The herald., 1896-01-19
BY p. r. MINER

roses in the space of square yard,
measured the bush and estimated that
it contained 100000 blossoms. Another
rOsebush in the same town has thirteen
varieties of roses budded on to it and
produces that number of different
kinds of blossoms. In Ventura there
is La Marque rosebush the trunk OF
which measures four feet in circumfer-
ence at the base, and eighteen of its
branches measure from six to twelve
inches around. The bush is about
forty feet wide, and the bark is about a
quarter of an inch in thickness.
At flower show in Santa Barbara
there were exhibited 160 varieties of
roses, all cut from one garden the same
morning. On Santa Barbara day at
the Midwinter Fair in San Francisco,
over two million roses we're used, the
paths were strewed with them, and the
crowds looked on in wonder, never
having seen such an exhibition before.
The rose garden in Elysian park, Los
Angeles, contains 457 varieties of roses.
In Pasadena there is Tecoma Jas
minaides growing on house, which
has climbed past the first and second
story windows, gone under the caves
and entered the attic, where it fills one
corner, then goes out through the roof
and blossoms there. Geraniums grow
to great size. There is one in Los An
geles fifteen feet high, and it's trunk is
fourteen inches in diameter. Another
in Pasadena is fourteen feet high, and
in Carpinteria there WAS bush which
when measured was found to be 1876
feet in circumference after growing a
few feet larger it was cut down as a
''cumberer of the earth"
From a hydrangea covering twelve
feet of space. a lady picked at one time
37S blossoms. In Ventura there is an
immense Cereus Triangularis, common
ly called the night blooming cereus,
which is between fifty and sixty feet
high. 1t is said to be the largest
known specimen of it's kind in North
America, and it has made most of this
remarkable growth in eight years.
Specimens Of the Brahia tilomentosa
palms, but six years old, have made a
growth of fifteen feet.
Tomatoes grow into trees here. and,
in fact, are called tree tomatoes. One
in Pasadena had in seven months
reached height of thirteen feet and
bore enough tomatoes to fill a sugar
barrel. In San Diego, near the cham
ber of commerce building, there is u
tree tomato one year old which is nine
teen feet high and twenty-five feet
wide. Sugar cane grows we'll in South
ern California. Some grown near San
Bernardino reached a height of over
ten feet in three months, and two acres
produced between twenty and twenty
five tons.
There are some very large grape
vines here. One in Carpenteria-La
Vina Grande-covers trellls Of TO-
$50 square feet, and its trunk is six
feet in circumference. Another at
Montecito covers trellis of 5000 square
feet, its trunk having a circumference
of four feet. This vine yielded about
four and a half tons of grapes in one
season. There is a vine in San Ga
briel of about the same size.
Flowers ore not only raised in gar
dens here, but also in fields. At Re-
dondo there is carnation field of five
acres, and in Santa Barbara a Gala
lily field of ten acres, and many more.
Many of the plants are grown into
hedges, some of them very long and
high. In the Sixth Street park in Los
Angeles there are two rose hedges
three rows deep and 600 feet long.
Among the many flowers and plants
that are made into hedges are Rera-
niums, Gala lilies, arbor vitae, dahlias,
marguerites, ivy geraniums, nastur-
turns, heliotrope-thersi is heliotrope
hedge in Ventura which is six feet high
and 200 feet long-Austrelian peas,
honey-suckle, guava, peppers, cypress,
eucalyptus, osage orange, cactus. .laures-
tinas and many others.
Among the many odd flowers grown
here is q species of the calla family
which blooms but once year, the
flower being Of a deep purple color
mottled with yellow, and has long
black pistil. 1t is about eighteen inches
long and eight inches wide; the stem
is black spotted with white, resembling
a spotted adder. The green leaves are
almost circular and are ruified. The
white Gala often grows double, one
flower growing out of another. There
is also jet-black Gala, and black and
a rainbow-colored rose. A new variety
of the violet-the "California'-has
flower as large as silver dollar, whose
stems are foot high. The beautiful
Sacred Lotus of the Nile is grown and
thrives here.