Part 77 (1/2)

A Member: What kind is that?

Mr. Hawkins: It is the yucca filamentosa. It is an evergreen. It should throw up a tall stalk with large branches and plenty of white flowers, I think hundreds of flowers--that is the description. It is a beautiful thing in the garden anyway.

Mrs. Countryman: I have seen them in blossom in California.

Mr. Richardson: I have seen them blossom many times in Winnebago.

Mrs. Countryman: Give us the culture instructions.

Mr. Richardson: I grew in nursery rows some odd stuff, had the same culture that the nursery had. But when it blossomed one year I have been told on good authority it would be five years before that stalk would blossom again, only blossoms once in five years, but by having many stalks they don't all blossom at the same time. I have had them two or three years in succession but not on the same stalk.

Mrs. Countryman: Do you cover them winters?

Mr. Richardson: Never.

Mr. Hawkins: I think the only reason why the yucca filamentosa doesn't do well is because it is a plant of the southwest and grows in a warmer climate.

Mrs. Sawyer: I had a varied experience in growing those plants, and I took a great deal of pains to learn all I could from different sources and different people, and I believe our trouble is our late frosts, I think that is conceded by people who have really gone into the question thoroughly. Our late frosts injure them more than anything else. A little protection in the spring is what they need more than protection in winter, and we know that they don't want a wet place.

Mr. Hawkins: I want to recommend a flower that should be very popular.

It is perfectly hardy, blossoms for years, the hardy pyrethrum. It is a daisy-like flower, absolutely free from insects and a sure bloomer. We have plants in the garden that have bloomed six years. It comes in many shades, from white to deep crimson, blooms from the 15th of May to the 1st of July and makes a beautiful showing. In regard to iris, did any one have any trouble with their iris coming a little ahead of time last year and being frozen?

Mrs. Sawyer: I guess they all froze off. I don't think it was because they were ahead of time; it was because of the frost.

Mr. Hawkins: What would you recommend?

Mrs. Sawyer: I don't think there is anything to do in weather like last spring, you can't cover anything away from a hard black frost like that was.

[Ill.u.s.tration: G. C. Hawkins, of Minneapolis.]

Mr. Hawkins: We have several hundred plants on a southern slope, and I thought perhaps the sun beating against the southern slope is what started them earlier.

Mrs. Sawyer: Ours weren't on a southern slope, pretty near level, rather north than anything else, and they got frozen.

A Member: What causes the rot in the iris?

Mr. Hawkins: That depends upon the kind of iris. With the bulbous rooted iris, the bulb is filled full of water during the heavy rains, and if you add more water to it it simply decays. The Siberian and many of the fibrous rooted iris will stand a great deal of water.

A Member: Does the German?

Mr. Hawkins: The German is a bulbous root. As I said, it takes all the moisture it needs. That is one reason why iris never wilts down in a dry spell. It always looks fresh and green.

A Member: I would like to say it is well not to plant the iris deep. The natural iris will lie almost on top of the ground, and they like to have the sun beat down on them. The iris likes to bask in the sun.

Mr. Hawkins: This would prove to you that the bulb takes enough water to support it and doesn't need any more because it rests on the top and basks in the sun. Has any one tried anything new in the garden that will stand our climate?

Mrs. Norton: I would suggest that hardy alum-root, or heuchera. It is a perfectly hardy perennial, can stand our worst winters without any covering, and it grows about so high from the ground (indicating two or three feet), with its geranium-like leaves, and the flower grows about three feet high, all covered with pink bells on the stems. It is a very decorative plant and perfectly hardy. I think it has been much neglected in the Northwest because it is so perfectly hardy and it increases very rapidly. I have over one hundred.