THE 



GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE. ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Vol. XX. 



SEPTEMBER, 1878. 



Number 237. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



In many parts of the Northern States the 

 leaves will have changed color previous to the 

 incoming of "Winter, and tlie planting of trees 

 •and shrubs will commence as soon as the 

 first Fall showers shall have cooled the atmos- 

 phere and moistened the soil. Further south, 

 where the season will still remain "Summer" a 

 while longer, the soil may, at any rate, be pre- 

 pared, that all may be in readiness when the 

 :right season does come. What leaves remain 

 on should be stripped off, and the main shoots 

 shortened. They will then do better than if 

 planted very late. The roots of plants grow all 

 "Winter, and a plant set out in the Fall has the 

 advantage over Spring set trees, that its roots in 

 Spring are in a position to supply the tree at 

 once with food. This is, indeed, the theory fall 

 planters rely on ; but in practice it is found that 

 severe cold dries up the wood, and the frosts draw 

 out the roots, and thus more than counterbalance 

 any advantage from the pushing of new roots. 

 Yery small plants are, therefore, best left till 

 • Spring for their final planting. It is, however, 

 an excellent plan to get young things on hand 

 .in Fall, and bury them entirely with earthy until 

 wanted in Spring. Such things make a stronger 

 growth the next season, than if just dug before 

 transplanting. 



All successful planting really depends on 

 how soon the mutilated roots can draw in moist- 

 ure to supply the waste of evaporation, hence if 

 a tree has been badly dug and has few roots or 

 .the roots appear dry or weak, lessen the demand ' 



on them for moisture by cutting away some of 

 the branches. In this cutting take the weak 

 branches, and not the strong and most vital ones, 

 as are often stupidly sacrificed, and above all see 

 that the earth is tightly packed about the roots, 

 for, unless the earth is in actual contact with 

 each rootlet the work is not perfectly done. If 

 there is a rootlet which even by a hair's breadth 

 does not touch the earth, that rootlet might as 

 well not be there. 



American gardening will in time come to be 

 peculiarly charaterized by grouping of shrubs 

 and trees instead of the absurd copying of Euro- 

 pean flower beds not adapted to our wants or 

 climate. Studies for such work will be particu- 

 larly in order now as the leaves are changing 

 their Summer green. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



PICTURESQUE LAWNS. 



BY S. B. PARSOXS, FLU.SHING, N. Y. 

 (Continued from page 229.) 



A group of Magnolias includes acuminata, 

 fifty feet high, macrophylla, with its superb 

 flowers, twenty-five feet high, Soulangiana, 

 glauca, longifolia, gracilis, and others. Xear 

 them stands a Tulip Tree with its straight 

 column seventy feet high. Another light Atlas 

 Cedar stands by a dark Austrian Pine. Apple 

 trees, fifty years old, in full bloom, are brought 

 out against the darkness of a mass of Xorway 

 Spruce. German and African Tamarisk contrast 

 well, as do the Horizontal Yew and Golden 

 Retinospora. Magnolia cordata, Picea grandis 



