1879.1 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



229 



Notes on Garden Plants. — F. H., New 

 Bedford, Mass., writes : 



" 1. I send you to-day a specimen of double 

 daisy, Bellis perennis. I never saw one with 

 quilled petals before; did you? I fancy it is 

 something entirely new : is it? 



" 2. I enclose a slip from a plant ; I do not 

 know the name of. Please give me its name, 

 habits, &c. 



"3. Also put in a leaf of a plant for name. 

 Blossoms red in June. 



" 4. I have a bed of Ghent Azaleas situated 

 where it gels the sun only from seven to eight and 

 eleven to two. There is a good circulation of air 

 under the trees where it is located ; the soil is 

 porous and drainage good. I fancy they would 

 do better with less shade, perhaps not, however. 

 Please tell us the taste of the lovely Azalea in 

 this matter. 



" 5. 1 would like a description of the Retinis- 

 pora; its habits, height, breadth and general 

 appearance. 



" 6. I have excellent success in transplanting 

 fruit and ornamental trees, shrubs, plants, &c. 

 Have made two efforts with Chinese Magnolias 

 and failed in both. I don't intend to give it up, 

 that doesn't run in the blood. Do nurserymen 

 ever send them out with a ball of earth attached 

 as with Rhododendrons? At what stage of 

 growth and what size is best for transplanting ? 



" 7. You will find in the package a piece of a 

 shrub with buds attached. A man who has 

 charge of one of our cemeteries handed it to me ; 

 says he found a number of the shrubs in an un- 

 cleared portion of the grounds, doesn't know its 

 name and can't And any one that does. Blcs- 

 soms early, buds turn red." 



[1, Quilled English daisies are not uncommon. 



2. Cryptomeria Lobbii, probably. It is too 

 small a slip to be certain about it. It is scarcely 

 hardy at New Bedford. 



3. The "piece" of a leaf, probably came from 

 the Oriental Poppy. 



4. If the soil is made of a porous spongy ma- 

 terial, so that it is always cool but never what a 

 I gardener would call wet, the more sun the Bel- 

 I giati Azelea gets the better it thrives. 

 i 5. There are many kinds of Retinospora, and 

 1 their habit is like unto a slender growing arbor 

 j vitae. There are hovvever some of these that 

 ! are abnormal forms that have retained their 

 I juvenescent character through life, — imbeciles; 

 these look like heaths. There are Arbor vitses 

 which are in this imbecile condition iis well as 

 Retinosporas, and "Tom Thumb" is a well- 

 known instance. 



6. The better class of nurserymen sell trees 

 with balls of earth. But this 'implies that the 

 plant has been transplanted several times or it 

 will not come up with a ball ; and more labor to 

 preserve the ball ; and hence they charge about 

 double the price for such trees, to those which 

 are simply known as catalogue trees. Magno- 

 lias love to have their weaker shoots cut away 

 on transplanting. 



7. Daphne Mezereon. — Ed. G. M.] 



The Best Time to Transplant Trees. — 

 A Shellburne Falls, Massachusetts, subscriber 

 asks whether it is best for her to transplant trees 

 in the Fall or Spring. It is very much a ques- 

 tion of exposure. If in a very cold windy place 

 trees will suffer as much from Fall planting as 

 they would from the hot jiarching sun after 

 Spring planting. In the eastern part of Penn- 

 sylvania the risk, and there is always some at 

 any season, is considered about equal, and there 

 are nearly as many things transplanted in Octo- 

 ber and November as in March or April ; not 

 quite so much, but if less, because when April 

 comes people hurry up for fear of missing a 

 season of growth. If there is much danger 

 from very cold drying winds after transplanting 

 in the Autumn, this can in a measure be helped 

 by pruning the weaker branches if a deciduous 

 tree, or by protecting from wind by branches or 

 corn fodder if evergreens. 



Green House and House Gardening. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. \ tWs season, and as they are seldom of any value 



I to the plant after this, they may be cut olT at 



Ferns will be about maturing their spores at ' once, and this will hasten the growth, and help 



