Journal the New York Botanical Garden
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VOL. XXXIV DECEMBER, 1933 No. 408 JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN ROCK GARDENING WITH BULBS ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM AN EVERGLADE CYPRESS SWAMP JOHN K. SMALL NEW HYBRID POPLARS FOR REFORESTATION CAROL H. WOODWARD A GLANCE AT CURRENT LITERATURE CAROL H. WOODWARD CHRYSANTHEMUMS AT THE AUTUMN FLOWER-SHOW WINTER LECTURES AT THE GARDEN NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT INDEX TO VOLUME XXXIV PUBLISHED FOR THE GARDEN AT LIME AND GREEN STREETS, LANCASTER, PA. THE SCIENCE PRESS PRINTING COMPANY Entered at the post-office in Lancaster, Pa., as second-class matter. Annual subscription $1.00 Single copies 10 cents Free to members of the Garden THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN BOARD OF MANAGERS HENRY W. DE FOREST, President CLARENCE LEWIS HENRY DE FOREST BALDWIN, Vice President ADOLPH LEWISOHN JOHN L. MERRILL, Vice President and Treas. HENRY LOCKHART, JR. E. D. MERRILL, Secretary KENNETH K. MACKENZIE ARTHUR M. ANDERSON H. DE LA MONTAGNE, JR. A F BLAKESLEE Asst. Treas. and Bus. Mgr. MARSTON T. BOGERT LEWIS RUTHERFURD MORRIS GEORGE S. BREWSTER H- HOBART PORTER N. L. BRITTON MRS. ARTHUR H. SCRIBNER THOMAS J. DOLEN EDMUND W. SINNOTT CHILDS FRICK SAM F. TRELEASE R. A. HARPER WILLIAM H. WEBSTER JOHN P. O'BRIEN, Mayor of the City of New York JOHN E. SHEEHY, President of the Department of Parks GEORGE J. RYAN, President of the Board of Education DIRECTOR EMERITUS N. L. BRITTON, PH. D., SC. D., LL. D. GARDEN STAFF E. D. MERRILL, SC. D Director-in-Chief MARSHALL A. HOWE, PH. D., SC. D Assistant Director H. A. GLEASON, PH. D Head Curator JOHN K. SMALL, PH. D., SC. D Chief Research Associate and Curator A. B. STOUT, PH. D Director of the Laboratories FRED J. SEAVER, PH. D., SC. D Curator BERNARD O. DODGE, PH. D Plant Pathologist FORMAN T. MCLEAN, M. F., PH. D Supervisor of Public Education JOHN HENDLEY BARNHART, A. M., M. D.. .Bibliographer and Admin. Assistant PERCY WILSON Associate Curator ALBERT C. SMITH, PH. D Associate Curator SARAH H. HARLOW, A. M Librarian H. H. RUSBY, M. D Honorary Curator of the Economic Collections ELIZABETH G. BRITTON Honorary Curator of Mosses FLEDA GRIFFITH Artist and Photographer ROBERT S. WILLIAMS Research Associate in Bryology E. J. ALEXANDER Assistant Curator and Curator of the Local Herbarium HAROLD N. MOLDENKE, A. M Assistant Curator CLYDE CHANDLER, A. M Technical Assistant ROSALIE WEIKERT Technical Assistant CAROL H. WOODWARD, A. B Editorial Assistant KENNETH R. BOYNTON, B. S Head Gardener THOMAS H. EVERETT, N. D. HORT Horticulturist HENRY TEUSCHER, HORT. M Dendrologist G. L. WITTROCK, A. M Docent ROBERT HAGELSTEIN Honorary Curator of Myxomycetes E. B. SOUTHWICK, PH. D Custodian of Herbaceous Grounds ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM . .Honorary Curator, Iris and Narcissus Collections WALTER S. GROESBECK Clerk and Accountant ARTHUR J. CORBETT Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds JOURNAL OF The New York Botanical Garden VOL. XXXIV DECEMBER, 1933 No. 408 ROCK GARDENING WITH BULBS1 Among suitable plants for rock gardens there are many that grow from bulbs and, if we give the word "bulb" a wide latitude and include corms and some other plants which are often admitted into trade catalogues and large treatises on so-called bulbous plants, we have a big field from which to choose. In planting them, we must consider the conditions offered in rock gardens, which vary greatly in their exposure, soil, and style. The natural ones may have a great deal of shade or they may be sunny and dry. The soil may be quite deep in some places and very scant in others. The kind of soil also is important and the variety of rock from or on which our garden is made. In selecting bulbous plants even more care should be exercised than in the case of those usually termed "alpine" or "rock garden plants." It is advisable to place your plants where they will feel so much at home that they will need little care and will seed them selves naturally or increase freely from offsets. The rock garden may sometimes be used as a place to grow and conserve rare plants that need special soil and care, but the general appearance of the whole must always be considered. To spot a rock garden all over with dabs of bulbous plants sprouting up in tufts of strap-shaped foliage is just as bad as dotting stones of equal size at uniform distances all about the surface like the raisins in a pudding or lumps of coagulated fat on the top of cold soup! It has always seemed to me that the greatest danger in planting a rock garden is the likelihood that the final effect might resemble something to eat, either ready to go into the oven or prime for the table! Therefore we should plant enough of one variety or of 1 Abstract of an illustrated lecture given at The New York Botanical Garden, October 21, 1033. 257 258 similar-appearing plants to give mass effects, either as to form of growth or else in connection with color. An example of this with bulbous plants, if one has only a few bulbs of a variety, would be to use Scilla sibirica and varieties and Scilla bifolia adjacent to chionodoxas. Contrasts in color are good also if judiciously made, and contrasts in form of plants are very worth while. Thus creeping masses of phlox will set off stiff spears of bulb leaves, and plumy feathers of sedums will make a good foil for crocus "grass." Incidentally, the sedum will make a fine background for the chalice-like cups of the crocus flowers. Seasonal combinations, such as two spring bloomers, one a bulb, the other a rock plant; or a spring-blooming bulb with a summer- or an autumn-blooming ground-cover or vice versa; or even two bulbs of the same group, one of which flowers in springtime, the other in autumn, are also possible. Bulbs may be used at the edge of the rock garden to help disguise the joint between it and the lawn or meadow from whence it may spring. Further, the rock garden, because stones retain the heat of the sun for a time, may well shelter a slightly tender bulbous plant that would be discouraged by a late frost that might damage the foliage. The brodueas may be cited for this use. The principles of good gardening with bulbs will hold as true in the rock garden as elsewhere: not to destroy foliage, to remove it only after it is ripened; not to transplant the bulbs after root- growth has started unless they are replanted immediately and the greatest care taken to retain all the roots; not to dig carelessly into what appears to be a blank space and so chop up bulbs that you have forgotten were there; to make a plan of where you put your bulbs when you planted them; to put things in the right places and then leave them alone; to watch your garden and restrain one plant if it is encroaching upon another. If we have a bulb with heavy foliage, as some of the daffodils or the varieties of Scilla campanidata, we will be on our guard that the leaves do not lie in mats upon the ground-cover and destroy it, and in placing such bulbous subjects we will rather reserve the space between the bulbs for some tufted plant that will keep its position so we may guide the bulb leaves to lie between its tufts. I have found that daffodil foliage may be tied in knots or bound up 259 in wads to dry and that crocus foliage may not; it has to be spread to dry. Scilla campanulata is the heaviest of all and does more dam age to other plants, so for the scilla spaces I resort to annuals. Where annuals have seeded themselves in the late summer and are very thick over the up-coming bulbs in spring, I thin the annuals so they are sprinkled scantily between the bulbs and in this way get better bloom from each set of plants. Some of the small bulbous plants, such as the earliest scillas and chionodoxas, have their seed-pods on the ends of rather limp stems, so here again one must be on the lookout to see that the seed-pods do not lie over into the next section where seedlings would be lost or destroyed. One can lean them where one wishes and, if the seed is spread too thickly at one place, it may be scraped up when it first falls out of the pod and be sown elsewhere or dried to be given away; but do not attempt to dry it if it seems to be sprout ing. Seed seen lying exposed on the surface can be covered with a very thin layer of sifted soil and as some bulbs push to the sur face they may be pulled off and thinned or else covered in the same way. All these are points followed by the good gardener. If your rock garden is in the woods or very close to them and chipmunks and mice abound, vou will give up any idea of growing masses of rare crocuses or tulips, and perhaps the rarest bulbs will be planted in sections caged like animals in the zoo—but below ground! Chipmunks then will not transplant your tulips for you or nibble your irises. Rabbits, mice, chipmunks, and squirrels will shy off from applications of naphthalene flake on young sprouts or on bulbs. You will be careful that plants with strong root systems do not overrun your small bulbs, watching columbines particularly, and you will see that shallow-rooted ground-covers are not too thick for bulbs to penetrate.