GARDENING. 



Oct. /, 



ber, 1893, and showing no leaves during 

 1894, was cut down as dead last fall, but 

 sprouted about the first of last July and 

 is growing vigorously after twenty 

 months of suspended animation. 



Pawpaws, usually considered so difficult 

 to transplant, have done well with me, 

 though, somewhat in the fashion of the 

 persimmon alluded to above. H. J. F. 



Warsaw, Hancock Co., 111. 



RENEWING AN OLD WEEDY LflWN. 



A weedy lawn is to be plowed up this 

 fall. The plan is to raise some vegetable 

 crop for a year, so as to hoe out the 

 weeds as they spring up, and then plant 

 the grass seed. Should the manure be 

 dug in before the vegetables are planted 

 or at the time of sowing the grass, con- 

 sidering only the benefit to the lawn? 

 Some of our neighbors have planted 

 potatoes, manuring heavily, and the crop 

 was a failure, owing to potato rot. Can 

 you suggest a good crop for the purpose; 

 or any other planformaking a good lawn 

 out of an old one of about an acre in ex- 

 tent, with dandelions, mouse ear chick- 

 weed, mallows, sorrel, white weed, lysi- 

 machia and other unknown weeds. 

 Wood ashes have been used as a fertilizer 

 for the last few vears. C. H. 



Roxbury, Mass., Sept. 17, 1795. 



For best results only one crop should 

 be used; if several are p anted some are 

 apt to get neglected and weedy; and we 

 haien't manj' crops that will occupy the 

 ground all summer. There are c .ru, po- 

 tatoes, onons, carrots and mangels; and 

 it depends upon j'ourself whether or not 

 the ground is kept clean. Com will oc- 

 cupy the ground till the middle of Septem- 

 ber, potatoes till the end of August or 

 into September, onions till September 

 and carrots or mangels till November. 

 So you see if j ou intend laying the lawn 

 down in fall corn or potatoes, or onions 

 would be the best crop to plant. But 

 while this breaking up, manuring or cult- 

 ivating of the ground for a j'ear will en- 

 rich, enliven and sweeten it, it won't by 

 any means clean it, for it must be lull of 

 the seeds of weeds lying there inactive 

 waiting for an opportunity to germinate. 

 The breaking up and continual cultiva- 

 tion for a summer though would kill out 

 the old roots of dandelions, creeping chick 

 wted, lysimachia, wild carrot, ox-eye 

 daisy, sorrel and other perennial weeds, 

 but it would be no safeguard against 

 these same pests coming up from seed the 

 next summer in the grass, no matter how 

 many millions of them j'ou maj' destroy 

 in the year of the hoed crops. 



We would manure very heavily for the 

 cultivated crops. And if we didn't make 

 the lawn till spring wc would clean up 

 and level the ground in fall, and if neces- 

 sary add a broadcast dressing of well de- 

 cayed manure, plowing it under. In early 

 spring level off the g ound smooth and 

 sow the grass seed, and when the seed be- 

 gins to germinate a slight top dressing of 

 nitrate of soda will put vigor into it. 



T«E FLOWER GARDEN. 



Get up and take indoors all the tender 

 plants you care about. Don't wait till 

 frost nips them first. Of all manner of 

 bedding plants, such as geraniums, 

 coleuses, alternantheras, ageratum, and 

 the like, have a nice lot of cuttings put in 

 and rooted, this will do away with the 

 need of lumbering up the place with a lot 

 of old plants. 



Save all the seeds you want, and the 

 sooner you do this the better the seeds 

 are likely to be. Such seeds as zinnias. 



jlossis, nasturtium, scarlet salvia, 



aall-flowered sunflowers, vincas, globe 

 amaranths, verbenas, torenias, mari- 

 golds, gaillardias, sweet scabios, Vernon 

 begonias, second crop coreopsis and 

 cannas should be good and plentiful yet. 



Clear away all rubbishy spent plants 

 now in the beds or borders, dead or 

 decaying plants are no ornament to a 

 garden, far better have empty ground. 



Give the dahlias lots of water. Even 

 after the first nip of frost we often get 

 many nice flowers from them. Tie up 

 your cosmos plants if you would have 

 them do their best; put a stout stake to 

 each plant, then tie the main stems and 

 branches to it. They are very brittle, 

 and being so tall renders them an easv' 

 prey to rain and wind storms. 



Don't bother saving old moon flower 

 plants; young ones are easily raised in 

 spring from seed. Putin alot of cuttings 

 of Ipomoea Leari, and let the old plants 

 die. When cut down by frost cut over /. 

 paniculata and bring the tubers indoors 

 and treat them in winter as you would 

 a dahlia. Dig up and top your gladiolus 

 bulbs and store them in small bulk in 

 cool but frost-proof places Also get up 

 the oxalis, bessera, Milla biflora, crinum, 

 tigridia, ismene, and other tender bulbs 

 and tuters you have in the ground, and 

 carefully nameand store each kind away 

 by itself. The same with tuberoses, 

 green-leaved caladiuras, amorphophallus 

 and other more tropical sorts except that 

 they may be kept warmer i han gladiolus 

 in winter. 



In flowers where the early flowering 

 varieties of chrysanthemums blossom 

 out of doors before frost injures them 

 these plants should now be lifted and 

 transplanted into sheltered warm spots, 

 as against t'.ie south side of a fence or 

 building, and free'j' watered overhead 

 and at ihe root, and shaded a little if 

 practicable. 



The planting of spring-flowering bulbs 

 is now in order. All varieties ot hyacinths, 

 tulips, crocuses and snowdrops that do 

 well in the house or greenhouse in spring 

 do equallj- well planted out of doors. 

 More than that, many varieties that are 

 hardly good enough for pot culture grow 

 and blossom beautifullj' when planted out 

 in the garden. If you want to fill your 

 flower beds with hyacinths or tulips in 

 set fashion, each variety all of a size and 

 the plants exactly so far apart, then you 

 must get good qualitv bulbs to insure 

 evenness in size and opening; but if it is a 

 gay ribbon, a brilliant and prolonged 

 display you want, then plant common 

 mixed bulbs, the hyacinths by them- 

 selves, the tulips by themselves, thickly 

 and in a six or eight inch wide belt, and 

 you are apt to have a fine display of 

 gorgeous color from early till late, and it 

 looks well. The polyanthus narcissus 

 are not hardy on Long Island, but the 

 single and double dafiodils, jonquils and 

 orange and sulphur phoenix sorts and 

 their allies are, and everyone of tlicm is 

 both beautiful and desirable. 



sometimes get killed in cultivation, and 

 if we look for the caiise of it we shall find 

 that nearly all of the marshes in which 

 these plants occur are pretty well mulched 

 in winter by the old stems and leaves of 

 the native sedges and grasses, which 

 they a-e mixed within growth, and often 

 by the fragments oi coarse grasses which 

 are washed in by the tides. We find 



KosTELETZKYA ViRGi.NiCA the better for 

 some protection when cultivated in 

 upland, although it winters to perfection 

 along our coast. Last fall, having a 

 large lot of young p'ants, we protected a 

 portion of them with a poor grade of salt 

 marsh hay, such as is used for bedding, 

 and after applying one load of this we 

 used leaves and clippings oi Pinus rigida. 

 The winter proved very severe, and while 

 those under the hay came out with very 

 little loss, those under the pine boughs 

 and leaves were badly killed. 



Hammonton, N. J. Wm. F. Bassett. 



I would suggest to Mr. Kgan, page 4, 

 vSept. 15, to try covering his plants of 

 Lobelia cardinalis with sphagnum. 

 Apply it, by way of experiment, pretty 

 thickly to a portion of them and less on 

 others. I have planted them out in fall 

 and mulched with sphagnum in low moist 

 land (both cardinalis and syphilitica) and 

 had them go through in perfect condi- 

 tion. Many others ot our seashore plants 

 winter well in their native marshes, and 



Lavenuula dentata is the proper 

 name of the plant of which T. A. E. H., 

 Kensington, 111., has sent us a spray. It 

 is a fragrant and pretty little shrub with 

 rosemary-like leaves, and true lavender 

 like flovi'ers; but it is not hardy in our 

 northern states. It is indigenous in 

 Southwestern Europe. 



Trees and Shrubs. 



QUESTIONS ABOUT TREES AND SHRUBS. 



F. N. B., Northern Indiana, asks: 



1. Hydrangea paniculata vars. — "In 

 your remarks about these, page 357. 

 August 15 last, you speak of the 'single' 

 flowered forms coming in before and after 

 H. paniculata grandi^ora to extend the 

 flowering period. But I cannot find them 

 advertised by anyone." 



Ans. Send to the Kissena Nurseries, 

 Flushing, N. Y. 



Hydrangea hortensis. — "Why cannot 

 it be grown ovit of doors if protected with 

 leaves to keep out frost? ' 



.4ns. So it can. But there is a point 

 to be observed. It is easy enough to 

 mulch so as to keep the roots and crown 

 alive over winter, and sprouts will come 

 up from the crown in spring and grow 

 rankly, but they won't blossom. The 

 flower bearing wood must come from the 

 old wood and not from root sprouts, 

 hence we have got to keep some of it 

 alive; even if only one or two buds near 

 the bottom of the main shoots survive in 

 good condition the branches that come 

 from those eyes should produce flowers. 

 Cut the plants pretty well back, then tie 

 the branches up close together; now 

 mulch the ground quite deep with forest 

 tree leaves, and place an- inverted box or 

 half barrel over the plant, and pile sedge 

 or litter over the box, and see what suc- 

 cess you will have. 



3. Hypericum MosERiANUM.— "Does it 

 require shade, or will it do better in full 

 sunshine?" 



Ans. While we have seen it behaving 

 nicely in open sunshine in level fairly 

 moist garden ground, we believe it pre- 

 fers slight shade and shelter, just as H. 

 calycinum and H. patulum do. 



4. Spir.ua discolor var. ari.efolia. 

 —"It does not succeed with me. Does it 

 require special treatment and location?" 



.4ns. We don't wonder at that, for it 

 is peculiar in its behavior, often dying 

 down to the ground in winter. We find 

 it likes good ground, good drainage and 

 shelter, a mulching on the ground over 



