1876.^ 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



39 



the Osage, on account of it« rampant growth and 

 its baneful influence on the crops contiguous to 

 it. I beUeve nature furnishes us, right at hand, 

 a hedge phmt fiir better in many ways than the 

 osage." 



[The seeds were of Crategus crusgalU, the cock- 

 spur hawthorn. Many attempts have been made 

 to make a hedge out of it, which it will do in 

 from 10 to 15 years — entirely too slow for the 



average American. Then it is liable to mildews 

 and moulds, and blights and borers, so that after 

 all their waiting, it does not please our posterity. 

 The seeds grow easily if you keep them one year 

 in a barrel of wet earth, and sow them the fol- 

 lowing spring; at the end of that season they will 

 be an inch high. When you get a good hedge 

 from your own sowing, we should be pleased to 

 be alive to look at it. — Ed. G. M.] 



^REEN MOUSE AND fMoUSE GARDENING. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Window plants are as much appreciated at 

 this season as at any time of the year. There 

 are few things more beautiful than the old classes 

 of roses — the Borbon and China. We have seen 

 some beauties in windows recently, and wonder 

 they are not more grown. In another case we 

 saw a handsome Chorozema cordata. Usually, 

 Australian plants do not thrive in our climate, 

 but this plant was simply plunged in partial 

 shade in summer, rewarding the owner with its 

 pretty brown and purple butterfly-like flowers 

 all winter. This, and many other window flow- 

 ers, are liable to suffer from the minute insect 

 known as j-ed spider. Very minute whitish 

 green spots on the leaves usually indicate the 

 insect's existence. It is best to lay the plants on 

 their sides, in the open air, and treat them to a 

 powerful syringing with strong soap-suds, and, 

 while still damp, sprinkle a little sulphur on 

 them from a pepper box. Red spiders do not 

 hanker much after sulphur. Sometimes window 

 plants suffer from mildew, and sulphur is a good 

 remedy for it also. 



Look out for a good stock of bedding plants in 

 time ; by striking cuttings of such things as grow 

 rapidly, and sowing seeds of such annuals as may 

 be advanced to advantage. 



Fuchsias may now be readily struck from the 

 young growth of the old plants, which will make 

 excellent blooming plants for the next summer 

 season. 



Dahlias should now be brought forward. A 

 good plan is to shorten the extremity of the 

 roots, put them in six-inch pots and place in a 



warm greenhouse. In a few weeks they will 

 sprout, when they should be shaken out, divided 

 with a piece of root to each sprout, and sepa- 

 rately potted in four-inch pots. 



Pansies are coming now into flower. They 

 like an airy frame, where they will not be roasted 

 in mid-day nor exposed to drying winds, and yet 

 have a free circulation of air and plenty of light. 

 Planted out in such a frame, and the old shoots 

 cut away as soon as the plant has done flower- 

 ing, the plants will keep healthy over till the 

 next season. Superior varieties can be raised 

 from seed. Choose those with the roundish 

 petals, best colors, and the first flowers that 

 open, to raise seed from. 



Camellias will require rather more water while 

 growing than at other times. Just before they 

 grow is a good season to graft. Cut down the 

 stock, cleft graft in the crown, wax, and plunge 

 in a bottom heat of 70°. A great many kinds 

 may be had on one plant by the bottle system — 

 a shoot about to grow is obtained, and attached 

 to the stock as in inarching, the end of the shoot 

 being put in a small phial of water suspended 

 beneath it. This plan does best, however, with 

 half ripe wood in July. 



Geraniums, Pelargoniums, Cinerarias, and Chi- 

 nese Primroses, must be kept as near the glass 

 and light as possible ; they do little good in shady 

 places. Keep off" the green Aphis ; — for this, on a 

 small scale, there is nothing like hot water ; on a 

 large scale, tobacco-smoke, in several successive 

 light doses, is still the best remedy. 



Azaleas succeed well by grafting with the half 

 ripe shoots of the present season's growth on 

 plants raised either by seeds or cuttings. Old 

 wood does not take readily. 



