100 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[April, 



TIME TO PRUNE SHRUBS, AND OTHER HINTS. 



BY F. R. E. 



All know me as an old fogy soon to pass away 

 to, I hope, a land where trouble or doubt has no 

 abiding place — but while here among my fellow 

 men I cannot rest, without now and then pen- 

 cilling down my thoughts as I read their teach- 

 ings. 



In your general directions, page 34 of February 

 number, you are correct, but as you are now the 

 only Horticultural Magazine Editor for all ex- 

 cept California or southwest thereof, should you 

 not occasionally tell novices as to the time or period 

 of the bud swelling; when to prune, please ? " With 

 March all should be finished" — will not quite 

 pass in our more Northern sections, and it is too 

 late for the South. I suggest that you tell us how 

 to prune, and then give touching the breaking 

 of buds, etc., as to the location of your readers. 



Perhaps you will reply to me as follows : " We 

 write for those who are educated, not for those 

 who have had no knowledge either of books or 

 practice." All right, but here let me object to 

 your item of how to make sliapely specimens. 

 I would not pull out the strong .shoots, but I 

 would shorten them, and cut in close the weak 

 one, and then as the buds on the strong shoots 

 struck but laterals, I would i:)inch them back, 

 here an inch and there three inches. 



But you need not publish this of mine ; for in 

 this article I have been picking at, you have so 

 complimented the ladies, and told so many truths 

 of what we should and what we should not do, 

 in the use of spade as compared with fork, or 

 the hoe as compared with the rake. 



Eight again, and keep it before your readers 

 until after the April number, " That no good 

 gardener loses a tree in planting, because an- 

 other has injured its roots." As you say, the ex- 

 perienced hand in tree planting keeps always in 

 mind the old motto, " never say die." 



Now I am along when you have been putting 

 " Sam Slick " on me, but I forgive ; yet am 

 afraid it will make somebody try to throw 

 me out of oflice should I ever gain another 



berth, and so I . Well, well, no matter, let 



me turn over to the few words of Pinus Ccmbra, 

 please; for the planting in grounds when space is 

 restricted, we have nothing superior to it, in 

 hardiness, beauty of form, color of foliage, and 

 compactness. 



Wild Gardens. Let us have more of them. 

 Who is ever afraid to gatlier a flower of the wild 



Azalea, or the common Kalmia, or who hesitates 

 to pluck a fern leaf when wandering in our wild, 

 wild woods. If you have any of that kind on 

 your list, take them into some of the rocky 

 woods of Connecticut, etc. Let us have more of 

 the old shrubs and perennial flowers. Why 

 should we continue to dress and decorate in 

 gaudy colors, when simple blue and rosy white, 

 are the shades that tinge on gi-een so sweetly in 

 nature. 



Spirxa sorbifolia. Once more I must call at- 

 tention. Never cut it clear down, except when 

 first planted, then do it and cut out the poor 

 puny stems, shorten the strong shoots and take 

 out the laterals that tend to thicken too much 

 the centre, and shorten back the laterals that 

 come out, to assist you in giving the shrub a cone 

 or round head, etc., as you desire. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Jasminum nudiflorum. — This is one of the 

 best hardy plants to put under the windows on 

 the walls of houses. It is a trailer and needs a 

 trellis or wires to keep it up. It grows in a 

 dense mass, and the flowers open on the slightest 

 taste of warm weather. The season has been 

 rather mild in GermantoAvn, and a beautiful 

 block of it on the house formerly occupied by 

 the late Miss Elizabeth Morris, the well known 

 Botanist, has been in full bloom since Christmas, 

 and has given pleasure to hundreds who have 

 stopped to look at it. It has the good merit of 

 getting along under the roughest treatment; even 

 in the dryest places under trees it will grow and 

 do well. 



The Live Oak — Quercus virens. — In our re- 

 cent trip to the far South, we know of nothing 

 that so impressed us with its rare beauty as the 

 Live Oak, and we feel a grateful remembrance of 

 Col. Hardee of New Orleans, for a drive to where 

 these beauties were. The general aspect of these 

 trees is that of huge apple trees, — that is to say, 

 they branch comparatively low down, and spend 

 their remaining efforts in producing immense 

 heads. In this way the trees, tall as they are, 

 are wider than high? The branchlets are rather 

 slender for an oak, and hence in spreading be- 

 come somewhat pendulous, and this favors the 

 spread of the "moss" (Tillandsia usneoides). 

 This moss does not increase much from seed, 

 but by pieces blowing on the other branches, and 



