GARDENING. 



Sept. /5, 



Trees and Shrubs. 



MOUNTAIN LAUREL (Aa/;«/« lali/oha). 



We are indebted to Mr. A. Blanc, of 

 Philadelphia, for the beautiful photo- 

 graph from which our illustration is en- 

 graved. It shows the mountain laurel 

 at home in all its glory; and among our 

 native shrubs what is more glorious? 

 According to the Tenth Census Report, 

 this kalmia grows wild from "Xcw Bruns- 

 wick and toe northern shores of Lake 

 Erie, south to western Florida, and 

 through the Gulf states to western Louis- 

 iana, and the valley of the Red River, 

 Arkansas. A small tree * * or more 

 often a low shrub; rich woodlands; most 

 common and reaching its greatest devel- 

 opment in the southern Alleghany moun- 

 tains, here often forming dense, impene- 

 trable thickets." 



It is very abundant in the woods here- 

 about, forming a dense or scattered 

 underbrush, and extending to the out- 

 skirts, it becomes a handsome bank of 

 living green. In old fields too in the 

 neighborhood of rocky and hilly woods it 

 is also found. It is in bloom about the 

 middle of June, and what a profusion of 

 loveliness it forms. 



At the same time, notwithstanding its 

 great abundance in a wild state, and how 

 ver3' desirable it is as a garden shrub, it 

 is quite an uncommon plant in our gar- 

 dens, not only that, but it is also an un- 

 common plant in our nurseries, in fact 

 only a few nurseries keep a stock of it. 

 What is the reason of this? Because it is 

 so hard to transplant successfully. If 

 you think all you have got to do is to 

 take a pick and a spade and go out into 

 the woods and dig up a'l the mountain 

 laurel you want and plant it in your 

 garden to have a beautiful shrubbery bed, 

 do please trj^ it, and a year from that 

 time kindly drop us a note giving your 

 experience. The plants take about "that 

 long lo die out. 



Isn't it possible to get them to Ive? 

 Ves. Select isolated plants in hard or 

 gravelly soil in preference to soft and 

 loose earth, cut theni back pretty hard 

 and dig them up very carefully in Sep- 

 tember, saving every root and rootlet 

 and keep these moist; transplant at once 

 into a sheltered part of the garden in 

 fesh 'but not fatted with manure) soil 

 and mulch the ground with leaves. Keep 

 them there for one to two years and then 

 transplant those that have lived to your 

 shrubbery bed. Better stil,l dig up the 

 young seedlings, say from si.\ to ten 

 inches high and treat them in the same 

 way, or rather plant them at once into a 

 cold, east-facing, frame, protect tlicm 

 there over winter, and plant them out in 

 nursery rows in a sheltered (not a hot, 

 sunny place) spot, and cultivate them 

 there for two or three years before plant- 

 ing them out permanently. It can be 

 raised from seed too, but this is such a 

 slow and tedious process that several of 

 jur nurserymen find it more profitable 

 to buy seedling a few years old in Kuro])e 

 and grow them on,ra'therthan raiscthcir 

 own to begin with. 



Where only a few plants are needed it is 

 much better to send to a nursery and 

 get good rooted, stocky plants that are 

 sure to grow, than undergo the bother 

 and mortification of digging up and try- 

 ing to grow the wild plants. 



As mountain laurel green has become a 

 staple article of commerce at the holiday 

 season, vast quantities of it being u e"d 

 for evergreen ropes, wreaths, and other 



evergreen decorations at Christmas, 

 enormous quantities of it are gathered 

 for this purpose, which means a sad and 

 often wanton havoc among the wild 

 ])lants. 



HEDGE PLANTS FOR WASHINGTON, D. C, 



The trifoliate citrus, C. trifoliate, has 

 not been sufficienth' tested to definitely 

 settle the north m limit of its hardiness. 

 [We have it at Dosoris, but it is far from 

 being quite hardy with us.— Ed.] It has 

 succeeded for several j-ears in withstand- 

 ing the winters in central New Jersey and 

 around Philadelphia, where it is repotted 

 to ripen its fruit. Here in Washington it 

 is perfectly hardy. It has been growing 

 outside in pretty exposed positions for 

 the past fifteen years; for the last eight 

 years it has bloomed annually and ripened 

 fruit with good seed before the cold 

 weather came along. Judging it by the 

 growth it makes here it is well adapted 

 for a hedge bush, it makes an astonish- 

 ingly quick impenetrable growth. The 

 free use of the hedge knife on the young 

 plants does it good in inducing it to send 

 out growths from the bottom. It has 

 long formidable spines on all the shoots 

 with small trifoliate leaves. It is quite 

 an ornamental plant both in winter and 

 summer. When the leaves drop ofl" the 

 branches remain a rich dark green color. 

 There is a near relative of the above called 

 Citrus ausfra/Zs with a very reat habit; 

 it is not such a strong grower and the 

 leaves are not divided. The Agricultural 

 Department is at present experiraenting 

 with it in ihe way f testing its hardiness 

 in diffeient paits of the country. 



Aralia pentaphyUa is the name of a 

 Japanese plant which has been tried here 

 for several years as an ornamental hedge 

 plant and found very satisfactory. It is 

 a slender but dense grower and easilv 

 kept in shape. [Perfectly hardy in the 

 north.— Ed.] 



Osmanthus ilicifolius resembles the 

 holly so closeh- that most people are de- 

 ceived with it. It is from Japan and 

 quite hardy here but it is doubtful if it 

 will stand out much further north. [We 

 have two good old plants that have Uved 

 outside for several years but they are not 

 reliably hardy here'— Ed ] 



The Japanese andChineseprivetsL/grus. 

 tram Japonicuin and ovalHolium from 

 Japan and L. lucidum from China are all 

 highly ornamental hedge plants. If 

 planted in sheltered situations they re- 

 tain their beautiful foliage all through 

 the winter. These plants won't stand 

 the winters ofmany places. In locations 

 where their hardiness isdoubtful it would 

 be well to experiment with a single plant, 

 if successful this will soon send out 

 growths which root as cuttings with 

 great freedom, they produce seeds very 

 freely and the fruit is quite ornamental 

 during the late months. [The ovali- 

 folium, which is what i< known as the 

 Califomian privet, is hardy at Dosoris, 

 the others named are not.-^Eo.] 



G. W. O. 



TRANSPLANTING TREES. 



Begin as soon as possible. If you have 

 both evergreen and deciduous ones to 

 move, do the evergreens first. If ^-ou 

 move them now they will have a chance 

 to make a supply of fresh feeding roots 

 before hard frosty weather sets in, for 

 they have two or three months yet, 

 enough to give them a good start in "life. 

 Before planting see that the roots never 

 get dry orare exposed to sun or wind; cut 

 back the wounded and broken roots to 

 sound wood with a sharp knife or shears 



and head in the branches if admissable. 

 In planting, dig deep, wide holes, remov- 

 ing the poor dirt and replace with go d 

 earth, pack the dirt firmly in the bottom 

 of th- hole, setting it up in the middle in 

 a hillock or mound, not unlike a basin 

 turned upside down. Set the plant in the 

 top of this little mound, and with a 

 string, rod or pole stretched across the 

 mouth of the hole see that the tree stands 

 at about the same depth as regards its 

 roots as was the case with it where it 

 grew before; spread out the roots on all 

 sides, working fine mellow soil between 

 them, then fill up with good soil and tamp 

 the ground firmly. .\t this stage we al- 

 ways give the trees a thorough watering, 

 enough to soak the earth clear through 

 to the bottom of the holes, but manv 

 planters object to this watering. Our 

 answer to their objections is "Look at 

 the results, the trees there speak for them- 

 selves," And for a week or ten days 

 a'ter planting the evergreens, unless "in 

 rainy weather, sprinkle the plants over- 

 head with water from a hose, syringe, or 

 easier still, from a water pot and rose, 

 twice a day if the trees are fine and you 

 wish to make their lives quite certain. 

 In winter mulch the ground under and 

 about them with tree leaves to lessen the 

 sev rity of the frost in the rootlets. 



Treat deciduous trees and shrubs in 

 practically the same way. But don't 

 spare the knife. Head in the top, and cut 

 in the side branches pretty hard. If the 

 leaves are still upon the trees, strip th m 

 off with a sharp knife; rubbing them off 

 would be all right if it wouldn't disturb 

 the buds, should it do this though, don't 

 rub them off, but cut them. 



A gentleman visiting Dosoris not long 

 since told us that A. B., an extensive 

 planter, didn't believe in heading back 

 or cutting in trees at planting time, it 

 was all nonsense. "All right," we said, 

 "come and see. You remember ihtt 

 handsome specimen of Prunus angusti- 

 folia we moved last.\pril as it was burst- 

 ing into bloom, and how careful we were 

 about it, we didn't cut it back at all as 

 we wished to save its dense and hand- 

 some head and its cloud of flowers. AW 

 went well for a time, t'ne flowers blos- 

 somed out a snowbank and the leaves 

 began to grow, and up till the end of May 

 it looked like a success. But dry weather 

 set in in June and staid in, and our Chicka- 

 saw began to fade." "Yes, I remember," 

 he remarked, "it died." "No, it didn't," 

 we replied, "a few days after j-ou saw it 

 then, feeling assured to keep it as it was 

 would be certain death to it, we sawed 

 every limb back to within a tew inches of 

 the "trunk, and now look at it, a mop- 

 head of vigorous, healthy, leafy shoots." 

 Alter sawing oft' the branches we gave a 

 barrel of w^aterto the roots, and sprinkled 

 the trunk twice a day for a fortnight. 

 This tree had not been previously pre- 

 pared for transplanting by root cutting 

 and branch pruning. 



August loth, 

 page 386, let me tell you about my trees. 

 Knoxville, as you are aware is in East 

 Tennessee, the cold section of the state. 

 Two of my plants of Magnolia grandi- 

 fJora measure respectiveh- one foot above 

 the ground, twenty-one and twenty-six 

 inches circumference of trunk, and their 

 spread of branches is fifteenand seventeen 

 f et. They are fifteen years old and 

 twenty feet or more high. 

 They have never been injured by the 



