230 



GARDENING, 



April 75, 



The shrubby potentilla (P. fruticosa) is 

 admissible into good company because of 

 its continuous and late blooming quali- 

 ities. It makes a small bushy shrub with 

 yellow blossoms. 



The winterbirry bushes (PnHos) should 

 find a place somewhere in our gardens; 

 they grow wild as large shrubs in our 

 swamps, but they will grow just as well 

 in our gardens in ordinarily good soil. P. 

 verticillata has dark red berries that last 

 on the bushes a long time; and P. Ixvi- 

 gata has orange red larger fruit. 



Flushing, L. I. J. R. Trimpy. 



Roses for New Hampshire.—]. H. 0., 

 Glen Station, N. H., asks: "Can I get 

 roses and plant them in my garden now, 

 and have them bloom this summer, and 

 so, what kinds? Will roses from Indiana 

 do well here near the White Mountains? 

 Can I get varieties that will bloom from 

 the firstof July till thelastof September?" 

 Ans. Yes, you can grow fine roses, so far 

 as your climate is concerned, in fact in the 

 case of H. P. or hardy roses you may be 

 able to grow them better than we can; 

 they will be a little later in coming into 

 bloom in June, but they will last longer 

 with you when they (to open, and your 

 cooler nights will give you finer flowers; 

 besides, you will have less trouble from 

 rose bugs than we have. Add to this the 

 solid rest and secure coating ol snow they 

 will have all winter, and you have the 

 advantage as regards hardy roses. If 

 you grow a lot of varieties and cutofttiie 

 old flowers and heps as soon as they 

 form you will probablj' get a fair sprink- 

 ling of second ci op flowers in late summer 

 and fall. By planting a lot of China, 

 Bourbon and Tea roses in May and tak- 

 ing good care of them yi u should get a 

 nice lot of bloom from them after mid- 

 summer. But as they may not be hardy 

 with 3'ou, you had better cut them back 

 considerably in October, and lift and plant 

 them in boxes to store past over winter 

 in a cool but frost-proof cellar such as you 

 winter your potatoes in. Plant them out 

 again next April or May. Yes, roses from 

 Indiana should grow well enough with 

 you; it doesn't depend so much on from 

 what state you get them as the condition 

 they are in when received. 



The Flower Garden. 



FLOWER GARDEN QUE«TIONS. 



A. V. M., Lenrix Road, Brooklyn, asks: 



1. Have youorany of your correspond- 

 ents ever seen the "new hybrid" of the 

 Oriental poppy (Papaver On'entale)? 

 They are advertised as being salmon, 

 pink and cherry colored. I have bought 

 plants from various responsible nursery- 

 men, and they have all turned out like 

 the parent, and havecost me both money 

 and vexation of spirit. Do such hybrids 

 exist only in catalogues? 



Ans. We don't vouch for the "hybrids." 

 There is no doubt, however, that a break 

 in color has been obtained, and that now 

 we have various shades of salmon, pink 

 or red, but to our liking none as beauti- 

 ful as that of the typical plant. We had 

 them at Dosoris, having got the plants 

 from Woolson & Co., Passaic, N. J. 



2. Iris pumila alba, much grown as an 

 edging plant in Mexico, and which I have 

 sought for here in vain, where can I get 

 it? 



Ans. We don't know. Probably some 

 of ou"- hardy plant florists could get it 

 for you either here or in Europe. If it is 

 so nice in Mexico, we believe it would 



look well too in Schenley Park, so we 

 also must try to get some of it. 



3. Azalea mollis. Is it dwarf, how 

 large a plant does it become, and is it 

 hardy on Long Island? 



Ans. It is a Chinese deciduous shrub, 

 perfectly hardy on Long Island, and 

 grows from one to four or more feet in 

 height, small plants blooming freely. It 

 is a verj' beautiful species with whitish 

 and pale, soft yellow or yellow to flame 

 colored flowers of good size. Drive over to 

 Parson's nurseries at Flushing about the 

 first of June and see it in bloom. 



4-. Tree pieouies. Do the finest ones 

 come from Japan or are they the product 

 of European hybridizers? When is the 

 best time for planting them, and how far 

 apart should they be set? 



Ans. In the case of single-flowered ones 

 tie most beautiful that we have seen 

 came from Japan. At Dosoris we got 

 them through H. H. Berger & Co., of 

 San Francisco. The fullest double-flowered 

 sorts are of European production. We 

 prefer fall planting, but it matters very 

 little, for we have had excellent success 

 planting them in spring. The great secret 

 in the successful cultivation of tree 

 paeonies is good deeply worked soil, rather 

 moist and never very dry in summer, 

 and an open but sheltered spot. 



MY GARDEN IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



I have been a reader of Gardej^ing near 

 two years and must say that I am well 

 pleased with it, as it gives me so much 

 information about hardy shrubs and 

 plants, which are my favorites. [Then, 

 for the little they will cost you should get 

 Gardening from its first number; if you 

 don't you'll miss a deal of very valuable 

 information and some of the finest illus- 

 trations from life that have ever been 

 published. Write to the publisher about 

 it.— Ed.] But I like all flowers. Let me 

 advise your readers not to miss having 

 a bed of dwarf cannas like Mme. Crozy, 

 they are fine. 



Of hardy roses I have fifteen kinds. Mrs. 

 John Laing, soft pink, and Earl of Duf- 

 ferin, velvety crimson, are good; the 

 climbing La France isn't much of a 

 climber, but it blooms well; Vick's Caprice 

 flowers freely, Dinsmore is such a free 

 bloomer that it doesn't perfect all of its 

 flowers; and I can hardly wait for my 

 Crimson Rambler to come into bloom, it 

 has been praised so highly. 



Of clematises I have crispa, coccinea, 

 JacUmannii, Hearyi, and paniculata and 

 they all are fine. How about Countess 

 of Lovelace? [Large, double-flowered, 

 rich purple; if the disease keeps away, of 

 course you can grow it. But be sure you 

 get Flawmula. it has flowers like pani- 

 culata, very fragant and appearing a few 

 weeks before those of the latter. — Ed.] 



I have greatmany hardy shrubs, mostly 

 young plants, but I want every other 

 hardy shrub and perennial that has 

 merit. I have a trailing hollyhock— 

 everybody ought to have it, for it bears 

 more flowers than any other plant I 

 know. [Its proper botanical name is 

 Callirrhoe involucrata, and English one 

 crimson-flowered poppy-mallow. It be- 

 longs to the mallow family of plants and 

 so does the hollyhock, but creeping- 

 hollyhock is a rather far-fetched name. 

 -Ed.] 



Is Azalea mollis hardy here? [With 

 shelter at all times, moisture in the 

 ground in summer, and not more than 

 5° or 6° below zero in winter it should be 

 hardy. — Ed ] I have some rhododen- 

 drons; they are such grand shrubs that 1 

 would like to plant them in every good 

 place I see around town. 



Has the Chinese tamarix any other 

 name? I cannot find it in any catalogue. 

 [By sending to Parsons & Sons, Flush- 

 ing, N.\'.; Ellwanger& Barry, Rochester, 

 N. Y., and several other of the nurserv-- 

 men advertising in Gardening you will 

 get the genuine article under it true 

 name.- Ed ] George A. Armhruster. 



TAE GLADIOLUS. 



The fo lowing questions are by the edi- 

 tor and the answers by Mr. Leonard 

 Joerg, the gladiolus foreman at Floral 

 P. rk, L. I. Practically Mr. Joerg knows 

 more about gladiolus than any other 

 man we ever met, and during the past 

 twenty years has handled millions upon 

 millions of these bulbs, tending them in 

 every stage of their growth and rest, and 

 selecting and breeding them for new vari- 



1. Is Gladiolus Gandavensis degener- 

 ating? 



Ans. No, at least not so far as I can see. 



2. Can you grow as good Gandavensis 

 to-day as you did fifteen or twenty years 

 ago? 



Ans. Yes, every bit as good. 



3. What soil do you prefer for gladioli 

 in general? 



Ans. Light sandy loam makes the 

 smoothest bulbs, and the bulbs J re equally 

 as large, and the flowers as fine or finer 

 than when grown on heavy soil. 



-t. How about draining the land? 



Ans. . In the case of heavy soil it should 

 have perfect drainage both as regards 

 water in summer and winter. But in our 

 light land here we have no need of arti- 

 ficial drainage, the natural is enough. 



5. What iertilizer do you use for 

 gladioli? 



Ans. Stable manure. This is very 

 handy for us to get. As we are only a 

 few miles out from New York, and close 

 by the station, with the fields on either 

 side of the track, we get the manure out 

 in carloads, throw it off on the side where 

 wanted and haul it right out on to the 

 land. 



6. Do you use this manure on the land 

 the same spring as you plant the bulbs in 

 it, or for theprevi /us year'scrop.orhow? 



Ans. We put it on in the fall broadcast 

 and plow it under. The spring following 

 we plant the bulbs there. 



7. How wide apart are the rows? 

 Ans. Three feet. 



8. How deep do you plant the bulbs? 

 Ans. I hat depends on the size of the 



bulbs. Largest size bulbs are planted 

 about five inches deep; medium sized ones 

 two and a half or three inches under the 

 surface; and small ones one and a half to 

 two inches. 



9. How close do you plant the bulbs 

 in the row? 



Ans. We plant two rows in each drill, 

 setting the bulbs— the large ones— three 

 to four inches apart each way, thus 

 °o°o°o°o°o ; the lesser ones proportion- 

 ately closer. 



10. About what time in spring do you 

 plant? 



Ans. As we plant so many it takes us 

 some weeks to get them out; but about 

 the first of May when the gi'ound is nice 

 and mellow is a good time. 



11. When do you take up the bulbs? 

 .4ns. We begin lifting in September, 



continuing into October. Try and get 

 them out of the ground before the tops 

 die down. 



12. How do you winter them? 



Ans. The stems are cut ofl at lifting 

 time and the bulbs gathered and filled 

 into wooden traj'S or flats, five or six 

 inches deep, and these are stored in a 

 building on racks, with plenty room for 



