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Gardeners' Monthly 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE. ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Volume XXVII. 



FEBRUARY, 1885. 



Number 314. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



There is much written about planting in fall or 

 planting in spring ; about planting large trees or 

 small trees ; about pruning, grafting, or the gen- 

 eral management of trees above ground ; but 

 about the tree beneath the ground few people 

 know much. We are taught about the tree ; but 

 about the earth which is to sustain the tree, how 

 little do we know ? So much however depends 

 on soil culture, that a few seasonable hints on this 

 topic will not be thrown away. 



We read of the wonderful success of the English 

 gardeners with Rhododendrons, and other "Ameri- 

 can plants," in which are included a large number 

 of the Ericaceae or Heath family, and we are apt 

 to attribute it to the moisture of their climate, 

 which is undoubtedly favorable to the success of 

 evergreens of all kinds ; but when we remember 

 that these plants are all natives of our country, 

 the suspicion naturally arises, that it cannot be 

 wholly to the atmospheric conditions that their 

 success is due, — nor is it, — but it is rather to 

 the great attention which is there paid to the 

 proper culture of the soil. All plants require air 

 and moisture for their roots, and when these roots 

 are of a delicate, hair-like nature, extra care has 

 to be expended in order to supply these conditions. 

 If the water remains long in the soil, there will be 



no air there. The earth must be porous for the 

 water to run rapidly away. On the other hand 

 the earth must be of such a character that, though 

 j the air is permitted to pass through, moisture will 

 be retained. A soil that is perfect for these hair- 

 rooted plants, may be called a spongy soil, and 

 yet of such a character that water can scarcely be 

 pressed out of it. Now those who grow Rhodo- 

 dendrons and Azaleas in the old world, would 

 never think of planting in stiff soil, but they go to 

 great pains to get the soil just as they need it for 

 the success of the plants. It is no uncommon 

 thing for the earth for the American bed to be 

 brought fifty or even a hundred miles. The writer 

 has seen peat soil for the Rhododendron beds 

 brought in vessels and unloaded at the docks like 

 loads of coal. If the grower wanted these plants 

 he would not say : My soil is limestone and Rho- 

 dodendrons will not grow in that ; but he digs out 

 the limestony earth to a depth of two feet, and 

 supplies its place with the peat, and thus he over- 

 comes the natural antipathy of the earth. Peat is 

 very good, it is so full of air and spongy, but it is 

 by no means essential. Anything that will give 

 an open, porous, spongy soil answers the same 

 purpose. The writer has seen the Rhododendron 

 growing as well in a pile of quarry refuse— the 

 broken, useless stone, — after some manure has been 

 placed in it, as he has ever seen in a bed of peat 



