ii6 



GARDENING. 



J nil. 



box we fasten a sash into it that we open 

 and shut like a cupboard door; and mulch 

 the ground with a heavy mass of oak tree 

 leaves. During December, January and 

 February this bush blooms beautifully, 

 and every time we pass bj' there we can- 

 not resist the temptation of opening the 

 window, to snift' the fragrant air, feast 

 our eyes, and pick a sprig of the blos- 

 soms." The leaves too, dried or green, are 

 spici-. To us it has another interest, a 

 remembrance of our youth, namely, aside 

 from Buckleya distichophylla, a North 

 Carolina shrub, this Japan allspice was 

 the hardest plant to strike from cuttings 

 we ever tried to propagate; from layers 

 it roots all right. 



it might be well to try slender wooden 

 rods— say %-inch in diameter and made 

 of clear white pioe, and painted — run 

 upright and fastened together on the side 

 next the pillars by thin wire and staples. 

 Long bamboo stakes would also answer, 

 but they are not as durable as the painted 

 pine strips.— Ed.] 



HALL'S JflFflN HONEYSUCKLE. 



1 see in Gardeni.ng, December 1, some- 

 body asking if Japan honeysuckle is hardy 

 in W. Va. In twenty years it has been 

 killed to the ground with me three times, 

 last winter being one, but as it grows up 

 again from the ground so rapidly the kill- 

 ing hardly delays its blooms, and if the 

 old wood is left it is covered by June. I 

 only wish it was killed now and then, as 

 with all its good qualities, and I value 

 them highly, it is a terrible nuisance if it 

 gets a start on a fence or in grass. 



KILLING AILANTUS, 



I have killed ailantus, the most ]X'r- 

 sistent sprouter I ever fought, by boring 

 holes in the stump and keeping them filled 

 «ith salt, and have a notion to try it on 

 my fence honeysuckle. 



A DEBILITATED TREE P.UONY. 



For fifteen or maybe twenty years I 

 have had a shrub psony growing in the 

 same spot. For some years it has had 

 such little trifling blooms no one would 

 ever guess how pretty its flowers used to 

 be. Manuring, trimming, etc. have done 

 no good. Must I move it? [Yes, by all 

 means. And when you dig it up look and 

 see if there is anything the matter with 

 the roots. If they are cankered or worm- 

 eaten cut away the diseased parts. Plant 

 in fresh, good soil, that doesn't get very 

 dry in summer. If the roots are diseased 

 fresh soil may not restore them to full 

 health; but if they are all right it should 

 help them greatly.— Ed.] 



HYDRANGEA PANICULATA GROWS WEAK. 



I have an old shrub of this hydrangea 

 whose flower heads, notwithstanding 

 encouraging treatment, are quite small 

 compared with what thev used to be. 

 What should I do for it? [Cut it back 

 hard, then lift it carefully and transplant 

 it into fresh ground; the soil should be 

 deep and rich, and if practicable moistish 

 in summer. Far sooner than bother 

 transplanting an old bush like that, how- 

 ever, we would rather plant a young one. 

 Or grow the old one for another j'earand 

 elbow a few of the side branches into the 

 ground as layers and a year later sever 

 them and transplant them.— Ed.] 



In answer to my inquiry about cover- 

 ing smooth pillars with vines, page 67, 

 you suggest putting wire netting around 

 the pillars to support the vines. Will not 

 the wire get too hot and kill the young 

 vines? I tried the netting as a frame for 

 clematis and have nearly killed my 

 clematis with it; shall take it down next 

 spring. It gets hot down in this country 

 in summer and makes iron pretty uncom- 

 fortably warm I assure you. [If the 

 painted wire netting gets too hot for 

 clematis— the large flowered ones only 

 we presume, not species like [lanjciilain— 



UNDER TflE MULBERRY TREE NOTHING 

 GROWS. 



Under a mulberry tree near my house is 

 one of those "shady corners" that no 

 plant can be tempted to "enjoy," in spite 

 of what one of your correspondents says 

 on page 322 in the last volume of Gar- 

 dening. Ferns, myrtle, wintergreen. Eu- 

 phorbia Ipecacuanha, the low blackberry 

 and quantities of other plants got in 

 shady woods and carefully transplanted, 

 refuse like the grass to live there. X. 



South New Jersey. 



Dig or fork the ground three or four 

 inches deep under the tree, regardless of 

 roots, then spread some old leaf soil one 

 or two inches deep over it. Now plant 

 periwinkle (what you call "myrtle"), 

 English ivy, creeping hypericum, or Hall's 

 Japanese huneysuckle in it, and let them 

 run at will. To insure success, have these 

 plants growing in good soil in your gar- 

 den for one or two years before setting 

 them out so that each one of them will be 

 a well rooted, independent, established 

 plant. Do this in September or early 

 October to give the plants six months in 

 which to get established before the mul- 

 berry leaves come on to shade them. It 

 isn't the shade altogether that is ruinous 

 to the carpeting plants, butthe dry, often 

 hard, surface sod, for the mulberry is a 

 surface feeder as well as a deep rooter. 

 If you once get a good thick sod of vines 

 there so as to catch and hold leaves to 

 make it spongy, and rain when it falls, 

 many a little plant will feel at home 

 under the tree, that would die there if the 

 ground were bare, hard and dry. In dig- 

 ging the ground when preparing it, if 

 many young roots are cut or torn up it 

 may be well to balance this loss by cut- 

 ting in the top of the tree a little. But 

 there is no gainsaying the fact that it is 

 a very difficult thing to get a good carpet 

 of plants under a low thick branched tree, 

 be it mulberrv or anv other. 



HflONOLlfl FUSCflTfl. 



Everj-one who loves perfume should 

 keep a plant of this Chinese little ever- 

 green shrub by them. It isn't hardy but 

 like Daphne odora and Camellia Japonica 

 it will stand a few degrees of frost for a 

 short time unhurt. It is easily obtained 

 and easy to manage. It may be planted 

 out of doors in a shady border in spring, 

 and lifted and potted or boxed in August 

 or September. The plants soon form a 

 mass of roots like a bush of box, enabling 

 them to bear frequent transplantings 

 with very little check. [It is called 

 Micbelia fuscata nowadays. It is one of 

 the gems among hardy shrubs in gardens 

 in the southern states.— Ed.] 



James McPherson. 



A hedge in Wisconsin.— G. P. G., 

 Chicago, wishes to know what are the 

 most suitable plants to set out for a hedge 

 at Lake Beulah, Wis., for the entrance to 

 a country place. Mr. Albert Salisbury of 

 Wisconsin answers: "For a hedge to be 

 kept closely trimmed use arbor vit^ or 

 hemlock; for a windbreak, the Colorado 

 blue spruce. The green varieties of this 

 spruce, are what are commonly used for 

 hedges, and they can be had in nurseries 



at reasonable rates. Outside of ever- 

 greens, the common barberry is about the 

 best hedge plant for this region." 



.\ pretty hedge plant.— For a low 

 hedge effect nothing is prettier, in my 

 opinion, than the variegated leaved cor- 

 chorus or ktrria as it is also called, 

 trimmed slightly now and again. Per- 

 haps you will say variegated hedges are 

 not in good taste. J. W. B. 



Plainfield,N.J. 



The Flower Garden. 



TROPflEOLUM 5FECI0SUM. 



Can you give me some advice as to 

 growing Tropeeolum speciosum from 

 seed? I failed last season to germinate 



one seed. Last month I had some seed 

 sent me from England; these I soaked 

 over night and planted in ordinary soil 

 in a box and put the same in cellar. 

 Should they get some frost this fall or 

 will they start without it? I have been 

 unable to get tubers, so am anxious to 

 grow it from seed if possible. L. O. P. 

 St. Francois Xavier, Manitoba. 



Get fresh seed, in the fall, and sow it at 

 once, say in wooden flats as you have 

 done, then place the flats in a cool but 

 frost-proof cellar to remain there till 

 spring. Place a little fresh, clean, loosely 

 shaken-up swamp moss over the surface 

 of the soil to keep it moist. When spring 

 opens, or before that if the seeds g^rrmi 

 nate, bring the box up from the cellarand 

 set it in a cold frame out of doors, or if 

 the seedlings are up, keep it in the window- 

 till the young plants can be safely trusted 

 outside. But it isn't an easy matter to 

 propagate it from seed. 



We are glad to know of your earnest 

 endeavor to cultivate this lovely, hardy 

 vine, and and hope you will succeed. It 

 is a herbaceous perennial species, a native 

 of Chili, and although it is hardy at New 

 York, we do not think it can be hardy in 

 Manitoba unless under a very heavy 

 winter mulching Oh, howgrand we have 

 seen it in some European gardens, form- 

 ing a wall of neat foliage, and ablaze 

 from bottom to top with brilliant ver- 

 milion blossoms, in other places spreading 

 over rocks and bushes in like manner as 

 our wild clematis and mikania do when 

 they run over our shrubbery. One of the 

 prettiest floral sights we remember was 

 at Altyre in the north of Scotland, where 

 the gable end of the blacksmith's house, 

 in the wood, covered with this tropaeo- 

 lum, was a sheet of flame from the ground 

 to the ride. Aj'e, it was finer there in the 

 poor man's yard than we ever saw it in 

 a nobleman's garden. Notwithstanding 

 that, however, it is a hard plant to grow, 

 and it behaves exasperatingly with us. It 

 seems to prefer a cool, moist well-drdined 

 soil, shelter from wind, and an eastern or 

 southeastern aspect. But don't subject 

 the roots to hard frost, mulch them deeply 

 in winter. If you fail with seeds, try 

 roots. Packed in slightly damp moss in 

 a tin box, all to weigh less than eight 

 oimces, you can import them from Europe 

 by mail in good condition. 



HEAVENLY BLUE MORNING GLORY. 



With ipomosa Heavenly Blue, after 

 three years' experience, I am as much 

 pleased as I am disgusted with the yellow 

 cosmos. The Heavenly Blue deserves its 

 name, and I know of no flower more re- 



