Evening star., 1934-06-24

Slbillty that snapdragOnS may
be restored to their original prestige
as an excellent garden flower. For
several years it has been almost i'm
possible to raise snapdragons salts
out of doors, because Of a
rust fungus which destroys the foliage
and gradually kills the plants. No
amount of spraying or busting with
sulphur, lime, bordeaux mixture or
other preparation has proved of any
avail in controlling the disease nor
we're any varieties or plants under
cultivation found immune However,
by securing plant material from Eu-
rope, research workers were able to
find few fully immune snapdragons,
though with nearly worthless flowers
Crosses between these and some of
the fine horticultural varieties yielded
some highly promising progeny from
among which are being selected stocks
for general garden use. 1t would ap-
pear that science has restored very
desirable plant to the garden use. The
best feature of all is that immune
snapdragon plants are completely i'm
mune and not partly so, as is often
the case. In a year or so flower seeds
men will have ample stocks of seed
to offer the general public.
Shading Plants.
IN MIDSUMMER the strong rays Of
the sun greatly increase the water
loss from the leaves Of most species
Of plants and as a result seedlings
and cuttings often need some pro-
lection from the direct sun. In the
lath frames, every other space
open, are frequently employed to give
this shade. The object is to cut
down both the amount and intensity
of the direct sunlight, without ex-
cluding it altogether. Not only is
it much easier to keep lath protected
plants well supplied with water, but,
in the case of some cool climate spe-
cies, actual sunburning injury is
avoided.
Nature provides most plants with
small openings through the surface
of the leaves, generally the lower sur
face. These openings, known as
stomata, open and close according to
the internal moisture conditions of the
plant. That is, when conditions be-
come very dry in the surrounding air
and soil and moisture is difficult to OBJ
tain, these stomata will open only
for a short time or not at all in the
sunny part Of the day. The difficulty
with cuttings and some kinds of seed
lings is a lack Of adequate root sys-
TENS to supply water even though it is
available in the soil. Hence the de-
STABILITY of the iath screen to reduce
water loss from the tops and to keep
the temperature lower at the ground
surface.
Purple Foliage.
& DMITTING freely that green is
"A the most desirable color for
growing plants, nevertheless there is
great attraction in fine purple leafed
beech or a red leafed maple properly
placed among green surroundings.
Prof. Mark Shoemaker, landscape gar
dener at the University of Maryland.
speaks of such plants as accent plants
and suggests that on the small place
one such specimen may find place
in the picture, but that too many cas-
lily overdo the effect. Purple beeches
are grated on ordinary beech and for
that reason are rather costly. There
were two splendid purple beeches in
the old Agriculture Grounds before
the reconstruction, but attempts to
move them met with failure. In fact
it is difdcult to transplant beeches
even in the nursery size. 1t is almost
tmperatives to buy trees directly from
a nursery so that they will not have
a chance to dry out greatly in the in
terval between digging and resetting
Among other desirable purple-leafed
plants are Pissardi plum, purple Leaf
Japanese barberry, purple hazel and
OF course, various ANIMALS, such as
coleus and castor oil bean.
Lily Pools.
CLANCING through the pages OF
w. Ramsey and C. H. Lawrence's s
book, Garden Pools Large and Small,
one cannot help but gather the i'm
preston that a small pool is alto
gether within the reach of any home
owner. Particularly is this true il
some one in the household is handy
with tools. AS to size, these authors
point out that minimum of square
feet of water surface should be pro-
vided for each lily plant. Also il
is suggested that the size of the poo
should conform with that of the gar
den; in other words, that a large poo
is out of place in a small area and vice
versa. Pools to be lasting should be
reinforced with iron bars or heavy
meshed wire imbedded in the concrete
This means that such reinforcing must
be in place before any concrete Is
poured. The book in question advises
that the concrete in the side walls and
bottom must be at least six inches
thick. The depth for the pool ir
which lilies are to be grown should
be almost two feet, allowing 8 inches
between top of the plant container:
and water surface The walls should
slope outward slightly to permit ice
to form without breaking the concrete
Lily plants may be procured from
various nursery men, supplying orna-
mental plants or from some lily spe-
cialist near at hand. Obviously there
is a distinct advantage in securing
plants locally. In many ways aquatic
gardening is very simple. There is
no wedding or watering to be done
and, except in extreme Winters, such
as the last, there is no danger OF in
Jury to the lily plants themselves. Too
the pool may be used very nicely as
the feature of the small back yard
garden. Provided with few gold fish
the garden pool proves an untlrlne
attraction to all members OF the
family.
Patented Roses.
WHETHER the plant amendment to
w the patent act has or has not
been a force in stimulating the de-
velopment of new roses is question
It is certain, however, that there are
being some wonderful new roses in
troduced under the provisions OF the
amended act. For example, there are
New Dawn, an blooming sport OF
the prime old favorite, DR.. w. Van
Fleet, United States plant patent i;
Blaze, a cross between Pauis Scarlet
Climber and Gruss an TeplitZ, United
States patent 10; Golden Climber, a
hardy new variety described as the
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