!Si)6. 



GARDENING. 



19s 



drons. Plant them 3 feet apart and when 

 they begin to meet each other in the 

 dump thin them out. diKRing the plants 

 Larcl'iillv and rcscttin" them elsewhere. 



A TRUMPET 



ONI CLOTHES POLE. 



rows, and they a-e now 3 to 4 feet high, 

 hnt so far not one of them has ever borne 

 a berry. Of course for hedges they are 

 good enough. We do the same thing with 

 the winterberrj' bushes. Ilex, rerticillatii 

 and /. Ixrigata, that is propagate them 

 by grafting from fruiting plants, and they 

 bear berries right off, from the time they 

 are 18 inches high. J. K. TkimI'V. 



Flushing, L. I. 



MOUNTAIN LAUREL. 



(Knimia latilolia.) 



A reader asks: "How close slioidd it l)e 



planted and would it succeed in the shade 



of old maples where the grass is thin, or 



would the tree roots iise up the prepared 



Ans. This kalmia grows wild in great 

 abundance in the woods in the neighbor- 

 hood of I tosoris in the thin shade of oaks, 

 beech, chestnut, maple, and so on; also 

 on the banks skirting these woods and in 

 some places by the roadside. In the 

 woods it makes rather a scraggy under- 



growth; in the more open parts, by the 

 roadside, and escaped into old fields it 

 becomes dense, handsome cvej-grcens, 

 pretty at any time and lnvcly in June 

 when in bloom. In nil of tliesc places the 

 surface of the ground is open .-iiid spongy, 

 with a carpet of decaying tree leaves, 

 wild plants, weeds or grass. When it 

 rains the water goes right into the 

 ground where it fell, the spongy surface 

 catching it ani preventing it running 

 away; this surface also saves the roots 

 from wind and hot sunshine. In a well- 

 kept garden the surface of the ground is 

 so neat and prim and there is no surface 

 sponge of rotting leaves and grass, and 

 under the shade of a robber maple the 

 ground is apt to be bare, dry and hard, 

 and we should saj- not a congenial home 

 for kalmias. These shrubs are so beauti- 

 ful they deserve the very best spot in the 

 garden, good, well-drained soil with a 

 good deal of leaf mold and very little 

 manure in it and a mulching of rotted 

 leaves; in fact, give them exactly the 

 fiamc treatment von would to rhoden- 



TRUMPET CREEPER ON CLOTHES POLE. 



With this I send you a photograph of a 

 lii;,Mi<)nia (R grandi/Jora) on the grounds 

 of II. M. Mayer, Rohrerstown, Pa. This 

 photograph illustrates very well how a 

 handsome object can be made of the 

 usually ursightly clothes line post. I 

 ha e such posts covered with vines on my 

 own lot and by using a staple and a ring 

 lo .itt.Kh tlie clothes the line may be put 

 lip .null taken down at pleasure, and the 

 linsts and the covering really make beau- 

 tiful garden objects. J. W. lii.i.ioTT. 



Pittsburg. Pa. 



This is the Chinese bignonia which has 

 larger and more showy blossoms than 

 our native trumpet creeper (B. radicans), 

 it also is a little more tender. In sheltered 

 places it grows and blooms very well 

 about New York,' but it is from New 

 Jersey southward that it is to be had in 

 its greatest glory, and it is fine. Hall's 

 honeysuckle, Chinese wistaria trained up 

 the pole and then cut in close to it every 

 year, if the yard is sheltered and the 

 ground good, the climbing hydrangea. 

 Clematis pankulata cut down to the 

 ground every fall, and several other vines 

 can be used for this purpose. Avoid over- 

 rank vines like the Japanese doliehos, 

 vines which because of restricted growth 

 sucker all about as our native trumjjet 

 creeper is apt to do, and we should 

 hesitate to recommend pillar roses Ije- 

 cause of their thorny stems that in windy 

 weather might tear the clothes. 



BBCHTEL'5 DOUBLE-FLOWERINO GRAB. 



1 have somecionsol the above beauti- 

 ful American crab (Pyrus coronaria var. 

 I(x-nsis), and I want to graft them on to 

 native forms growing on my ravine bank. 

 I find quite a number of hawthorns in 

 suitable places and of suitable size. Can 

 I successfully graft the Bechtel's crab on 

 the hawthorn? W. C. E. 



Chicago. 



Probably you may succeed in grafting 

 this crab "on to tlie hawthorn, but we 

 don't like the connection. The crab is a 

 true apple and we should prefer to use an 

 apple stock for it— say a wild crab or a 

 Japanese crab. We have never grafted 

 the apple on to hawthorn, but we have 

 grafted the pear eion on to it and it took 

 nicely and produced fair trees; still it was 

 an unhappv union. You may get the 

 ••grafts to take" all right, but the trouble 

 doesn't end there; they may not succeed 

 after taking. Of course it is perfectly nat- 

 ural to argue that if such wide apart gen- 

 era of the same natural order as the pear 

 and hawthorn or the pear and quince, or 

 the pear and mountain ash may be suc- 

 cessfully grafted on each other, why not 

 the apple on the hawthorn? We cannot 

 speak from experience, but practically we 

 have an instinctive perception that the 

 ultimate result of the union would not be 

 satisfactory. But don't be discouraged; 

 by way of experiment, try one, anyway. 



SOME GOOD LILACS. 



0. .\., Butler, Pa., asks for a list of 

 these. 



Ans. Charles X. reddish puqilc; Cocr- 

 ulea superba, light purple and bine; Souv- 

 enir de Ludwig Spath.the finest of all the 

 dark colored ones; FrauDammann, Marie 

 Legrav'c, and Princess Alexandra; all of 

 the.sc are verv fine, distinct, white-flow- 



