24 



GARDENING. 



Oct. /, 



Water and Manure.— If you want 

 good cannas plant them in rich deeph' un- 

 fastened soil, a mulching of manure too 

 will help them, and after they start to 

 grow keep them thoroughly watered,— 

 no stinted draught but flooded soakings. 

 But let the water be given at the root and 

 not over the head. Hosing over head is 

 ruinous to the flowers. 



FLOWER GARDEN QUESTIONS. 



A. S., Whitewater, Wis., asks: 



1. I have a Dawson rose three years 

 old. It grows thriftily but has never 

 blossomed. What is the matter? How 

 should it be pruned? 



2. Is any hardy species of taniarix 

 evergreen, or are tliey all deciduous? 



3. How early should chrj^santhemums 

 planted in the open ground in May be 

 potted? Should we wait for the flower- 

 buds to form first? 



4. What is the best way of carrj'ing 

 French cannas through the winter? 

 Should they be packed in sand? 



5. I have had a plant of Eucbaris 

 Amazonica for the past two years; in fact 

 it has become four plants in one pot. As 

 a foliage plant it is fine and thrifty; but 

 it does not offer to bloom at all. ' It is 

 now putting up new leaves. What shall 

 I do to make it 1 ' 



1. It needs very little pruning. Thin 

 out poor wood, and keep in the strong, 

 tipping the shoots back a little, and if 

 they are several cut some of them back 

 half ways. We never knew it to fail to 

 bloom. But it is strictly a one crop rose. 

 Send us a spray that we maj' see you 

 have the genuine article. 



2. No. All are deciduous. 



3. Lift and pot them at once. Stake 

 them and sprinkle them overhead as soon 

 as you pot them, and keep them some- 

 what shaded for a few days, and dewed 

 overhead too. 



4-. Lift the clumps, don't shake the 

 dirt away from them, then pack them 

 close together but only one deep, on the 

 cellar floor or elsewhere they will be 

 slightly moist all winter and in a temper- 

 ature not under 40°. 



5. After this crop of new leaves is 

 pretty well matured, keep theplant rather 

 dry (but not so much as to wilt the 

 leaves) for two to three months, then in- 

 crease the moisture and warmth a little, 

 and it will probably bloom all right. 



T«E FLOWER OflRDEN. 



Finish gathering all the seeds 3-ou want 

 of salvia, petunia, canna, scabios, Drum- 

 mond phlox, coreopsis, vinca and such 

 other things as you yet can get in quan- 

 tity. Fill up the cold frame with seed- 

 lings as directed in last issue, page 4. 

 Clear off all rubbi.shy plants and keep 

 things neat and tidy", for ne.Ttness and 

 cleanness make a garden look attractive 

 even when there aren't many flowersinit. 



If you haven't secured cuttings enough 

 of geraniums, coleus, alternanthera, 

 ageratum, and other bedding plants, get 

 them at once before frost strikes them. As 

 soon as frost injures our flower garden 

 plants we may as well clear them out and 

 fill up their places with Dutch bulbs — 

 hyacinths, tulips, daffodils, etc., for a dis- 

 play in spring. 



All tender plants as palms, ficus, cro- 

 tons, begonias and the like that are 

 bedded out in summer but which we also 

 desire to save should be taken indoors at 

 once, for cold nights will injure their 

 leaves, and cold rains rot their roots. 



They may look fresh enough, but it is 

 time now they were inside. 



It is a good time now, while the stems 

 are alive, to dig up and save the many 

 miscellaneous tender bulbs that we plant 

 out to bloom in summer. They consist of 

 tigridias, Milla biflora, Bessera ekgans, 

 some zephyranthes, some oxalis.crinums, 

 arums, and the like. Put them into paper 

 or muslin bags, properly labelled, and 

 store them where they can be kept dry 

 and frost cannot reach them. A shelf in a 

 cupboard is generally the place where 

 they are kept when we haven't many of 

 them. 



Cannas stand about as much frost as 

 do dahlias. After frost comes to hurt the 

 leaves cut them over close to the ground, 

 dig up the roots, label them, and with- 

 out shaking the dirt from the clumps, 

 take one or more clumps of a kind, as you 

 may need, and store them close together, 

 heads up and only one deep on the floor 

 or on a shelf of tlie cellar where frost can- 

 not reach them nor hot furnace heat 

 scorch them. If you don't care to put 

 them into the cellar yet you may store 

 them in a shed or most any where covered 

 over with their cut tops or sedge to pro- 

 tect them from frost, and keep them for a 

 month or more yet in good form before 

 storing. These new fine flowered dwarf 

 cannas cannot be dried ofi'in winter with 

 impunity as we used to the old Canna 

 Indica. 



Gladioli.— It is time to digup and save 

 all that are out of bloom; we gain noth- 

 ing by letting the bulbs stay another day 

 in the ground. Cut them over close to the 

 ground, dig them up, saving every little 

 bulblet for stock, and store them in flats 

 in a dry airy shed where frost cannot 

 reach them. In a week or two whenthc3' 

 dry pretty well we can remove the piec< s 

 of stalk left to them, and store them in 

 less bulk indoorsor inthecellar. Butfrost 

 must never g< t at them. No matter how 

 hardy the bulbs may be in the ground, 

 frost will kill them if it gets at them out 

 of the ground. 



SOME OF THE NEWER SWEET PBflS. 



Eckford's new Venus is his crowning 

 production. In form, size, coloring and 

 vigor it is superb. The color is a delicate 

 salmon buff" self. 



Princess Maj' is badly mixed in myrows 

 with The (Jueen and several other inferior 

 forms, but what seems to be the type is a 

 rather purer lavender than the fine 

 Countess of Radnor. 



Bronze King has white wings and 

 standards of a curious tint supposed to 

 be bronze. It is very pretty and distinct. 



Her Majesty nearly resembles Splendor, 

 bivt is not quite as deep colored as that 

 fine variet.y. 



Rising Sun is a charming blossom show- 

 ing several shades of pink, but it is not 

 large nor of the finest form. 



American Belle fails utterly to show its 

 characteristic spots as yet, and reminds 

 me that three j'ears ago some plants of 

 Blanche Ferry gave spotted blossoms late 

 in the season, but seed saved from them 

 faiUd to reproduce stich markings the 

 next year. 



Ignea germinated so ijoorly that there 

 is only one sickly plant, which has not 

 yet bloomed. 



Mrs. Eckford behaved nearly as badly. 

 The blossoms are a very pretty but faint 

 primrose tint. 



Emily Henderson, a very fine white va- 

 riety, germinated very, very badly out of 

 doors as it did last year, and that is a 

 bad fault in a flower asj)iring to popular 

 favor. Not one of 70 seeds germinated 



out of doors. Seed planted in a pot in a 

 frame did fairly well. 



These newer sorts and such of the old 

 ones as are of defective germinatingpower 

 were started in 8-inch pots of mellow soil 

 in a frame, as recommended by Rev. Mr. 

 Hutchins, and were transplanted when 

 an inch or two high to their place in the 

 rows. Once started the only enemies 

 that are at all formidable are snails, En- 

 glish sparrows and hot dry weather. 

 Lime dust defeats the snails, netting 

 securely fastened circumvents the spar- 

 rows, who take a fiendish delight in nip- 

 ping the buds and yoimg shoots, and 

 deep preparation of the soil, trench plant- 

 ing of the seed, a liberal mulch and fre- 

 quent soakings from the hose discount a 

 dry spell. With such treatment sweet 

 peas in this latitude and on a heavy soil 

 will scarcely flag at all before severe 

 frosts if absolutely no seed pods are 

 allowed to form. In the past three days 

 I have cut over 1,300 sprays of bloom 

 from a double row 35 feet long. 



G. V. H. 



Corning, N. Y., .August 7, 1894. 



WILD PLANTS IN BLOOM SEPTEMBER 20. 



Wild asters are making a grand dis- 

 play. One of the best of the genus is 

 the New England aster (Novx Angliso). 

 It grows five to six feet high and pro- 

 duces for a month or more large purple 

 flowers. No one should miss cultivating 

 it. A. patens, two to three feet and in 

 several varieties has slender but numerous 

 branches, which are full of bright blue 

 flowers. Some years ago I found one of 

 these in Maryland which grew six to 

 seven feet in height and differed widely in 

 leaf and habit. Prenanthoides two to 

 three feet bears showy pale blue flowers. 

 Vndulatus, pale blue, two feet; multi- 

 florus, white, tall; dumosits, purplish 

 white, two feet, and tenuifolius, pale pur- 

 ple, three feet, are also in fine bloom. A 

 closely allied and beautiful plant, Dip- 

 lopappus linariifolius, grows but a foot 

 high and has violet colored flowers. It is 

 a good garden plant. 



In wet grounds an annual tick seed 

 (Coreopsis trichosperma) has attractive 

 deep golden yellow flowers. As it seeds 

 freely many plants come up together, 

 making when in bloom a fine display. It 

 is often grown in gardens, asit should be. 

 [One of the burr marigolds (Bidens chrys- 

 antbemoides) about a foot high, and 

 growing alongside of muddy streams has 

 showy yellow flowers, but the3' are usu- 

 ally hidden among the taller grasses and 

 weeds. B. connata, also a swamp plant 

 is inconspicuous —Ed.] 



In fields where it has a chance to 

 develop itself, the large purple flowers of 

 the tall thistle, Circiam altissimum are 

 quite beautiful. In favorable situations 

 it grows six to eight feet in height, but 

 in shaded or poor ground it is often not 

 half of that. 



What is known as yellow foxglove 

 (Gerardia quercHolia) with golden yel- 

 low flowers is one of the prettiest blossoms 

 of the season. Another species (pedicu- 

 Inria) has yellow bell shaped flowers. 

 Purpurea has purple ones; all of these are 

 found in dry woods. But imfortunately 

 for those who wish to transplant them 

 they are parasitic on the roots of other 

 ])Iants. The only way to have them in 

 the garden is to sow the seeds in spring, 

 which sometimes results in the giving of" 

 a few plants. 



The hor^e balm (Co//;"nson/a Canaden- 

 sis) has large panicles of inconspicuous 

 greenish white, small flowers. The hedge 

 hyssop (Lopbantbus nepetoides) three to 



