Home › I › Insects (Gardenias if not well looked)

Insects (Gardenias if not well looked)

Gardenias, if not well looked after, become more infested with insects than in usual with even the ordinary occupants of warm houses. Mealy Bug is most destructive, collecting in quantities about the points, and crippling the young flowers and leaves. Careful watching for these, from the time cuttings are inserted, must be constantly kept up, and measures taken to insure their eradication if found. A wineglassful of petroleum to a three-gallon can or open pail of tepid water, thoroughly mixed, by having a syringe filled two or three times, and its contents returned into the can, previous to being applied, is one of the best insecticides. The plants should be laid on their sides, if in pots, the operation performed in dull weather, and the petroleum thoroughly removed by clean water half an hour later. This may be practiced occasionally as a preventative. Green Fly is readily destroyed by fumigation; Red Spider may be kept down considerably by syringing; and if Scale should be troublesome, they must be removed by sponging. All these infest Gardenias at some time, if the least chance is given; consequently, a watch must be kept, and measures applied, as preventatives to their becoming established.

G. amoena (pleasing). fl. white, having the lobes purple on the outside in that part which is exposed to the air, while the corolla is in aestivation, almost terminal, solitary, sessile; tube greenish, long, terete. June. l. oval, acute, glabrous, on short petioles; spines axillary, short, straight. h. 3ft. to 5ft. China. Stove. (B. M. 1904.) G. florida (flowery).* Cape Jessamine. fl. white, sweet-scented, solitary, almost terminal, sessile, salver-shaped, nine-parted. August. l. elliptic, acute at both ends. h. 2ft. to 6ft. China, 1754. Plant shrubby, unarmed, erect. Stove. (B. M. 3349.) Of this species, there are several varieties, and that usually grown as florida is but a double-flowered variety (B. M. 2627.) G. f. Fortunei (Fortune's).* fl. white, large, pure, fragrant. July. l. opposite, or in whorls, bright shining green. China. Apparently a very large form of the typical species. (B. R. 32, 43.) G. f. variegate (variegated). This is much the same as the type, but has leaves beautifully margined with yellowish-white. A handsome form. G. nitida (shining).* fl. white, terminal, solitary; calyx six-parted; corolla with a narrow tube and a seven-parted, reflexed limb. October and November. l. opposite or tern, oblong-lanceolate, undulated. h. 3ft. Sierra Leone, 1844. Stove. (B. M. 4343.) G. radicans (rooting). fl. white, solitary, almost terminal, and nearly sessile, salver-shaped, very fragrant. June. l. lanceolate. Stems radicant. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Japan, 1804. Plant shrubby, unarmed. Greenhouse. (B. M. 1842.) G. r. major (larger).* This is one of the most profuse flowering forms; it is larger in all its parts than the type, but smaller than G. florida. G. r. variegate (variegated). l. margined with white. Japan. An interesting and elegant form.

G. Rothmannia (Rothmann's). fl. yellow, purple; sepals subulate, rounded; tube smooth, dilated, short. July. l. oblong; stipules subulate. h. 10ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1774. Greenhouse. (B. M. 690.) G. Stanleyana. See Randia maculata.

G. Thunbergia (Thunbergia).* fl. white, large, fragrant, terminal, solitary, sessile, eight-parted. January to March. l. elliptic, acute, glabrous, opposite, or three or four in a whorl. h. 4ft. to 5ft. Central and Southern Africa, 1774. Plant shrubby, unarmed. Greenhouse. (B. M. 1004.) GARDOQUIA (named in honour of Don Diego Gardoqui, a Spanish financier of the eighteenth century, who promoted the publication of a Flora of Peru). SYN. Rizoa. ORD. Labiatae. A genus comprising about twenty-six species of greenhouse or half-hardy subshrubby evergreens, natives, for the most part, of Chili and Peru. Calyx tubular, thirteen-nerved; corolla with a long, almost straight tube, its upper lip notched, the lower in three lobes, the middle one of which is broadest. Leaves small, numerous, entire, rarely largely dentate. Gardoquias thrive in a compost of loam, peat, and sand. Propagation is effected by cuttings, made of half-ripened shoots, and inserted in sand, under a bell glass. When rooted, the young plants should be potted off in small pots, and grown near the glass, in a greenhouse, and, as they advance in size, shifted into larger sized pots.

G. betonicoides (Betony-like) is Cedronella mexicana (which see). (B. M. 3860.) G. breviflora (short-flowered). fl. second, in whorls; calyx a little coloured, with lanceolate-acute teeth, and with the throat naked inside. l. on short petioles, roundish-ovate, obtuse, with scarcely revolute margins; floral leaves similar to the rest. Peru. This species is scarcely distinct from the genus Micromeria, in consequence of the corolla hardly exceeding the calyx. G. Gilliesii (Gillies'). fl., corolla scarlet, pubescent; calyx elongated, erect, with lanceolate, subulate, nearly equal teeth; throat naked inside.