When a new territory is settled, almost always there comes the problem of finding plants adapted to its climatic and soil conditions, and it can be very interesting to watch the development of horticulture as new plants are brought in from distant lands or bred on the spot.
Prairie Canada
Prairie Canada is a land not very short of Siberian in the severity of its winters, and it seems to have taken a long time to find ourselves really at home amid its problems.
The time is not long, for only some 50 years have passed since the first appreciable waves of settlement.
This period, though long in the life of any one man, is a short time to accomplish a great deal in the development of new plants.
It is rather remarkable how large a proportion of the garden plants grown in the original homes of the settlers of the area have proved to be good performers under the conditions of the plain Canadian provinces.
An overall picture of how we have gradually succeeded in our efforts to make pleasing gardens, orchards, and ornamental plants, would be of interest, but it is beyond the scope of one short article, so the best we can do is to take a small section of the field and regard it as representative.
Flowering Shrub Lilac
The lilac is a good example of a flowering shrub that needed a very little adjustment to our short-season summers and cold winters — which is good evidence of the similarity to the climate in which the lilac is native.
The suckering habit of the common lilac must be greatly against its capacity to endure drought, and yet it succeeds in doing just that.
I have noticed patches of suckers of the common lilac growing in abandoned gardens, encroached upon by the prairie grass, yet surviving many years under conditions that our native Buckbrush, Symphoricarpos occidentalis, would find it hard to take.
Then, too, other species of lilacs were introduced, mainly from the Orient. Many of these are valuable ornamentals, not as well scented as the French lilacs, and often not as large in flower truss, but hardy, non-suckering, and blooming at various dates.
Roses Under Canadian Conditions
Roses under Canadian conditions make another intensely interesting study.
The modern types: hybrid teas, polyanthus, and floribundas, are not hardy enough to survive many years, and rose lovers often regard them as an annual crop.
However, their life can be extended by digging up the plants in the Autumn, pitting or burying them deeply, and planting out again in the Spring.
Even this, though, is decidedly hard on the plants, for three-quarters of the short summer is required for them to get re-established, and this is scarcely accomplished when it is time for them to be dug up again.
More can be done by planting deeply, so that wood of the named variety is safely underground and mulched deeply for winter.
Roses By Crossing With Natives
It has not been particularly hard to get attractive roses by crossing with the natives and various Siberian species, but this has usually resulted in losing the everblooming habit.
Rosa rugosa is an exception, but the rugosa hybrids are too thorny, short-stemmed, weak-stemmed, and subject to insect galls to be regarded as satisfactory substitutes for hybrid teas.
Certain species appear to have a remarkable combination of complete hardiness and everblooming habit.
The chief of these is the Himalayan species beggeriana, which, in the fall of the year, will have ripe hips, green hips, flowers, and buds, all at the same time, and is as hardy as our natives. It has not been used much for breeding as yet but is full of promise.
Ross Rambler
Some 20 years ago, a seedling rose of chance sowing was found growing among the pines at the Forestry Nursery Station at Indian Head, Saskatchewan.
It grew up to 25’ feet in its original location and exhibited the same capacity for fall blooming as beggeriana, which is probably related.
As far as I know, botanists have not yet decided on the species of this interesting rose, called the Ross rambler, after the Superintendent of the Nursery at the time, Norman Ross.
For a time, we thought we had found the answer to our dreams of breeding a hardy climber, hardy to 50° or 60° degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
However, unfortunately, the Ross rambler did not exhibit the same climbing habit elsewhere as it did at Indian Head, growing only some eight feet at Ottawa, for instance, and its hybrids, at least to date, have not proved to be particularly valuable.
William Godfrey, head gardener at the Morden Experimental Station, Manitoba, did considerable work with this rose and developed some material that may yet be the parent of hardy climbers for the extreme North.
C I, for one, feel confident that the work of rose breeders in the plains areas of Canada and the Dakotas will result in the infusion of small amounts of hardy rose blood that will eventually put varieties equivalent to the hybrid teas in value in the class of plants as well adapted to the northern states as roses are now adapted to the southern states, and perhaps give a good deal of resistance to black spot and mildew as well.
Horticultural Plant Breeding
It is likely to be the same story in many other fields of horticultural plant breeding. Studying factors for hardiness, drought resistance, and general “toughness” can take place best under extreme conditions.
The importance of perfect maturity of wood by the time the first heavy frosts of Autumn arrive is one of the principles that the experience of the Canadian midwest has more fully substantiated.
It seems to be the date and severity of the first Fall frost that is the chief determining factor and that differentiates between one Winter and another, not the cold of winter itself.
The seasons seem to vary more widely from one another here than in milder areas, and this lack of a “norm” in our land may be more of a handicap than the average severity of our conditions.
However, it is not only in increasing knowledge that the horticulture of the Canadian prairies is likely to be useful but also in furnishing genes for added hardiness.
Good Corn Borer Control
According to Neely Turner, an entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, good control of the European corn borer is a matter of timing.
The corn borer doesn’t do much damage except on corn that is ready to harvest when the borers are reaching full growth.
Treatment then is too late. The time to “get” the pest is when the young borers are hatching, and even that is qualified.
Young larvae cannot survive on corn plants too small to have a tassel. Therefore, the appearance of the tassel is the signal to put on the first application of spray or dust.
Check the plants frequently, Mr. Turner says, and as soon as half of them have tassels that can be seen by looking directly down into the plant, get out the sprayer or duster.
Corn that can be expected to need protection is the crop maturing the first three weeks of July and the late crop ripening late in August and September.
Those are the periods when the two generations of the border are in the larval stage when they feed on corn. Corn maturing at other times is not usually seriously damaged.
Use Dust Or Spray
The best results were shown when the dust or spray was directed at the whorl of the young plants and on the car shoot when it developed. Coverage of the entire plant gave poorer control.
Applications must be frequent for good results: about five days apart is the general rule. DDT and Ryania were the materials giving the highest mortality at the border.
Species some vines that will tolerate shade are the following:
- Lonicera (honeysuckle)
- Actinidia, Euonymus
- Akebia
- Aristolochia (Dutchman’s pipe)
- Hydrangea (petiolaris)
- Clematis, Hedera (ivy)
- Parthenocissus
Adhere to brick or stone surfaces:
- Euonymus
- Hydrangea
- Hedera
- Parthenocissus
44659 by Percy H. Wright