GARDENING. 



> 



«IDENIM6 



William Falconer, Editor. 



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Copyright, 1894, by The Gardening Co. 



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COyiEh'TS. 

 CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



An amateur's chrysanthemums (illus.) 113 



GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW. 



Cyclamens (illus.) 114 



The greenhouse 114 



Violets— cannas—bignonia— azaleas— plumbagolie 



Plant to grow near the radiator 116 



Gas affecting house plants 116 



Stag's horn ferns (illus.) 117 



Hydrangea— Perle roses— begonias . , 117 



Careof orchids in winter. . 118 



Cypripedium not blooming 118 



Cacti (illus.) ".'^^'■. 118 



THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



Restoring a worn out lawn 118 



Blue-flowered hydrangeas 119 



Crinums, amaryllis. cooperias, etc 120 



Yellow flowered ipomsa 120 



TREES AND SHRUBS. 



Planting a sandy hill 120 



Are Japanese maples hardy near Chicago? ... 120 



Some new or rare trees and shrubs 120 



Shrubs in Florida 121 



THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



The fruit garden 121 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Common names of plants 121 



The cellar 121 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



Book on tomatoes '.'.'. 123 



Tomato culture .123 



Tomato vines 123 



Asparagus 123 



Beau weavils 124 



MUSHROOMS. 



Questions about mushrooms 124 



Spawn, etc 124 



PUBLISHER'S DEPARTMENT. 



What subscribers say . .126 



L.4!lio-Cattleya X Decia.— This is a 

 new bi-generic hybrid orchid that was ex- 

 hibited by James Veitch & Sons in Lon- 

 don, November 27, and was awarded a 

 first class certificate by the Royal Hort. 

 Society. hxUa Perrinii was the female 

 parent and Cattkya Dowiana atirea the 

 male one. The shape of the form of the 

 flower somewhat resembles that of the 

 mother plant, but the blossom is larger 

 in all its parts than that of Perr/mV. The 

 sepals and petals arc rosy-lilac shaded 

 with silvery white along the middle and 

 at the base, the lip is rather abruptly 

 refiexed and of a rich mauve purple 

 color, the interior of the tube is pale pur- 

 ple veined with yellowish white. 



Sweet Peas in America.— A writer in 

 an English paper says "In America 

 annual exhibitions of sweet peas only are 

 held, and this has undoubtedly done much 

 to popularize the flower." About these 

 exhibitions, may be so, but where, when, 

 and by whom? ' 



Chrysanthemum Mrs.W. H. Godfrey 

 is a new hairy, pure white flowered vari- 

 ety, a seedling from Mrs. Alpheus Hardy, 

 and it is said to havelarger blossomsand 

 more massive petals than it; also that the 

 plants are strong, dwarf, and of fine 

 habit. In short, it is better in everv way 

 than its mother. 



The Book of the Rose.— The Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle tells us that the Rev. A. 

 Foster Melliar has issued "a nevi- treatise 

 on the history, cultivation and varieties 

 of the rose. As the work of a sound and 

 experienced practitioner this will be re- 

 ceived with acclamation " We also learn 

 from the same authority that 



Seeds of Polygonum Sachalinense, 

 the new fodder plant, were successfully 

 germinated in the gardens of the Agri- 

 cultural and Horticultural Society of 

 India, at Calcutta. 



The Variegated Cornus brachypoda. 

 —A. T. R., Greensboro, N. C, and others 

 ask where tliey can procure it. We got it 

 from H. H. Berger & Co., San Francisco 

 (see their advertisement in Gardening). 

 We believe that Parsons & Sons Co., 

 Flushing, N. Y., and some other of our 

 leading nurserymen also have it in stock. 



Carnationist is a new name sometimes 

 given to— or adopted by, rather— com- 

 mercial florists who make a specialty of 

 growing carnations; but so far as" we 

 know it is in use only in this country. 

 We must admit it is neither a happy nor 

 necessary appellation. Its unseemfiness, 

 however, appears to concern the folks in 

 other countries a good deal more than it 

 does us here. 



One flower to a stem.— The magnifi- 

 cent chrysanthemum blossoms grown 

 nowadays are obtained by restricting the 

 number of flowers to one to each stem or 

 main branch, every other bud (aside from 

 the one retained) being removed as soon 

 as it can be got hold of. With the view 

 of perfecting their roses and carnations 

 our florists pursue a similar course, re- 

 moving every bud on the shoot except 

 one. And it pays. 



Pear Dr. Jules Guyot.— .\ "Fruit 

 grower" writing in the London Garden 

 says: "The ever popular Williams' Bon 

 Chretien [what we call Bartlett.— Ed.] 

 may eventually be superseded by Dr. Jules 

 Guyot, a variety considered more reliable, 

 and the fruit extra fine is of somewhat 

 better quality." This new pear will have 

 to be a marvel of goodness before it can 

 displace the Bartlett. Vk-hich is the best 

 all-round variety we have here. 



Mice eating fern fronds.— We all 

 know how fond mice are of carnations, 

 but this season we have a new experience 

 with the little pests: They have nibbled 

 the out edges of all the young fronds of 

 a batch of young plants of varieties of 

 Pteris serrulata we had on a bench, but 

 have not touched any other sorts so far 

 as we have observed. 



The wiiitic-floweredSwainsona that 

 has recently become a very popular green- 

 house pea shrub has also proved an at- 

 traction to the mice, they eat its leaves 

 off' clean. That it is good'for food seems 

 to be a new discovery by thcni, for they 

 never touched our ])lants till a month 



ago. We caught them at it. Kill the 

 mice is the best preventive; but syringing 

 the plants with anything distasteful to 

 them will have a deterring efliect upon 

 them. 



Patriotic to be sure.— A British seeds- 

 man in an address the other day said 

 that the firm intended to "grow all their 

 seeds on British land, with British money 

 and with British men." But he didn't 

 add "and sell them to British people 

 only." Had an American seed firm made 

 such a boast about America we should 

 immediately infer that its seed list was 

 limited, and as the list is the customers 

 are apt to be also. No, we grow or have 

 grown or buy our seeds where we can get 

 them the best, the purest and cheapest, 

 at home. or abroad, and sell them to any- 

 body who will buy them and pay for 

 them. 



George S. Conover Chrysanthemum. 

 —What about it? Why don't we find it 

 at our exhibitions and spoken of gener- 

 ally? Because, we presume it has been 

 distributed among amateurs rather than 

 in the channels of exhibitors and the 

 trade. But it is a good one. It is a fine, 

 large, bold, deep yellow flower of good 

 substance. The plants are stout and 

 stocky, and the stems strong and stiff" 

 and well clad with healthy, succulent 

 foliage. It is one of the best varieties we 

 grew this year at Dosoris. When it was 

 at its best we often wished the genial old 

 gentleman after whom it was named 

 could have dropped in to see it. 



The London "Garden" Index.— Tie 

 Garden, that journal of artistic beauty 

 and practical excellence is now in its 

 forty-seventh volume. After it had com- 

 pleted its first twenty volumes it pub- 

 lished an index of them. This was a great 

 boon to those who had occasion to refer 

 to the volumes for information, for the 

 convenience of finding at once in one 

 index what without it we might have to 

 search the twenty indices for was very 

 great. Now the friends of the paper are 

 clamoring for another index, this time of 

 the second twenty volumes, but as the 

 work will be both laborious and expen- 

 sive the editor can only "consider its pre- 

 paration if a sufficient number of sub- 

 scribers will undertake to put down their 

 names as subscribers for it." Please enter 

 our name. We are delighted at the pros- 

 pect of getting the index. 



Desecrated Chrysanthemums.— The 

 blossoms of several new varieties of chrys- 

 anthemums, with stems wired to keep 

 them tip straight to support the flowers, 

 and with a wire hoop under the blooms 

 to support the spreading lower petals 

 were exhibited this season in London, 

 and considered by the Royal Hort. Soci- 

 ety. Instead of disqualifying them at 

 once or promptly ignoring them as frauds, 

 it was ruled that precedents permitted 

 this desecration, in fact, in some cases, 

 where the flowers had to be sent a con- 

 siderable distance this stilting was neces- 

 sary! Well, we haven't descended to such 

 weaknesses in this country. Cut flowers 

 are sent from Chicago or Indiana to New 

 York or Boston, a thousand miles, on 

 their merits, without a stilt or wire, and 

 then have to take their chance alongside 

 of blossoms grown within a few miles of 

 the exhibition hall. Away with your 

 stilts, and wires, and green painted board 

 stands, and let the blossoms at ourflower 

 shows be unsupported by any other brace 

 than their own good stiff leafy stems. 



