314 



• • • GARDENING. 



July /, 



place all the winter till you want to 

 start them in the spring, when j'ou can 

 divide and repot them. 



Agai'anthus Umbeli.atus, blue and its 

 white variety are now coming into bloom. 

 We stow them away in a cool house over 

 winter, and place them in a conspicuous 

 position around the greenhouses in early 

 summer, where they are always admired 

 when in bloom. We place saucers filled 

 with water under the pots. As they are 

 vigorous growing plants they require 

 plenty to eat and drink. When the speci- 

 mens get too large divide them, as they 

 will not give satisfactory results if too 

 much pot-bound. Do not pot them too 

 firm, as when theirfleshy roots commence 

 to swell they may burst the pot. We 

 have a plant of the white flowered one 

 that produces blossoms along the side as 

 well the terminal end of the scape every 

 year. Is this unusual? [Although rather 

 unusual, we now and again find liliaceous 

 plants of several genera behave in this 

 way. Sometimes it is caused by over- 

 luxuriance, at other times, as in the case 

 of the Baronald plant, it is probably a 

 l)ud sport or a seedling variation.— Ed.] 



Baronald, N. J. Wm. Fitzwilliam. 



FORCING SFflNISfl IRIS. 



I). S. M., Watertown.N. Y.,"sold Span- 

 ish iris to one of our florists, and he 

 started them under heat early in the win- 

 ter, and made a failure. Is there not 

 some way to manage so they can be used 

 as florists' flowers? They would seem to 

 be a very desirable addition." 



Hardy plants used for forcing in winter 

 are generally those that bloom in early 

 spring, but the Spanish iris flowers (at 

 Dosoris) during the first half of June; that 

 in itself would suggest to go slow in forc- 

 ing if you want success. It is a very easy 

 matter to force it so astohaveitinbloom 

 at Easter, but we should disad vise hurry- 

 ing it up much earlier. Pot the bulbs in 

 August, rest them long and thoroughly, 

 as one would Dutch bulbs, and start them 

 in February. 



Seedling Chrysanthemums.— C. F. D., 

 Iowa, writes; "I have about 100 seed- 

 ling chry-anthemums 5 to 8 inches high, 

 growing nicely in the open ground. When 

 should they be lifted and into what sized 

 pots should they be put for producing 

 single blooms in 6-inch pots next fall?" It 

 all depends upon the size of the plants and 

 the trouble you mean to take with them. 

 Seedlings generally grow rank, making 

 lots of roots, so unless lifted and potted 

 soon they may get too big for even a 

 (jinch pot And if you let them stay till 

 late, then have to shake the dirt away 

 from them to allow you to get them into 

 the Os they are apt to lose their lower 

 leaves. In a general way we would say 

 life and pot them about the first of 

 August directly into 6-inch pots, and pot 

 firmly. 



Violets.— E. C, Va., asks: "Will you 

 please tell me of some work on the culti- 

 vution and care of violets." There is no 

 special work on the subject that we know 

 of. But there is an excellent chapter on 

 it in Hunt's book "How to Grow Cut 

 Flowers." 



The Fruit Garden. 



STRAWBERRIES AND ROSBS. 



F. C. C, Bath, Maine, writes: "I wish 

 to reverse the positions of my rose and 

 strawberry beds, and not lose my next 

 summer's berry crop. Now would I lose 



many berries if I pot the runners in July 

 into 2-inch pots, and then, when they are 

 established, shift them into 6-inch ones 

 and keep them sunk in the ground until I 

 can lift the rose bushes in October?" 



No. But don't use 2-inch pots, use 

 4-inch ones instead. In pottingtlie straw- 

 berry plants, take a steel trowel and a 

 lot of pots that have been rubbed clean 

 inside, out into the bed. At every runner 

 you wish to secure, scoop out a trowelful 

 of dirt and sink the pot up to the brim or 

 over it in the hole, fill it with nicely pre- 

 pared fresh soil, then heel the runner into 

 it without severing it from the parent. As 

 runners often have two or three sprouts, 

 take the strongest ones, and pinch off the 

 part beyond it. The layers will soon root 

 into the fresh soil in the pots. About the 

 middle ot August or as soon as they have 

 become well rooted sever them from the 

 parent plants, repot them into 6-inch pots 

 and plunge them close together in a bed 

 of earth or ashes, and plant them out as 

 you suggest early in October. Instead of 

 repotting them into 6-inch pots however, 

 we would rather turn them out of the 4s 

 and plant then close together in a bed, to 

 stay there for a month or six weeks till 

 theoldrose bed should be ready for them, 

 then plant them out permanently. This 

 avoids getting the roots so much matted 

 together as they would likely be if kept 

 long in pots. 



STRAWBERRIES. 



Now that the strawberrj- season is 

 practically ended, it is in order to talk 

 over the new things which have come un- 

 der our observation, to fairly estimate 

 their worth and to compare them with 

 the older and better known varieties. 



Last summer, as early as potted plants 

 could be procured, I set out a row across 

 my garden each of Parker Earle and Tim- 

 brel!. The soil was in good condition, 

 having been generously treated with 

 stable manure and commercial fer- 

 tilizer. They were given the best of 

 culture and made a good late summer 

 and autumn growth. They were heavily 

 mulched with coarse stable manure after 

 the ground had frozen, and the covering 

 was lelt on rather late. Both rows were 

 covered last spring to save them from the 

 effects of frost— a work which paid me 

 well. In the spring, the ground received 

 a liberal dressing of muriate of potash. 

 So much for preliminaries, now for 

 results. 



The Parker Earle outgrew the Timbrell, 

 though the latter did well. When they 

 began to bloom it was notable that the 

 Parker Earle had more than double the 

 number of blossoms thatits neighborhad 

 and it continued to outgrow it. They be- 

 gan ripening with me about June 15, and 

 seem to be about the same season. I 

 judge that Parker Earle would not be 

 particularly. valuable for field culture ex- 

 cept where it was possible to irrigate. It 

 sets such a mass of fruit that without an 

 abundant and continuous water supply, 

 it would be impossible to mature it; it 

 would result in a large number of "but- 

 tons" or imperfectlj' developed berries. It 

 reminds me in this respect of the James 

 Vick, a variety which looked like a deut- 

 zia bush when in bloom, but which never 

 was able to mature but a most insignifi- 

 cant crop of fruit. Where it can be irri- 

 gated or drenched with a garden hose, it 

 is a most prolific sort, excelling in this 

 respect any I have ever grown. The fruic 

 is long, largest in the middle, pointing to 

 both ends, of fair quality and solid enough 

 to ship well. 



The Timbrell bears a good crop. Its 



habit of ripening unevenly — its patchy ap- 

 pearance when not quite" ripe, is its only 

 fault on my grounds, and that is not of 

 great importance. Left until well ripened 

 it will be of solid color, outside and in 

 and it is by all odds, the best in quality 

 of any berry with which I am familiar. 

 Whether it will ever be a desirable mar- 

 ket sort may be fairly questioned, but its 

 superb quality makes it an indispensable 

 variety in the home garden. I value it 

 more highly than ever. 



Among older varieties, I still have a 

 warm regard for Cumberland Triumph 

 and Kirkwood, both perfect flowered, 

 both vigorous and productive and of 

 good quality. Bubach is also an excellent 

 market berry — large, handsome and pro- 

 ductive. To this trio, add Haverland and 

 you have a quartet of good, reliable crop- 

 pers and standard market sorts. 



I hear high encomiums ot Marshall, a 

 new berry which is said to rival or exceed 

 Timbrell in quality, and these come from 

 men in whose judgment I have confi- 

 dence. Brandy wine is aho highly spoken 

 of and by those competent to judge. 



Port Jervis, N. Y. F. G. Fowler. 



[When a new strawberry is "sent out" 

 at ten dollars a dozen young plants as 

 the Marshall was two or three years ago 

 we are apt to give it pretty good treat- 

 ment, so we planted our Marshalls in the 

 best and moistest bit of ground we had. 

 It grew splendidly, and maintained its 

 sturdy vigorous foliage all summer, not 

 resting in the least. It bore a heavy crop 

 of fine fruit of deep red or crimson color 

 and excellent quality; some of the earlier 

 berries were quite large — 5 inches around 

 but the large majority were smaller. 

 Taking it altogether, however, except in 

 form of berry and fine quality, we prefer 

 Sharpless, which is still king among 

 strawberries on Long Island.— Ed.] 



STIRRING THE SOIL IS BETTER THAN 

 IHULCfllNO. 



In 1S53 I planted a pear orchard of 

 1,500 trees, about a fourth of which only 

 I was able to rrulch; the balance I culti- 

 vated as effectually as we do a cotton 

 field or vegetable patch. The result was 

 that those not mulched grew far better 

 than those that were. For the last fifty 

 years I have practiced mulching more or 

 less for many things, and with alwaj'S the 

 same result — that the plants that were 

 cultivated often and thoroughly invaria- 

 bly did better than those of the same kind 

 and planting that were mulched, so now 

 I am convinced that the more and better 

 you stir the soil among growing crops, 

 be they of the field or garden, the betterit 

 is for them, and far better than any mulch- 

 ing, for it admits air, moisture and natu- 

 ral gases, which are the life of the plants, 

 to the roots. Mulching doesn't do this. 

 James Stewart. 



Elmwood Nursery, Memphis. 



Frozen Grape Vines.— An experiment 

 with frosted grape vines has settled it 

 that the best thing to do when the shoots 

 are killed back is to immediately break 

 out the frozen canes and let new ones 

 grow from adventitious buds, and the 

 remaining double buds. A half crop can 

 usually be got from the latter. If not 

 broken out shoots finallj' start from 

 laterals and next year's buds, but these 

 are unhealthy and the vine seems much 

 injured. D. S. M. 



Watertown, N. Y. 



I HAVE NEVER yet had any horticultural 

 paper which I enjoy nearly so much as 

 Gardening. T. C. W. 



Cambridge, N. Y., June, 1895. 



