290 



GARDENING. 



June 75, 



panicles of pink blossoms. Climbing 

 Victor Verdier is also good. Clothilde 

 Soupert is a fine polyantha rose; its clus- 

 ters of white flowers are very pretty. 



Tlier German irises are nearly past, but 

 what a show they have been! We have a 

 great many varieties of them and thej- 

 are all good and well worth a place in the 

 garden, and they fill up a space between 

 the spring flowering bulbs and the flow- 

 ering of the summer bedding plants. The 

 Spanish irises are also nicely in flower; 

 these are unlike the German; their flow- 

 ers are smaller and stiffer, and somewhat 

 resemble those of the English irises. 

 The latter will not be in flower for ten 

 days yet. Ixias grown in a frame along- 

 side the Oncocyclus iris have flowered 

 splendidly; thej' seem to do better in this 

 way than they do in pots; they often 

 damp oflfatthe neck when grown in pots. 

 Give them water very sparingly. 



The fox gloves are at their best, and 

 the Canterburj' bells will be in fine flower 

 in a few days. Pansies are still good. 

 Forget-me-nots are past, except the ever- 

 blooming one, senipertlorens. 



The sweet Williams are in good flower, 

 and a nice show they are. These plants 

 are from last August's seed sowing; thej' 

 are best raised new every year. 



The double pjeonias are in good flower; 

 an importation of them made this spring 

 shows some very good flowers. 



Campanula persicxfolia grandiffora 

 and its white variety alba are now in 

 good flower; this is really a nice thing, 

 and it will grow either in the shade or 

 open, and is easily raised from seed. 



The^ delphiniums are making a nice 

 show, but they will n t be in full flower 

 for a week to come. Both the single and 

 double pyrethrums are in flower; they are 

 very useful for cutting, as they last so 

 long. The potentillas are beginning to 

 open their blossoms. These are a beauti- 

 ful class of plants, and should be more 

 grown than thej- are now. 



The Oriental poppy is giving us plenty 

 of conspicuous flowers. Veronica circe- 

 oicks with its carpet of blue is now in fine 

 flower; it makes a nice edging plant, as it 

 grows only two or three inches high. 

 Anthericum Liliago (St. Bernard's lily) 

 was very beautiful, but is now past. The 

 border pinks are in good flower; the old 

 plants that were left in the border all 

 winter came in first; the cuttings of last 

 September will soon be in flower too. 



The verbascums are giving us plenty of 

 their long spikes of j'cllow flowers. Ver- 

 hascuw plilomokles is very good; it grows 

 about five or six feet high; the spike of 

 flower is branching, which adds much to 

 its beauty. V. pannosum, V. Chaixii and 

 V. Olympicum; the latter has massive sil- 

 very leaves, and all are striking when in 

 bloom. Early sown ten-weeks stocks and 

 marigolds are now in fine flower, espe- 

 cially the stocks. Antirrhinum cuttings 

 that we wintered over in a cold frame are 

 now nicelv in flower. David Fraskr. 



Mahwah.N.J. 



planted any sooner than the first batch 

 of Cupid. 



Hardy Pyrethrums.— The single ones 

 are far the handsomer. A packet of seeds 

 sown now will make good blooming 

 plants for next spring, and alter that 

 they can be divided so freely that a whole 

 garden might soon be filled with them. 

 Planted in masses they make a gorgeous 

 display for two or three weeks. Many 

 persons are familiar with white, yellow 

 and blue daisylike flowers, but these 

 pyrethrums, in all shades of pink and 

 red with yellow centers, strike the eye of 

 most observers as a beautiful novelty. 

 After flowering I cut them entirely to the 

 ground, and get a scattering bloom later 

 on. They grow well with me in ordinary 

 soil and full sunlight. The finely divided 

 foliage is handsome at all times and 

 makes a fine border. The flower stems 

 grow about two feet high, but the plant 

 is not much more than eight or ten inches. 

 Cut with long stems they are very grace- 

 ful and last long in water. 



DiCTAMNUS FRAXINELLA ALBA AND 



RUBRA. — When once established in or- 

 dinary soil and getting a few hours' sun- 

 light every day, these are most desirable 

 and showy plants for about two weeks. 

 The white, in my estimation, is the hand- 

 somer, the grand profusion of large spikes 

 of white flowers contrasting well with 

 the deep green pointed leaves. Like the 

 pyrethrums, they flower the latter part 

 of May into June, and neither have any 

 insect enemies. Is it a fable or a fact that 

 the flowers emit a gas on close warm 

 nights, which will ignite if lit? I have 

 never succeeded in proving the assertion. 

 I have never been able to get seed of this 

 plant to germinate, either self-sown, fresh 

 from the plant or bought from the seed 

 man. If it is desired to save the seed, it 

 is best to tie something over the pods, as 

 they often burst most unexpectedly and 

 scatter the seed far and wide. 



K.bmpfer's Irises.— I can begin to feel 

 the flower stalk already, which is early, 

 as they generally bloom the last part of 

 June into July. Surrounded as they are 

 by a strip about three or four inches high 

 of galvanized sheet iron, I can flood them 

 every day, and at the same time grow in 

 the enclosure such moisture loving plants 

 as hedychiums, sarracenias, etc. They 

 havenow been fouryears in the same place 

 and ought to be transplanted, I suppose. 

 Ought they? When must this be done so 

 as not to lose the blooming next year, 

 and must any of the rhizomes be removed? 



Bergen Co., N. J. L. C. L. Jordan. 



FLOWER OflRDBN NOTES, JUNE 8Tfl, 1896. 

 Sweet Pea Cupid.— Out of two pack- 

 ets of seed (about 30 seeds), I have but 

 half a dozen plants. I think this is the 

 experience of many. Some of the seeds 

 were sown in April, others about the 

 middle of May. I planted them not much 

 more than an inch deep, but kept the 

 ground moist. Bride of Niagara and 

 other varieties sown six or eight inches 

 deep all germinated well and are making 

 good growth, while Cupid seems to be a 

 loiterer. The climbing ones were not 



fl SPRING WILD OflRDEN. 



Even in some of the gardens little at- 

 tention is given to spring bulbs by reason 

 of the trouble they occasion in interfering 

 with the summer schemes for planting 

 the beds and borders, thus necessitating 

 taking them up, drying them ofl", etc. 

 All this may be avoided, and we may 

 have, grow, and enjoy a perfect host of 

 spring flowers and decorate the garden 

 with permanent spring pictures of exqui- 

 site beauty, gay blooms set in a verdant 

 foil of green, looking infinitely more 

 lovely than when drilled into lines or cir- 

 cles contrasted with bare beaten earth 

 and bespattered with dirt should rain 

 fall at the time of their blooming. The 

 spring season is short at its best, and the 

 flowers that usher it in have a brief and 

 gay period and are past all too soon. 

 Their flowering may be prolonged, how- 

 ever, by planting them unde"- conditions 

 more pertaining to those they obtain in 

 a natural wild state. Writing this recalls 

 to mind wild garden pictures enjoyed in 

 bygone years that began with the snow- 



drop in January and ended with the 

 poet's narcissus in June; a five months' 

 procession of earth's fairest, and best, 

 coming and going in their own sweet and 

 simple way with never a hai d to tend 

 them. The gradual growth and slow 

 slow developing beauty of an English 

 spring sustained this display, but al- 

 though climatic conditions bring sharp 

 limitations to bear upon the blossoming 

 of things here we want them all the same, 

 and a wider range of choice in the site 

 and disposition afforded by the wild gar- 

 den will also help us to prolong their dis- 

 play. 



Glory of the snow is the popular name 

 for the Chionodoxa family, but the only 

 flowers of these I saw this spring came 

 through the snow during the first w eek 

 in April, in reality the first gleam of 

 spring's coming glories, but scorched be- 

 yond recognition a few days after with a 

 sun of summer fierceness shining down on 

 the bare earth that brought them forth. 

 Had they been in the cool turf with the 

 friendly shade of a shrub or tree many 

 more days of lasting beauty would have 

 been granted them. There is'no need to fur- 

 ther accentuate the points we haveto gain 

 — there are none to lose— in making a wild 

 garden of the spring flowers, so I will 

 brii.fly pass in review the chief families, as 

 time and space will hardly permit of enu- 

 merating individually this vast army of 

 nature's lovely children brought from all 

 the temperate parts of the globe, enlisted 

 to administer to our pleasure and gratify 

 our desire for the possession of things beau- 

 tiful, and marshalled ready for our use. 



Snowdrops and crocuses will rise to 

 greet us as soon as the earth's crust is 

 softened if they are anywhere about the 

 garden, while scillas and chionodoxas 

 are prominent in the van of the advanc- 

 ing army. Take a few thousand ot these, 

 their cost means little, plant them in the 

 grass, some in sun and some in shade. 

 The winter aconite too must not be 

 omitted, and there is nothing to equal it 

 for making a spring carpet of flowers and 

 pretty leaves right under low spreading 

 trees whose summer shade is too dense 

 to allow grass to grow. The European 

 dog's tooth violet, but especially the fine 

 forms that have been raised in the Dutch 

 nurseries, should have a prominent place 

 in the spring wild garden; give it an open 

 sunny spot, and if up m a little slope this 

 will the better display the exquisite colors 

 of its varied leaf marblings, while its 

 flowers range through lovely tints from 

 white to rose pink. The grape hyacinths 

 will thrust their club-like spikes of showy 

 blooms through the matted turf without 

 ado, and show much additional beauty 

 uprising from a tendergreen carpet. The 

 Apennine anemone in the garden grass is 

 just as happy and flowers as freely as in 

 high ."Vlpine pastures. 



One great family that should have spe- 

 cial prominence is the daffodil or narcis- 

 sus, and in this not only the world types 

 but some of the very best garden varie- 

 ties have been found to succeed equally 

 as well in the grass as in rich garden bor- 

 ders. I saw last spring groups that I 

 had helped to plant eight years previously 

 and they were finer then'than they had 

 ever been, yet nothing had been done to 

 tend them but the meadow in which they 

 grew was grazed entirely some sea- 

 sons and mown for hay in others. The 

 daftbdil family alone furnishes material 

 for a series of dissimilar effects. I have 

 planted numbei's of varieties ranging 

 from the common daflfodil of English 

 meadows up to some of the choicest gar- 

 den creations as Emperor, Empress and 

 Horsfieldii and all have succeeded. The 



