324 



GARDENING. 



July 15, 



vine growth v/as remarkable liecause of 

 the drouth from which we had suffered 

 last summer, when we had only one two- 

 hours' rain in eight weeks. To make 

 partial amends lor that, however, we 

 gave the vines a couple of pails ol water 

 a day." 



PRIIWULfl FftRlNOSfl AT flOIHE. 



I would like to add a word to yonr 

 answers to an enquiry about the hardi- 

 ness of primroses, page 290. Fnnnosa is 

 (iiiite plentiful in rav bailiwick, that is 

 Northern Wisconsin or the northern 

 peninsula of Michigan. I saw beautiful 

 patches of it a montb ago on the shore ot 

 Lake Michigan, but at its extreme north 

 end. It was growing in springy oozy 

 ground, and it is only in such aplacethat 

 it ever will grow. 1 find it in the springy 

 gravelly shor.s of the Escanaba River 

 or mowing in the crevices of the lime- 

 stone banks right in the drip. It grows 

 sometitn.s almost afloat in wet miry 

 spots. In the garden it has done well 

 with me in muck or leaf moUl, but is 

 smaller and less conspicuous than it 

 would be in moist congenial ground. It 

 grows in black muck or clear gravel, but 

 always in a wet place and in full sunshine. 

 1 would be able to send plants to anyone 

 cspeciallv interested, and would be pleased 

 to help your correspondent make tlie ex- 

 periment. '-'• L- ^• 

 Milwaukee, June 23, '05. 



SWEET WILLIAMS. 



An amateur asks; "What is the proper 

 treatment of D/anf/ii/s barbatus in sum- 

 mer? I ha^e one exceedingly good, dwari, 

 rich crimson variety, but out ot one 

 dozen plants started with in the spring, 

 eight only remain, and only two of these 

 are vigorous." 



Plant them out where the ground is a 

 little moist and thinly shaded. So prone 

 are sweet williams to die ofl" with neck 

 rot in summer that it is well to plant 

 them in a bed or corner by themselves 

 where they can get special attention. 

 Indeed the safest way is to sow the seed 

 thinly in rows or hills where you wish to 

 have" the plants grow and bloom and 

 thin out the seedlings. They keep health- 

 ier in this way. Although it is a very 

 common flower and runs wild in some 

 old farm gardens, few kinds of plants die 

 out in summer more than it does. We 

 raise it afresh from seed every year. 



Sweet Peas.— Be sure to pick off every 

 blossom as it opens if you wish to pro- 

 long the season of blooming. In dry 

 weather give the rows a thorough soak- 

 ing of water now and again. Where the 

 .seed had been sown thickest the plants 

 die out ([uickest. Also observe that where 

 sweet peas have been grown year after 

 vear on the same piece of ground they 

 are not nearly as vigorous or healthy as 

 when grown on land thev had not before 

 occupied. Take note of the different va- 

 rieties in bloom. When comparing the 

 new ones with some of the old ones the 

 (|uery "then, what's all the fuss about?" 

 may occur to you. 



Trees and Shrubs. 



rURPLB BEECn AND PLUM, LILACS, TREE 

 PAEONIES. 



As far as I have observed both Prunus 

 Pissardi and purple beech are perfectly 

 hardy here. The former may prefer lighter 

 soil than wc can give it in Milwaukee, 

 but there arc numerous speciinciis doing 



well, and in Lincoln Park, Chicago, no 

 less trving aolacethan this, it is a notice- 

 able feature. ' The purple beech is abund- 

 antly hardy here and seems tothriveeven 

 in our clay. The natural home of the 

 beech is in lighter soils, and all beeches 

 are hard to establish unless sheltered and 

 shaded when young. 



Our winters are vtry trying, no broad- 

 leaved evergreen does well here in the 

 open, but our fall and late summer 

 weather ripens the wood perfectly, and 

 most plants that are hardy in northern 

 New York do well here. 



In its season no shrub blooms that is 

 showier than lilac Souv. de Ludwig 

 SpfEth, striking by the color of buds and 

 flowers. No shrub unless possiblv a 

 spiraea or tree pa;ony would surpass it or 

 e(iual it for some special place of honor in 

 the garden. Alphonse Lavallee is a very 

 good double blue lilac with long pointed 

 racemes and large striking starlike flow- 

 ers. Pres. Grevy when unfolding shows a 

 lovelv tint of blue. But why do nursery- 

 men "give us grafted plants, when most 

 of the newer varieties can be had in 

 Europe on their own roots? To grow as 

 bushes no grafted plant can be tolerated. 

 Tree P.bonies in my own grounds and 

 in gardens generally have come out of the 

 winter urharmed. Mine are sheltered 

 from the west by a bluff. I have known 

 a severe winter that killed moss roses to 

 kill a grand old tree psony,but such win- 

 ters are rare, and in the shelter of houses 

 or with a location like mine I would call 

 them hardv. The Japanese varieties are 

 inferior to "the German and French, but 

 among a lot exhibited by Japan at the 

 World's Fair I have a striking variety. It 

 is a large semi-double flower, silky pure 

 white with golden stamens. The foliage 

 is regularlv mottled with gold and creamy 

 yellow; it is long and finely divided, and 

 makes this a remarkably striking shrub. 

 If not disseminated I think this entitled to 

 an English name and worthy of distribu- 

 tion. In observing the flowers of these 

 pa;onies one showed a much finer color in 

 lamplight than in the day time. The nar- 

 cissus "Barri conspicuous" also strikes 

 me as being improved in color bv lamp 

 light. C. L. M. 



Milwaukee. 



PILLINO IN AROUND TREES. 



R. W. P., Highland Park, 111., writes: 

 "Is there any necessity or advantage in 

 boxing around the trunk of a tree about 

 which the earth has been filled in to raise 

 the level a foot or more. The boxing is 

 certainly very unsightly in a lawn, and 

 some say it is entirely needless. What is 

 the idea in boxing, if it is necessary?" 



In grading land we often have to peel 

 the earth away from about trees that wc 

 wish to retain so as to get the necessary 

 grade; wc then head in the tree more or 

 less according to the amount of damage 

 we are likely to do to the roots, and leave 

 a mound of earth around the butt of the 

 tree; this supports the tree in the mean- 

 while and drives the main roots deeper 

 into the ground and induces the produc- 

 tion of fibrous ones beyond the mound. 

 When we wish to raise the grade, and 

 have to fill up with loam one or more feet 

 deep the greatest danger to trees lies in 

 smothering their roots, that is burying 

 them so deep as to deprive them of ready 

 access to air. One foot deep won't hurt 

 them much, tor they will soon send their 

 roots into and through that; even two 

 feet deep may not harm them, but deeper 

 than that there is apt to be a check to 

 growth if not ])er!nanent injury to the 

 tree. This is more noticeable in clayey 

 than light lands. Fillingin earth around 



the trunk injures the treein the same way 

 stopping its air pores. Having a box 

 around the sunken part of the trunk is 

 very ugly on a nicely kept lawn, still it is 

 beneficial when the depth is several feet 

 deep. We would, however, fill the box 

 with small stones freefrom sand. In fact 

 if the filling is no more than three feet 

 deep instead of using a box just fill in 

 some rubble or coarse gravel next to the 

 trunk of the tree, to allow a ready access 

 of air. 



SPIRAEA SHRUBS -AOW TO PROPAGATE T«EM. 



"Spinca Bed," Bristol, R. I , asks: 

 "Whether the various sorts of spiraea can 

 be grown from cuttings, or are they 

 grown from seed?" And adds "I have a 

 bed of Spirasa opulifolia and chamiedri- 

 folia, and they have done wonderfully 

 well even in a very exposed and windy 

 situation." 



Yes, they can be propagated from seed, 

 but it is very seldom practiced because it 

 is so much easier to raise them from cut- 

 tings. Take cuttings of the one-year old 

 ripe shoots and cut them into 6 or 7-ineh 

 lengths, and insert these in rows close 

 together in fall in a half shady place or in 

 a cold frame. Or prepare the cuttings in 

 fall, and tie them into small bundles and 

 bury them out of doors till spring, and 

 then unfasten and plant them out in rows. 

 In storing them over winter in this way 

 don't lay the bundles on their sides, but 

 stand them perpendicularly, and bottom 

 end up; when transplanting in spring, 

 however, have the bottom end down. 

 Spira;a shrubs are also propagated by 

 layers, that is, by elbowing a shoot into 

 the ground and letting it stay there for a 

 year tdl it roots well, then sever the layer 

 and lift, and transplant. But where only 

 a few plants are needed you can generally 

 dig up some rooted sprouts from the side of 

 the old stools that make good enough 

 plants. Indeed some kinds sucker very 

 freely, affording ample opportunity of 

 digging up these suckers, and getting 

 young plants in this way. 



Tkansplantino Hardy Azaleas.— "Is 

 it too late now to plant Ghent or hardy 

 azaleas?" 



If you mean to move them from one 

 part of the garden to another, we would 

 do it any time after the first good rain in 

 August, "and till the end of October. If 

 vou intend getting them from a nursery 

 "from the middle of September till the end 

 of October is a safe time, and so is spring; 

 in fact in regions where the winters are 

 long and very cold, and the springs 

 changeable, spring is the safest time. But 

 in any ]iart of Rhode Island early fall 

 planting is perfectly safe. 



RUBUS DELICIOSUS. 



From the canons of Colorado conies 

 this very beautiful shrub. Although it 

 is a member of the raspberry family and 

 gets its specific name because of its fruit 

 (which to our palate is not at all delicious) 

 it does not suggest its relationship in the 

 garden, for while it blossoms abundantly 

 it fruits but sparingly. 



In cultivation it becomes a shrub 4 to 

 6 feet high with arching branches, which 

 in Mav are covered with large, showy 

 white flowers. Our illustration portrays 

 them very truthfully. It is < ngraved from 

 a photograph taken at Dosoris of a 

 branchlet in bloom. 



As regards hardiness we found it per- 

 leetly reliable even at Boston, indeed, the 

 mountain plants of Colorado are among 

 our hardiest garden plants. 



In the garden it should stand alone, 

 that is be far enough away froni other 



