274 



GARDENING. 



June /, 



Japanese snowballs turning white, beach 

 plums about over; azaleas in many colors 

 approaching best, and a few rhododen- 

 drons open. 



HEDGE OF flYDRflNOEfl FflNICULflTfl OBflND- 

 IFLOIMl. 



I have one on my place jilanted fifteen 

 years ago. From my standpoint almost 

 any flowering shrub would be better. I 

 have a hedge, Sp/ra;a Tbunbergii, which is 

 pleasing at all seasons of the year. Rosa 

 rugosa does not prove desirable. For a 

 low growing hedge Berberis Thunbergii 

 is a glor\'. 



EXOCHORDA GRANDIFLORA.— Why doeS 



it have such unstinted praise? I have one 

 nearly fifteen feet high. At the present 

 time a mass of bloom, good to look at 

 certainly, but after the bloom has passed 

 I can't see that it has anything to its 

 credit. Will it stand close pruning? [When 

 in full bloom it is lovely, when out of 

 flower, thin and scraggy. Much of this 

 objection is due to neglect of the plant 

 in its early years, we are so apt to strive 

 after height rather than fullness to the 

 ground, that we let the plants grow too 

 tall. Take a young plant and cut its head 

 off', and every year after keep down its 

 head till it makes a full well-proportioned 

 bod}' from the ground up and holds it. 

 In the illustrations of the shrubs at 

 Dosoris this is one of the main points we 

 wish to show, namely full-bodied speci- 

 mens, the result of earlv training.— Ed.] 



Fiendish weather.— Ten days ago it 

 was hot. Frost almost every night last 

 week, our strawberries are badly injured 

 and com, potatoes and beans killed. 



AmheVst, Mass., May 19, 1895. H. H. 



TREES AND SHRUBS. 



The dead wood is now very visible in 

 both evergnen and deciduous trees and 

 shrubs, and unfortunately there is a good 

 deal of it. Leaving it there gives the 

 plants a neglected and seedy appearance, 

 and reflects very littlecredit on theirown- 

 ers. First saw off all the dead branches 

 close in to the living limbs or trunk, 

 smoothen the wound with a shaving iron 

 and paint it with good linseed oil paint. 

 Cut out all the smaller twigs or branches 

 that are dead, with a hand shears or par- 

 rot-bill shears, cutting close ir to the 

 branch or back to a living joint. In cutting 

 out dead wood you will find, especially in 

 shrubs and vines, considerable wood that 

 isn't quite dead, but is sprouting weakly; 

 if you can spare this half dead stuff", cut it 

 oiit unreservedly. If the roots are all 

 right, vigorous shoots and healthy 

 branches enough will soon be rushed out 

 to more than compensate for the sickly 

 twigs and branches removed. Better cut 

 a shrub right down to the ground and 

 have it come up strong and healthy again 

 than try to coax its half dead body into 

 renewed life. 



Pruning Trees.— If you neglected to 

 prune your trees into handsome plants be- 

 fore this, don't hesitate to do it now, for 

 clean cuts made now heal over better 

 than do wounds made in winter. And 

 there is no dangerof "bleeding" much, the 

 demand of the green new foliage being too 

 great to allow of much spare sap running 

 to waste. 



Pruning Shrubs. — Aside Irom cutting 

 out dead wood, thinningtheshoots where 

 they are very thick and cutting in any 

 very erratic branches that if left would 

 give an ill form to the shrub, spring 

 blooming shrubs should be pruned in 

 spring as soon as their flowers have faded 

 or fallen. Cut forsythias pretty well back 

 to give the lower eyes a chance to push 

 orth into stout, sound, well ripened 



wood beforefall. Don't let lilacs run up to 

 be tall, thin bodied bushes; head them in 

 at the top so as to give them more side 

 branches and stockier form. As soon as 

 the earlier spira:as are over thin out the 

 shoots that have blossomed, andcut back 

 most of those left to sound youngsprouts 

 or eyes to get nicely shaped specimens. 

 S. prunifoUa, S. trilobata, S. Cantonensis 

 and the like should be treated in this way, 

 but as Thunbergii is of different habit it 

 should not be cut in as much as the others. 

 We shorten in the Japan quince a little to 

 keep it shapely, the same with exochorda 

 and rose acacia. When small dexitzias 

 (gracilis) have done blooming cut back 

 most of the old sprays to give the young 

 shoots a better chance for next spring's 

 flowers. Big deutzias (crenata) and 

 mock oranges (Philadelphus) should be 

 somewhat shortened after blooming, and 

 as soon as the .\frican tamarix is over all 

 of its wood should be cutback to the two 

 year old wood. As it blossoms on the one 

 year old wood thisgives the youngshoots 

 time enough to mature before the winter 

 sets in. 



Look to the Evergreens.— Most all 

 yews of the English or baccata class, as the 

 plain English, erect, Irish and Dovestone's 

 all suffered more or less during winter, 

 and may now need to be cut well in, as one 

 would a hedge, to cause them to break 

 back into new wood. Retinosporas suf- 

 fered considerably, and show a deal of dead 

 wood inside; cut most of it out and let in 

 the air. In spruces, firs and pines en- 

 deavor to preserve a straight, stiff stem or 

 leader, but don't let it growaway at will. 

 If it is apt to run too long, don't hesitate 

 to cut it off' half way down It is by 

 timely attention to the leaders in this way 

 that the Dosoris specimens are so abund- 

 antly branched from flat on the ground 

 up. If you let the leader run up as it 

 pleases it is apt to add to the tree's sta- 

 ture more than to its fullness at the 

 ground, and thus court the very evil that 

 has driven the balsam fir from our gar- 

 dens, namely, naked stems. Indeed it is 

 questionable if Aii'es Veitchii. A. Ajanen- 

 sis,A. yJrmaand A. brachypbyllaaremuch 

 better than our native balsam in this re- 

 spect. In thecaseof firs and spruces, have 

 an eye to symmetry, and this can be easily 

 encouraged, if at this season of the year, 

 when the new growths are so young and 

 tender, we break off the end growths of the 

 branches, which is easily done with a snip 

 of the finger; if we leave it undone for an- 

 other month we shall have to use a knife 

 or shears to cut out what we now can rub 

 off with the finger. In evergreens cared 

 for in this way every now and again a 

 branch may turn up at the end and stiffen 

 as a leader; cut this upstart point right 

 out. 



Staking YoungTrees.— If a youngtree 

 is unusually tall, slender stemmed, top 

 heavy or poorly rooted and needs support 

 give it a stout, neat stake at once. Don't 

 use hard cord or wire in tying or tie dead 

 tight, but use stout soft cord, as marline 

 or plasterer's cord, or hay rope, and if the 

 tree is apt to be swayed by the wind have 

 a pad between the ligature and the cord; 

 a piece of burlap is good for this, but we 

 like old rubber hose better. We cut an 

 old hose into pieces a few inches long, 

 pass the string through one of these, then 

 with a neat wad of burlap between the 

 stem and the stake, and the rubber hose 

 between the ligature and the stem, the 

 cord cannot cut into the wood, and there 

 is little danger of thetyingbeingtoo tight 

 for a j'car or two. Xewly planted shade 

 or lawn trees of somewhat large size 

 should be supported bj' a stout stake, or 

 by a stake to the tree, and guys of two ur 



three stout cords from pretty high up on 

 the tree to pegs out in the ground some 

 feet away from the bole. In this instance 

 have a good bunch of hay or burlap 

 around the tree and between it and the 

 guy ropes. 



Keep the Ground Moist — It is poor 

 policy to plant trees and then let them 

 starve to death in summer. After the 

 plants have got well rooted and estab- 

 lished they can take care of themselves, 

 but for newly planted ones we should 

 make provision for keeping the ground 

 moist and cool about their roots in sum- 

 mer. We cut out a circle 3 to 4 feet in 

 diameter around them, having it a little 

 lower than the sod of the lawn, and fill 

 this full up or more with mulching. When 

 the drouth comes we can fill in the water 

 here, and it won't run away as it would 

 surely do on bare dry ground; it enters 

 readily through the mulch and into the 

 open ground, and the mulch saves the 

 ground from drying out quickly, and pre- 

 vents it baking and cracking, and break- 

 ing the fibrous roots. These circles 

 around the young trees, and especially 

 evergreens, when thej' are kept a few 

 inches wider than the spread of the 

 branches on the ground, are a safeguard 

 against accidental or careless work in 

 running the mowing machine up against 

 the stems of the trees, notching them at 

 the collar, or against the evergreen 

 branches, shearing off' their tips and dis- 

 figuring and impairing them. 



TREES AND SHRUBS IN BLOOM AT ROCHES- 

 TER, N. Y., MftY 20. 



The spring has been unfavorable for 

 flowers on trees and shrubs. After the 

 protracted cold of early spring, a remark- 

 ably hot spell of weather set in on the 

 2nd inst., with the temperature 

 verging on the nineties, and 

 continued until the 11th, when 

 there came a severe hail storm that 

 smashed large quantities of glass in 

 greenhouses, riddled the leaves on the 

 trees and shrubs, and sadlj' disfigured 

 flowers, followed by frosts on the nights 

 ofthe 12th, 13th and 14th, and chilling 

 cold winds up to this time. 



During the past four or five days the 

 lilacs have been in fine flower. Amongst 

 some of the most showy varieties are the 

 following: Jacques Calot, has immense 

 clusters, the individual flowers are 

 larger than those of any other variety we 

 have, and of a pink lilac color; Ludwig 

 Spa;th, a beautiful variety with Ion? 

 bunches of large purple red flowers, it is 

 one of the best of the dark varieties. 

 Louis Van Houtte has large reddish clus- 

 ters. Azurea plena is another early 

 flowering variety with bluish tinted 

 flowers in compact clusters. President 

 Massart is a splendid variety; the clus- 

 ters before they are open have a distinctly 

 dark-red appearance, when open the 

 flowers are dark purple. President Grevy 

 is superb; the panicles are immense, 

 and the individual flowers large, and of 

 a bluish or light purple shade. Verschaf- 

 feltii has dark and purple panicles; Villede 

 Troves dark purple flowers; Prof E. 

 Stuckhardt pink purple flowers and large 

 clusters; Gloire de Moulins, large pink 

 lilac, very fragrant clusters; Ccerulea 

 superba is beautiful and has clear blue 

 trusses, Beranger has reddish purple 

 flowers. Charleniburg pink purple ones 

 in somewhat dense panicles, Croix de 

 Brahy, pinkish red. Prince of Wales, dark 

 lilac,with the petals showing a somewhat 

 striped appearance, and Councilor Hey- 

 der a handsome variety with red buds, 

 which when open show whitish blue 

 flowers. 



