264 



GARDENING. 



May 1^1 



«EDENIN6 



William Falconer, Editor. 



PJBLI8HKI) THE 1ST AND 16TH OF EACH 



THE GARDENING COMPANY, 



Monon Building, CHICAGO. 



BnbBCrtptlon Price, J2.00 a Tear— 24 Numbers. Adver- 



Copyrtghi ia«;, by The Gardeninn Co. 



elating to BUDscrlptlona.ailTer- 



and other business matters should be 



to The Gardening Company. Monon Bulld- 



,_„, j;o. and all matters pertaining to the editorial 



department of the paper should be addressed to the 

 Editor of Gardening, Schenley Park, Pittsburg. Pa. 



Gardening Is gotten up for Its readers and In their 

 Interest, and It behooves you, one and all. to make It 

 Interesting. If It does not exactly suit your case. 

 please write and tell us what you want. It Is our 

 desire to help you. 



ASK ANT Questions you please about plants, 

 flowers, fruits, ^"' 

 Wev 



Send us notes of your experlen< 

 any line: tell us of your successes that omers may oe 

 enlightened and encouraged, and of your failures, 

 perhaps we can help you. 



SEND nS PHOTOGRAPHS OR SKETCHES of yoU 



Bowers, gardens, greenhouses, fruits, vegetables, or 

 horticultural appliances that we may have them en- 

 graved for GARDENING. 



CONTENTS. 



TREES AND SHRUBS. 



The beach plum (illus.) 



Vitis Coignetise . 



How to make a natural arbor . . 



Tropical conifers 



The wistarias won't bloom . . . . . . . 



THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



Bedding plants 



Bedding in Humboldt Park, Chicago (illus 

 Hardy plants in bloom May 11 . 

 Clematis Jackmanni in Humboldt Park, 



cago (illus. I 



Spring flowers May 4 



Asparagus verticillalus .... 



Plants lor an arch 



Plauts for exposed border 



Plants lor cemetery 



Garden lilies and manure 



Trumpet creeper on clothes pole 



ORCHIDS. 



Forcing hardy orchids (2 illus.) ... 

 Orchids 



THE GREENHODSE. 



Otaheite orange as a house plant 



AQUATICS. 



Sowing nymphaea seed 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



The harlequin cabbage bug 



A big crop of mushrooms 



THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



Pears for New Mexico ... 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Flower garden no' es ... ... 



A Varikoateu CucuMisEK,— One half of 

 it being green, the other half of it yellow, 

 is another freak in the vegetable line re- 

 ported from England. It is odd, to be 

 sure, but a something we have no need 

 for and don't want to perpetuate. We 

 had variegated potatoes once upon a 

 time, but where are they now? 



FoRSVTHiAS.— A German correspondent 

 o' a transatlantic contemporary says 

 "There are really two species of /'or.sjf/i/a 

 namely F. viridissima and F. suspensa." 

 But we are inclined to believe that he is a 

 good deal more technical than practical. 

 Let him raise a batch of seedlings from 

 seed of F. viridissima and tell us what he 

 gets; if he doesn'tfind suspe/wa, Fortitnei, 

 and Sicboldii all in the same batch his ex- 

 perience will be different from ours. 



Weeds in the Lawn.— No matter how 

 expansive your lawn is, how smooth is 

 its grade, or how thick a coat of grass you 

 have in it, unless it is clean and free from 

 weeds it will present a shabby appear- 

 pearance. Pull out or cut out docks, ox 

 eye daisies, plantain, and the like. Roll 

 your lawn to keep it smooth, movv it 

 about once a week if the grass is growing 

 rankly, and always rake off the roughest 

 of the mowings. 



Bush Honeysuckle.— In answer to 

 Mrs. E, R. B., the little twigs of shrub 

 stuck into a potato and sent in tin can 

 are of the Tartarian bush honeysuckle 

 which is among our commonest hardy 

 shrubs. Ifthereisno other bush of the 

 kind in your town there is room for a 

 good deal of missionary work among 

 your neighbors. Trey may be propagated 

 from seed sown as soon as ripe, or from 

 cuttings of ripe wood, or from layers. 



A DWARF FORM OF THE CeDAR OF 



Lebanon.— The Gardeners' Chronicle teWs 

 us about a dwarf variety of this cedar 

 that is growing in an old English garden. 

 The plant in question is about 4 feet high 

 and as much in diameter, of dense build 

 and well supplied with healthy foliage of 

 normal size. No perceptible difference in 

 the size of the tree has been observed since 

 eighteen years. These d^^•arfs like the 

 dwarf white and dwarf Scotch pines and 

 dwarf Norway spruce are interesting and 

 serve a certain purpose in our plantings, 

 but at best they are simply freaks. 



Garden Pictures.— We have seen a 

 good many pictures of gardens lately, 

 that is sketches showing us what good 

 effects can be obtained by artificial means; 

 the artist did his level best to produce on 

 paper what he thought would be just per- 

 fection on land. But they made our heart 

 sore, they were simply ridiculous and fin- 

 icky The actual picture as it exists in 

 the garden is incomparably superior to 

 the most subtle creations of the mind and 

 pencil, not drawn from life. And this is 

 what gave the Dosoris pictures that 

 beauty and happy charm no artificial 

 drawing could show or inspire. 



Poet's Narcissus — "See here what I 

 have brought you," remarked a friend 

 the other day a-, he walked into our 

 office at the Park and placed a big ( aper 

 parcel in our hands. It was a sheaf of 

 these lovely, fraarant, white blossoms,— 

 oh how sweet! And of all the narcissus 

 kind this is the commonest and easiest to 

 grow, and it is hardy as a rock. Still in 

 this broad park of most five hundred 

 acres there is not one bulb of it! Coming 

 from Dosoris, a land, which, so far as 

 narcissus and other flowers a re concerned, 

 "floweth with milk and honey" that 

 bouquet of floral beauties stung us with 

 mortification, as well as gave us pleasure, 

 But we shall have them in plenty next 

 year. And let us advise y(U, don't you 

 be without them either, for they are 

 among the cheapest of bulbs as well as 

 the hardiest and most permanent. 



Bad Taste. — The Gardeners' Chronicle 

 says: "In the Paris florists' shops, and 

 lately in our own, araucarias in pots, 

 pans of hyacinths and tulips, and what 

 not, are 'decorated' with huge bows of 

 colored ribbon. Though the bows are 

 tied by the deft hands of French women, 

 who enjoy a monopoly in this respect, 

 and though the colors are fairly well as- 

 sorted, yet the general appearance to the 

 of flowers is so repulsive ihat we trust 

 this fashion will be evanescent. We re- 

 gret, however, to find that the practice is 



gaining ground in America." Yes, there 

 is a good deal of truth in this, but there 

 is also much consolation, we all know 

 that the big ribbon means "shop" or a 

 bought bouquet. Home grown flowers 

 need no dry eoods store to help empha- 

 size their beauty; and those who grow 

 them can usually arrange the flowers to 

 look sweet enough without ribbons. 



The Flowering Dogwood {Cornus 

 florida), is the showiest tree in our 

 woods to day (first week of May), and 

 we have none more beautiful in our gar- 

 den. It is abundant and in splendid 

 blossom in the immense ravines in Sehen- 

 ley Park, even in the shade of big trees, 

 but we haven't enough of it, and I have 

 resolved to add to it in large quantity. 

 Now is the time to study our woods and 

 ravines; the oaks, beeches, hickories, and 

 other big trees are yet leafless and to the 

 undergrowth belongs the task of render- 

 ing the landscape bright and gay, so now 

 is the time to decide where wild plum, 

 wild crab, thorns, redbud and dogwood 

 can be set out so as to render the land- 

 scape the prettiest and gayest at this 

 time of year. But the mission of these 

 trees does not end in spring, they all, 

 especially the dogwood, have beautifully 

 tinted leaves in tall, and, except the red- 

 bud, a crop of ornamental fruit. 



Enthusiasm leads to Success.— In a 

 note accompanying his notes (page 261) 

 Mr. Eraser writes: "I wish you were here 

 just now to see our cottage garden. I 

 must say it is the finest sight of spring 

 flowers 1 ever saw. Talk about narcis- 

 sus, we have them here to perfection; one 

 could not wish for them any better, and 

 such a variety 01 them! But I enclose 

 some notes about the best of them, to 

 note them all would take up a whole 

 number of Gardening. Our Sir Watkins 

 are extra fine. I think this is the most 

 showy narcissus one can grow. Its large 

 flowers must be about four inches across; 

 the Emperor comes close after it, it also is 

 a nice variety. The Bremurus robustus, 

 which I spoke to you about as proving 

 quite hardy, is now showing flower. I 

 hope the plants will come all right as I 

 would like to see them in bloom. Our 

 Oncocyclus iris are to flower. Susiana 

 will be in flower soon and Lortetii is 

 showing nice and strong. Our tulips are 

 in fine shape, but I have only made notes 

 of the choicest of them. In the hyacinth 

 line the garden is one mass of them." 



"The Trials of the Editor."— A cor- 

 respondent in Rapidan, Minnesota, who 

 has just received a sample copy of Gar- 

 dening sends us a very simple but long 

 dr wn inquiry about a very common 

 shrub, and asks us to "credit me with its 

 value. * * If you cannot use the MSS. 

 please return it to me, as I may be able 

 to make use ot it elsewhere. I fully realize 

 the trials of the editor who is expected to 

 use everything that comes to him for 

 publication." 



.4ns. Now don't you lose any sleep 

 over the trials of the editor of Gardening 

 especial ly as regards what he is ' 'expected ' ' 

 to use in this journal. The subscribers to 

 Gardening ask questions because answers 

 to these queries are valuable information 

 to them, and instead of asking us to pay 

 them for asking us the questions, they 

 pay us— they buy the paper— for our 

 rep'ies, believing tliat they are getting full 

 value for their money. "Gardening has 

 no occasion to sit down and manu- 

 facture queries, nor pay others for asking 

 them, and if you had seen a little more of 

 it you would never have made such a 

 glaring mistake. 



