1 68 



GARDENING. 



Feb. JSy 



6ARDENM 



William Falconer, Editor. 



PUBLISHED THE 1ST AND 15TH OF EACH MONTH 



THE GARDENING COMPANY, 



Monon Building, CHICAGO. 



Bubscrlptlon Price. K.OOt 



ommunlcatlonB relating t 



ubscrlptlons. adver- 



..^ ^. jaatters should be 



J The Gardening Company. Monon Bulld- 

 liw. Chicago, and all matters pertaining to the editorial 



Interest, and It ben 



GARDEN 



-iterest. ar 

 Interesting. It 

 ilease write and 

 leslre to help you 



) for Its readers and 1 



enlightened and encouraged, and of your failures 

 perhaps we can help you. 



SEND US Photographs or Sketches of you 

 flowers, gardeni 



fruits, vegetables. 



Peat Moss Manure for Mi'shrooms. 

 — \Yhat is known as German peat moss 

 compressed into bales is now largely used 

 for bedding horses in open or box stalls, 

 and capital bedding it makes. And as it 

 remains in the stalls under the horses' 

 feet for days or weeks sometimes it gets 

 well soaked with stable moistui^e and 

 droppings, most desirable material for 

 mushrooms. But taking it all in all it is 

 poor stufi' for mushrooms. If mixed with 

 loam or chopped up sods mushrooms will 

 grow fairlv well in it; we have even seen 

 them do fa'irly well in it of itself, but we 

 have also seen many failures in beds made 

 of peat moss manure. Better stick to the 

 old kind of stable manure. 



Two NEW BOOKS come to us from \Y. 

 Atlee Burpee & Co., seedsmen, Philadel- 

 phia. One is named "Cabbage and Caul- 

 iflower for Profit," and costs 50 cents; 

 the other is "Potatoes for Profit," and 

 costs .30 cents. The first named contains 

 122 pages, the other 84- pages, and both 

 are freelv illustrated. Each book handles 

 its subje"ct in a masterly way and deals 

 with the plain practical facts that every 

 cultivator wants to know. They tell us 

 what sorts to grow and how to grow 

 them in a wav one can make money out 

 of them. All details of cultivation, har- 

 vesting, wintering and marketing are 

 given, and the drawbacks as insect pests 

 and fungus diseases are dealt with, and 

 the pointed illustrations re.- der the text 

 CONTENTS. doubly helpful. 



TREES and shrubb. Willow Roots for Orchid Growinc. 



The elat<i Norway iipruce (illus ) 162 _!„ the OrcWd iJerjeiv Mr. Annandale, a 



llm^rlnf shTuU°fo?Mi,waukee .' .-. l i l l m Scotch gentleman and orchid fancier tells 

 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. US that having pooT pcat for orchids, he 



Briar Cliff on the Hudson (Ilh.s.) 162 tried growing them on willow roots, and 



Afaiiywoods 162 has had great success. "I have anumber 



THE FLOWER GARDEN. of willow trccs whosc TOots find their 



Sweet peas . . 164 way through the bank into a small 



Flower garden notes 164 stream, and for a number of years these 



THE greenhouse. roots have been cut to prevent them 



Greenhouse notes 104 choking the flow of water. * * I sug- 



Sanure^vlter-little bugs-No blooms- '. . 'a^ gested that he (his gardener) try the 



Plants in schools 166 willow roots, and now, after two years 



Geraniums for winter flowering 166 trial, he is satisfied that no better sub- 



^a^rn'reffuptdTeascd-. ! ! ! ! i ! 1 ! ! 1 ! ' Iffi stance could be obtained, as the orchids 



Potting plants 166 have thriven in a way they never did 



Lopezia coronata . 167 previouslv." The advantages are perfect 



AQUATICS. drainage, and the fibre does not get sour 



Good tender watei lilies 1G7 q^ rotten, and the orchid roots penetrate 



THE FRUIT GARDEN. jt freelv aud take to it kindly. 



Dwarf pear trees (illus.) 167 



Strawberries 107 In THE FLOWER POT BUSINESS 130 YEARS. 



?r/l^irffer pear in Iowa ...■.:.:;:;:: '^ "The Centenary Club in Philadelphia 

 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN consists of fimis that havc had an unin- 



A list of vegetables . . . . . ' 169 terrupted ancestral record of one hundred 



Challenfie black wax bean (illus ) 109 years or more in the same business. I i) 



MISCELLANEOUS. to the present time only thirty-one firms 



Catalogues. . 170,172 in the United States have been found that 



Publisher's department 174 can claim membership, and of these 



twenty-one are in the state of Pennsyl- 



The EFFECT OF THE WINTER ON EVER- vania. One of the other ten is A H. 

 OREENS.-The winter so far has been Hews & Co., the flower pot manufact- 

 unusually severe and continuous audits "rers at Cambridge, Mass. The great 

 eff-ect on evergreens is likelv to be serious. grandfather of the present A. H. Hevys 

 We notice-and it is early to notice such began the manufacture of flower pots in 

 things-that the foliage 'of several firs, Massachusetts some time previous to 

 spruces, yews and eephalotaxus is already 1765, and the business has continued un- 

 considcrably browned, and some retinos- interruptedly in the same family ever 

 poras, notablv R. pisifera and its varie- since. Some idea of the recent progress 

 ties, have that dry curled appearance of ornamental gardening m .America may 

 which practical men dread so much. The be obtained from the flower pot busmess. 

 exceedinglv drv summer and drv fall of In a paper read befor;^ the Mass. Hort. 

 last vear have "also much to do in render- Society the other dav Mr Hews tells us 

 ing "the evergreens an easy prev to the that in 1869 his firm made ,()( 000 pots, 

 destructive power of a long hard winter. but in 1894. they made , ,()0(M_)00. i<ora 

 hundred years prior to 180o compara- 

 Are WE CIVILIZED? In an editorial note tively little progress had been made in 

 in the Journal of Horticulture we read: the preparation of the clay or methods of 

 "With the increasing development of civ- manufacture of the pots. Up to 1S63 

 ilization in the States there is a pressing flower pots had always been made by 

 demand for lawns such as adorn our hand, on a potter's wheel, then machinery 

 countrv residences and suburban villas." was invented and introduced by which 



small pots, up to 5-inch size, were made, 

 and improvements have so continued 

 that now all pots up to 12-inch are made 

 by machinery; over that size, however, 

 they are made by hand as informeryears. 



Winter Protection— Now is the time 

 OF DANGER.— Ordinarily hardy plants as 

 roses, bamboos, raspberry bushes, grape 

 vines, strawberrie. rhododendrons, and 

 the Uke, are seldom injured by frost in the 

 early part of the winter or so long as the 

 winter continues steadily cold; but the 

 moment after the middle of February 

 that there comes a warm break in the 

 weather danger sets in. Even if you 

 neglected to protect anything before the 

 winter set in attend to it now. If you 

 haven't doneit before scatter some straw, 

 com stalks, littery manure or sedge over 

 the strawberry plants. Mulch the rose 

 bushes wi1h s"omething of the same sort; 

 if you can not protect the tops at least 

 save the roots. A few boards to break 

 the wind, a light wooden frame and ever- 

 green branches to save the shrubs, apiece 

 of burlap or coarse sacking tied around 

 some of the moretender shriibsto exclude 

 sunshine and help prevent an easy ten- 

 dency to freezing and thawing will be of 

 great avail. Do your best to prevent the 

 plants starting into growth early; the 

 earlier they start the more liable they are 

 to injury by a cold snap. And if you 

 have a choice little evergreen that you 

 are proud of, say a thujopsis, yew, juni- 

 per or rare arbor vita?, a little pains to 

 protect it from bright sunshine for the 

 next two months will probably be worth 

 your while. Don't crow over the earli- 

 ness of your snowdrops, crocuses, squills, 

 irises and other early gems; rather than 

 aid in hastening their coming it may be 

 more to your advantage to pile snow on 

 to the beds and borders and tramp it 

 down there to delay them in starting, 

 then when they do appear they will prob- 

 ably be more perfect and beautiful than if 

 hurried out of bed by the coaxing influ- 

 ence of a few warm days, and then 

 scorched by the merciless breath of a 

 fierce norther. If you have isolated plants 

 of nice rhododendrons, azaleas or other 

 choice shrubs or rose bushes that are not 

 too big tie the branches a little together 

 and invert a barrel or dry goods box 

 over them, making a hole near the top on 

 the east side to admit light enough to 

 keep them hardy. 



CAN'T GET THE SEEDS. 



P. B., Washington, D. C, notes what 

 we said about raising ferdinandia and 

 wigandia from seed, page 148, but com- 

 plains that he cannot find seed of them 

 advertised in any American catalog-ie 

 thathegets. He adds "I would like to 

 raise Ferdinandia eminens, Solanum 

 robustum. etc." 



Our seedsmen don't list these things be- 

 cause there is no demand for them. Some 

 of our readers may ask, what are these 

 plants and what are they good for? They 

 are large, bold, highly ornamental leaved 

 plants much used in the pretentious gar- 

 dens of Europe in subtropical gardening 

 effects We use castor beans, caiinas, and 

 the like for a similar purpose, but we are 

 considerably behind in this style of gar- 

 dening. We are glad, however, to find 

 that our progressive gardeners are exer- 

 cising themselves in it. If you want to 

 try it this year make out your list of 

 seeds at once, and have your seedsman 

 send to Europe for them or send there 

 yourself and get them. And then for next 

 year's garden make out your list in sum- 



