• GARDENING. 



April /, 



"over a foot high, and now has twenty 

 buds, some an inch and a half long, but 

 they won't open and several of them 

 have already fallen, and the petals were 

 so tightly twisted they could not be 

 separated without tearing." Ans. The 

 trouble is local. This plant is an ever- 

 green tropical shrub near akin to the 

 oleander; it has creamy, white, fragrant 

 flowers. We grow it in a warm, moist 

 greenhouse where it is also shaded from 

 warm sunshine and itdoes very well, and 

 blossoms everv vear. 



Trees and Shrubs. 



AEflDING IN TRflNSPlflNTBD TREES. 



Thomas Meehan & Sons' catalogue is 

 neat and attractive and contains a com- 

 mendable feature; it devotes a page to 

 planting and pruning, illustrating the 

 latter, and in its descriptions of several 

 trees it repeatedly calls attention to the 

 necessary cutting back at planting time. 

 This is an innovation in the right direc- 

 tion. Some of us require even the truth 

 to be literally pounded into us before we 

 heed the advice. We may read a full page 

 of instructions and intend, when planting 

 time comes, to follow them, but we may 

 forget, or the dislike to cut back a grace- 

 ful looking head overcomes us, and we 

 plant a hundred per cent head with a 

 fifty per cent root and then mourn at the 

 funeral lateron. However, when we read, 

 in this catalogue, the description of some 

 tree that we finally buy and plant and 

 come across a sentence like this, "It is a 

 hard wooded tree, consequently it needs 

 severe priming when transplanted" we 

 are apt to think that we buy the advice 

 with the tree and therefore must use it. 

 The faithful representations of plant life 

 by the use of half tones and photograv- 

 ures now generally adopted by the lead- 

 ing (not mis-leading) nurserymen also 

 tend towards making their catalogues 

 permanant additions to one's librarv. 

 W. C. Eg.\n. 



WHAT DO you CRLL "FLIEDER" (GERMAN) 

 IN ENGLISH? 



G. A., Butler, Pa., writes: "Iwouldhke 

 to know the English or botanical name of 

 the German shrub that we call "Flieder"; 

 its flowers are fragrant. It is much 

 grown in Germany. Can I get it in this 

 country?" 



.4ns. Any hardy shrub that is common 

 in cultivation in Germany can be obtained 

 here, it you know what to ask for. We 

 submitted your inquiry to Mrs. Seliger, a 

 German lady who is an accomplished 

 horticulturist. She kindly replies a 

 follows: 



"Flieder" in Germany is the common 

 lilac (Syringa vulgaris) with all its mani- 

 fold variations in single and double flower- 

 ing kinds. Further, the name "Flieder" is 

 there applied to our elder (Sambuciis). 

 This is also called by people who know 

 the difference "Hollunder." Its cream- 

 colored, broad umbels of flowers are 

 often used for tea, "Flieder" tea against 

 cold. The berries are used for wine, and 

 also preserved with sugar. 



Mrs. Wilhelmine Sei.igek. 



proper stock for it. [' cawpestris, the 

 English elm, will also answer, but it isn't 

 as good as the wych elm. The American 

 elm will not do for the Camperdown or 

 any other European kind, grafts put into 

 it may live and make a little growth, but 

 the result is always the same— a speedy 

 end. 



Stocks for Chinese Magnolias? Ans. 

 Inarch them on M. acuminata or on M. 

 tripetala, and separate the cion from the 

 mother tree the following spring; or 

 you may layer them next summer and 

 have the layers unseparated till the spring 

 of '97. You may also try half-split graft- 

 ing about the end of April, but it will be 

 very uncertain. J. R. Triimpv. 



Kissena, L. I. 



GRAFTING T«E CAMPBRDOVIN ELM. 



A reader wishes to know what stock 

 he should use to graft this elm on. 



.Ins. I'Imus montana, commonly 

 known as the Scotch or wych clni is the 



A Hedge for St. Louis —H. A. B., 

 "wants something that will not take up 

 too much room." Ans Probably there 

 is nothing better than the California 

 privet, but you must keep it well pruned 

 back else it will assume considerable 

 dimensions in height and width. Don't 

 hesitate about asking questions, we are 

 here to answer them. 



Landscape Gardening. 



FLAN FOR A FOUR ACRE PLACE. 



The accompanying plan made for Mr. 

 J. R.Foster o( Lancaster, Pa., shows a 

 convenient and effective arrangement 

 when it is desired to devote a greater 

 part of the ground to ornamental pur- 

 porses. Space is received for vegetables 

 and small fruits, and perennial and 

 annual flowers are to be grown in con- 

 nection with these, so that the vegetable 

 garden will be beautiful as well as inter- 

 esting and useful. 



The house is placed on the highest por- 

 tion of the grounds, which gently fall to 

 the south and west from the house. 



EXPLANATION OF PLAN. 



1. Cherry trees. 



2. Cut leaf birch. 



3. Weeping hemlock. 



4. Roseflowered weepingjapan cherry. 



5. Grape vines trained on trellis. 



6. Peaches. 



7. Dwarf apples. 



8. Quinces. 



9. Dwarf pears. 



10. Chinese magnolias. 



11. Japanese maples and Magnolia 

 stellata. 



12. Retinospora plumosa aurea. 



13. Cut leaf birch. 



14. Pin oak. 



15. Abies orientalis. 



16. Scarlet maple. 



17. Purple beech. 



18. Mugho pines. 



19. 19, 19. Massed planting of trees 

 and shrubs. 



20. English beech. 



21. Pseudotsuga Douglassi. 



22. Specimen shrubs and small conifers, 

 surface of ground carpeted with creepers. 



23. Sciadopitys verticillata. 



24. Retinospora fiUfera. 



25. Wier's cut leaf maple. 



26. Kaclreuteria paniculata. 



27. Colorado blue spruce. 



28. Picea polita. 



29. Nordmann's fir. 



30. White-leaved weeping linden. 



31. Supar maple. 



32. Double red thorn. 



33. Large black walnut now on 

 grounds. 



34. Evergreens and shrubs. 



35. Silver maple. 



36. .46;es concolor. 



37. Magnolia Soulangeana. 



38. Pin oaks. 



39. Border for hardy herbaceous plants. 



40. Border for spring and summer 

 flowering bulbs. 



41. Border for annuals. 



42 Border for hybrid perpetual roses. 



In addition to the above planting vines 

 are to be planted to cover porches and 

 house walls and the grounds and vegeta- 

 ble garden are to be enclosed and the 

 tennis court to be partly enclosed with a 

 hedge of California privet. 



J. Wilkinson Elliott. 



Pittsburg, Pa. 



The Flower Garden. 



SWEET PEAS. 



Just as soon as the ground is open 

 enough from frost sow your sweet peas; 

 but don't sow them all at once, better 

 sow a good third as soon as possible, an- 

 other third as the first lot is above 

 ground, and the balance when the second 

 sowing is about two inches high. We get 

 very httle good of later sowings. Of 

 course we must try the new varieties 

 mentioned, page 139 — America, Blanche 

 Burpee, Bride of Niagara, Daybreak, 

 Extra Early Blanche Ferry, Gray Friar, 

 Juanita, Katherine Tracy, Oddity, Ra- 

 mona and Meteor, also Cupid. But be- 

 cause of their newness and expensiveness 

 we shall grow them on probation to see 

 them and know them rather than to de- 

 pend on them either for a display or for 

 cut flowers. 



In buying sweet pea seed don't deal in 

 packets any more than you can help, ex- 

 cept in the case of new varieties, but buy 

 in ounces or ti pounds. If you cannot 

 have but one lot get Eckford's Mixed. 

 Because a variety is old is no reason why 

 it should be inferior, indeed some of the 

 old sorts are amongthe best we havegot. 

 At Dosons we grow not only a large 

 assortment of varieties, but sow about 

 four pounds of sweet pea seed a year, as 

 we have to supply a very large demand 

 for their cut flowers. The following are 

 our mainstays. The descriptions within 

 (| notation marks are from our private 

 notebook taken last summer in the sweet 

 pea field. 



Blanche Ferrv.— Pink and white, 

 earlv, and the best of its color. "It opens 

 well and keeps its color well." 



Boreatton.— Deep maroon self, the 

 darkest colored of all. "Grand, one of 

 the best in health, freedom of flowering, 

 and lasting." 



Emily Henderson.— White, early. "A 

 fine white. In all other points a counter- 

 part of Blanche Ferry." 



Her Majesty.— Large, bright rose pink. 

 "With purplish magenta glow, but 

 healthy and opens fine." 



Cardinal. — Crimson-scarlet. "Excel- 

 lent, not much unlike Ignea and Invincible 

 Scarlet; very free, but not large." 



Firefly. — Crimson-scarlet. "Good, 



coming a little late, small." 



Gaiety.— White ground, much striped 

 with pink. "A bold, fine flower, very dis- 

 tinct and pretty; striped and suffused with 

 bright purplish pink; good grower." 



Mrs. Eckford.— Delicate shaded prim- 

 rose. "Yellowish white, large, opens 

 well, very good." 



Mrs. Sankey— White, of largest and 

 finest form. ' White with palest blush 

 tinge, very large and good." Unless 



