demand some shade and an 
abundance of water, | am also much drawn towards 
that large class of plants which planted on a sunny 
bank or hillside, after the first year, ask for nothing 
much but to be left alone. The great family of sun 
loving shrubs have too often been badly treated. 
To plant these shrubs from North and South Africa, 
West Australia and the Mediterranean region in 
the average flower border where they get incessant 
sprinkling is to invite their destruction. The heavy 
Ae and the abstainers must be kept apart. 
GUNNERA ... 
(Continued from front page) 
has no flowers worthy of mention, but then you 
can't have everything. Husky plants with terrific 
potential, one gallon cans, $1.75; four gallon, $5. 
PRIZEWINNING garden and lanai displayed by Evans and Reeves at the 1952 International 
Flower Show featuring exotic patio plants, refreshing “‘rain’-filled reflecting pools, and inviting 
terrace. Philodendrons, Clivias, Bromeliads, Bamboo, Papyrus, giant Grape, and Palms make up 
the visible portion of this tropical garden for a California home. 
It’s Time For... 
compact near-shrub for less than a dollar. Other reliable "blues" in cans at 85 
cents are VERONICA SPICATA (16 inches), STOKESIA CYANEA (laevis) (16 
inches), LIMONIUM PEREZII (Statice) (two feet and across), native PENSTEMON 
HETEROPHYLLUS (18 inches) and PLATYCODON, all for mostly sun; and sev- 
eral low CAMPANULAS for some shade. In "yellows" you'll find all-gold TRI- 
TONIA, GAILLARDIA SUN GOLD, VERBASCUM, DAYLILIES, and POTENTILLA 
WARRENSI (a new low one}; in pink, the incomparable DIANTHUS PRINCESS, 
HESPERIS, SIDALCEA, REHMANNIA, and PENSTEMON ROCKCLIFFE, all the 
same price, 85 cents. Then there are the new dwarf TRITONIAS in mixed paste! 
shades, the bright RED PENSTEMON, 85 cents; in flats at 50 cents a dozen, 
the ever more various PETUNIAS in pink, white, burgundy, and blue-violet; and 
in plant bands fresh young CHRYSANTHEMUMS at 25 cents. 
PELARGONIUMS deserve generous groupings in various parts of the 
garden, for at 75 cents you can have a whole bush of color from May until 
August or later. Sun or partial shade, for pots, boxes, flower beds. Take your 
pick from an entire lathhouse of them. 
Shrubs for the month will include at least two BRUNFELSIAS, violet to 
lavender to white, one, B. calycina floribunda, extremely fragrant; the other, 
B. calycina eximia, the most floriferous, for a moist situation in partial shade with 
slightly acidified soil; and MICHELIA FUSCATA, another fragrant subject with 
Camellia-like foliage but actually of the Magnolia family, also for part shade. 
Both these choice ornamentals are $1.25 to $4.50. 
Four outstanding trees of the month, all flowering, are ALBIZZIA JULIBRIS- 
SIN, the pink mimosa, with ferny foliage and showy stamenous flowers; HY- 
MENOSPORUM FLAVUM, medium-sized, slow evergreen tree with fragrant 
golden blossoms; the lovely orchid-flowered South African, CALODENDRON 
CAPENSE, the Cape Chestnut (all, $1.25 to $5); and CHIRANTHODENDRON 
PLATANOIDES, the fabulous monkey-paw tree, another big-leafed tropical for 
sun and deep soil. The tulip flowers containing the red and yellow ‘'paw'' are 
displayed in our sales office almost daily. $2.50 to $17.50. This month's EUCA- 
LYPTUS, TORQUATA, is a small slender tree of open habit with a curtain of 
rose-pink flowers, $1 to $4.50. And if you have a new home that needs a quick 
umbrella of shade there's KOELREUTERIA, a $4 plant of four to five feet which 
will be nine to eleven feet this summer. 
Summer annuals for May planting include ZINNIAS, separate colors and 
(Continued from front page) 
THE ICE PLANT COMETH 
Fluorescent Florescence 
That succulent plant which held many a slope 
against the ravages of our liquid climate this win- 
ter, the Mesembryanthemum, is currently demon- 
strating that it has other more aesthetic qualities 
as the various species successively carpet these 
same slopes with fluorescent hues of crimson, orange 
and magenta as well as yellow and white. 
While the restless botanists have assigned many 
and various names to the species formerly known 
generically as Mesembryanthemum, we will not be 
provokingly pedantic about their new tags as the 
process of classification is incomplete and imper- 
manent! Suffice to say that our subject is still re- 
ferred to by most of us as ice plant. 
What is of interest is their decorative and 
service potential, actually not fully realized in 
southern California, which in contrast to similar 
climaticaly endowed areas (the Riviera, and South 
Africa—whence come most of the family) still makes 
limited use of them. In South Africa the variously 
textured leaves and intense colors blanket vast areas 
or rise in shrubby clumps, while the terraces and 
palisades of the Mediterranean are hung with living 
tapestries of the brilliant flowers, each vivid color 
accentuating but not dominating the other. 
From the robust, coarse foliage and yellow 
flowers of M. edule, the most commonly planted 
for cover and security, to the tiny grey nubs and 
rosy lavender flowers of M. floribundum, there are 
blistered and hirsute fleshy leaves, long or short, 
triangular, round, cordate, in tight mats to undulat- 
ing shrubs, flowers large or small, vividly colored 
or innocuous. With careful selection of types, year- 
round color can be achieved. 
Cascading from planters on sun decks, framing 
flagstone, ornamenting arid spots, or as founda- 
tions for rock gardens, the Mesembryanthemums 
require only sun and drainage, accepting all other 
abuse happily: sterile soils, aridity, heat, drought. 
Gallon cans, 75 cents; flats, $6 per hundred. 
mixed; ASTERS the same, single and double; SAL- 
VIA BONFIRE; MARIGOLDS, tall and low; all 40 
cents a dozen, $2.80 a hundred: and VERBENAS, 
BROWALLIA, MIMULUS, and BEGONIAS, 50 
cents, $3.50. 
Don't forget, too, the chores of the month. Use 
weed killer on lawns. Watch for lawn moth. Spray 
weekly with nicotine sulphate for aphis, Orthorix 
for mildew, Vapotone for red spider, and Chlordane 
for worms. You can use all simultaneously. Water ~ 
the garden deeply if days are warm. If foggy, 
water in morning and not at night. 
