i8g6. 



' GARDENING. 



275 



Ans. If this is done in the afternoon 

 and evening, it wouldn't hurt the plants, 

 but a too frequent recurrence of it might 

 impair the blossoms. While the revolv- 

 ing sprinkler is excellent for shallow 

 rooted plants like young seedlings, grass, 

 etc., it isn't quite so good for deep rooted 

 stock as it takes a good deal of revolving 

 to soak the ground six or eight inches 

 deep, even if the ground for two inches 

 deep be very wet, and you know narcis- 

 sus bulbs are deeper than that. 



4. "Might this same daily watering, 

 rendered absolutely necessary by very 

 dry hot weather, be the cause of the 

 blighting of manj' of my tulip blossoms? 

 Those which got the full morning sun 

 were the ones most affected. The Grand 

 Duke de Russie, Grand Master of Malta, 

 Wouvermans, and Canary Bird did not 

 blossom at all, while the Queen of Violets, 

 Vermillion Brillante, Van der Veer and 

 others were very poor, but close beside 

 them other early single tulips were blos- 

 soming magnificently. Are some kinds of 

 these tulips more tender than others?" 



Ans. No, we don't believe the water- 

 ing had anything to do with the non- 

 blooming of the tulips; it they were new 

 bulbs, that is bought and planted last 

 fall, we would like to know what sort of 

 bulbs you got. The varieties you name are 

 not the cheapest in the market, but many 

 "early single" are among the commonest 

 and cheapest grown. Better be sure you 

 plant A 1 bulbs if j-ou want to get an 

 even run of A 1 flowers. In your soil it 

 isn't a matter ot tenderness at all, for all 

 named are perfectly hardy there without 

 a bit of winter mulching. If they were 

 your own old-grown bulbs, however, pos- 

 sibly it was a simple. case of exhaustion 

 and deterioration. Were you to use a 

 mulching of well broken up chafl'y stable 

 manure, or lawn grass mowings over the 

 ground containing your bulbous plants, 

 we believe there would be no necessity for 

 watering your ground half as often as 

 \'Ou do now. 



5. "I want to put out for the summer 

 in a shady part of my garden an azalea 

 and two begonias, which are to be used 

 again as house plants in the winter. On 

 looking up in my file of Gardening the 

 articles on these two sorts of plants, I 

 see that you recommend this treatment 

 for both. But again the question of over- 

 head watering comes in; in this porous 

 sandy soil and with our extremely dry 

 hot summers ever}' inch of the place 

 (which luckily is only 110 feet square in 

 all!) has to be watered everj' day. Will 

 any beeonias stand the overhead water- 

 ing? Would it be better to keep them in 

 the house or on a fairly shaded porch?" 



.4ns. The azalea will stand it all right, 

 providing this watering is not done in 

 the heat of the day, but with the bego- 

 nias it is an experiment. The tuberous- 

 rooted begonias stand it best. Some- 

 times this section behaves admirably and 

 then again under apparently like condi- 

 tions they don't do well at all, so while 

 you hope for success, prepare for disap- 

 pointment in their case. Of course, in 

 pots they can be grown with certainty, 

 but thevneed a great deal of attention.' 



6. "What is it that eats the leaves of 

 my wall flowers like this (sample en- 

 closed) and entirely destroys all their 

 l)eauty?" 



.4/js. A turnip flea-bcetic no doubt. 

 Kepel it by dusting your plants, when 

 they are wet with dew, with fresh tobacco 

 powder, or take some fine dry hot ashes 

 and sprinkle as much kerosene on them as 

 will moisten them but still preserve them 

 free enough to scatter over the plants, 

 and dust this over them. We would not 



hesitate to use arsenite insecticide on 

 young plants, but would hesitate to do 

 so on plants in bloom, not because they 

 would hurt the plant at all, but they 

 might injure ourselves when we pick (and 

 often) taste the flowers. 



THE WILD GARDEN. 



Who wants a wild garden! I imagine 

 some may exclaim when the above title 

 meets their eye. Why, the first idea of a 

 garden is a plot that will be tended, kept 

 in order and maintained in conformity 

 with accepted notions of what the gar- 

 den should be, and here is the point— 

 these accepted notions of garden design 

 and planting are so restrictive that they 

 shut out from our gardens a vast display 

 of possible beauty, which happens to be 

 unattainable through the systems we 

 practice. I am not about to advocate 

 letting the garden run into a wilderness, 

 although much beauty would be gained 

 by so doing if it happened to be in prox- 

 imity to some of Nature's beauty spots 

 that I have lately seeninthe woodsabout 

 me, little paradises of ferns and flowers. 

 My aim is to try and induce those who 

 have gardens and pretty lawns to court 

 a little more fellowship with Nature, to 

 realize more pleasure and get more beauty 

 out of the home grounds in a simple, nat- 

 ural and inexpensive way. What a sense 

 of pleasure most of us feel when spring 

 returns and our faithful earth mother, 

 released from winter's ice bonds again, 

 decks herself with lovely flowers. Too 

 often, however, the harbingers of spring 

 greet us by the wayside and not in the 

 garden, aye, and even now (May 20) I 

 see bare, bald gardens waiting for their 

 tender summer occupants, whilst "Na- 

 ture unadorned is adorned the most." 



Wild gardening consists in taking a 

 leaf out of Nature's book, as we see it 

 spread before us. Ten thousand lovely 

 flowers rise up, blossom gayly and retire 

 to rest again untended by mortal hands, 

 but the only flowers we permit ourselves 

 to have in our gardens we make the object 

 of more or less ceaseless care and atten- 

 tion. Some of them need it, but many 

 more do not. We take a certain flower 

 from the prairies or mountains of the 

 new or old world, transfer it to our gar- 

 den and make it the object of special care, 

 yet it remains the same. On the other 

 hand certain fine garden flowers are crea- 

 tures of our own creation, so to speak, 

 perfected developments or improvements 

 on wild forms, brought about by cross 

 breeding and good cultivation, and 

 mostly needing it to sustain them in per- 

 fection. These latter do not now concern 

 my purpose, but among the first named 

 there exists a perfect host of beautiful 

 flowers that ask or want no special care, 

 only to be taken and planted under con- 

 ditions akin to those they aftect in their 

 natural state, and thus the wild garden I 

 suggest is a portion of the garden in 

 which these flowers are naturalized , grow- 

 ing as though they are wild. This can be 

 done in a variety of ways and using dif- 

 ferent types of vegetation, but first and 

 foremost of all it is the plan to adopt 

 with the early spring bulbous flowers 

 that go early to rest again, and if we 

 grow them in the beds and borders they 

 leave bare spaces ere the season has 

 hardly begun. When winter relinquishes 

 its icy grasp of European meadows the 

 earth is softened, and the first blades of 

 grass appear, borne as it were upon the 

 points of the tender green blades come 

 myriads of blossoms, snowdrops and 

 snowflakes suggestive of lingering snow, 

 1 opening wide their rich cups and 



pale blue anemones covering the ground 

 like an earth reflection of the spring sky 

 overhead. "Like leaves on a stream they 

 come and go, and leave no trace behind" 

 as they sink to rest in the grass. The 

 daffodil next bursts out to carry on the 

 display, and there is or rather need be no 

 break at all in the succession of flowers 

 that tell the story of the garden year and 

 mark the seasons as they pass. All this 

 beauty is possible, exists and is enjoyed 

 in grass that is fed off by cattle or mown 

 in June. Therefore if there is a meadow 

 near the house, make it a wild garden, or 

 if the lawn area is extensive don't mow 

 quite so much of it in early spring, but 

 set apart a picturesque, informal, tree- 

 adorned spot for a spring wild garden. 

 It can be mown later on, so that only for 

 a short period need the lawn space becur- 

 tailed, and even those with a limited area 

 of grass may have and enjoy this feature, 

 which once created atone first cost grows 

 in extent and beauty year after year with 

 little further care and no more outlay in 

 purchase of plants or roots. Wild gar- 

 dening can be prettily expressed in a vari- 

 ety of ways adapted to particular peri- 

 ods, but for the spring season it is without 

 question the simplest and readiest means 

 of adorning the garden with the flowers 

 of that season, so if the editor thinks the 

 subject of sufficient interest I will make 

 "A spring wild garden" my next theme, 

 and saj' what and when and how to 

 plant. A. Herrinoton. 



Madison, N. J. 



FLOWER GARDEN NOTES. 



Begonia Evansiana has lived through 

 the winter, but did not make its appear- 

 ance above the ground until May 10. 



Hepatica triloba, a large clump of 

 this which usually blooms the first week 

 in May, has shown no signs of life yet. I 

 fear the roots must all have been killed by 

 the hard winter, although I imagined 

 this plant was entirely frost-proof [So 

 far as intensity of frost is concerned it is 

 perfectly hardy, extreme drouth last sum- 

 mer and fall may have enervated the 

 plants to such an extent that they were 

 imable to survive the winter. — Ed.] 



Drouth. At date of writing. May 19, 

 we have had no rain worth mentioningin 

 Bergen Point, N. J., since the heavy snow 

 storm of .\pril 7. The effects have been 

 disheartening to flower lovers, and more 

 so to truck gardeners. Mertensia Vir- 

 ginica has not bloomed at all. Tree 

 peonies, which last year were a most 

 gorgeous sight, have few flowers and 

 comparatively small. Primula officina- 

 lis, which hasmade very large and healthy 

 clumps, without any winter protection, 

 had only a few flowers, some clumps not 

 blooming at all. Kostektzkia Virginica 

 just showed itself above the ground aday 

 or two ago, and some other herbaceous 

 perennials with fleshy roots have failed to 

 move even yet, although I know they are 

 still alive. 



RosES WITHOIT WINTER PROTECTION. I 



read constantly that even the hardiest 

 roses will do better by being covered dur- 

 ing winter, with some kind of protection, 

 more or less. My experience does not 

 warrant my adopting the plan, as I desire 

 nothing better in the way of healthy 

 growth and profusion of buds than I have 

 on Magna Charta, Jacqueminot, Clothilde 

 Soupert, La France and Climbing La 

 France, Mrs. H. R. Watson, Oueen of 

 Queens, Malmaison, Agrippina, Damask, 

 Oakmont and Mrs. John Laing, which 

 came through the hard season without a 

 stitch of winter clothing on, so to speak, 

 and were in a position to receive every 



