GARDENING. 



Mar. /5, 



N6 



William Falconer, Editor. 



PtJBLISHED THE 1ST ANX» 15TH OF EACH MONTH 



THE GARDENING COMPANY, 



Monon Building, CHICAGO. 



Subscription Price. R2. 00 a Tear— 24 Numbers. Adver- 

 tising rates on aDDllcatton. 

 Entered at Ctilcago postofBce as second-class matter. 

 (3opynght, IKM. by The Gardening Co. 



All communications relating to subscriptions, adver- 

 tisements and other business matters should be 

 addressed to The Gardening Company. Monon Build- 

 In*, Chicago, and all matters pertaining to the editorial 

 department of the paper should be addressed to the 

 Editor of Gardeniso. Glen Cove. N. Y. 



EXING Is got 

 . and It beho 



Interesting. If It does 





and tell 

 to help you. 



ANY QtTEST10X8 yon please about plant 

 . fruits, vegetables or other practical gardenlii 

 B. We will take pleasure In answering them . 

 r experience In gardening 1 

 ■ ■ ■■ ay t 



perhaps we can help you. 



Send us photographs or Sketches of your 

 flowers, gardens, greenhouses, fruits, vegetables, or 

 horticultural appliances that we may have them en- 

 graved for Gardening. 



Park (illus.) . 



Raising auriculas from seed 194 



Clematis paniculata from seed ... 194 



Chinese paeonias from seed 194 



TREES AND SHRUBB. 



The dwarl catalpa (illus ) 19.5 



Windbreaks for bleak exposures ... 195 



Pollarding trees . . . 196 



Privet hedge 196 



Magnolias 196 



Norway spruce 196 



Shrubs for Milwaukee 196 



196 



The greenhouse 197 



Carnation disease (illus.) 198 



Good blooming olants 198 



The window garden . . 198 



Insects on plants . 198 



THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



A few good grapes , . 199 



The Winchell grape (illus.) 199 



apple 



. 199 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



Musk and water melons 201 



Vegetables in the south 201 



Stored vegetables 201 



Memph 



Double Shirley Poppies.— Debased 

 wretches, away with them! The very 

 fact that they are double debars them 

 from the title of Shirley. The Rev. W. 

 WiIlces,ofShirIey, near Croydon, England, 

 spent fifteen years in obtaining and per- 

 fecting this strain of poppies, and double 

 flowers were one of the points he uncom- 

 ])romisingIy objected to. The Shirley is 

 single and semi-double and nothing more, 

 and a double floweris a rogue — a weed, a 

 degenerate renegade, and should be rooted 

 out. The Shirley poppies have been bred 

 and selected from Papaver Rhosas, the 

 common field poppy of Europe. From 

 the same source come the double carna- 

 tion and ranunculus flowered poppies, of 

 vast variety and now hoary with age. 

 Doubling the Shirley is makiiig a weed of 

 it, and there is nothing new about it. 



Anemone Japonica Whirlwind, the 

 semi-double white flowered variety, is 

 being got propagated and planted by some 

 florists for cut flowers in fall. The partial 

 doubling of the flowers helps to prevent 

 them dropping their petals. And bloom- 

 ing as they do from August till October 

 they are in season when neat white 

 flowers are not over plentiful. They 

 are propagated from cuttings of the fleshy 

 roots. 



In sowing fine seeds, as of gloxinias, 

 begonias, streptocarpus, calceolarias, 

 etc., if you find any difficulty in distrib- 

 uting them equally over the soil mix a little 

 fine dry sand with the seeds before sow- 

 ing them, this adding to the bulk enables 

 one to scatter the seed with more regu- 

 larity than wecould without it. In some 

 of these packets the seeds arejust as few 

 as the}' are tiny, and the rarer and more 

 expensive they are the fewer they are. 



China Aster Seed. — The great bulk of 

 this seed is grown in Germany, our seeds- 

 men importing it from there. But last 

 year, in consequence of unfavorable 

 weather in Germany, the crop of aster 

 seed was short and of poor quality, in- 

 deed the yield of Victoria aster seed was 

 verv limited. Truifaut's Improved Pjeony 

 Perfection, which is somewhat similar in 

 habit is substituted for it. China aster 

 seed is one of (he crops we can raise very 

 well in this country, and some of our 

 seedsmen do grow it. 



Asclepias nivea is a small but healthy 

 and very free-blooming tender species 

 that thrives admirably out of doors in 

 summer and blooms abundantly after 

 July. Its flowers are white, and although 

 small they are numerous, and useful for 

 cutting. It likes good soil just as well as 

 any other plant, but will also live nicely 

 and bloom well in ground so warm and 

 dry in summer that most other plants 

 would fail in it, and we like it on this 

 account, and plant a clump of about fifty 

 plants of it every summer. 



Cobea macrostema is a seed novelty 

 this year. It is a fast growing vine a 

 good deal like the common Cobsea scan- 

 dens, but its flowers are of a yellowish 

 hue and not as showy as those of the 

 latter; its stamens, however, are twice 

 as long as the corolla and give the flowers 

 a fantastic appearance. It is easily raised 

 from seed and the seedlings bloom freely 

 when planted out in a warm place the 

 first summer. But why is the seed so 

 scarce? If sunny Italy were equal to 

 California for raisingseedsthe case might 

 have been different. 



The Little Gem Calla is not giving 

 general satisfaction, it doesn't bloom 

 enough. It is quite different from the 

 ordinary big calla, and its compact or 

 half size variety, and when it behaves 

 well is interesting and pretty. But there 

 is no use disguising the fact that it is a 

 disappointment. Under special treatment 

 it may bear lots of blossoms, but given 

 ordinary cultivation it is vevy sparing of 

 its blooms. Restricted root room forces 

 it to flower. And its flowers, even as 

 miniatures, can not be compared with 

 those of the big callas in purity or beauty. 



The Prize for the Plan for a 

 Terrace.— In our issue of Dec. 15 last, 

 page 107, one of our readers oflered a 

 prize of $20 for the best plan of planting 

 a garden terrace. Plans were duly re- 

 ceived by the editor of Gardening, and 

 last month they were submitted to Mr. 

 Elliott for his opinion. One sent in by 

 Mr. H. A. Caparn, of Pennsylvania, being 



considered the best he was awarded the 

 prize. Under date of March 1 the donor 

 writes to us: "I enclose you herewith 

 $20, which be good enough to hand to 

 Mr. Caparn, who has fairly won the 

 prize." 



Sweet Peas.— Just as soon as you can 

 work the ground get j'our sweet peas 

 into it. They love good, deep soil. Draw 

 out the drills four or five — many draw 

 them six — inches deep, and sow the seed, 

 but don't cover it more than two inches 

 deep to begin with; wait for the balance 

 of the covering till the peas begin to 

 grow, and even then simply hoe it down 

 in cultivating, don't draw or shovel it in. 

 Mrs. Sankey, white; Cardinal, scarlet; 

 Boreatton, dark purple; Mrs. Gladstone, 

 soft pink; Blanche Ferry, pink and white, 

 and Countess of Radnor, lavender, are a 

 fine half dozen. 



Fall Sown Sweet Peas.— A corre- 

 spondent in writing us says he doesn't 

 know whether fall sown sweet peas do 

 well or not. We can assure him that 

 they do, and they bloom two to three 

 weeks earlier than dothe spring sown ones. 

 But we don't stake or tie up our sweet 

 peas over winter, simply let them lay on 

 the ground, and spread a little sedge grass 

 over them when we mulch our straw- 

 berries in December, and remove it in 

 early spring at the same time. We stake 

 them in spring. And where they are very 

 thick we dig them up and transplant 

 them, for sweet peas transplant very well. 

 In the fall they should be sown on the 

 level and not in deep rows or trenches. 



The Lawn Mower.— Don't wait till 

 the grass needs cutting before having the 

 lawn mowers fixed. If there is anything 

 the matter with them note it and call the 

 attention of the blacksmith or machinist 

 to it. If there is anything seriously 

 wrong with one of them, the repairs may 

 cost more than the machine is worth, and 

 it may be better and cheaper to get a 

 new machine than repair the old one. 

 We look over our machines about this 

 time, chalk mark what we know needs 

 repairing or renewing, then forward the 

 machines to the factory where they were 

 made with the request that, if found 

 worth it, they be properly repaired. Do 

 this now and you are likely to get a 

 pretty good job, but wait till into April 

 or May and you maj' not get such good 

 attention. 



"Not in the fashion" in this town 

 (Uniontown, Pa.,) is how a reader de- 

 scribes her garden. She wants borders 

 of shrubs, vines and many flowers along 

 the division fences and where she can see 

 them from her window, and to have her 

 lawn open and free from patchy beds. 

 Her neighbors advise her to put the bor- 

 ders around the house, and have none 

 along the fence, but make plenty of flower 

 beds on the lawn in front and fill them 

 with one kind of plant— a coleus, or gera- 

 nium — in each, and all so as to make a 

 fine show from the street. She writes: 

 "If you say the borders must go, there is 

 no further question to be considered." 

 Well, we say Don't. Your letter has 

 come to us too late for consideration in 

 this issue. In next number of Gardening 

 we hope to show you a plan of a little 

 town garden that may interest and help 

 you. But we won't show you a lot of 

 flower beds scattered over the lawn, such 

 gardening being entirely "out of fashion." 



The Variegated Balm, a hardy, her- 

 baceous, old fashioned plant, makes an 

 excellent addition to our list of plants 



