GARDENING. 



Sept. 15^ 



when so many other trees are burning up 

 by heat and drouth. 



"The ailantus would be a favorite tree 

 for cities, as it thrives well in rough 

 places and poor soil, but who can put up 

 with the sickening odor of its flowers in 

 June! There is a substitute for that tree 

 in this one, the cedrela. There is no odor 

 to the flowers so far as we know. In 

 1893 a tree of it flowered in German- 

 town. The greenish white flowers were 

 in a long drooping raceme, some eighteen 

 inches in length and with no odor. As 

 regards the odor of the flowers of the 

 ailantus it is a mistake to think that ihe 

 flowers of the female one are odorless. 

 To prove the matter I have watched the 

 flowering of a seed-bearing tree here two 

 j'ears in succession, and no flower can be 

 more ill-smelling than it is. 

 Philadelphia. J. Meehan. 



A word about the hardiness of the 

 cedrela: Eighteen years ago we planted 

 a tree of it in the Botanic Garden. Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., near the Linna>an street 

 gate, in a sheltered place, but ground 

 ihat was wet all wipter, and it grew rap- 

 idly in height and bulk of trunk, and in 

 sever al years we never knew of it being 

 injured by the winter. At Dosoris it 

 thrives admirably, but its big, pithy, 

 young shoots so heavily laden with foli- 

 age sometimes suffer a little from break- 

 age by wind and rain storms alter July. 



NOTES ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 



Catalpa speciosa may be readily dis- 

 tinguished from allothersbyitsunusually 

 thick seed pods, and C. Ki^mpferi by its 

 bunches of long verj' slender ones. 



Deutzias for forcinc if allowed to 

 wilt and shrivel up now with drouth 

 will be very much impaired. 



The snowberry bushes now arching 

 with their load of ivory white berries are 

 as showy as bright shrubs in blossom. 



The Chinese tamarix is still gay in 

 blossom, what an elegant shrub it is! 



Spir-BA Bumalda is in full bloom a 

 s cond time. It is a very compact, neat 

 and floriferous shrub, running about 2 to 

 3 feet high, nearly twice as much in 

 diameter, and a cushion of pink flat cymes 

 of blossoms, more or less all summer. 



Caryopteris Mastacanthls with its 

 profusion of pale blue minute blossoms 

 crowded in its axils is opening its flowers. 

 Although not at all a showy plant, 

 blooming as it does at this time of year 

 renders it a valuable acquisition. 



The Chaste-tree {Vitex Agnus castus) 

 has been in bloom for a month; its long 

 close spikes of small lavender flowers are 

 quite attractive, although not showy. It 

 is somewhat uncertain with us in winter. 

 Clematis paniculata is passing from 

 its glory, for it has been glorious. Save 

 the seeds that ripen with you this fall and 

 sow them in boxes out of doors or in a 

 cold frame. They may germinate next 

 spring or in the following July. What we 

 sowed last winter in boxes in a shaded 

 cold frame are now up; we believe every 

 seed has germinated, 



Abelia fi.orihunda and Leycesteria 

 tormosa are two small shrubs that are 

 hardy at Baltimore and south, but not so 

 at Dosoris, but by heeling them into a pit 

 over winter and planting the»i out in the 

 garden in spring they keep in bloom all 

 summer and till frost comes. 



Hypericum Moserianum is still in 

 bloom. There hasn't been a day since 

 June when it wasn't in flower. 



BuDDLEiAS are coarse shrubs, and ex- 

 cept for variety's sake are hardly worth 

 growing. But no shrub we know of is 

 more sensitive to drouth. 



Lespedeza SiEBOLDii or Desmodium 

 penduli/Joruw as it is more commonly 

 called is now in perfection of bloom, and 

 what a capital mass it is at f.iis time of 

 year. Every one should grow it, give it 

 good soil and lots of room, and cut it 

 down to the ground everj' winter, then 

 make a crate for it to climb up through 

 and let its shoots now laden with purple 

 pea flowers bend over in graceful fashion 

 and so that the crate cannotbe seen. The 

 white flowering form known as Desmo- 

 dium Japonicum is a fortnight later in 

 blooming than the other and is now only 

 opening its flowers. 



Hydrangeas must have water if we 

 want good foliage and fine flowers; and 

 if we keep them thoroughly well watered 

 their panicles will keep in beautiful condi- 

 tion far longer than they would if at all 

 left to get dry. 



KousA Berries. — There is now in ripe 

 fruit at Dosoris two trees of Cornus 

 Kousa (used to be called lienthamia 

 /apon/ca), a Japanese plant, laden with 

 bright red, soft fruit like strawberries, 

 each berry about an inch to one and a 

 half inches in diameter and set singly on 

 a stalk like a cherry. They are showy 

 and ornamental, and the happy robins in 

 the trees remind us that the fruit is good 

 to eat. But we don't care for it. This 

 cornus has large white showy 'flowers" 

 like those of our flowering dogwood but 

 appearing later in the summer (June). 

 Given an open, warm, sheltered spot, and 

 good moist ground, as a flowering tree it 

 is, in its season, one of the most beautiful 

 plants in the garden. It was illustrated 

 in Garde.ning, page 140, Februarv 1, 

 1895. 



Rosa Pissardii is a single white-flower- 

 ing species that is now very prettily in 

 bloom, in fact it has been in flower all 

 summer. It suffered a little last winter, 

 but soon recovered and set to growing, 

 and every stout young shoot all summer 

 has been terminated by a bunch of many 

 buds and blossoms. And there are more 



grow at will and had not been pruned are 

 now past blooming, butbushesthat were 

 pruned hard back last winter or spring 

 are still bearingmanyblossoms, although 

 much past their best. We heard some one 

 speak of them as "tree hollj-hocks" the 

 other day. Now, don't do that. Rose of 

 Sharon is a common name for them, but 

 we like althjea best. 



Clerodendron FtETiDUM Or Bungei is a 

 spreading shrub with large handsome 

 leaves, and now large, showy, broad 

 heads of purplish pink flowers. But on 

 account of its ill-smelling leaves and habit 

 of dying down in winter and suckering 

 all over the place next summer we cannot 

 recommend for small gardens. 



Clerodendron trichotomitm is an- 

 other species taller and hardier than the 

 preceding, and also now in bloom. Let 

 us quote from one of the most conserva- 

 tive European catalogues: "The flowers 

 appear in September and are produced in 

 large terminal cymes; they are white with 

 a purplish calyx, and delightfully fra- 

 grant. It is one of the most distinct and 

 useful of hardy shrubs. Its vigorous con- 

 stitution, bold aspect, and its blooming 

 at a season long after other flowering 

 trees and shrubs are past their beauty, 

 cannot fail to recommend it as a desirable 

 plant for every shrubberj'." All quite 

 true so far as large gardens are concerned. 

 It is 10 feet high at Dosoris now and in 

 full bloom, liul it suckers badly at the 

 root, sprouts coming up or 8 feet away 

 from the old |)lant, and the foliage is as 

 ill smelling as that of the Jinison weed. 



The variegated Japan Pine. — There 

 is a very pretty plant of the variegated 

 Pinus Massoniana here, the one whose 

 foliage is white with transverse green 

 markings It rivets the attention of 

 everyone who comes near it. An eminent 

 landscape gardener looked upon it the 

 other day. "No " said he, "we wouldn't 

 dare to use that sort of thing in our 

 work. But I must allow that no sooner 

 do some of our patrons get through with 

 our services than the\' root out some of 

 our planting to make room for that sort 

 of thing." Then why don't you set apart 

 an appropriate place for such things, as 

 you do for flower beds, rather than have 

 them break in upon j'our work and mar 

 your picture? It is the easiest thing in the 

 world to scream aloud against all of these 

 things, and when it comes to coarse, 

 gaudy or sickly looking plants we don't 

 blame j'ou, but there- .are gems even 

 among variegated plants, and this pine 

 is one of them. A3e, and there are sour 

 grapes among them too, this little pine 

 for instance, and that is why we see it so 

 seldom. 



Digging in shrubbery beds as one 

 would dig in a flower border should be 

 discouraged, but when we look upon the 

 baked hard crust in the shrubb.ries, com- 

 mon sense appeals to us to break it loose 

 to readily admit air and rain. But don't 

 dig it deep, only quite shallow. 



Poison ivy' on the trees. — Get onj'our 

 leather gloves and go out and tear it ofl 

 and out at the root. Don't harbor it on 

 your premises at any price. 



JflPflNESE MflPlES. 



In North America we have nine species 

 of maples, some of them of magnificent 

 arboreal proportions, and surpassing in 

 economic and landscape value the maples 

 of any other part of the world. But all 

 are not big timber trees like the rock 

 maple or red maple, some are shrubs or 

 small trees, for instance the mountain 

 maple (.leer spicatum) and the moose- 

 wood (A. Pennsylvanicuw). Japan, how- 

 ever, seems to be headquarters for the 

 genus, no fewer than twenty species being 

 indigenous in that country; but few of 

 them, however, attain a large size, and 

 none of them equals in this respect our 

 large maples. Acer pictum, a tree not 

 uncommon in our gardens, is theirlargest 

 species, reaching in their forests about 

 fifty feet in height. 



But what we generally krow as Jap- 

 anese maples in our gardens are the little 

 bushy plants with variously colored and 

 often deeply divided leaves. They consist 

 of two species, namely, Acer Japonicum, 

 the one with the larger and more undi- 

 vided leaves; and the other, -4cer palma- 

 tum, or as we often find it in catalogues, 

 .4. polymorphum, which is the parent of 

 all the fern-leaved and multicolored vari- 

 eties. Not only are they esteemed garden 

 plants in this country but they also find 

 a place in most every garden in Japan, 

 and the types are one of the main features 

 of their forest flora. 



These little Japanese maples are exceed- 

 ingly beautiful plants, especially in spring 

 and early summer when they burst into 

 full leaf, and the various colors of the 

 foliage are deep and decided. As the sum- 

 mer advances the deep colors fade out 

 very much, but the lace-like foliage re- 

 tains its beautiful outlines. They also 

 blossom quite prettily in spring. And 

 again in fall severalof the varieties deepen 

 in color and assume ver\' beautiful autumn 

 tints. 



Although the Japan maples are hardy 

 at Boston and Rochester they are not re- 

 liably hardy .it Chicago; they seem to 



