10 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
APRIL I, 1903. 
5. Dutch Picotee: A mixture of Nos. 
2 and 4. 
6. New French Picotee: Edge as in No. 
2, but, in addition, there is a series of 
markings radiating from centre line of 
petal and touching the edging. 
7. New Spanish Picotee: Like No. 6, but 
with two inner sets of markings. 
8. New Italian Picotee. Very rare; like 
No. 6, but with three inner sets of mark- 
ings. 
3. Torch: Markings of two colors, melt- 
ing into each other; ground white. 
10. German Bizarre: Two or more 
marking colors running over white petal, 
into the claw. 
11. English Bizarre: Like No. 10, but 
with broader bands. 
12. German Flake: One colored, mark- 
ings on ground color. 
13. English Flake: 
with narrower bands. 
14. Flamed: White ground, flamed with 
one color which does not reach the claw. 
15. Salamander: Marking color dotted 
over whole leaf. 
16. Grenoble: One marking color reach- 
ing the claw. 
With each of the types 6, 7, and 8 is 
associated an old type, in which the inner 
markings reach into the claw. 
Like No. 12, but 
R. 
a SSessesee 
Selection and Arrangement 
Hardy Perennials in the Garden. 
:  2esese 
The subject of the arrangement of hardy 
plants in the garden and the selection of 
varieties which will prove most appropriate 
in certain locations is one which has so 
wide a scope that a few notes of suggestion 
will prove of value to those who hitherto 
have had little experience with them: A 
common mistake is made in dotting indivi- 
dual plants in the wrong places, where the 
effect of their foliage or bloom is to a large 
extent lost, and it should be the aim of the 
cultivators to group several plants of one 
class together rather than to isolate them 
individually among tall growing varieties, 
where they will eventually be overgrown 
and fail to create that favorable impression 
which otherwise their merits would secure 
for them. It is a mistake, moreover, to 
locate hardy plants, which deserve special 
culture in the ordinary border, where in 
time they will gradually diminish and be 
lost sight of. All plants of a delicate 
or diminutive growth should be planted 
where they may receive necessary care in 
cultivation. On general principles it is best 
in forming a bed of hardy perennials, 
where it is open on all sides, to group the 
taller growing varieties in the centre, gra- 
dually filling up the foreground with those 
of dwarfer growth, while the front 
of the bed towards the edge should 
last evening. 
be thickly studded with the dwarf 
plants of creeping or low grow- 
ing habit, such as Arabis, Daisy, 
Cerastium, &c. If in connection with the 
hardy perennials it is deemed desirable to 
associate some of the more ornamental 
dwarf shrubs, like Deutzias, . Spireas, 
Choisyas, Swainsonias, Hibiscus—and these 
evergreen shrubs are especially qualified 
for this use—then it will be well to use 
these shrubs towards the centre and sides 
of the beds, interspersing here and there 
between them groups of Delphiniums, Soli- 
dagoes, Lilies, tall-growing Pyrethrums, 
Iris, Perennial Phloxes, Asters (perennial), 
Scabious, Chrysanthemums, Maurice Prit- 
chard (the latter a very handsome, showy 
variety), Stoksiacyaneus, Libertia formosa, 
Rudbeckia, and many others which have a 
growth of from 4 to 5 ft. The growth of 
the shrubs will to no great extent im- 
poverish the soil provided the beds receive 
an occasional top-dressing of manure. By 
falling into the common error of planting 
hardy perennials in formal lines, dotted at 
intervals, a large portion of the effect 
which otherwise might be had is lost. 
Plants are gregarious in habit, and enjoy 
the grouping together which has been sug- 
gested, and a hundred daffodils brought to- 
gether in a mass produce an indescribably 
finer effect than if scattered one by one in 
open spaces. In the same way all the 
hardy perennials should be planted in 
masses according to space at command, fill- 
ing up, without too much crowding the in- 
tervening surface between shrubs and 
taller varieties. I strongly urge a liberal 
use of spring blooming bulbs along the 
edges of all beds of herbaceous plants, such 
as Scillas, Daffodils, Snowdrops, and many 
others which may. suggest themselves to 
‘the taste of individuals. These will be fol- 
lowed in quick succession by a develop- 
ment of blossom, which in a well-arranged 
bed should afford a constant display until 
the Japan Anemone, which is about the 
latest of all the hardy flowers, comes into 
bloom. 
PHSOSOSE SESS 
CRIMSON RAMBLER. 
TO THE EDITOR. 
Sir—In some of your recent numbers 
mention has been made of “Crimson 
Rambler” as an autumn bloomer. I en- 
close a small truss taken from my Rambler 
The plant (now four years 
old) had not borne flowers since the end 
of last November until this truss appeared 
—a solitary one—neither has it before had 
anautumn bloom. As attempts are being 
made in France to perpetuate the autum- 
nal blooming form, it would be interesting 
to know how many of your Australian 
readers have noticed the autumn blooming, 
and if any of them have tried to fix the 
form. 
I am, Sir, &c., 
E,. LESLIE POOLER, 
Stirling West, March 18, 1903. 
DELPHINIUMS AND DISEASE. 
‘ 
TO THE EDITOR. 
Sir—Many of your readers who are 
growers of Delphiniums have been troubled 
by a disease in their plants. We may say 
that we have always found the Delphinium 
hybrids more or less subject to this ob- 
scure fungoid disease. Dr. Cobb, the Go 
vernment Pathologist of New South Wales, 
on being shown a plant thus attacked, 
stated after careful examination that the 
fungus was one specially apt to exist in 
soils where an insufficiency of lime prevail- 
ed. In this State, where in most places 
lime is more or less present in the soils, 
especially around Adelaide, the disease is 
not particularly troublesome, not more 
than 10 per cent. of the plants succumbing 
to it. The disease more especially attacks 
those plants ;which send ‘wy a straight, 
hollow stem without side shoots, and that 
those which branch at the base readily do 
not seem to be so attacked. We think 
that it might be worth while proving 
whether the inference to be drawn from 
this is correct, viz., to cut back the first 
main spike before it gets far advanced, and 
so cause the basal buds to shoot. Around 
Sydney the trouble appears to be acute, 
and we would suggest, in view of the fact 
that the disease is fungicidal, that pow- 
dered bluestone (sulphate of copper) and 
sifted lime mixed be lightly dusted over 
the soil and well dug in and mixed. when 
planting the Delphiniums. This is really a 
dry Bordeaux mixture, the most useful fun- 
gicide known, and the most perfect for all 
general purposes. This might be followed 
up with a spraying of Bordeaux mixture 
just as the plants begin to throw a spike, 
and once or twice later. A disease which 
has been more trouble than this obscure 
fungus is the well-known red spider. Soap 
and tobacco boiled up well and strained is 
the cheapest and most effective wash. The 
species of Delphiniums as distinct fronl the 
hybrids are almost immune to the fungus 
that attacks the others, another instance 
of artificial work, viz., hybrids having to 
be maintained by artifice. 
I am, Sir, &c., — ; 
FRED C. SMITH. 
ESeseseecge= 
Ether and chloroform, so useful in sending 
men to sleep, have the very opposite effect 
on plants, which are stimulated to the greatest 
possible activity by these drugs. In Den- 
mark and Germany advantage has been taken 
of this fact to force flowers-in rooms and 
glasshouses and to make them bloom out of 
sean: The results are said to bé maryel- 
ous. 
A choice collection of eighty-four Carna- 
tion plants, grown by Mr James Douglas, 
of Great Bookham, England, were received 
by Mr. John Goodwin, of Ashfield, New 
South Wales, during March. 
