276 



GARDENING. 



ray of sunlight, thus being subjected to 

 constant thawing and freezing. 



Plants for hard, dry soils. On a 

 slope in an out of the way corner of the 

 garden. I have planted Genista tinctoria, 

 Geranium sanguineum, achillea, Eupato- 

 rium ag-erafoides and hardy asters. In dry 

 weather the soil becomes baked as hard 

 almost as a rock, and yet the genista 

 eupatorium and geranium grow wel and 

 bloom profuselv. Theothersdo notthnve 

 as well as thev would ii in a more favora- 

 ble location, but they seem well adapted to 

 fill up some hard, dry and slopmg spot 

 such as the above. [This question of what 

 will -^row on hard, drv soil, is a very vital 

 one to us. Schenley Park having many 

 acres ot steep naked hills that we must 

 find clothing for and plenty of it. Among 

 trees the best plant is the yellow locust, 

 and next come some species of our native 

 thorns (Crate^us). But before we will 

 say much more about this sort ot clotb- 

 irg we intend going out into nature's 

 wilds to see and note what she used for 

 this purpose.-ED.] L. C. L. Jordan. 



SPURIOUS VBRBENflS. 



A reader writes: "We bought three 

 years ago a lot of verbenas, scarlet for 

 bne bed, white for another. This year 

 we have hardlv one of the original color, 

 but instead the homely purples and 

 striped. Do vou suppose they are seed- 

 iinr=. and that the better ones have died 

 out?" 



.■ins. As a rule verbenas come tairly 

 true from seed, that is the majority of the 

 seedlings raised from seed saved from a 

 scarlet flowered variety are apt to have 

 scarlet flowers, and white flowers from 

 the seed saved from white blossoms. 

 Why yours behaved so erratically we can- 

 not'tell. Ifyou saved the seed from the 

 scarlet flowers, sowed it and got purple 

 and striped flowers from it, the original 

 strain must have been very poor; but if 

 the seedlings came upof their own accord 

 in the bed the next spring, and it was 

 these spontaneous seedlings that bore the 

 variously colored flowers, then the con- 

 clusion we would come to would be that 

 in some previous vear you grew verbenas 

 i n that bed , and the spurious seedlings were 

 the progeny of the long-ago plants, and 

 not of the scarlet or white dowered ones 

 o the year before. 



HOLLY TREE AT MARIETTA, MD, 



Degenerate Cannas from Seed.— Mr. 

 D E., writes. "We have grown a number 

 of canna plants from seed, but always 

 have nothing more than the narrow- 

 leaved yellow variety— evidently one of 

 the primitive forms of the plant." 



Ans. Then probably you don't raise 

 the seedlings from your own saved seed. 

 Get a few plants of Mme. Crozy , Alphonse 

 Bouvier, Charles Henderson, or other 

 first-class sorts, and plant them out in 

 your garden and save seed from them, 

 and sow these seeds, and we are sure you 

 will get a great deal more than narrow- 

 petaled, vellow-blossoraed seedlings from 

 them. At the same time we are equally 

 satisfied that many of the seedlings will 

 be yellow-flowered and poor too, but 

 many should be vividly colored and of 

 go d size and form. 



Trees and Shrubs. 



TREES AND SHRUBS IN BLOOM. 



A continuous spcl! of clear hot weather 

 with cloudless skies and entire al)scnce of 

 the usual spring rains has given us here 

 the unprecedented experience ol having 



trees and shrubs come into bloom about 

 two weeks or nearly so, earlier than their 

 average annual time of flowering. The 

 veteran nurseryman. Mr. Geo. Ellwanger, 

 remarked to me the other day that he 

 did not remember anything like it before. 

 We usually expect to have at this time 

 of year a display of HIacs in good bloom, 

 but at this date all the varieties of Syr- 

 inga vulgaris are entirely past. The 

 Hungarian lilac S./os;ia;a is now at its 

 best and S. villosa is in good bloom. 



Among spiraeas. Van Houtte's and S. 

 chamxdrifolia is almost past, S. lanceo- 

 latais showing a few good flowers, but it 

 has been winter killed more than usual 

 with us; S. rupestris, S. ulmitolia and S. 

 rotundifolia are now in bloom; and Are;7//a 

 (Spir;Ea) opulifolia is coming into bloom. 

 A few stray flowers are to be seen on the 

 pearl bush (ii.voe/iort/a) but its glory has 

 departed since nine or ten days. Rliodo- 

 typos kerrioides is real pretty just now 

 with its large, pure white flowers resting 

 prettily among its pleasant green foliage. 

 Rosa alpina has been giving us a few 

 flowers since ten days, and Rosa rugosa 

 in its different v rieties is very showy in 

 bloom. R. lutea. R. spinossissima and 

 i?. SaWniV are coming into flower; and a 

 few of the yellow butter-cup like flowers 

 are open today on Potentilla frutlcosa, 

 and Fontanesia Fortunei is just opening 

 its greenish yellow flowers. 



Calycanthus (strawberry shrub) in its 

 several forms has been in good bloom for 

 some time. On account of its pleasant 

 fragrance it should have a place in all 

 collections. Azalea nudiffora is about 

 past, and A Vaseyi passed out of bloom 

 about a week ago. A calendulacea is 

 now in pretty good bloom. The Cataw- 

 biense hybrids of rhododendrons are now 

 beautiful; such varieties as Blandyanum, 

 Atrosanguinum, John Walter, Roseum 

 Elegans, and Album Elegans, being very 

 attractive. 

 Among the honeysuckles some of the 



bushy species in bloom with us just now 

 are Lonicera orientalis, L. Caucasica 

 and L. Maximowiczii, with flowers not 

 very conspicuous. Lonicera Albertii is a 

 very pretty bushy species with fragrant 

 rosy lilac flowers and now at its best. 

 It is entirely hardy here. The different 

 varieties of the European woodbine (Lon- 

 icera Periclymenum) are now in excellent 

 bloom and are less infested with aphides 

 than we have had them before. For 

 some reason or other they are particu- 

 larly subject to the attacks of plant lice. 

 The yellow flowering species (Lonicera 

 (lava) and the scarlet trumpet honey- 

 suckle (Z,. sempervirens) are also in full 

 flower. 



Diervillas in their numerous forms will 

 be in full bloom in a day or t>vo. D. 

 Candida and D. hortensis rubra are now 

 at their best. The Chinese fringe (Chion- 

 anthus retusus) flowered splendidly; it is 

 now about past, but the American white 

 fringe C. Virginica is no sv very beautiful 

 with its fluffy white petals. 



The earliest flowering caraganas are 

 past, but Caragana spinosa is in good 

 bloom now. The rose acacia (Robinia 

 hispida) and its variety Cawuseti are at 

 present very showy, and the clammy 

 1 cust is coming into bloom. Coronilla 

 Emerus has a few lingering flowers. It 

 bloomed quite freely this season. 



Cytisus purpureus has passed out of 

 bloom, but C. elongafus is still in good 

 flower. C. scoparius (common broom ) has 

 done splendidly this season; and has been 

 a mass of showy yellow blossoms for the 

 past week. What a lovely thing it is, 

 and it well repays any special pains taken 

 to protect it from zero weather, for it 

 will not stand that with safety. 



[7e.Y Hispanica, a diminutive shrub 

 with abundant yellow flowers, is now 

 pretty. It seems to do well with us with- 

 out much protection. 



The bladder senna (Colutca arhores- 

 cen.s) with clover-like foliage and yellow 



