244 



• • • GARDENING. 



May /, 



native plant which has numerous spikes 

 of small, whitish flowers at this time. It 

 grows well here under trees. In the rock 

 garden Euphorbia wyrsinites. bearing 

 greenish flowers, hangs gracefully over 

 the stones. 



The winter heliotrope (Petaskes vul- 

 garis) is not a showy plant in any way, 

 neither are its flowers showy; its flowers, 

 produced in early spring before the leaves 

 appear, are in low spikes near the ground 

 and are of a diillish, purplish color. Their 

 only good quality is their pleasing fra- 

 grance. Bees are very fond of this plant. 

 It makes a good wild garden plant, but 

 is not suitable for a garden border, as it 

 spreads too quickly. 



The following hardy narcissus are in 

 bloom: Emperor bicolor, Incompara- 

 bilis, Golden Spur, Princeps, Corbularis 

 and Scoticus. 



Bulbocodium venium is past its best, so 

 are the crocuses, but here and there in 

 shady places there are a few patches of 

 them still in bloom. 



Pansies and daisies that are in the beds 

 are blooming well now. 



R. Cameron. 



Cambridge, Mass. 



GARDEN NOTES. 



As I look over my garden this spring I 

 observe a few matters that seem interest- 

 ing to me. Perhaps they may also inter- 

 est your readers. I had abandoned cer- 

 tain plants to the rigor of winter with no 

 protection, with a view of testing their 

 hardiness. The results follow: 



The rose Crimson Ramblerhas survived 

 perfecljy. Leaves are now starting. The 

 plant was a young one, bought and set 

 out bv me in the spring ot 1895. [It is 

 quite hardy both at Dosoris and at Pitts- 

 burg. — Hd.] 



The little annual rose Midget is alive. 

 This is, 1 suppose, called an annual only 

 because it will blossom a few months 

 from seed-sowing. My plants were grown 

 from seed sown in a hotbed in the spring 

 of 1895. They blossomed when not more 

 than four inches tall. The flowers a re not 

 much, but it is highly interesting to see 

 such tiny plants producing veritable roses 

 and only a few months from seed. 



Acanthus latifolius lived through the 

 winter of '95, protected, but last winter, 

 left unprotected, it has died. 



Gaillardia James Kelway is a perennial 

 and a fine flower. Plants of it left unpro- 

 tected have survived. 



Two years ago I tried unsuccessfully to 

 obtain seeds or plants of Centaurea wa- 

 crocephala. Last spring Thorbuni cata- 

 logued it and I procured seeds and grew 

 plants. These have survived with no 

 protection and I expect to have flowers 

 this season. [It is a perfectly hardy per- 

 ennial.— Ed.] 



I sowed the annual wallflower last 

 spring, but failed to get blossoms. The 

 plants were growing in an out of the way 

 place and were not rooted out. To ray 

 surprise I think they are still alive. [Our 

 "annual" wallflower bloomed all sum- 

 mer. — Ed.] 



I placed a barrel filled with leaves 

 around an Erythrina ciista-galli. The 

 top of the plant is dead, but I believe the 

 root has life. [No doubt of it. — Kd.J 



I found last spring that the roots of 

 Nicotians athnis lived over winter and 

 produced as good plants as those grown 

 from seed, and I thought these blossomed 

 earlier than the latter. I am (|uite inter- 

 ested to learn whether they will come up 

 a third year. It is too early as yet to 

 know. I had supposed N. atlinis to be 

 a true annual. [Nicotiana affinisis a per- 



ennial species, but as it grows so freely 

 from seed and seedlings bloom the first 

 year, and the species isn't quite hardj- 

 we treat it as an annual. Probably the 

 old crowns did not live over winter, but 

 pieces of the fleshy roots did and from ad- 

 ventitious eyes produced on these roots 

 the young plants grew that came up in 

 your garden. It has behaved in this way 

 with us for manv years. The giant spe- 

 cies called colossea behaves in much the 

 same way, except that it is less hardy 

 than is affinis. — Ed.] 



Friends have told me that it was un- 

 necessary to protect pansies. Those in 

 my unprotected experimental patch have 

 died. [On a raised bed with a few ever- 

 green branches laid over them to break 

 the strong light in winter, hold the snow 

 when it came and break the frosty winds 

 pansies usually winter as well with us 

 out of doors as in the frames, but they 

 don't come into bloom so early.— Ed.] 



Tulips and hyacinths, unprotected, 

 seem just as happy as those that had pro- 

 tection. [A doctrine we have always 

 preached. — Ed.] 



Hyacinthus candicans survived the 

 winter of 1895 with no protection. It is 

 too early to know what fate has befallen 

 them the second winter. 



Crown imperials lived unprotected 

 through the winter of 1895. But of the 

 same four plants left again unprotected 

 one has now a lusty six-inch growth, 

 while the other three have not as yet ap- 

 peared. 



Crimson clover sown in late summer 

 among the currant bushes survived. By 

 the way, do you know what a beautiful 

 bouquet a lot of these blossoms make? 



Japanese wineberry has lived with no 

 protection. 



Now for the last experiment I shall re- 

 port. [No, please keep on.— Ed.] A 

 friend has a magnificent collection of ger- 

 aniums imported by him from England. 

 He grows them in a greenhouse, and, fol- 

 lowing what he terms English usage, he 

 calls them pelargoniums. I secured cut- 

 tings last summer and started them in 

 boxes of sand covered with muslin. 

 Nearly every cutting grew and I potted 

 the little plants and stored them in a cold 

 pit. Most of these are alive, and I see no 

 reason to doubt having a bed of uncom- 

 monlv fine geraniums next summer. 



J. B. C. 



Flushing, L. I , N. Y., April 18, 1890. 



[The name geranium used as an English 

 word in the same way as we employ ver- 

 bena and dahlia is generally applied to 

 zonal or bedding geraniums, rose geran- 

 ium, and the fancy or show geraniums 

 popularly called Lady Washington ger- 

 aniums, and they do this in England just 

 as much as they do here. Pelargonium 

 is the true botanical generic name of all 

 of them, and some folks wishing to be 

 more technical than others will persist in 

 using the true botanical name rather 

 than the commonly accepted English one, 

 just as they insist in saving Aloysia in 

 place of lemon verbena, Astilbe in place of 

 spiraa, and Cytisus in place of genista. 

 They are quite right in doing this, at the 

 same time we claim we, too, are right in 

 using the other names when we use them 

 as English names and not botanical ones. 

 -Ed.] 



MY GARDEN TfllS SPRING. 



I'ntil the hot spell set in on the 13th of 

 April, the season was at least three weeks 

 behind in Bergen Point, N. J. Crocuses 

 and scillas did not bloom until the middle 

 of April, while in other years I have had 

 them in bloom March 21. The hot spell 

 seems to have now set the season at least 



a week ahead as regards hyacinths, tulips, 

 etc. Begonia Evansiana, -which was well 

 mulched, has not yet made its appear- 

 ance (April 24-). I am anxious to see if 

 this is hardy in my locality. If so I can 

 start a boom for it. Crimson Rambler 

 had its ends well nipped, although well 

 protected, and has had to be cut down 

 nearly to the ground, so that a bush 

 which cost $1.50 last j-ear is now no 

 larger than one for which I paid 25 cents. 

 Indeed, Marie Guillot, Perle des Jardins, 

 Mrs. Pierpont Morgan, and some other 

 nominally tender roses, came through, 

 well protected, as well as the Rambler. 

 The past winter seemed altogether to be 

 an anomalous one. Hybrid pentstemons, 

 under a mulch of leaves, came out bright 

 and green, not having lost a leaf or end 

 of a stem, while other plants, presumably 

 much hardier, have died. Rosa Wichura- 

 iana had its tips w>ll frozen, although 

 not requiring much cutting back. If this 

 rose never bloomed it would be worth 

 growing as a climber on account of the 

 glossy foliage. Gentiana acaulis, over 

 which I had struggled for years, and seen 

 it gradually go into a decline, expired 

 in the early spring, having lived out the 

 winter in moribund condition. I never 

 hope to see a flower with such an intense 

 shade of Prussian blue, and I mourn the 

 (I cannot say untimely ) decease of this 

 plant more than I can tell. In gratitude 

 for many years of coddling it rewarded 

 me last year for the first time with one 

 beautiful bloom. Great hopes fill me on 

 seeing the active growth of Schizo- 

 phragma hydrangeoides. Having sulked 

 or three j'ears, and grown about three 

 feet in all that time. I think this year it 

 has made up its mind to get down to 

 serious work. We shall see later on. 

 New York. L. C. L. Jord.\n. 



BGflNDflLE, APRIL 21, 1896. 



Mother earth paid tribute to the Irish 

 Saint by sending her season's first born 

 to Egandale on March 17. The bearer of 

 glad tidings— the opening of the season of 

 1896— was the snowdrop (Galanthus 

 nivalis). Five days prior the thermom- 

 eter registered 5° above zero — where the 

 snowdrops get a crowbar with which to 

 open up the frozen earth for its entrance 

 into light is an unsolved m3'stery. On 

 April 1 the crocus in the open borders 

 were in bloom, and so they were in the 

 grass a few days later. Evidently they 

 are growing weaker each year, showing 

 a dislike to our clay soil. On April 1 1 ex- 

 tremely warm weather set in and hascon- 

 tinued'up to the present time, 21st. The 

 unusual heat hastened the opening of the 

 bloom of tulips and hyacinths, causing 

 them to expand before the stems reached 

 their normal height. On the 17th For- 

 sythia suspensa (golden bells) was in full 

 bloom and its companion, P. viridissima, 

 nearly so. These shrubs are about the 

 first to bloom in the open air here and 

 they are perfectly hardy and a handsome 

 floral picture when well grown and their 

 bright golden flowers are open. Here 

 and there in little groups along the edge 

 of the ravine the radiant blues of the 

 Chionodoxa (glory of the snow) and the 

 sciUa (squills) kept company with col- 

 onies oi Hepatica triloba, the liver leaf 



Dicentra eximia, the clumy bleeding 

 heart of the Allegheny mountains, used as 

 an edging, had thrown up its f.nely cut 

 foliage some six inches high and hung 

 graceful pendants of rose-colored, heart- 

 shaped flowers above it. This a grace- 

 ful border plant, in good form all sum- 

 In the cutting grounds, planted in rows 



