GARDENING. 



53 



I.ILIUM AURATUM AT EGANDALE 



high. It is not hard_v but is easily 

 wintered under greenhouse benches. The 

 clumps are divided up in February and 

 make niee pot plants in time for planting 

 out. and it soon shows feathery heads 

 that continue in good form until frost. 

 [Why all that bother? We never take in 

 an old plant, mereh- save a lot of seed 

 and sow it indoors in early spring. These 

 seedlings begin blooming quite early and 

 arc of good health.— Ed.] 



Other hard3' ornamental grasses used 

 arc the eulalias and Erianthus Ravenna;. 

 The coleuses in favor here are Wonderful. 

 Jay Gould, Tassellata, Firebrand, Ver- 

 schaffelti, and Golden Bedder. The last, 

 however, is- used sparingly because it 

 drops its leaves if the nights are cold. 



Other foliage and edging plants in tise 

 arc: Santolina.othonna, /res/ne Lindeni, 

 Acalypha tricolor. Golden feverfew, plain 

 and variegated thyme. Cineraria mari- 

 tirna, Centaurea gymnocarpa. Seniper- 

 vivum calcareutn and echeverias and 

 .iltema'.theras in variety. Alternanthera 

 latilolia being a strong grower is used 

 for edging, and so is A. aurea which 

 makes a somewhat taller growth than 

 aurea nana; versicolor is used both for 

 edging and in carpet beds. 



Chicago. F. C. Se.wkv. 



LILIUM flURATUM. 



GOLDEN K.iVED I.II.V Or l.\l'.\.\. 



When the photograph here illustrated 

 was taken there were thirty-five open 

 blooms, averaging, by actual measure- 



ment, fullv six to seven inches in diame 

 tcr, and three unopened buds that devel- 

 oped later on. The stem was not over 

 four feet high, being much shorter than 

 some bearing twelve to thirteen blooms. 

 In a bed of twenty-four bulbs five stems 

 were fasciated, and in each instance were 

 not as tall as those that retained the 

 normal round stem. All these except the 

 one illustrated produced numerous small 

 and in many cases imperfect flowers. 

 While this specimen of bloom is the finest 

 one I have ever grown it is in no way 

 very remarkable. In G.\rdening of Feb- 

 ruary 15, 1894, is illustrated a truss hiv- 

 ing eighty blooms on a flat stalk seven 

 feet high, and some mentioned as having 

 been exhibited at various places, having 

 respectively one hundred, one hundred 

 and twenty, one hundred and twenty-five 

 and one hundred and forty blooms, but in 

 no instance is the size of the flower given. 

 In my bed were several having ten to 

 thirteen good sized flowers, nearly all 

 blooming at once, makin? a handsome 

 sight. A photograph was taken, but the 

 plate proved defective. The one illus- 

 trated was the earliest in the bed to 

 bloom. 



L. auratum has been in cultivation a 

 little over thirty years, and has probably 

 caused as much plea.sure as and more 

 sorrow than any flower in our gardens. 

 It reminds meof the littlegirl that "when 

 she was good she was very, very good, 

 and when she was bad she was horrid." 



I presume that mv experience is that of 



hundreds, namely, that good bulbs 

 planted in the fall and well protected dur- 

 ing the winter can be depended upon the 

 following summer for a fair show of 

 bloom, but never after. Some of a lot 

 may bloom the second year, and in some 

 instances longer, but a bed devoted 

 wholly to auratums will have manj- 

 v.icant spots after the first season of 

 bloom. The bulbs are so cheap and a 

 bed in full bloom presents such an at- 

 tractive sight that it paj'S to renew the 

 bed each season, or at least ever3' second 

 vear. My treatment of the bulbs is as 

 lollows: The bed is two feet deep, well 

 drained and contains good sandy loam, 

 the top being slightly higher than the 

 surrounding sod. and moneywort (Lysi- 

 nincliia Numrnularia) planted over it for 

 a summer mulch. The bulbs are planted 

 six inches deep on a two-inch layer of 

 sand, and covered with the same mate- 

 rial and then the Ved filled, early in the 

 winter a heavy coating of strawy manure 

 is put on, extending two feet outside the 

 lied all around. I started last fall with 

 'monster bulbs" obtained from J. W. 

 lilliott of Pittsburg. This fall, judging 

 by the appearance of the stems, all are in 

 lair condition and can be risked for an- 

 other season, except six, which will be 

 replaced this fall. Next spring, early, a 

 le jv will be started in pots and transferred 

 to vacant spots, to replace those that this 

 fall looked all right but failed to mate- 

 rialize. This will give me a fair looking 

 bed next year, which will be the second 

 season The next fall all the bulbs will 

 be taken up and replaced by fresh ones. 

 The best of those taken up are planted in 

 o pen spaces in the shrubbery, where if they 

 materialize they are welcome, and if they 

 fail thev arc not missed. W. C. Egan. 

 Highland Park, III. 



TflE FLOWER GARDEN. 



Clean up the beds and borders, and 

 make everything look as neat and tidvas 

 possible. A lot of frost HUed plants and 

 half dead, bedraggled old stems of peren- 

 nials are not very nice surroundings 

 about our doors, nor do they bespeak 

 very much for our neatness and orderli- 

 ness. Root up and clear away to the 

 rot heap all frost killed coleus, heliotrope, 

 vinca, salvia, ageratum, zinnia, balsam, 

 alternanthera and other tender plants. 

 Tear down moonflower, morning glory, 

 nasturtium and other vines that have 

 been nipped by frost, and get the trellises 

 or strings that supported them cleaned of 

 leaves, tendrils, strings, etc. Cut over 

 cannas, and lift and store the roots as 

 recommended in last issue. Cut over dah- 

 lias; remove the tops to the rot pile, and 

 dig up the roots and bring them indoors 

 to a warm dry place io cellar. Unless 

 you are short of them Ihere is no need of 

 saving all of the roots; one-third or one- 

 fourth of them should be enough, and in 

 spring we can divide the old plants three 

 or four fold. Cut over gladioli, and lift 

 and store them where they will be safe 

 from frost, but not kept over-warm. 

 Tuberous begonias like about the same 

 winter temperature, so do oxalis. But 

 arums of most kinds, and especially amor- 

 I)hophallus and caladiums, like warmish 

 quarters, that is, a night temperature of 

 not less than 50°; and so do tuberoses 

 and tigridias, both of which should now 

 be up and inside. 



In the fields and woods when asters, 

 golden rods andotherperennialsdiedown 

 in fall, the withered stems broken down 

 and torn still adhere to or stick around 

 the plants, arresting the wind blown 

 leaves and snow, and thus forming a per- 



