June 7, 1913 



HORTICULTURE 



8»5 



OUTDOOR VEGETABLES AND FRUIT 



CONDUCTED BV 



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Questions by our readers in line with any of the topics presented on this page will be cordially received and promptly answered 

 by Mr. Jenlsins. Such communications should invariably be addressed to the office of HORTICULTDRE. 



Mulching: the Small Fruits 



Cui-rants, raspberries, and jjooseberries (as well as the 

 strawberries which have already been referred to in these 

 columns) will all be the better for a good mulch of 

 straw litter, leaves or lawn grass. This mulch will mean 

 bigger and better fruit because of its conservation of 

 moisture, besides keeping all the lower fruit from being 

 splashed with dirt in the case of heavy rains. 



The Late Cold Snap 



If the cold spell which visited this section during the 

 last ten days has been general throughout the East, many 

 growers will have to replant their Lima beans and some 

 of the early sweet corn. Do not wait too long expecting 

 these tender things to come up, but scratch away the 

 soil and examine the seed in several different places and 



if any large percentage appears to be rotting, better lose 

 no time in getting in more seed. 



Watering 



Timely watering is a very important matter in the 

 production of fine vegetables and outdoor fruit and the 

 time to water is before the plants get very dry. Another 

 important feature of outdoor watering is to give a good 

 soaking or else not do it at all as mere driblets are 

 worse than nothing for it tends to bring the roots to the 

 surface where they are much more likely to receive a 

 check. After giving the ground a thorough watering, 

 and as soon as the surface is fit to walk upon, hoe it or 

 run through with the cultivator. This will greatly en- 

 hance tJie value of the watering and prevent the ground 

 from baking and cracking. 



ARNOLD ARBORETUM. 



Bulletin of Popular Information. 



No. 43. 



For the decoration of northern gar- 

 dens there are no more beautiful or 

 desirable shrubs than the Azaleas of 

 eastern North America. There are 

 seven species of these plants and thsy 

 are now called Rhododendrons by bot- 

 anists, and in the ,\rboretum all Aza- 

 leas are labelled Rhododendrons. The 

 first species to bloom, R. Vaseyi, be- 

 gins to flower the beginning of May 

 and the flowers of the last, R. visco- 

 sum, can be found here as late as the 

 middle of July, so that the Azalea sea- 

 son is a long one. R. Vaseyi is a tall 

 shrub, with slender stems and an open 

 irregular habit. In its home in the 

 sheltered valleys of the Blue Ridge in 

 South Carolina it sometimes grows to 

 the height of from fifteen to eighteen 

 feet. The flowers are produced before 

 the leaves appear in small compact 

 clusters and are pure pink in color, but 

 occasionally plants are found with 

 nearly white flowers. Although this 

 plant was not discovered until com- 

 paratively a few years ago, it has been 

 much planted in gardens near Boston 

 and it is fast becoming here one of the 

 most popular of the early-flowering 

 spring shrubs. With R. Vasciii the 

 Rhodora (R. cayxadense) flowers. This 

 well known dwarf shrub often covers, 

 especially in the north, large areas of 

 moist or swampy land with a sheet of 

 bloom. The small flowers, however, 

 are of a rather unattractive rose-pur- 

 ple color, and the fame of the Rhodora 

 is perhaps due more to Emerson's 

 poem than to its intrinsic beauty. 

 Naturally, the Rhodora grows from 

 Newfoundland to Pennsylvania and 

 New Jersey. 



The next to bloom are the two pink- 

 flowered species, R. ranesrfns and R. 

 nudiflorum : the former is a northern 

 and the latter a more southern plant 

 and is especially common in the Gulf 



States from Florida to eastern Texas. 

 The flowers of these plants open be- 

 fore or with the unfolding of the 

 leaves and in early spring fill the 

 woods with beauty and fragrance. 



The Flame-colored Azalea, R. calen- 

 dulaceum. is the next species to flower 

 and is already beginning to open its 

 orange, yellow, or reddish flowers 

 which are not fragrant. This shrub 

 is an inhabitant of the Appalachian 

 Mountain region from southern New 

 York to Georgia, and is extremely 

 abundant on the lower slopes of the 

 high mountains of North Carolina and 

 Tennessee. In flower it is the most 

 showy of our Azaleas and one of the 

 most beautiful of all flowering shrubs. 



The next species to flower, R. arho- 

 rescens. is also a native of the Appala- 

 chian Mountains on which it grows 

 from Pennsylvania to Georgia and 

 where in sheltered valleys it some- 

 times attains the height of fifteen 

 feet or more. The flowers, which ap- 

 pear after the leaves are nearly fully 

 grown, are white or faintly tinged with 

 rose color and are made conspicuous 

 by the long bright red filaments of the 

 stamens. The flowers are very fra- 

 grant and the young leaves have the 

 odor of new- mown grass. Less showy 

 in flower than the Flame-colored Aza- 

 lea it is one of the most beautiful of 

 all hardy Azaleas. 



The last species to flower, the Clam- 

 my Azalea or Swamp Honeysuckle, is 

 a common inhabitant of the swamps 

 of the eastern states, especially of 

 those in the neighborhood of the coast. 

 The rather small flowers are pure 

 white and covered with clamm.v hairs, 

 and the leaves are often of a pale 

 bluish color, especially on their lower 

 surface. This plant is valuable for the 

 lateness of its flowers which do not 

 open until the flowers of most hardy 

 shrubs have passed, and for their fra- 

 grance. 



These shrubs are all perfectly hardy 

 in eastern Massachusetts and flourish 



in all exposures and in good garden 

 soil, although like all Rhododendrons 

 they cannot be made to live in soil 

 strongly impregnated with lime. They 

 are not often cultivated because it is 

 not easy to flnd these plants in nur- 

 series, for few nurserymen, especially 

 in the United States, care to take the 

 trouble to raise such plants from 

 seeds, the only satisfactory way in 

 which they can be propagated. In 

 beauty, constitution and hardiness 

 they are superior to the so-called 

 Ghent Azaleas which are hybrids be- 

 tween the species from the Caucasus, 

 which is not hardy here, and some of 

 the American species. The Ghent 

 Azaleas are favorites with European 

 nurserymen who propagate them by 

 grafting and they are imported in 

 large numbers into this country. Here 

 they grow slowly: many of the varie- 

 ties are not at all hardy and others 

 are liable to lose large branches in se- 

 vere winters. The American species 

 are better garden plants here, too, than 

 the yellow-flowered Asiatic species, R. 

 japunicutn. usually called Azalea mol- 

 Us in gardens, a common Japanese and 

 Korean plant, and the Chinese R. 

 sini'nse or the hybrids of these two 

 species. Azalea mollis is hardy and 

 free-flowering but the plant^s are short- 

 lived in this country. The little known 

 R. sinense with its beautiful yellow 

 flowers is hardy, but the flower-buds 

 have usually been killed in each of 

 the two or three winters this plant has 

 been exposed here in the open ground. 



CATTLEYA HARRISONIAE. 



The flowers of this useful cattleya 

 are not large but as the illustration on 

 our cover page shows it is a very free 

 bloomer and the flowers, borne several 

 on a stem, are fine for cutting. The 

 color is a lovely tint of rose with a 

 tinge of yellow on the lip and they are 

 excellent keepers. A very desirable 

 commercial species. 



