274 



GARDENING. 



June /, 



The Flower Garden. 



NOTES ON SPRING MOWERS AT MflflVUm. 



The spring flowering bulbs are mostly 

 past, but what a show they made, it is a 

 wonder they are not more grown. I do 

 not mean a bed of tuUps or hyacinths, 

 one can see them in any garden, but some 

 of the rarer bulbs, of which there is a vast 

 number. They are not very high in price, 

 and by adding a few new ones every fall 

 one soon can get up an interesting collec- 

 tion and in which there will be something 

 new to see every day from the time the 

 snow is on the ground till theendof May, 

 and the flowers of the spring are more 

 welcome than those of the rest of the 

 year. 



Among the bulbous plants to flower 

 since my last notes of May 4 are Narcis- 

 sus awahilis, perianth white and spread- 

 ing long white crown; N. Muzarts, 

 Tazetta Orientalis, perianth white, cup 

 orange red, a very pretty flower, one of 

 the last ones to bloom. N. odorus ple- 

 nus, rich yellow flowers, an extra fine 

 blossom. N. S. A. DeGraaf, large clear 

 yellow perianth, cup vellow, very fine; N. 

 Bemardi, perianth white, cup yellow; N. 

 poeticvs ornatus, perianth pure white, 

 cup margined with red. These narcissi 

 came into flower from 4th to 6th of May. 



Among choice single tulips we have had 

 some very fine and beautiful flowers. 

 T. linifoUa is one of the most beautiful 

 ones I ever saw, it grows only about four 

 inches high and has glowing scarlet flow- 

 ers; when the sun shines on it it is seen at 

 its best. T. Eicbleri has very large, hand- 

 some scarlet flowers and is in every way 

 a fine tulip. T. Batalini is a lovely yellow 

 flower with very thick petals. T. alha is 

 a fine, creamy white flower and a vei-y 

 good tulip; V. vitellina is a beautifully 

 large primrose yellow flower; T. Greigii 

 has large orange-scarlet to golden j'ellow 

 blossoms with black spotted centre, and 

 the foliage is finely spotted; these all came 

 into bloom from the 5th to 8th of May. 



Among the showy garden varieties of 

 tulips we have had some very fine ones. 

 Striped Beauty, rose, flecked crimson and 

 white, is a large and showy flower and 

 one of the prettiest tulips in the garden. 

 Fairy Oueen is a large and beautiful vari- 

 ety, mauve broadly margined with yel- 

 low; Gesneriana spathulata was very 

 conspicuous in the garden, and we had a 

 great manj' of it; the flowers are very 

 large and of a rich crimson scarlet color, 

 with a glittering black center; as a bed- 

 ding tulip it is one of the best. T. Gesne- 

 riana albo-oculata has beautiful rose- 

 carmine flowers with white centers. 

 Gesneriana Alba marginata. white, edged 

 rose, with bluish centre, it is a pretty 

 flower. Golden Beauty, a rich golden 

 tulip, one of the best of its color. Golden 

 Uagle is a lovely crimson-edged yellow 

 tulip and the petals are also nicely 

 pointed. Picotee (or Maiden's Blush), 

 large, white, gracefully recurved, petals 

 margined with rose, this is a very choice 

 and fine tulip; Retroflexa, lovelv, large 

 yellow flowers, petals nicely recurved, an 

 odd and beautiful tulip; Bouton d' Or, a 

 fine yellow tulip with petals of very thick 

 texture lasting a long time in flower; 

 Blegans, large, dark crimson flowers, 

 petals elegantly refiexed; Elegans Varie- 

 gata, crimson striped with gold, a large, 

 showy, handsome flower. Both of these 

 last named tulips are very fine. .\11 the 

 tulips mentioned came into flower from 

 May 1 to 8, but they are by no means all 

 the tulips we have, we have them hereby 

 the thousand and in great variety, but 



the ones 1 have named are among the 

 choicest and best, and all lovers of spring 

 flowers should have a few of these sorts 

 in their garden. A lot of Breeder tulips 

 we had in flower were very interesting, 

 the colors were so curious and the flowers 

 so large that one could not help liking 

 them, although some of them were not 

 what one would call pretty, they were 

 more odd than beautiful. 



Among hardy perennials, the choicest 

 and most showy have been the single 

 Chinese paeonies; how beautiful they are ! 

 Among them are all colors, from the pur- 

 est white to dark crimson, and all sizes 

 among the plants, from 8 inches high to 

 2V2 feet; the flowers are very large, and 

 to my liking are more lovely than the 

 double ones. They opened their first 

 flowers May 8, and some of them are still 

 in fine flower; they are well worth grow- 

 ing. Alyssum saxatik with its mass of 

 golden yellow flowers is flowering nicely. 

 These plants were raised from seed last 

 August and wintered over in a frame. Tril- 

 lium grandiflorum made a nice show but 

 is now past; although plentiful in some 

 parts of the woods it is well worth a 

 place in the garden. It opened its first 

 flowers May 1. Dicentra spectabilis is in 

 fine flower. Although an old plant, it is 

 one of our showiest border plants; it 

 opened May 7. Lily of the valley opened 

 its first flowers the 6th of May . Although 

 lily of the valley likes a shady place to 

 grow in, the largest and finest bells are 

 got from a clump planted in the open 

 garden here. Cypripediam puhescens 

 opened its first flowers May 2; it is one of 

 the easiest to grow and its flowers last 

 so long. It is quite easy to get, as the 

 woods are full of it. 



Trollius Asiadcus (globe flower) has 

 been making a nice showing; its globe- 

 shaped anemone like flowers of a deep 

 yellow color are really very pretty. 

 Iberis sempervirens, the evergreen candy- 

 tuft, is in fine flower now; it is of easy 

 culture and soon forms a large clump. 

 Its white flowers are good for cutting. 

 It opened the 6th of May. Anemone syl- 

 vestr/s (the snowdropwindflower) opened 

 its pretty flowers the 11th of May. It 

 lasts a long time in bloom. 



Lupinus polypbyllus and its varieties 

 alba and bicolor are in nice flower, their 

 handsome pea-shaped blossoms, ranging 

 in color from blue to white, make them 

 one of the choicest of our early summer 

 flowering border plants. Veronica ru- 

 pestris came into flower the 10th of 

 May, but it did not last long; it has small 

 blue flowers. 



Daphne Cneorum (the garland flower) 

 has been making a nice show lately; it is 

 a dwarf growing shrub with lovely pink 

 flowers. For edging other low-growing 

 shrubs it is one of the best little things we 

 have got. and its flowers are very sweet. 

 Phlox procumbens is still in fine flower. 

 It is a nice rock plant; the foliage is fairlj- 

 hidden with a mass of rose-lilac flowers. 

 The foxgloves are beginning to open. We 

 grow them from seed every year. They 

 make nice plants sown in July and win- 

 tered over in a frame. After thej' are 

 through flowering they are dug up and 

 the beds filled with summer flowering 

 plants. The English wood hyacinths, 

 blue, red and white, are now in good 

 flower; these scillas are real pretty and 

 where grown in a mass they make a nice 

 showing. 



Ornitbogalum nutans, O. umbellatum 

 and O. posandrum opened their flowers 

 May 8; these all are pretty bulbous plants, 

 growing about a foot high and have nice 

 white flowers. They are easy to grow. 



The irises are beginning to bequitegay. 



but it will be a week before they are at 

 their best. The German ivies, of which 

 we grow a great many varieties are easy 

 to grow and make a fine show in the gar- 

 den. Iris Sibirica, with its tall spikes of 

 blue to white flowers, is also making a 

 good display. The bulbous Iris Susiana 

 opened its first blossom on the 12th 

 inst; oh, what a lovely iris it isl Writing 

 cannot do it justice. The wonderful mark- 

 ings in the flower are fine; the color is a 

 dark gray with veins of brown on a 

 white ground work; the hairs on the 

 falls are black. This iris needs a different 

 treatment from most other irises, as it 

 has to be dried off" from June till it begins 

 to grow the next season; we grow it in 

 frames with a lot of others of the same 

 class, and they are well worth all the 

 trouble one can give them. Another 

 rather pretty plant that came into flower 

 on the 19th was Eremurus robustus; it 

 has proved quite hardy here. The spike 

 of flower on our plants' is about four feet 

 high, but next spring we expect to see it 

 twice that size. 



Erythronium giganteum is a nice, large, 

 dog's-tooth violet, the flowers of which 

 are very large and of a straw color, and 

 the foliage is nicely mottled; it is one of 

 the nicest of all and quite easy to grow. 



In the greenhouse our show pelargoni- 

 ums and calceolarias are now past, but 

 gloxinias, tuberous begonias, achimenes, 

 and streptocarpus are coming along fast 

 to take their place. D.vvid Fraser. 



Mountain Side Farm, Mahwah, N. J., 

 May 21, 1896. 



N«RCISSUS-QUEST10NS ABOUT T«BM. 



X., South New Jersey asks: 



1. "In lifting and replanting narcissus 

 how deep should they be put in the 

 ground? Mine have not bloomed very 

 well this year, in spite of being in good 

 garden soil. I find that they are six 

 inches or so in the ground, and thought 

 perhaps that might be the trouble." 



.4ns. That depends a good deal on the 

 kinds grown; for instance in your sandy 

 land 4 or 5 inches under ground is not too 

 deep for big bulbous kinds like Horsfieldii 

 and Maximus, but three to four would 

 be enough for Bulbocodium and jonquils. 

 If your bulbs are in good condition and 

 they are of large kinds, being six inches 

 under ground shouldn't prevent them 

 from blooming. If they were good bulbs, 

 that is, bought bulbs, and newly planted 

 last fall they should have bloomed well 

 this spring; but if they were old bulbs in 

 your own garden probably an enervated 

 condition last year, or a too early growth 

 in fall and consequent check in winter, 

 would interfere with their goodness this 

 season. 



2. "My jonquils bloomed much better. 

 Do you consider it necessary to lift and 

 replant jonquils every year?" 



.4ns. Jonquils are quite hardy in south- 

 em New Jersey, hence there is no need of 

 lifting them on that point, but if they are 

 left in the ground, should the summer 

 prove very dry, so that the bulbs get a 

 long and decided rest, they are apt to 

 start into growth in fall and what leaves 

 get above ground before winter sets in 

 get "burned," thus weakening the bulbs 

 and their flowering capacity. But in 

 good moist ground we have had jonquils 

 live on year after year in the same clumps 

 and increase in strength and bloom beauti- 

 fully. 



i\. "Is it possible that a daily watering 

 of the young seedlings in the garden with 

 a revolving sprinkler that necessarily 

 waters everything else, could have a bad 

 effect on the 1 



