242 



GARDENING. 



May 



not like to leave the same beds unsightly 

 until the hyacinth bulbs have ripened. 

 Can one have fine displays of hyacinths 

 ever)' year, only by buyi: 

 bulbs ever\' fall? 



some new 



When the blossoms fade lift the bulbs, 

 keeping to them what earth will stick, 

 and heel them close together into a long 

 narrow trench in a partly shaded place 

 and moistish ground, letting them stay 

 there till the leaves turn yellow. Then 

 lift them, trim off the leaves, and keep the 

 bulbs in a cool, dark, airy place over 

 summer. Examine them two or three 

 times during summer to see that they are 

 free from wet and rot. In fall, whenever 

 your ground is ready, plant them out 

 "again. All of the sound, solid bulbs 

 should bear flowers the next spring, but 

 there will probably be seve al worthless 

 ones among them. Now while these hya- 

 cinth bulbs maj- give a nice lot of blos- 

 soms in a side border they are not good 

 nor even enough for a front bed. Grown 

 in rich land in a warm shelteed place, 

 and allowed to complete their growth 

 and ripen their bulbs, they will wax 

 strong and give good blossoms. We 

 should therefore advise you to get new 

 hyacinths for your front beds fur garden 

 display, and the old bulbs in a side bor- 

 der—even in the vegetable garden, if need 

 be— and in after years select the best of 

 these old bulbs for your front beds, add- 

 ing enough newly purchased ones to make 

 up the complement. 



Tflt MOWBR GARDEN. 



HaAt everything as neat and trim now 

 as possible. Mow the lawn, edge the 

 flower beds and borders, and have the 

 pathways smooth, hard, clean and invit- 

 ing. The mixed borders should be full of 

 plants, and everj'one looking fresh and 

 vigorous. Have no old plant stems or 

 rubbish of any kind about the garden, 

 and don't let a weed exist in your pres- 

 ence. 



The spring is a gay period in the gar- 

 den. Aside from the display of hyacinths, 

 tulips, narcissi and pansies we can have a 

 fine show of other beauties, for example, 

 moss pink ( P/)/oA- subulata), bloodroot, 

 white rock cress, blue hepaticas, dog's 

 tooth violet, wild anemones, corydalis of 

 sorts, trilliums, European fragrant and 

 American scentless violets, rue anemones, 

 spring beauty, spring orobus, spring 

 adonis and many others. We should so 

 arrange our gardens as to have an un- 

 broken display of hardy flowers all sum- 

 mer. 



The flower borders generally con- 

 tain a miscellaneous assortment of plants, 

 mostly hardy. These borders should now 

 be forked over, unfastening the soil deeply 

 where there are no plants, but only lightly 

 where the plants are close together. 

 Sometimes we find clumps of white funkia, 

 pink Japanese sedum, coreopsis, phloxes, 

 etc. raised considerably above the sur- 

 rounding level. Dig them up and replant 

 them, keeping them as low in the ground 

 as the level of the border. Be careful, 

 however, about asclepias, platycodon, 

 fraxinella and some others that have not 

 yet appeared above ground, not to dig 

 them up. Monarda, lobelia and the like 

 are apt to be heaved by the frost and need 

 replanting. Pearl achillea, perennial sun- 

 flowers, Lysimachia clethroides are apt 

 to spread out beyond desirable limits and 

 should be cut in. Seedlings of hcliopsis, 

 spiderwort and other half-weed plants 

 wecultivate aresuretobe scattered about 

 and coming up among the plants in the 

 borders; a little energy in rooting them 



them out now may save much labor later 

 on. But besides a crop of weeds we are 

 apt to have a host of seedlings of fox- 

 gloves, perennial larkspur, hollyhocks 

 and others come up around where the old 

 plants grew last year, and probably these 

 little plants are as good in variety as 

 were their parents; save all you want of 

 them, either planting them in a reserve 

 bed or directly in proper places in the bor- 

 der. And whatever other empty spaces 

 there maj' be should be filled up with 

 perennials orwith annuals. The annuals 

 may be sown there, or if raised in beds 

 elsewhere transplanted where needed. A 

 border filled with hardy perennials is a 

 very interesting spot, because there is 

 always something in bloom in it, at the 

 same time unless given a good deal of 

 attention to keep it well filled up, to pre- 

 vent some of the stronger plants smoth- 

 ering the lesser ones, and to cut down and 

 remove the stems of "spent" plants, it is 

 apt to have a neglected and untidy ap- 

 pearance. 



.Annuals must furnish a large share of 

 the summer flowers, both for cutting and 

 garden decoration, so we should grow 

 lots of them. Go particularly heavy on 

 those that are easy to grow and are 

 showy and useful for cutting, for instance 

 stocks, China asters, salvia, zinnia, nas- 

 turtium, coreopsis, mignonette, Drum- 

 mond phlox, small sunflower, scarlet 

 salvia and candytuft. A second or suc- 

 cession crop of all of these, except stocks, 

 should be made now, for blossoms after 

 midsummer. They may be sown in rows, 

 or hills where they are to bloom, or in a 

 separate bed or frame, and thence trans- 

 planted to the garden. Annuals sown 

 out of doors some weeks ago are now up, 

 and we are thinning them just as w e do 

 our beets or carrots. It is a great mis- 

 take to let them grow up so thick as to 

 spindle or weaken them; give them lots 

 of room and they will make big roots and 

 big stocky bodies, and give fine flowers. 

 We sow again a month from now for late 

 summer and fall flowers. As soon as 

 danger from frost is over set out such 

 seedlings as salvias, balsams, French 

 marigolds, zinnias and others that are 

 tender. 



Vines. — Have lots of these. Moonflow- 

 ers, cobfEa, lophospermum, maurandya 

 and nasturtiums we can raise from seeds 

 easier than from anyway else. The varie- 

 gated Japanese hop has come up in 

 myriads around where the plants were 

 grown last year, so we have weeded them 

 out to a few. A free use of vines gives a 

 place a well furnished homey appearance, 

 and many homes in open bleak situations 

 may be divested of their uninviting naked- 

 ness by a liberal use of vines around the 

 house and in the garden. 



Perennial vines as Ipowoca pandiir- 

 ata, everlasting pea, clematis of sorts 

 and cinnamon vine are very useful in the 

 garden. See that they have supports 

 from the first. Tender vines as Ipomcea 

 paniculata and madeira vine help us out 

 in summer considerably; we can plant 

 out their tubers most any time now, if 

 the weather is mild and danger of frost 

 past. Ipomaea Leari, passion flowers, 

 Aristolochia elegans and others that are 

 well start! d before being set out should 

 not be planted till the middle of the 

 month, if then. 



BuLiis. — Hyacinths and tulips are now 

 in their heyday. If they are in front beds, 

 as soon as they are over lift them and heel 

 them in in rows and pretty close together 

 in a sheltered and slightly shaded spot to 

 ripen, and when their leaves fade lift the 

 bulbs, spread them out to dry as one 

 would onions, divest them of tlicii' Icrivcs 



and store them over summer in a cool, 

 dark, airy room, spreading them out 

 thinly. Hyacinths as a rule do fairly 

 well if left in the ground over summer, 

 and so too do the different species of 

 tulips, but the garden .sorts should be 

 lifted and dried in summer. Leave all 

 kinds of narcissus in the ground. The 

 polyanthus narcissus are not hardy here 

 and shouldn't be planted outside; in the 

 south, however, they do well. Of course 

 grape hyacinths, one-flowered milla (Af. 

 uniiiora), erj'throniums and others of 

 their class are better left in the ground. 

 We find that crocuses grown in the grass 

 are not to be compared for long life and 

 vigor with those in cultivated ground in 

 the garden. The same with snowdrops. 

 It is time now to plant gladiolus bulbs. 

 Have them at least 3 to 4 inches under 

 the surface of the ground. Keep back 

 enough bulbs to make one or two later 

 plantings between now and the 10th of 

 July, for later blooming, oxalis, Hya- 

 cithus candicans, montbretias and the 

 like may also be planted now, but delay 

 a little with caladium, tuberose, tropical 

 crinums, arums, etc. 



Bedding plants are such as geraniums, 

 coleus, altcrnanthera, iresine, heliotrope, 

 abutilon, stevia and the like. Now, don't 

 be in a hurry planting them out, you gain 

 nothing by it. First try to get good 

 plants. If your plants are small, by 

 keeping them snug and warm in frames 

 or greenhouses, giving them good light 

 and plenty of room, try to get them into 

 good stock. Then by ventilating the 

 greenhouses more freely, and reducing the 

 artificial heat, and gradually exposing 

 the plants more and more to the weather 

 till they are left fully exposed day and 

 night get them so well hardened off that 

 they won't suffer any harm when planted 

 out. Exposing these tender plants to 

 cold drizzling weather and a night tem- 

 perature of 35° to 4-0° is wrong; in the 

 event of such unfavorable weather cover 

 up the plants at night. Don't plant them 

 out till danger of frost is past. And in 

 the case of coleus and altcrnanthera the 

 end of May is soon enough. In hotbeds 

 at this time of year altcrnanthera will 

 grow like a weed, and cuttings put in 

 now will root in two or three days and 

 make nice plants in a fortnight. They 

 love the heat. 



flRRflNOEMENT OF PLANTS IN BEDS. 



N., Morris, 111., has the following plants 

 and asks us about arranging them: 

 "Geraniums, double petunias, marguerite 

 carnations, tall and dwarf nasturtiums, 

 coleus, verbenas, balsams, double white 

 feverfew, pearl achillea, poppies, white 

 pinks, pansies, mignonette, portulacca, 

 dwarf sweet alyssum, a few clumps of 

 paeonies, some lilies and cockscombs, and 

 expects to have some cannas." 



We can advise you only in a general 

 way. First separate your plants into 

 groups: The geraniums, coleus and 

 cannas last in good looks all summer and 

 should be planted now with a view to 

 continuous effect. The petunias may last 

 through the summer, the carnations 

 should do so, also the nasturtiums, ver- 

 benas, so they should have a place free 

 from encroachment by other plants. The 

 feverfew has a flush of flowers in early 

 summer, then a halt, and a scattering 

 second crop later on; the white pinks are 

 soon over, but as the plants are low- 

 growing and evergreen keep them near 

 the edge of the 'oorders. Pearl achillea 

 spreads immensely at the root and should 

 not be grown beside small plants of other 

 kinds, that it might grow into or over 

 and choke. Paonics and lilies have per- 



