i8g5- 



GARDENING. 



357 



w 





HYDRANGEA PANICDLATA GRANDIFLORA FROM LIFE 



10. August 1 six feet tall and freely 

 blooming. 



With me the new white Blanche Burpee 

 is no better than Emily Henderson. It is 

 a week to ten days later, not as florifer- 

 ous; form slightly different but hardly 

 more attractive to my tast^e: texture not 

 as delicate and silky. 



HoR.\cE V. James. 



Hammond, Ind., August 1, '95. 



WflTBRING LILIES, DANGERS OF. 



In my groundsseveral L//yum superbum 

 are growing indigenously. Last season 

 when bud • were about one-third grown I 

 watere i copiously — saturated the ground 

 —and every bud blasted. This year I did 

 not water and they bore twelve and six- 

 teen flowers on each stem. In another 

 position I have planted a large clump of 

 Lilium davuricum which bloomed freely 

 last season without watering; but this 

 year, when the buds were half grown or 

 so, I turned the hose on them and gave a 

 .soaking; ever}- bud was checked, withered 

 and died— not a flower came out. Other- 

 wise the plants made vigorous growth. 

 In both cases the soil is loose sand and 

 well drained. Water can not stand in it 

 and stagnate. Horace E. James. 



Hammond, Ind. 



TRAINING SWEET TEAS. 



1 think my method of training sweet 

 peas isso good that I should like to give 

 it. 'JBey are grown in rows running 

 north to" south. Put stakes three feet 

 high, two by two, ten feet apart in the 

 row, then run a single wire along them 

 near the top, and another an inch from 

 the bottom, then pass a ball of twine un- 

 der and over. It has elicited so much fav- 

 orable comment, and been so inexpensive, 

 easy to make and sa'isfactory, that I 

 would be glad to have others ])rofitby it, 

 and spare them my experiment 



Detroit. 



.M. F. M, 



Plants ekom J.\ckson, Mich. — A week 

 or two ago a package containing some 

 twigs of fruit trees, also mouse-ear chick- 

 weed and creeping speedwell came to us 

 by mail, but no word or letter regarding 

 it has been received. The plum tree twigs 

 are badly affected by scale. Syringe them 

 with strong keroseneemulsion just befoie 

 tbey begin to grow in spring, and with a 

 weaker solution aftergrowth commences. 

 They are speckled all over as if they had 

 been spra3ed by some ill-prepared solu- 

 tion. The mouse-ear ehiekweed and 

 creeping speedwell are pestiferous lawn 

 w eds. Take a new steel rake and scratch 

 them out as best you can, then spread a 

 good dressing of fresh loam and well 

 rotted manure— half and half, well mixed 

 together, and made fine— over the 

 scratched places, and sow blue grass and 

 red top grass seed on it. Do this now 

 and roll the ground well. You cannot put 

 on any dressing that will kill out the 

 weeds "without killing the grass too. Do 

 all you can to discourage the weeds and 

 encourage the grass, so that the latter 

 may grow up and choke out the former. 

 After the grass begins to grow a thin 

 sprinkling of nitrate of soda will help it, 

 but be careful, for the least thing too 

 much will kill it out. 



The African hibisci's.— A correspond- 

 ent sends us leaves and floweis of this 

 annual species {Hibiscus Atrkanus) and 

 eulogizes its beauty as he fouud it in an 

 old garden where it comes up ever\- year 

 from self-sown seed. It grows 2 to 3 feet 

 high, is much branched and has divided 

 notched leaves and conspicuous yellow 

 flowers with a deep maroon blotch in the 

 center. A good many years ago it used 

 to be a common garden annual, but of 

 late i'. has fallen into disuse because its 

 flowers are of no use for cutting. Like 

 poppies, portulacca and some other per- 

 sistent annuals, however, where once il 

 gets a footing and is allowed to ripen and 



drop its seeds it always comes up the 

 next year. We have neyer known it to 

 become a pest though. 



Hardy Carnations. — My hardy carna- 

 tions from seed sown last year have been 

 in bloom since the last of Mav, and gor- 

 geous in their profusion of brilliant bloom, 

 a little bed vielding apparently thousands 

 of flowers " E. R. 



New Jersey. 



Trees and 5hrubs. 



flyDRANGEfl FANIGULATA GRANDIFLORA. 



In this we have one of the best of all 

 garden shrubs. Some of .-esthetic taste 

 claim that its flower heads are coarse and 

 unbecoming, but the popular wave is on 

 its side, in fact we believe it would be 

 voted the mostindispensableshrub in our 

 i^ardens. 



The species is anative of the mountains 

 nf Northern Japan, where, in Yezo, it often 

 becomes a srall tree 25or30 feet high. In 

 this country it is cast iron, being hardy in 

 ourcoldest states, and this is surelv a very 

 strong point in its favor But" it also 

 thrives admirably in the eastern and 

 middle states, and into the south. 



Like most all Japanese plants it likes 

 good ground and lots of moisture, then 

 we may expect to get stout growtli and 

 big heads of blossoms. Little heads may 

 be prettier and more refined than large 

 ones, and by indifferent treatment it is 

 easy enough to get them; but the ambi- 

 tious gardener by close pruning and 

 much feeding is continually striving after 

 big heads, just as by persistent disbudding 

 and feeding he produces the big American 

 Beauty roses, and perfect tea roses that 

 we find at the florist's to-day. 



We are indebted to the courtesy of 

 Messrs. Ellwanger& Barry, of Kochester, 

 N. Y., for our illustration" It is from a 

 photograph ofa plant in their grounds, 

 and they tell us "there were over 200 

 flower heads on this plant last year." 

 Now look at it. You see a one-stemmed 

 plant, a picture from life and not of the 

 imagination. Then turn to some book or 

 paper and find the "stock cut" illustration 

 of thisshrub and behold one of the ugliest 

 and most falsifying pictures published. A 

 multitude ot stems jump up togeth r 

 from one crown in an impossible way, 

 and their shortness, in proportion to the"ir 

 flower-heads, is unnatural and general 

 contour ridiculous. How can any firm, 

 knowing better, use such a monstrositv 

 as the likeness of this popular shrub? 



It is grown both as alow-stemmed or 

 dwarf plant and as a ligh stemmed or 

 standard one, appearing well in both in- 

 stances. With us it begins to bloom in 

 August and lasts through September; the 

 flowers, before they expand, are greenish, 

 but they open w hite, and with age assume 

 a rose tint. We have never known them 

 to assume the blue tint so common in the 

 Hortensia varieties The "single" 



flowered forms comingin before and after 

 grandiSora. extend the flowering period 

 from July till October. 



TREES AND SHRUBS IN BLOOM AT ROCflES- 

 TER, N. y., AUGUST 7, 1895. 



The trying drouth we have had here 

 for three months has been broken during 

 the past two weeks by heavy showers, 

 and vegetation is picking up new life. 



The pepper bush {Cletbrn alnifolia) is 

 now in fine bloom; it has upright pani- 

 cled racemes of fragrant while flowers, 



