i8g6. 



• ' GARDENING. 



217 



ROSA WICHURAIANA ON AN ARCH AT DOSORIS 



Late Grapes.— Under date of March 

 1 7 Mr. George McWilliam writing to us 

 from Massachusetts says: "Our grapes 

 in the fruit room are keeping very well. 

 I have only lit the fire twice in the room 

 this winter, and that was to dispel the 

 damp, the room itself is frost proof. 

 Madresfield Court last till Feb'-uary 1, 

 Alicante and Muscat of Alexandria till 

 February 24, and there is one bunch of 

 Mrs. Pearson left yet. We have a good 

 many of Lady Downes yet, and I expect 

 this kind will last with us till into May." 

 All of these were greenhouse grown 

 grapes, and ripened before the end of 

 September last year, and they were kept 

 in a dry, frost-proof, cellar room. 



How TO CKow Sweet Peas.— Get them 

 into the ground at once, don't delay a 

 moment if the ground is ready. This is 

 what one of the largest and most success- 

 ful amateur cultivators in the country 

 says. "The main secret in having sweet 

 peas blossom full and fine, is in planting 

 them early. (5etthe seed into the ground 

 by the first of April or earlier if you can. 

 Last j-ear I planted as early as I possibly 

 could get the seed into the ground, and 



another lot ten days later side by side 

 with the other, and although the later 

 sowing made as much vine as the earlier 

 one it didn't bear nearly as many flowers. 

 The 'trench' method is all moonshine, 

 just sow your sweet peas as you would 

 ordinary edible garden peas, but sow 

 early." 



A POINT IN GROWING NARCISSUS —Mr. 



I). Fraser, gardener at Mountain Side 

 Farm, N. J., writes: "The warm weather 

 we had in February brought the narcissus 

 along so fast that the cold weather of 

 this month (March) has cut them back to 

 the ground again. But the narcissi that 

 were planted last fall have not appeared 

 above ground yet." Time and time again 

 Gardening has called attention to this 

 fact, namely, that in order to have per- 

 fect success with the finer narcissi the 

 bulbs should be lifted in summer, then 

 kept dry, and as cool as practicable and 

 planted out again in fall. Narcissi that 

 remain in the ground all summer get a 

 fairly good rest during the hot dry 

 wxa'ther, then when the fall rains and cool 

 nights come they begin to grow again, 

 often getting their tops winter-scalded to 



the ground, on the other hand when the 

 l)ull)s are lifted in summer and replanted 

 in fall, they will soon start to root, but 

 seldom attempt to throw up sprouts be- 

 fore towards spring, and in this way 

 their leaves escape the scalding. True, 

 there are lots of narcissi remaining per- 

 manently in the ground that grow and 

 bloom beautifully without the least 

 trouble, but it is alwa3-s safer to lift and 

 replant the more tender sorts. 



Roses. 



THE JflPflNESE TRAILING ROSE. 



(Rosa Wichiiraiana). 



Many a time before now we have called 

 attention to the beauty and usefulness of 

 this lovely Japanese rose. Its habit is to 

 spread flat upon the ground, forming 

 a thick close mat, covering a wide space. 

 In rich, deep, moistish land the young 

 shoots wills pread out on the ground 20 

 or more feet in a season and form 

 laterals and thicken up in branches, 

 also root along the joints. The leaves 

 are small, glossy, deep green, very 

 abundantly produced, and although 

 they are quite deciduous they are sug- 

 gestive of being evergreen. The plant 

 hasn't the slightest tendency to an up- 

 right or bushy form, and of its own 

 accord it never climbs. Its flowers are 

 small, white, single, very prettv, and 

 borne in open long panicles all along the 

 vines, and as they blossom in July after 

 all our gay roses are past they are most 

 welcome snowy beauties. As a rule this 

 rose vine is used to sprawl over banks, 

 hang down over the edges of walls, 

 spread over a mound of tree roots or 

 the like, in all of which cases it is apt and 

 beautiful. At Dosoris, however, we con- 

 ceived another purpose for it, because it 

 wouldn't climb was no reason with us 

 why it wouldn't make a good pillar rose, 

 so we set out a plant against a post at 

 the entrance to the fruit garden and tied 

 up the vines, this answered niceW, and 

 finding that the vines grew far longer 

 than the height of the post, 7 feet, we led 

 them arch-fashion across the walk to an 

 opposite post, tying them to run down. 

 That treatment suited it admirably, and 

 when the tips of the vines reached the 

 ground, they took root there as a black 

 capraspberry would and formed a crown. 

 Our illustration, engraved from a photo- 

 graph taken here by Mr. L. Hallock, last 

 July, will give one some idea of how it 

 behaves; unfortunately though it doesn't 

 show the rose when it was at its best, for 

 the photograph was taken when the 

 flowers were on the wane, and the day 

 after a severe storm. Without any excep- 

 tion that arch of roses, when it" was in 

 bloom, was the finest sight in the way of 

 a rose arch we ever saw, and it riveted 

 everybody's attention who came within 

 sight of it. And great has been the 

 demand for young plants of it ever since. 

 After the flowers came a heavy crop of 

 red heps, and they hang upon the 

 vines all winter; this arch is now ( March 

 25) loaded with them. As this plant has 

 grown greatly since a year imagine its 

 glory next July! 



This little rose vine is perfectly hardy, 

 not a tip or a bud even on the arch is 

 injured in the least. Although insects 

 have left its foliage alone at Dosoris, we 

 have seen it in New Jersey almost denuded 

 of leaves by insect pests. Although com- 

 paratively a new plant this rose is cheap 

 enough now and plentiful. 



