THE 



GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE, ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHA.N. 



Vol. XXII. 



NOVEMBER, 1880. 



Number 263. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The professional tree-trimmer of large cities 

 usually waits till winter before he commences 

 his destructive practices ; but we note many 

 trees about the Philadelphia streets are being 

 beheaded while the leaves are on, and probably 

 the same spirit of progression is rife elsewhere. 

 Why these trees should thus be treated no one 

 seems to know. In our inquiries, we have 

 merely the answer that they look "pooty." Once 

 in a while a tree may have been selected for a 

 street tree that is too tall for the spot, and 

 though we hasten it to the grave by heavy prun- 

 ing, it is too tall for a narrow sidewalk and must 

 be cut back. If these trimmers knew anything 

 at all they would know how to cut ofif a large 

 branch. But few of them do. Either huge strips 

 of bark are peeled off below where the branch is 

 cut, or the branch itself is split down through 

 the middle. The man who knows his business 

 cuts a little on one side before he saws or chops on 

 the other, and the cut-away top falls without split- 

 ting or injuring the part that is left. It is very 

 often difficult for the man ignorant of garden- 

 ing, to tell the amount of gardening skill there 

 is in the man he employs ; but he may safely 

 discharge the fellow who does not know how to 

 cut away a large branch without injuring the 

 part that is left. 



A pretty idea, developed the past year or so, 

 is to have colored-leaved .shrubs, kept short by 



pruning, formed into masses like Coleuses and 

 other bedding-plants. They can be taken up 

 every year, so as to make new combinations, if 

 desired. Blood-leaved Beech, Variegated Al- 

 thaea, Golden Honeysuckle and Golden Spiraeas, 

 are favorites in this style of gardening; and 

 there is the additional advantage that the beds 

 do not look so naked in winter. 



It is now so well understood that we may 

 have an immense addition to our list of hardy 

 evergreens if we will only shelter them, that we 

 expect all those who love these varied winter fa- 

 vorites will take measures this season to plant 

 shelter belts in exposed places, or else to set the 

 common hardy trees like Norway and Hemlock 

 Spruce, and Scotch, Austrian and White Pines 

 thickly about, so that the rarer ones can be put 

 between them. 



Almost all young trees are tenderer than they 

 are when older. It is therefore no test of the 

 hardiness of some rare thing, that a small plant 

 is killed in the winter. Silver Firs almost al- 

 ways get killed back for a few years in this sec- 

 tion, unless protected, but yet gain a little in 

 strength. After they are ten years old they will 

 endure our hardest weather. So Spanish Chest- 

 nuts, English Walnuts, Jtnd many others, will 

 die back considerably, until they get strength. 

 Therefore, protect any valued young plant, if 

 possible, no matter how hardy its reputation 

 may be. 



Nice .smooth lawns are great attractions. If 



