134 



THE GARDENEB'S MONTHLY 



[Mat, 



New Double Deutzia. — A correspondent sends 

 us for name, a specimen, which proves to be the 

 new double white Deutzia crenata, — which we 

 did not know before had reached our shores, 

 though announced in Belgium. This will be a 

 good companion to the double rosy one now be- 

 coming well known. It will be a capital forcing 

 plant, pure white flowers being always in demand. 



Yellow Violet. — A Bloomington, 111., corres- 

 pondent says : " Is there a yellow Violet ? Would 

 you regard one as a choice plant, or worthy of 

 propagation?" 



[There are yellow Violets in abundance 

 among the botanical species, — but we have never 

 known of any one likely to compete in cultiva- 

 tion with our blue and white kinds. — Ed. G. M.] 





^REEN MOUSE AND tMoUSE pARDENlNG. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



About this time of the year people will prepare 

 hanging-baskets, for susi)ending from trees and 

 half-shaded places in piazzas, so as to get them 

 to grow well and be cstabli-shed against next 

 winter, when they will have to adorn rooms and 

 small conservatories. It is of course well under- 

 stood by this time that these baskets when made 

 of pottery or metal must have a hole to let out 

 the water. This note seems necessary, however, 

 because we often see things offered for sale as 

 flower-baskets that have no provision of the 

 kind. The bast baskets are wire ones that have 

 a coat of moss. on the inside to keep in the 

 earth. These never get too wet, and with proper 

 care never too dry. Plants do not require chang- 

 ing in these baskets near as often as people 

 think, for a lady of the writer's acquaintance has 

 baskets that have been undisturbed for several 

 years, but manure is occasionally given to them, 

 and the plants thrive charmingly. Among the 

 plants in them we note the Abutilon vexilla- 

 rium pictum, a really delightful thing with its 

 half-pendant habit and profusion of orange and 

 crimson flowers. The old green-leaved Mesem- 

 bryanthemum cordifolium, or ice plant; Senecio 

 gcandens, or parlor ivy, one of which plants from 

 the basket had some of its branches twelve and fif- 

 teen feet in length, and was wreathed about pic- 

 ture frames and other ornaments on the walls of 

 the room ; the old red Mesembryanthemum spec- 

 tabile; several ferns, as Onychia japonica, Platy- 

 loma hastata, Pteris serrulata, and Adiantum 

 cappillis veneris ; Oxalis multiflora; Oxalis flori- 

 bunda ; variegated Periwinkle ; and there were 

 actually some "weeds" growing among other 



things, which the bidy thought too pretty to pull 

 out. A very large, lemon tree was in the room 

 that had been blooming all winter, the picture 

 of health. The room was heated bj' a common 

 anthracite coal stove, and all the plants as 

 healthy as we see in any greenhouse, and 

 much l»cttcr than in many — but the deadly foe 

 to the plant-grower, illuminating gas, was absent 

 — the room being lighted from coal oil lamps. 

 We are satisfied, fi'om such little experiences as 

 these, that lists of plants for room or basket cul- 

 ture are superlative — for any thing will do well 

 if ]u-operly treated. The baskets are hung out 

 under trees iii^summer. In fact almost all plants 

 do better in the open air in summer than under 

 glass; but with what are called hard-wooded 

 plants, like Heaths and Epacrises, the dry heat 

 of our climate does not seem to agree. A par- 

 tially shaded place is best for most of them, but 

 not under the drip of trees, though many per- 

 sons jmt them out under trees, as such shade 

 witJi drip is better than the hot sun. Plants are 

 better also with their pots plunged into the soil, 

 but they ought to be twisted around or taken 

 up and reset about once a month, or roots will 

 so many go through the bottom of the pot as to 

 injure the health of the plant when taken up, 

 and so many broken off at once in the fall. 

 Azaleas usually flower better when plunged in 

 the full sun. 



There are some things which do well kept un- 

 der glass all summer, as Achimenes, Gloxinea, 

 Begonias, Ferns, &c., but it will be best to try 

 to get as much as possible in the open air; in the 

 first i^lace, because they are more enjoyable thus 

 in summer, and, in the next place, because they 

 usually keep hardier, and clearer from insecta, 

 which are very hard to contend with, under 

 glass, in hot weather. 



