U.S. 
LETTERS il 
TN 
ROSE NIGRETTE WANTED 
Glenn Brown of Ashland, Oregon wishes 
this rose; he wants to be sure it is the true 
variety. 
CYTISUS ADAMI 
The item in the last issue on Cytisus Ad- 
ami interested me very much. 
I have seedlings that are not of blooming 
age yet and I am of the opinion, consider- 
ing its origin that it will not come true 
from seed. How is it propagated? 
If the cuttings were taken from branches 
bearing C. purpureus flowers, it would seem 
to me that is what one would then have 
and the same would be true if branches were 
of L. anagyroides; that is what the result- 
ing tree would be. Glenn Brown, Oregon. 
Perhaps some of your readers may have 
had some experience with it. ; 
MISSPELLED WORDS 
Miss Signe  Graiff of Washington state, 
writes about spelling flower names. Her 
first comment is on ‘rosy-red’, saying she 
would take it as a flower, half rose 
half red; however our point on page 354 
was that it should be ‘rosy red’ and not 
‘rosy-red’. They both mean the same but 
in ‘rosy-red’ you are hyphenating an ad- 
jective with a noun; maybe we are wrong, 
but if not, it is a common mistake. 
The word, Penstemon, however, is spelled 
Pentstemen, originally, and as we are follow- 
ing Hortus If in both classification and 
spelling we have printed it always as Pen- 
stemon. The reason for this, is of course, the 
ease in pronouncing it without the extra 
‘Tl’. She asks about a bulb catalog. The 
spring catalog is now being revised and we 
hope to have it completed about June; thig 
will have all the fall bulbs listed as well as 
the Iris and many additions to the seed list, 
including many Australian, New Zealand 
and Japanese collected seeds. It will be 
mailed free to all subscribers and those who 
have made purchases since January Ist. 
GRAVTYE MANOR 
In our July, 1953 issue, the cover picture 
was of William Robinson’s house at East 
Grinstead in England and known as Gravtye 
Manor. 
Robert A. Stansfield of California. writes: 
“I was particularly interested in the article 
on Gravtye Manor... As a boy, I spent 
much of my life wandering over the estate. 
My grandmother was employed by William 
Robinson up until the time of his death. He 
was an invalid during his last remaining 
years but was well in his nineties when he 
died; she was in her seventies herself. 
Gravtye Manor was left in National Trust, 
but there are inadequate funds to keep the 
estate up the way it was during Mr. Robin< 
son’s lifetime. I can remember six gardenerg 
being regularly employed. So many of the 
famous estates that have taken well over a 
hundred years to develope are gradually 
disappearing. 
Once again, congratulations on your most 
interesting magazine. 
SEEDS and PLASTIC GREENHOUSES 
Rudolph E. Leide of T[llinois writes in 
answer to our request for experiences with 
Maxlite, a plastic glass suitable for green- 
house use. He also calls our attention to 
the house Mr. Reh, in Belleville, has. We 
have written Mr. Reh and elsewhere we wilh 
have more to say about this subject. 
Mr. Leide also advises he will attempt 
to get plants of Rhus aromatica illinoensis 
as requested in the last issue. 
Limonium Peresii 
Japanese Morning Glory 
My Japanese Morning Glories are afflicted 
with light streaks in the leaves such as Mrs. 
Givens of Alaska describes, but as I have 
never seen any insects and the outer cell. 
layer is not destroyed, as leaf hairs can still 
be seen, perhaps it is not the same trouble. 
In my plants these are sharply defined areas 
which seem to follow along and spread out 
from the rib system. Like Mrs. Givens, 
I have tried various sprays, and also foliar 
feeding. All of my plants of six verieties 
are affected but in different degrees, and no 
treatment so far has had any effect. This 
streaking is present in some of the seed, 
leaves when they first unfold, which would 
- seem to rule out a diet deficiency. 
It is my opinion that this streaking is 
caused either by a seed borne virus in- 
fection or by some genetic condition of the 
ovule such as causes varietation in some 
plants. I am inclined more to the virug 
theory as in some plants viruses cause a 
tearing down of the cell structure resulting 
in a transparency of the cells. 
You might be interested in some of the 
details of Japanese pot culture of the Morn- 
ing Glories. They are seeded in a sandy 
mixture, after soaking or filing the hard 
coat, and are transplanted as soon as thea 
seed leaves are grown. They are grown 
individually in six or seven inch pots with a 
rich sandy mixture with some soot to bring 
out the color. In transplanting them the! 
taproot is trimmed a bit and they are sunk 
almost up to their seed leaves. They must 
be shaded until they take hold but otherwise; 
they require warmth at all times and all 
the sun they can get. The leaders and suc- 
cessive runners are pinched back to grow 
them bushy to a two or three foot pot 
trellis. They need quite a lot of water, 
which should be warm, and feeding with 
liquid manure or plant food during bloom- 
ing. The pots should have very good drain- © 
age. If you move the pot out of the sun 
when it blooms each blossom will stay oper 
a whole day. 
These Morning Glories come in wonderful 
colors and show a great deal of variation 
so it is a lot of fun to raise them, but they 
do take a lot of space in the house. The 
Japanese grow them in pots outdoors in the 
summer. , 5 
By Mrs. F. W. Warburton, Mass. 
Remarks: If the trouble was caused by 
a virus in the seed, we should have it in 
all seed sold but this is not the case; we will 
like to hear from other readers and in the 
meantime we will try to get an explaination 
to the matter. 4 ; 
A GERMINATING SUGGESTION 
F. E. Blunck, of Finleyville, Pa., writes: 
A suggestion on germinating ordinary 
flower seeds, is to moisten the seed, leave in 
the packet and place in the refrigerator or 
deep-freeze for a week or two; then thaw 
them out, moisten again and replace in the 
refrigerator again for a week or two, when 
they can be taken out again, thawed out 
and planted. 
This is especially recommended for such 
seeds as Primulas, Penstemons, etc. 
Note: Has any other reader tried this 
out, especially with check plantings? 
JAPANESE. IPOMOEAS IN HAWAII 
Amy Greenwell of Hawaii writes: I waa 
thrilled to see your list of Japanese Morn- 
ing Glories. Before the war we were able 
to get the seeds here and what a lovely pot 
plant for the house they were. 
As you can see by my order, I hope to try 
them again and so do some of my Japaneseé 
neighbors. Your new catalog is wonderful, 
and so complete. 
While being climbers, we have not listed 
the large Morning Glories as pot plants but 
several readers have suggested it. Else 
where in this issue we expect to have soma 
cultural information frow Japan; we also are 
planting a few kinds in pots now and will 
be pleased to have suggestions and comments 
on these beautiful Morning Glories. They 
should make sensational specimems at flower 
shows or Club meetings. 4 
SOME REMARKS ON SEED LIST 
Delphinium Menziesii is listed as 4-6 ft. 
This must be a misprint as it will scarcely 
exceed 15 inches. Delphinium trolliifolium 
from our limits will reach the height indicat- 
ed. ; 
Ceanothus prostratus “HHP”. This from 
our limits is cold-hardy, very much so. It is 
very difficult to transplant and a nursery 
friend of mine tells me that he expects up 
to 50% handling loss from nursery grown 
plants. I have propagated it from mallet 
cuttings set in an open propagating bed, (50- 
50 sand and peat moss) and it will come 
from seed sown in the fall. It is really a 
beauty. It is found in our mountains in 
loose volcanic soils, in full sun to light 
shade. 
Yes, we can grow a wide range of mater- 
ial in Oregon, but we have have our problems 
out here, too! I have gardened on the East 
coast but I believe we have better gardeners 
out here, possibly because the materials and 
methods developed in Europe are applic- 
able. 
You have a fine list of Penstemons. [ 
note that you list ‘‘diffusus v. Blue Bedder’’. 
Carl Purdy at one time had a “Blue Bedder” 
which was a selection from P. hetraphyllus. 
The two species are quite distinct; Diffusus 
as I know it is lavender to magenta, scarcely 
to be called blue. By S. W. Horn, Oregon.. 
POSITIVE ION GENERATOR 
I have a positive ion generator in my 8 by 
12 foot Orchid greenhouse, along with a 
thermostatically controlled heater. by which 
I maintaain a minimum night temperature 
of 60 degrees F. and a maximum day temp- 
erature of 70 degrees. 
On November 1, 1953, one potted plant 
produced six blossoms. About December 
1st, another potted plant produced eight 
blossoms; December 12th, fourteen more 
and at the present itme two additional 
spikes on the same plant are almost ready 
to bloom. 
On making inquiry, I have learned that 
professional growers do not obtain blossoms 
until around .the first of March and are 
amazed at my success in getting such early 
resuits. For the past two years I have had 
the same experience with negative ionizing 
and I am certainly convinced it does have 
a positive effect on the plants. 
By Guy R. Daniel, San Francisco. 
INCARVILLEA DELAVAYI 
A fine hardy perennial belonging to the 
best border plants. Its roots are long, fleshy 
and tuberous and requires a good loamy 
soil and the delicately colored flowers shoulg 
be protected from too hot and glaring sun. 
One trouble with this beautiful flower is 
its attractiveness to slugs which feed uporty 
the foliage and even attack the root stock. 
Where this condition occurs, a galvanized tin 
can can be placed around the plant. 
Biflora is pronounced bif-LOR-ah; diphylla 
is dif-IL-lah and longitlora is long-if-LO-rah, 
