194 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[July, 



she had read something like it before," we may 

 take it as a gospel truth. 



Hollyhocks will be coming into bloom at this 

 season. They have now become so much im- 

 proved as to be one of the most popular flowers 

 for the Summer decoration of the flower-garden. 

 If the kinds are kept carefully separate, any 

 particular variety will reproduce itself from 

 seed. They may be more certainly kept pure 

 by cutting off the flower stem; each bud will 

 make a plant. The seed should be sown as soon 

 as ripe in a light rich soil, in the open air. If 

 retained till late in the season, they will not 

 properly flower until the next year. 



Amateurs may have some rare or choice shrub 

 they desire to increase. They may now be 

 propagated by layers. This is done by taking a 

 strong and vigorous shoot of the present season's 

 growth, slitting the shoot a few inches from its 

 base, and burying it a few inches under the soil, 

 or into a pot of soil provided for the purpose. 

 Any thing can be propagated by layers ; and it 

 is an excellent mode of raising rare things that 

 can be but with difficulty increased by any other. 



The time is coming when transplanted trees of 

 the past Fall and Spring will suffer more than 

 during any other part of the season. If they 

 show a vigorous growth of young wood, no 

 danger need be apprehended, as it indicates 

 that the roots are active and can supply all the 

 moisture the foliage calls for; but if no growth 

 has been made, no roots have been formed, and 

 the leaves are living for the most part on the sap 

 in the wood and bark, and hot, dry weather will 

 tell with injurious effect on such trees. This is 

 generally first shown by the peeling off of the 

 bark on the southwestern side of the tree, — the 

 most drying aspect; and where such exhaustion 

 appears probable, much relief may be afforded 

 by cutting back some of the branches, syringing 

 with water occasionally, shading the trees where 

 practicable, or wrapping the trunk in haybands, 

 or shading the southwest with boughs or boards. 



Plants set against walls and piazzas frequently 

 suffer from want of water at this season, when 

 even ground near them is quite wet. Draw away 

 the soil around each plant so as to form a basin ; 

 fill in with a bucketful of water, allowing it time 

 to gradually soak away, and when the surface 

 has dried a little draw in loosely the soil over it, 

 and it will do without water for some weeks. 

 This applies to all plants wanting water through 

 the season. If water is merely poured on the 

 surface, it is made more compact by the weight 



of water, and the harder the soil becomes, the 

 easier it dries ; and the result is, the more water 

 you give the more is wanted. 



Keep the pruning-knife busy through the trees 

 and shrubs, with the object of securing good 

 form. Judgment will soon teach one which 

 shoots would spoil the shape if not taken out. 

 We tried to impress this truth strongly on the 

 reader's mind last month, but think it important 

 enough to reiterate. 



COM MUNI C A TIONS. 



GARDENING EXPERIMENTS, WISE AND 

 OTHERWISE. 



BY MRS. R. B. EDSON. 



That the summer of 1881 was a delusion and 

 a snare, everybody knows, and it would be folly 

 to repeat it at this late day. And yet, notwith- 

 standing its general unsatisfactoriness, its cold 

 and wet beginning, and its hot and dry ending, 

 there yet remains something to be sfyd of it by 

 way of admonition, and possibly example. And 

 first, for the reason that it came first, but more 

 especially because it is a confession of failure, 

 and I want to have it over with, comes the ad- 

 monition. It is a delight and gratification to 

 record successes, but the failures — ah ! the least 

 said about them the better. We like best a 

 dignified and becoming reticence in regard to 

 them. And why not? It is the big squashes 

 that go to the fair ; the little ones stay at 

 home. 



But to come back to my experiment. I read 

 in the Monthly for April, 1881, an article by 

 Miss A. G., on "Caladiums as Bedding Plants.'' 

 Immediately I was fired with a spirit of emula- 

 tion. I would have a bed of Caladiums that 

 should be the wonder of the town, and cause 

 those Baltimore people to wish they had never 

 been born. A hot sun seemed, by the article 

 mentioned, to be the greatest difficulty to their 

 successful cultivation. I congratulated myself 

 that here in New England we did not have the 

 fierce heat of the South to contend against, and 

 having selected a partially shaded location, I set 

 them out June 1st, with the thermometer at 79° 

 in the shade. They were all finely started and 

 made a good show at the first. I had made ar- 

 rangements for sheltering them from sun and 

 wind, and my perfect confidence in those Cala- 

 diums was something quite wonderful to con- 

 template. In about forty-eight hours after they 



