THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[April, 



simply with pistils only. When the tubular florets 

 become strap-shaped they carry these sexual 

 characteristics with them, and hence, for want of 

 pollen, they rarely produce seeds. This is why 

 so few seeds are usually found in the very double 

 Chrysanthemums. Those not quite double are 

 the best to use for seed parents. — Ed. G. M.] 



Umbrella Tree. — " D. R. W.," New Brighton, 

 Pa., writes : " I send you a seed received from a 

 correspondent in Texas, who calls it "Umbrella 

 Tree " or " Pride of India." If you know it will 

 you please give Botanical name, and state if in 

 your opinion it is desirable for cultivation ?" 



[This is botanically Melia Azederach. It is an 

 excellent street tree for the South, but only with 



difficulty stands the winter at Philadelphia. — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



Wintering Roses in the North-west. — "W. 

 W.," Northfield, Minn., says: "In the December 

 number a correspondent who signs 'M. L. H.' 

 Minneapolis, Minn., says: 'I have no trouble 

 wintering roses here.' If you could get your cor- 

 respondent to communicate his method, it would 

 be a great blessing to a great many lovers of the 

 ' queen of flowers,' in this bleak Northwestern 

 country." 



[The method pursued by " M. L. H." for pre- 

 serving roses there, would no doubt be very ac- 

 ceptable to many readers as well as to the writer 

 of the above. — Ed. G. M.] 



Greenhouse and House Gardening. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



We are pleased to note that the hints we recently 

 gave in this department for good potting as a 

 means for good plant growing have attracted wide 

 attention. We have not seen for a long time any- 

 thing in our pages that has been so widely copied 

 and commented on as that chapter. We would 

 now suggest, that next to getting good healthy roots 

 so that a plant can grow freely, training is an im- 

 portant element in getting good specimen plants. 

 We often see plants at exhibition of good form and 

 good size, but the result rather of age or accident 

 than of skill on the part of the grower. In exhibi- 

 tions of Chrysanthemums, as we have had occa- 

 sion to notice before, much of the interest in the 

 fine specimen is lost because of the bundles of 

 stakes and almost miles of twine that we see 

 everywhere about them. The art should be to so 

 give the plant a start that it will grow of itself the 

 way we want it to grow. " As the twig is bent the 

 tree's inclined " should never be lost sight of by 

 the plant grower. The shoots may be staked out 

 a little at the first start, so as to fill in a hollow 

 space if there be one ; and if there be not 

 shoots enough, a strong one may have its point 

 pinched out, so as to make it push some sec- 

 ondary side ones. But only the strong ones 

 must be pinched back, because pinching has 

 a somewhat weakening tendency, and we do 



not wish to weaken a 

 shoot already weak. 

 The object is to 

 strengthen rather than 

 put back a shoot al- 

 ready weak, so that 

 all may have uniform 

 vigor. In this way 

 shoots at the base of 

 a plant that are al- 

 ways weaker than 

 those above, are 

 strengthened by hav- 

 ing the uppermost 

 pinched back as they 

 grow. We give here- 

 with a sketch of a 

 Fuchsia which we take 

 from the London Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle, 

 which plant was eight 

 feet high, and, as the 

 great number of flow- 

 ers and leaves in the small space indicates, 

 taken at a long view, illustrates what good culture 

 can do. There is of course pleasure in having 

 a Fuchsia plant, and in a few score of its beauti- 

 ful blossoms ; but how much more is the pleasure 

 enhanced when we can have a specimen like this. 

 It was grown by Mr. James Lye, a gardener near 



