EXPERIMENTS WITH PHLOXES 279' 



Perhaps the very price list from which you selected them is thrust 

 in your face, you are told to match it. Now in planting you are by 

 no means sure of your number. The plants were small, some of 

 them feeble and perhaps you loose half of them. You are sadly out 

 of pocket every time your plants have no sympathy with you, and will 

 not help a particle. Perhaps they are white grubs in the ground. 

 Always look out for these pests. Better fork over and pulverize the 

 soil, and kill every one. One year they destroyed $1,000 worth of 

 evergreens for us. 



Never kill a garden mole. These little underground workers are- 

 the best friends you ever had. I consider every one in our grounds 

 worth a $5 bill. You say they ridge up the ground and lift the plants. 

 Then stamp the earth down again. They wouldn't be there if they 

 were not wanted. They are death on the grubs. They never eat. 

 vegetables, they always take grabs and worms. How grateful I have 

 been to see those tell-tale ridges where those little white rascals, never 

 stopping to count the cost, would ruin my choicest plants. 



A profitable plant seems to understand the multiplication table, 

 and is anxious to help you out. Take that beautiful, early, hardy, dwarf 

 white phlox, called Pyramid from its shapely crown, what a prolific 

 bloomer, it is covered with a mantle of white — a mass of them looks . 

 like a drift of snow in June. They stool out at a great rate, we often 

 get a dozen divisions from one plant. When you dig thrust your spade 

 half way down, then turn so as to cut off the lower ends of the roots,, 

 and late in the spring each tiny root throws up a head and perhaps 

 you get 25 or 30 more. These you leave till fall, then dig and plant 

 and next year you have fine strong ones for sale. 



Zouave, a choice red variety of a somewhat dwarfish habit, has the 

 same characteristics, multiplying with astonishing rapidity. Among our 

 seedlings we are picking out those with these same tendencies. We 

 want those interested in the matter themselves, ready to help out. 



A nurseryman wants profit as well as pleasure and beauty. After 

 years of testing I find the Arete a splendid all around plant, one that 

 scores all the points of excellence. The best all around phlox I have 

 yet found. The head a hemisphere, flowers moulded into a splendid 

 crown, plant of great vigor and productiveness. Diana, a pink, after 

 years of trial is doing finely. 



How to Produce New Varieties. 



When you understand it, it is a simple matter. 



First secure the very best, plant them near together, and the 

 bees will mix the pollen and help you out. You can try hand polleniza- 

 tion if you wish, then you know the parentage of your creations, but 

 that is not really essential so you get what you want. There are mys- 

 teries in plant life no one can solve. Some plants reproduce them- 

 selves, others will not. Pollenize as you will, they pay no attention. 



