164 



GARDENING. 



Feb. 15 



*i, Ki^omfrfplv andwegetafrooddeal the times. For our main crop though 



bushes at their feet the pretty rose : 

 can run wild. On the breast of the slope 

 or somewhere where it can be seen to ad- 

 vantage plant the yellow wood. Its ele- 

 gance when in bloom is too charming to 

 crowd out of sight. The white fringe 

 tree too must be exposed to view. But 

 the purple fringe, being hard to place, 

 should be relegated to tl e company of 

 other sumachs. 



On the warm side of the wood magno- 

 ias mav be planted, but don't use Vu/an 

 obovaia, Soulangeana or any of that 

 class; they would look out of place M. 

 Fraseri. Vmbrella and macropbylla, na- 

 tive species, and M. hypokuca, from 

 lapan, are all trees, and appropriate and 

 showy, and in the way of shrubs or small 

 trees "plant' M. parvidora and Watsopi, 

 from Japan, and glauca, our native 

 swamp magnolia. 



Of the host of available viburnums the 

 sheep berrv (!'. Lentago) maybe the only 

 tree but there are many shrubs which we 

 will consider later. They are particularly 

 useful for border thickets and rough 

 places, and for their wealth of flowers 

 succeeded bv abundance of bemes. 



Although' we would exclude common 

 and Persian lilacs because of their foreign 

 appearance and garden association we 

 w'ould admit all the fleecy flowered ones 

 as Srrwga Japonica, S. Amurensis and 

 S Pekinensis, and too such types as 



Josikeea. In company 



ith them would 



whose flowers are delightful for cutting. 

 Take Mrs. Sankey, white; Cardinal, red; 

 Boreatton, very dark purole; Mrs. Glad- 

 stone, soft pink; and Blanche Ferry, pmk 

 and white; what beauties they are, and 

 each one is so distinct from the other. As 

 we want to make two sowings, the first 

 as early as we can get the seed into the 

 ground, and the next after the first sow- 

 ing is up a lew inches, we had better get 

 seed enough for both to begin with. As 

 good varieties are as easily grown as 

 poor ones the mixed seeds sold by seeds- 

 men are reallv fairlv good and give a hne 

 assortment o'f flowers, but some of them 

 we shall Hke and others we won't care 

 for. This is why we preler to buy special 

 varieties and do our own mixing if we 

 want to. . , ,. 



The Rev. Mr. W. T. Hutchins, Indian 

 Orchard, Mass , makes sweet pea grow- 

 ing a hobbv, and bv actual practical ex- 

 perience knows more about them than 

 anvbody else in the country; he has 

 grown every variety extant, and now 

 has seventv-seven sorts on his list. We 

 wrote to him the other day asking him to 

 please tell us what he considers the best 

 half dozen varieties that are plentiful 

 enough to allow us to buy the seed by the 

 quarter of a pound. He answers as 

 follows: 



What could possess you to think of re- 

 ducing seventy-five varieties to six? Hon- 



Blanche Ferry. 



Countess of Radnor. 



Mrs. Sankey. 



Her Majesty. 



Mrs. Eckford. 



New Lottie Eckford, large, lavender 

 and white. 



Blushing Beauty, soft pink, superb. 



Fireflv, best of all scarlets. 



Duke "of Clarence, rich, dark caret. 



Venus, salmon buff", grand. 



Stanley, best verv dark maroon. _ 



Lady Penzance, very beautiful, hght 

 laced rose pink; of great merit. 



W. T. Hutchins. 

 Indian Orchard, Mass., Jan. 31, '95. 



come ori\'ets, but thev are shrubs . , - ., . ,. , r 



The silver thorn [Ela^agnus hortensis) estly I would not think of naming 



is jiot showv. but in June when its •■ 0= „ffi..t-, 



mvriads of ye'llow blossoms are open it 



fills the atmosphere for rods around witii 



honev fragrance. 

 Then towards midsummer come tne 



sweet chestnuts. If the American grows 



too tall get the European and Japanese- 



thev bloom as abundantly. And the 



lindens! The little Chinese linden (A/on- 



golica) is the earliest with us, and the 



than twenty-five varieties as of first-class 

 merit. I w'ish vou could see one of my 

 exhibits. But t"hen I will answer your 

 question. We shall have to cut off the 

 1894 and 1893 novelties, for I doubt 

 whether you can get reliable seed of them 

 by the quarter pound now. 



Mrs. Eckford is the finest sweet pea in 

 form up to 1894. As I grow it, and as 

 reliable seed ought to produce it, it 



Eurooeans the densest and most profuse. triumph in sweet peas Her Majesty I 

 Bv the Fourth of July we get into the should put next. The best white up to 

 catalpa season. C. spcciosa conies into_ - ■ • - ~ --'-- ' "•—" "* «-'"- 



94 is Mrs. Sankev. Countess of Radnor 



you must have, although I fear there are 



"lots of deteriorated stock in the country. 



I should include Blanche Ferry, not for 



any merit in size or other quality, but 



simply because it gives the best and 



brightest contrast in pink and white. It 



bears no comparison with the improved 



wTu ■'through July. And sweet peas, but holds its place as an ex- 



rhose lilv of the cellent commercial variety. Then the old 



vallevlike flowers are very pretty, but and ever reliable Butterfly, if you get the 



unfortunately the tree doesn't always true Butterfly, which is the blue edged 



""I". T,+i.ictorilv. At the end of the and blue laced white, and not carmine 



flushed, which is Capt. Clarke. 



blooiii in June, a fortnight ahead of either 

 C. bignonioidcs or C. Koewpferi. The 

 paulownia blooms eariier than the catal- 

 pas, but on account of its similarity m 

 build and foliage it is well to group it 

 with them. ^, , . . 



Then comes the yellow Koelreutena 

 lasting with 

 later the sorrel tree 



FLOWER GARDEN NOTES. 



Geraniums.— Were I restricted to six 

 varieties of single geraniums I'd take 

 Athlete, clear scarlet, white eye; John 

 Salter, salmon tipped with white; Mrs. 

 George Smith, salmon; Queen Olga, pink, 

 a fine bedder; Sara Sloan, velvety crim- 

 son; and Souvenir deMirande, variegated 

 flowers. In the way of double flowered 

 varieties I should lean to Bruantii. scar- 

 let; Beaute Poiteviiie, salmon; Golden 

 Dawn, salmon shaded with orange; La 

 Favorite, white; La Pilote, crimson scar- 

 let; and Mrs. Hayes, pink. Mountain of 

 Snow is queen among the white edged 

 sorts, and Mrs. Pollock among the golden 

 tricolor sorts. In the way of ivy leaved 

 geraniums these are fine: Berthelot, 

 magenta; Jeanne d'Arc, white; and P. 

 Crozy, a new variety whose flowers show 

 the nearest approach to scarlet of any- 

 thing in this line vet secured. 



Abutilons.— Boule de Niege, white, and 

 Firefly, salmon scarlet, for the flower 

 garde"n in summer, are as good as any. 

 Golden Fleece should not be omitted. 

 The new silver edged abutilon Souvenir 

 de Bonn is one of the most distinctly 

 variegated and conspicuous of all bedding 

 plants. The habit is vigorous and the 

 foliage large and distinctly margined 

 with abroad belt of white as conspicuous 

 and striking as the white leaf edge of the 

 most marked of our geraniums. 



CoLEUS.— Golden Bedder, yellow; Queen 

 Victoria, crimson with bright golden 

 edge- and Verschaffeltii, rich crimson, are 

 perhaps the most indispensable coleuses 

 we vet have for outdoor gardening. 



J^- J RlVERTON. 



The Greenhouse. 



behave satisfactorily. At the i 

 month or eariv in August the Japanese 

 Osbeck's sumach has every branch ter- 

 minated with a big panicle of whitish 

 flowers. The Japanese sophora winds up 

 the flowering period, after the middle ot 

 August, of our trees. ^ 



The floral extravagance of the tairy 

 Woods," however, has got to depend 

 upon the multitude of appropriate shrubs, 

 vines and other plants which we must 

 defer naming till a later issue. 



The Flower Garden. 



SWEET FEflS. 



We must have lots of sweet peas, and 

 this means that we must sow a good 

 deal of seed and grow a pretty long row. 

 Al of the verv new varieties are expensive 

 an d sold in packets, but we want some 

 of them for experiment, to see and en.ioy 

 th*= improved flowers, and keep up with 



GREENHOUSE NOTES. 



Ferns for the house.— While a host 

 of handsome ferns can be grown in per- 

 fection in the greenhouse, those that suc- 

 ceed in our windows are not so numerous. 

 The common maidenhair fern {Adtantum 

 cuneatum) is one of the best and prettiest; 

 Davallia striata, with lace-like fronds is 

 also good; the variegated Lastrea ans- 

 tata thrives well in a cool room; and you 

 all know how popular the sword fern 

 (Nephrolepis exaltata) is as a pot or bas- 

 ket plant in the house and how well it 

 thrives. These are all common ferns but 

 thev are good ones. . 



P'alms are verv largely used in house 

 decoration both in summer and winter, 

 the lesser ones as Cocos Weddeliana for 

 table use, and the larger ones hke Areca 

 Intescens Kentia Belmoreana, K. Foster- 

 Hcr Maiestv, rose cuiL.!, vci.i luie^- mtesccr/s, n.cjit<a „*„ „„j T f,tnn!a Rnr- 



Ml.. Eckford, grand, delicate primrose --.;.f-- [rttl^irdli^ngToom^or 

 ^' Thrbest twelve sorts to date, not in- parlors, isolated or in Sro^^P^' rh.s^J^^ 

 eluding this vear's novelties, which I have palms are easy to manage, and as good 

 not ef seen "in bloom, are: as any for the purpose. 



But then how can you have only six? 

 You must have the standard colors. You 

 must have a soft pink. I'p to the intro- 

 duction of Blushing Beauty Mrs. Glad- 

 stone held the best place for a soft pink. 

 Then a scarlet. Until Firefly displaced it 

 Cardinal was the best scarlet. Then 

 what of the dark sorts? For a dark 

 maroon Boreatton must be chosen until 

 Stanlev is supplied to the trade. 



The "best six varieties to buy by the 

 quarter pound are: 



Butterfly, white,edged and shaded with 

 blue. . 



Blanche Ferry, pink and white. 



Countess of Radnor, large, beautiful, 

 pale mauve or lavender. 



Mrs. Sankey, a grand large white. 



Her Majestv, rose color, very large. 



