PLANT NOVELTIES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 225, 19 June 1936, Page 18

PLANT NOVELTIES

What You Should Buy There is no justification fop buying plant novelties just because they are “different,” but there are many good reasons for buying novelties which represent definite improvements in popular plants. Only through systematically weeding out inferior plants and replacing them with improved types can we develop our own gardens and horticulture in general. To quote but a few examples: How many gardeners still grow the old freesia, Refracta alba, when they should be growing the much-improved New Zealand origination, Burtonii? How many still give garden space to the old Forsythia when the new type—Forsythia intermedia rar. spectabilis—is so far ahead of the type as to completely overshadow it? Many still harbour the objectionable puce-coloured rock rose (cistus) when real pink varieties are just as cheap. The plant collectors and breeders are steadily discovering new and improved tvpes of many of the Howers in popular cultivation, and it is good practice to add a few of these better types to the garden family every year. It adds spice to the garden programme to have something new coming into flower each season. Now is the time to select your new subjects.—“ New Zealand Flower Grower.”