i8g4. 



GARDENING. 



25 



six feet high bears greenish yellow spikes 

 of flowers. 



Among golden rods in bloom are stricta 

 growing in wet woods, two feet; speciosa 

 a fine showy species, rich yellow, three to 

 six feet; nemoralis, a common roadside 

 sort with grayish foliage, two feet; gigan- 

 ic.'i, alargc species, in dry fields five to six 

 feet; and ulmifolia, another one of large 

 growth. 



The lovel_v fringed gentian {G. crinita) 

 is not as plentiful as it u.sed to be, but we 

 still get it in moderate numbers. The 

 flowers of the closed gentian (G. An- 

 drewsii) do not open as the other does, 

 they give one the impression that they 

 are only flower buds. 



Polygonum Pennsylvanicuw, P. Hydro- 

 piper, P.articulatumand P.dumatorium, 

 all knot weeds, are also to be met with. 

 In wet meadows the beautiful Sabbatia 

 chlorides, the American centaury, glad- 

 dens us with its bright purple flowers. 



Philadelphia. J. Meehan. 



GRASS— SWEET PEflS— flSTERS-LUY OF TAB 

 VfltLEY. 



J. D., Chicago, asks: 



1. Is any lawn grass seed free fi-om 

 crab grass, that makes its appearance in 

 .\ugust and is such a disfigurement to 

 lawns? I have bought lawn seed of 

 various dealers and got lotsoi crab grass 

 in each. 



2. How should soil be prepared in the 

 fall for sweet peas? 



3. For the past five years I have had 

 splendid success with China asters. This 

 year they did not do well. Many of them 

 blighted and died. On examination of the 

 roots I found clusters of the common 

 angle worm bunched in amopgst them. 

 Do j-ou think the trouble was due to their 

 presence? 



4. How should soil be prepared for 

 lilies of the valley? Do they require fer- 

 tilization from year to year? 



1. We are inclined to think tlie crab 

 grass seed is in your own ground rather 

 than in the lawn grass seed you bought. 

 If crab grass is indigenous to your soil it 

 is almost impossible to eradicate it no 

 matter what we are told to the contrary. 

 To show you how unlikelj- it is to be in 

 the seed you buy, let us explain: Blue 

 grass, red top, bent, and the other fine 

 grasses cultivated for lawns, come up, 

 blossom and ripen their seed, and the crop 

 is harvested, before it is time for crab 

 grass to be in blossom. And no person 

 would grow crab grass seed to mix with 

 lawn grass. 



2. By double deep digging or plowing, 

 and mulching with well rotted manure, 

 but don't let the manure touch the seed. 

 The soil should be good, rich, and not apt 

 to dry out in summer or lay under water 

 in winter. 



3. The angle worms had nothing to do 

 with the aster failure. Their presence 

 inight be due to over fatted ground. A 

 lil)eral w^atering of weak lime water 

 would move them quick enough. 



■i. Lily of the valley loves rich ground. 

 We grow it in a large quantity. In 

 .Vovember after clearing oft" the dirt and 

 leaves from the jiatch we cart on a lot of 

 rotted manure spreading it evenly over 

 the gi-ound about two to three inches 

 deep and leave it there. This is repeated 

 every year, and we get splendid flowers. 

 But we must observe not to let the plants 

 get too thick else they will weaken each 

 other. While this manuring strengthens 

 the plant it isn't necessary; we also get 

 capital flowers without it. 



Tuberous rooted Begonias.— As soon 

 as the frost destroys them cut over their 

 tops close to the ground, dig up the roots 

 and store them one-deep and close to- 

 gether in three or four inch deep flats 

 with a little earth, sand, or sawdust 

 about them; then take them into a shed, 

 cellar, room, or elsewhere where they can 

 be kept quite cool but frost cannot reach 

 them. The air of the place should be dry 

 and sweet, not close and muggy. (Moxi- 

 nias, caladiums and some other roots 

 should be kept somewhat warm, say 50° 

 in winter, but tuberous begonias keep 

 better in a temperature of 40'^. If frost is 

 apt to get into the place they are stored 

 in, coverthem overasyou would potatoes 

 or apples to save them from frost. 



For Seed.— Tuberous begonias do not 

 seed freely out of doors, but if you lift a 

 few of the best of them and pot them and 

 bring them indoors either into the win- 

 dow of a warm room or a greenhouse, 

 they will seed quite freely. Florists 

 alwaj'S save their seeds from potted 

 plants. They are very easy to lift, and 

 live nicely when potted, but keep them 

 dry overhead and remove all fallen or 

 decaying leaves and flowers as soon as 

 you see them, else they will rot the others. 



Don't try to strike them from cuttings 

 now for you cannot do it, and if you 

 could, the rooted cuttings wouldn't form 

 tubers before winter, hence when they 

 faded they would die, for there would be 

 no tuber to pei'petuate them. You can- 

 not keep them growing all winter, it is 

 contrary to their nature. But potted 

 plants of these begonias do make lovely 

 specimens in October and early November. 



Tuberous Begonias; side shoots not 

 BLOOMING.- Why have the side flower 

 buds of my tuberous begonias seldom 

 opened this season? The plants have been 

 thrifty as to leaves and stems with abund- 

 ant and large buds, but only the middle 

 ones opened well. S. P. J. 



The side buds of tuberous begonias 

 never open the same as the middle flowers; 

 there is a great difference in the formation 

 of the blooms. The female flowers are 

 formed on the side and are of a difterent 

 shape and seldom as large as the middle 

 or male flowers. The female flowers can 

 be distinguished by the seed pod at the 

 back of the petals. Thomas Griffin. 



Westbury Station, N. Y. 



Red Spider on Sweet Peas.— P. W. S., 

 Kansas City, writes: I had an abundance 

 of bloom until about the 10th or 15th of 

 August, when some very small grub or 

 worm began to work on them and all at 

 once the leaves all died except at the very 

 ends of the plants, which have staj'ed 

 green and still show an occasional sickly 

 looking bud. The worms spin a very 

 delicate gauzy net. Have not seen any- 

 thing about such an enemy to the pen 

 culture in any of the works or flower 

 papers, and wonder if others arc trouljled 

 the same way. 



No doubt, red spider. Heat and drouth, 

 and an enervated condition of the vines 

 caused by dryness at the root are all 

 favorable to its development. It multi- 

 plies with extraordinary rapidity, attack- 

 ing most anything, trees, shrubs or herbs. 

 Out ot doors there is practically no cure 

 for it. Next year yon may not be 

 troubled with it "at all.' 



ViNCA rosea— I LIKE IT NOW.— I saW 



your allusion to my disappointment page 

 374, on first seeing your Vincarosea, and 



you are quite right in thinking that 

 further knowledge would alter my 

 opinion. I have had the rose and the 

 white colored ones here this summer, and 

 considering the luxuriousness of growth 

 and beauty of flowers I am a great ad- 

 mirer of it now. I planted patches of it 

 in all kinds of soil, good and poor, 

 watered some of these patches, and left 

 others severely alone, and it has done 

 finely (equally so) in all the patches. 

 Flushing, N. Y. J. B.G. 



Clematis fungus. — Mr. Egan did not 

 find the solution of copper effective in 

 staying the clematis fungus. It is too 

 late in the day to dispute the power ot 

 copper solutions against any or all forms 

 of fungus. Myyoungtriend simply locked 

 the door after the horse was stolen. 



Thomas Meehan. 



Roses. 



ROSES IN WINTER. 



I would like to know how to bloom 

 roses in winter and early spring in an 

 ordinary living room, or in a cellar which 

 has a west window. This room of the 

 cellar is used as a laundry and will be 

 kept warm to keep the water pipes from 

 freezing. The temperature will average 

 about 50° except Mondays and Tuesdays 

 when it will be warmer. As other plants 

 such as gera.iiums and hyacinths do well 

 here, I thought roses might also succeed, 

 although of course they would not do as 

 well as in a greenhouse. I have never 

 attempted raising roses before, but 

 thought I would like to try. I obtained 

 my plants from a reliable florist this fall 

 and thev include the following varieties: 

 The Bride, Bridesmaid, La France, Star 

 of Gold, Sunset, Mme. Welche, Perle des 

 Jardins, Duchess of Albanv, Ernest Metz 

 and Mme. de Watteville. T. D. A. 



South Bend, Ind. 



In a warm sunny window you can get 

 nice roses in winter, especially after Feb- 

 ruary. The plants should now be well- 

 rooted in their pots, and kept cool and 

 somewhat dry, but not nearly quite dry. 

 Prune them back more or less according 

 to their kind and strength in November, 

 and don't hurry them till after Christmas. 

 Then place them in a warm sunny window 

 give them water more freely at the root 

 and in the morning and early afternoon 

 of bright days dew them overhead with 

 a fine spray. The cellar window is a very 

 poor place for ros-s in winter, and a west 

 exposure is far from a good one for them. 

 Trying to get roses from the cellar win- 

 dow will probably spoil your plants and 

 disappoint you in results. 



ROSE flLSflCE AND LORRAINE. 



S. W. A., Lake Geneva, Wis., asks: Can 

 you tell me where I can buy plants ol the 

 Alsace and Lorraine rose for planting in 

 a rose garden? 



We do not know where plants of the 

 rose in question can be obtained in this 

 country; we have seen it described in 

 some of the European catalogues as a 

 hybrid perpetual; we find it in the cata- 

 logue of Ketten Freres, Luxembourg, and 

 also in that of P. Lambert, Trier. It is 

 described as a large dark red rose, intro- 

 duced by Duval in 1880. 



Ellwanger & Barrv. 



Rochester, N. Y. 



