138 



• GARDENING. 



Jan. IS, 



William Falconer, Editor. 



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CONTENTS. 



; GREENHOUSE. 



; begonias (illus) 



A hotbed heated with hot water .... 

 Best palms, ferns, etc. for house plants. 



Dry bulbs 



Chinese primroses 



The garland heath 



Piping frogs . 



aquatics. 

 Care of aquatics in winter 



ORCHIDS. 



Orchid notes . . , 



chrysanthemums. 

 How I grow chrysanthemums 



L.INDSCAPE GARDENING. 



Plan for a large city place (illus). . . . 

 A shady knoll as a residence site. . . . 

 trees and shrubs. 



Select hardy shrubs (illus) 



Wanted— A columnar tree 



Maple tree borer 



Berberis Thunbergii 



the flower garden. 

 Questions about hardy plants . . . . 



The pieony (illus) . . 



A good hardy vine 



Campanula pyramidalls . . . 



the fruit GARDEN. 



Greenhouse grapes 



Chestnut cions ... 



the vegetable garden. 



The bunch sweet yam 



The vegetable garden . . ... 



Cold weather hurts the sale of 

 FLOWERS.— When in New York a bitterly 

 cold day last week, we ask a large flower 

 commission agent how was business, and 

 he replied: "We have lots of stock and it 

 is fine too, but this cold weather is hard 

 on us and we cannot get rid of the 

 flowers as last as we would like to, you 

 see the street peddlers and street stands 

 cannot expose flowers for sale in weather 

 like this, and that makes a big diflisrence 

 in our business." How so? we asked. 

 "Well, we get rid of left over, too old, and 

 poor stock in that way, and if the ped- 

 dlers cannot expose it for sale they won't 

 buy it, and that's a loss all round. But 

 as regards good grade flowers we can sell 

 all we get." 



The smallest apple that we know oi 

 is the fruit oi Pyrus Parkmannii. 



The succESSof yourp riodical has been 

 marvelous, and is fullv justified by its 

 value. Dr. J. W. B. 



New York. 



Ci'PiD Sweet Pea— a mistake.— In the 

 last issue of Gardening, page 119, the pic- 

 ture of the sweet pea there shown is that 

 of Blanche Burpee and not of Cupid. It 

 was a compositor's mistake. W. Atlee 

 Burpee of Philadelphia, at our request, 

 sent electros of both varieties direct to the 

 Chicago ofiice, but a careless compositor, 

 in making up the page, used the wrong 

 picture. A mistake like this is exceedingly 

 mortifying to us, and we apologize to our 

 readers for it. Please erase the name 

 Cupid from under the picture in your 

 copy, and write that of Blanche Burpee. 



The "Willow" by the rivers of Babj-- 

 lon was presumably not * * a willow 

 but what we now know as Populus 

 Euphratica. Salix Babylonica is of 

 Chinese or Japanese origin and if the 

 weeping willow exists now in the valley 

 of the Euphrates, it probably has been 

 introduced, so says the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle. 



The Madresfield Coirt Grape, Mr. 

 Tohn Gardiner tells us, is undoubtedly the 

 finest Muscat grape in existence and it 

 can be grown in tubs very satisfactorily 

 where the watering is under full control. 

 Over-abundance of water causes this 

 grape to crack when taking the second 

 swelling. It will ripen at the same time 

 as Black Hamburgh. 



Ginseng.— C. R. S., Williamsport Pa., 

 asks for some inlormatian as regards the 

 cultivation of ginseng root, also from 

 whom he can obtain plants. Ans. Write 

 to the Agricultural Department, Wash- 

 ington, for a pamphlet recently published 

 by it on this subject. Send to Harlan P. 

 Kelsey, Highlands Nursery, Kawana, 

 Mitchell Co., N C, for the plants. Helms 

 -10,000 of them for sale. 



The Climbing Meteor Rose.— One of 

 our readers asks about this variety. 

 Although we have seen thousandsof little 

 plants of it gotten up for sale we have not 

 seen a large c'imbing specimen, so meet- 

 ing Mr. F. R. Pierson (the largest grower 

 of Meteor roses for cut flowers around 

 New York) the other day we asked him 

 about it. He informed us that no doubt 

 it was a true Meteor, and a climber too 

 in this way — that it would produce much 

 longer shoots than the typical plant, but 

 it wouldn't be a climber after the fashion 

 of a. prairie rose. 



The Hybrid streptocarpus. — What 

 beautiful little plants they are with their 

 white, lilac, purple, violet, rose, and red 

 flowers, and they seem to keep in bloom 

 most all the time. Their best purpose is 

 as pot plants for greenhouse decoration, 

 or planted out along with ferns, begonias, 

 peperomia, and other little plants in rock- 

 work or rustic work in greenhouses or 

 on mossed walls, and after they are full 

 grown and in bloom they make good 

 window plants. Shade them from bright 

 sunshine. Raise them from seed, and now 

 is a good time to sow it. The seeds are 

 very small, and take three weeks to ger- 

 minate, but they have much vitality and 

 the seedlings are not apt to damp off like 

 those of begonias or gloxinias. Two 

 parts fibrous loam, one of baked leaf soil, 

 and one of sharp sand make a good soil 

 for them, 



Christmas ROSES are not roses at all, 

 they are hellebores, and belong to the 

 same family i f plants as do clematis, 

 anemone, columbines and larkspur. Their 

 botanical name is Hellehorus niger and 

 they blossom in earh' winter, at a time 

 when they are very welcome indeed. We 

 have a nice lot of them in bloom now- 



large wide-open fine white blossoms, ex- 

 cellent for cut flowers. The plants are 

 hardy, but as the blossoms open out of 

 doors are so damaged and poor we pro- 

 tect ours with a cold frame and sash in 

 winter and cover it over with sedge to 

 keep severe cold out. The plants are 

 growing on the east side of a building 

 and sheltered from the north; they are 

 fully exposed all summer, and as they are 

 planted out permanently they require no 

 attention except in the matter of winter 

 covering, and that is because we want the 

 flowers. Anyone can grow these Christ- 

 mas roses just as well as we can. 



Filling the Ice House.— First, clean 

 out the ice house; have an even floor of 

 wood boards, .strips oreven shavings, etc., 

 in the bottom and the drainage perfect. 

 Have the ice pond plowed both ways so 

 that the cakes may be evenl square when 

 cut. Be particular in packing the ice to 

 have the cakes up tight together in close 

 even floors and mash up the broken cakes 

 to fill up whatever chinks there may be 

 between the cakes. When the house is 

 full, in hard frosty weather leave it open 

 at night, but be particular to shut it up 

 to exclude rain. Before mild weather sets 

 in cover the ice with a good layer of saw- 

 dust or shavings. Now the most impor- 

 tant point to observe in keeping ice in 

 summer is ventilation. Don't get pos- 

 sessed of the idea that in an air-tight 

 house the ice will keep better than in an 

 open one, for such is contrary to the facts. 

 Keep the ice well covered and dry and 

 abundantly ventilated at the top. Read 

 what Mrs Chrismansaysabout this (from 

 long, actual experience) in Gardening, 

 page 348, August 1, 1895, 



Kerosene Stoves for Heating Small 

 Greenhouses.— A L. W., New York, 

 writes: "In the current number of Gar- 

 dening you refer to kerosene stoves as 

 dangerous. .\s I have used one for seven 

 years in my plant room I would ask 

 whether you regard them dangerous from 

 explosion or being noxious, IhavegroAn 

 twentj' varieties of plants and flowers 

 without trouble. I may add thatextreme 

 care is taken in filling and lighting as 

 required by the insurance company." We 

 are glad to know this. The danger liesin 

 careless management and consequent 

 noxious gases. In fact we have a little 

 .siue greenhouse at Dosoris heated from an 

 open door into the potting shed, except 

 in quite cold weather, when we put a 

 couple of large kerosene lamps into it, 

 l.urning them all night and in the dull 

 part of the day, and there is no harm to 

 the plants from them. But letthese lamps 

 flare up too high and smoke, and harm 

 will ensue, and if a drop of water touches 

 the glass it breaks and the flame smokes, 

 and if not detected soon the plants suflfer. 



The Summer Water Lily Garden.— 

 Prepare for it now, not only the lilies 

 themselves, but the plants you wish to 

 group around your pond to give it a lux- 

 uriant and tro, ical effect. Mr. Peter Bis- 

 set, the head gardener at Mr. Gardner 

 Hubbard's beautiful place. Twin Oaks, 

 (see Gardening, front page. April 15, 

 1895), Washington, under dateof theSth 

 inst,, writes us as follows about what he 

 used for this purpose: "For planting 

 around the edge of the pond we used 

 Kicinus Zanziharensis a good deal and 

 foimd it admirable, it grew to the height 

 of 15 feet, also Alusa ensete, Caladium 

 arboremn, Aralia papyrifera, Bambusa 

 aurea, Solanum Warscewiczii and C. 

 giganteum, Wigandia Caracasana, Canna 

 Ehemannii and various of the fine flow- 

 ered sorts, Acalypha in variety, Cyperus 

 alternifolius with- its feet in the water; 



