338 



GARDENING. 



Aug. /, 



continually dark, while in the case of the 

 boxes they get the full bright sunshine, 

 and certainly warmer water, as they are 

 never more than six inches from the sur- 

 face, whereas when they were planted in 

 the earth in the middle of the pond they 

 had nearly two feet of water over them. 

 In the hardy lily pond there is a lily 

 that looks exactly like Laydeken rosea, 

 only it is white (it is evidently one of the 

 parents of Laydeken) and it is said to 

 be pygmxa, but having grown pygmsen 

 myself and seen it often in other ponds, it 

 is 'difficult for me to believe this, yet in 

 the catalogues it is not described. Can 

 anv one suggest the true name of it? 



to me the most beautiful of all the 

 hardy lilies is a so-called "Irish Loeh 

 Lily"; it always seemed to me to be a 

 large type of alba candidissima, and in 

 going through the aquatic house at 

 Schenley Park it was labelled N alba cap- 

 didissiiha gigantea, and a giant it is. 

 When this plant was received from the 

 grower the buds and flowers on it were 

 enormous, but unfortunately it has not 

 had such large flowers tor me simply 

 because my method of treatment is not 

 correct. 



Last year ray efforts to grow N. 

 gigantea (to me the most beautiful of all 

 tender lilies) were not successful, and this 

 year it looks as if the result will be the 

 "same. This lily has a bad habit ot turn- 

 ing to a tuber when its roots are dis- 

 turbed and both myefibrts have Jailed on 

 this account. This yiar I started off 

 with a fine plant; it turned to a tuber, 

 but an examination a few days ago re- 

 vealed, the fact that the tuber was start- 

 ing up, and as it is early in the year my 

 hopes mav still be realized. 



N. Columbiana, the new dark red, is 

 another beautiful variety, but no red lily 

 is much ahead, if anything, of the old 

 standby Devoniensis. N.Sturtevantii is a 

 grand flower and is very much admired 

 by everv one but it is a shy bloomer. 



Experience has shown that it is a great 

 mistake to have sun fish and gold fish in 

 the same pond; that is if one wishes to 

 increase their stock of gold fish, because 

 the sun fish eat all the young gold fish. 



Not being satisfied with the size ot our 

 lotus pond, and having made it about 

 double the size, the next problem was 

 would it be better to plant some new 

 tubers in the addition or take some of the 

 tubers out of the old part and plant 

 them in the new. This question was 

 settled bv the lotus roots themselves 

 spreading' all over the new part very 

 rapidly, even to the extreme end. Lotus 

 should always be planted by thetnselves; 

 my experience in trying to grow lilies in 

 the same pond was a failure. 



As to the surroundings of lily ponds, 

 all sides of a pond save the north should 

 have low growing plants, if any at all, 

 as water lilies cannot get too much sun. 

 It is advisable to grow foliage plants 

 on the edge of a pond rather than flowers, 

 though some flowers look very well, still 

 geraniums or brilliant colored flowers 

 detract from the coloring of the lilies. 

 Iris on the north side of a pond look very 

 well and they flower early and make a 

 handsome show before the lilies come. 



One word of advice, which is certainly 

 very important, and that is cover your 

 poiids carefully in the winter. 



Our ponds only have a 41/2 wall 

 and as the bottom of the pond is clay 

 we cement right on the clay. 



In some of the catalogues verj- heavy 

 walls are suggested, and if the average 

 flower lover would think of building one 

 the cost would scarchim oftimmediately, 

 and from a practical experience 1 know 



AN OUT-DOOR LILT POND. 



such walls are unnecessary. When in the 

 late fall or eariy winter the ice begins to 

 form, the ponds are all filled up with 

 water— level full— and a few old joists are 

 laid across and on there old boards are 

 put, on these boards we cover up a good 

 thickness of leaves and cover the whole 

 over with a few pine boughs; these look 

 nice, being green all winter, but of course 

 their principal use is to keep the leaves 

 from blowing away. 



It is most important that the covering 

 extend at least 2V2 to 3 feet beyond the 

 edge of pond wall, because it is the wall 

 that needs the protection The goldfish 

 are always left out all winter and the 

 four months of darkness and cold seem to 

 do them no harm. 



If people only knew what a little ex- 

 pense there is connected with a lily pond 

 and what a source of delight it is there 

 would certainly be more of them. I think 

 it may be safely stated that no class of 

 plants yield so many flowers for so little 

 work, for it certainly is a fact that the 

 more you leave them alone the better 

 they will do. 



It must also be understood that the 

 care ot a lily pond is not necessarily a 

 man's occupation, as in our town here 

 some of our most enthusiastic water lily 

 growers are ladies, who give the plants 

 all the attention they need, and they 

 always have a very great show of flow- 

 ers. Ernest M.wkr. 



Beaver Falls, Pa. 



AN OUTDOOR LILY FOND. 



Our illustration is engraved from a 

 photograph of a part of a water lily pond 

 in the garden of Hon. Gardiner J. Hub- 

 bard, Twin Oaks, Washington, D."C.,and 

 was kindly sent to us by Mr. Peter Bis- 

 sett, his gardiner. If you turn back to 

 Gardening, January 15 of this year, 

 pages 131, 132, you will there find what 

 Mr. Bissett has got to say about how he 

 grows and winters his aquatics; and the 

 little picture we now present shows his 

 success. Such articles as that one by Mr. 

 Bissett and the one in this issue by Mr. 

 Mayer are the voice of many years' expe- 

 rience and exceedingly valuable. 



There is a homey, happy feeling in that 

 picture of aquatics that we should strive 

 to imitate. Observe that the pond is in 

 the full open sunshine, but at the back 

 there is a close protection of trees from 

 the cold winds. A strong growth of mis- 

 cellaneous decorative plants — mostly 

 hardy — also surround the margins. 



Landscape Gardening. 



EGflNDflLE. 



The large trees forming the background 

 shown in the illustration, are mainly na- 

 tive oaks, ash and hard maples, growing 

 on the bank of a deep ravine. In viewing 

 it you are looking south. This ravine 

 forms the sou hern and western boundary 

 of the lawn. In the rear (centre of the 

 illustration) a spur of the main ravine, 

 runs up into the lawn, and to the extreme 

 left, back of the shrubbery, another spur 

 again enters the tableland, thus dividing 

 the lawn at that end into two lobes 

 forming in the one to the right a deep 

 bay, while the other may be termed a 

 long tapering point. The one to the right 

 is opened up into a clean lawn, while the 

 other is only opened up in the centre, allow- 

 ing enough indigenous trees and shrubs to 

 remain near the sides to overbower it 

 with foliage. As stated, this wing of table 

 land is a narrow point; at its extremeend 

 growing in the ravine bank some ten feet 

 out are two old red oaks. A rustic bridge 

 connects them with the point of land, its 

 shape tape'ring towards the oaks, thus 

 continuing the gradually narrowing in of 

 the side lines. Bj' bushing up here and 

 there along the edge of this part of 

 the table land, with bush honeysuckles, 

 snowberries and other shrubs that will 

 stand some shade, and grassing the open 

 space in the centre, the eye is confined as 

 it were within the open space and along 

 to the narrowing bridge, so that the 

 vision is confused and the imagination 

 presumes a much longer distance than 

 exists. When John Thorpe entered that 

 partof my grounds for the first time, he 

 at once exclaimed "What a long way for 

 so short a distance." To give an idea of 

 the size of the lawn as shown in the pict- 

 ure I will give a few measurements: The 

 distance from the bottom of the picture 

 to the extreme end in the lobe at the 

 right is two hundred and sixty feet. To 

 the small dark bushy juniper near the 

 rear centre, is one hundred and seventy- 

 four feet. The width across from the 

 curved border ot sedum at the right, to 

 the first shrubbery bed at the left just 

 beyond the yuccas is fifty-four feet. From 

 this point, both north and south, the 

 lawn widened out. 



To the right, at the edge of the lawn is 

 a Colorado blue spruce. It was put there 

 to hide the margin of the lawn beyond, 



