i8g6. 



' • ' GARDENING. 



^39 



Eulalia gracillimn, Erianthus Ravenna:; 

 and several others. The effect was fine, 

 tropical and in good keeping with the 

 surroundings." The musa, solaiiunis, 

 wigandia and cyncrus can be raised from 

 seed and the sooner it is sown in the 

 greenhouse the better; the rieinus also 

 from seed, but March is soon enough to 

 sow it 



Poisoned iiv Cmkvsantiikmums— Are 

 THEV Guilty?— The Kev. J. C. Berrien of 

 Steubenville, Ohio, writes: "I would like 

 to ask if in your experience, or if in the 

 experience of the readers of CtARDE.ning 

 \'ou have found the foliage of chrysanthe- 

 mums t) be poisonous to human flesh? I 

 have noticed for two years past about 

 the time I was tying and staking my 

 'mums an irritation upon my hands and 

 face, accompanied with itching, sometimes 

 very annoying. After the plants had been 

 cut down and I ceased handling them the 

 symptoms disappeared. Would such re- 

 sults follow handling dried and mouldy 

 leaves swept from the street, particularly 

 poplar and maple? I have piles of these 

 that I worked in considerably about the 

 same time. I would like to put the blame 

 on something else and not be obliged 'to 

 keep m3- hands off' my beloved chrysan- 

 themums." We have never seen a case 

 of poisoning by chrysanthemums nor 

 have we before now heard of one. Has 

 any other of our readers? We don't think 

 the trouble was in the maple or poplar 

 leaves, but we do know that the hairs 

 upon the maple kevs or seed coming in 

 contact with the soft parts of the hands 

 often cause such an irritation. Many 

 people, however, are very much more 

 susceptible to "poisoning" in this way 

 than are others. 



PyRETflRUM FLOWERS IN WINTER. 

 A year ago a neighbor florist called our 

 attention t > an experiment he was mak- 

 ing in the way of growing pyrethrums 

 for cut flowers in winter. The experiment 

 p oved a pronounced success, and now he 

 has a large span-roofed greenhouse filled 

 with double white pyrethnnn plants, set 

 out on the benches as one would carna- 

 tions, and they look very promising. 

 Thej' were planted as a succession to late 

 chrjsanthemums in the greenhouse. 

 These pyrethrums are perfectly hardy 

 herbaceous perennials that bloom in May 

 and early June out of doors; their flowers 

 are full-double, pure white, of good size, 

 very beautiful, and have good stiff stems, 

 and altogether they look somewhat after 

 the manner of a good double white China 

 aster, only more refined. I^ike most 

 hardy perennials the pyrethrums need a 

 decided periodof rest, and without it they 

 cannot be made to grow and bloom sat- 

 isfactorily in winter anj' more than we 

 can lily of the valley. Uur neighbor pre- 

 pared for this last spring. He got ready 

 a cold frame and lifting and dividing a 

 lot of old plants, planted the divisions 

 out in the bed of this frame, and encour- 

 aged them to start early anl make a full 

 strong growth before midsummer, and 

 cut oft' the flower spikes as they appeared 

 so as to enlarge and strengthen the 

 plants. An early growth and complete 

 exposure ripened them up prettj' well in 

 the fall, and the frosts we had before 

 Christmas from which they had no pro- 

 tection .setmingly have rested them 

 enough, for since they have been planted 

 in the greenh use they have started very 

 kindly into growth. When in bloom the 

 flowers will be supportedbj' the wire hoop 

 supports used for carnations. Don't force 

 the same plants every year, rather raise 



your stock for next year from outdoor 

 plant.s that had not been forced at all 

 this winter. They are very easily prop;i- 

 gated by division in early .spring. 



FOINSETTIflS 



Arc gorgeous winter-bloom'tig plants, 

 theij- heads of scarlet bracts being their 

 attraction. As pot plants they are ex- 

 ceedingly showy in the conservatory, and 

 for a short time in the house, but for cut 

 flowers they are often very unsatisfac- 

 tory, they wilt so soon after being cut. 

 When we cut them we strip off all unnec- 

 essary foliage, then dropthe sprays bodily 

 into a tank of water, letting them float 

 there for some hours, then lift them out 

 and again cut a piece off of the ends of 

 the stems and set them back in the water 

 again for a while. After this they last 

 plump and fresh fairly well for a night. 

 Long leafy stems are sure to wilt the 

 heads of bracts. After using them in the 

 house for a night if the ends of the 

 branches are shortened a little more and 

 the sprays are again placed in a tank of 

 water to float for a few hours ihey will 

 plump up. Some people, after cutting 

 their poinsettias dip the cut ends in hot 

 water to stop the coagulation of the milk 

 and thus save the pores from being 

 choked and their means of absorbing 

 water to keep themselves plump pre- 

 served. The "double" variety forms a 

 fine succession to the single one. .As soon 

 as they are done blooming or the bracts 

 are cut over we lay the plants on their 

 sides on the floor under the bench of a 

 greenhouse to stay there without any 

 further care till April, when we shall bring 

 them out, shake them out of their present 

 pots, prune them hard back, repot them 

 into pots, possibly smaller than the ones 

 they were in before, and then set them up 

 on the stage to the light, but not encour- 

 age growth much till the weather is 

 warm enough — end of May — to allow us 

 to plunge them out of doors for the 

 summer. 



SWEET FEflS. 



Some of the New Sweet Peas well 

 worth trj'ing are as follows. The descrip- 

 tions are from the published lists: 



America— Intense and heavy cardinal 

 striped variety. 



Blanche Burpee — Probably the largest 

 and finest white-flowered variety' in cul- 

 tivation. 



Bride of Niagara — Pink and white, com- 

 ing double. 



Daybreak- White ground color with 

 crimson-scarlet cloud on the back of up- 

 per petal. 



Extra Early Blanche Ferry— Said to 

 come into bloom some days ahead of 

 Blanche Ferry. 



Gray Friar— Large, finely formed gray- 

 ish flower. 



Juanita — White lined and flaked with 

 light blue. 



Katherine Tracy— Soft crimson blush. 



Oddity — Pale carmine with bright rose 

 edge. 



Kamona— Creamy white, splashed and 

 flaked with pink. 



Meteor — Standard orange-salmon, 

 wings delicate pink with slight purple 



Blanche Ferry is the most esteemed 

 pink and white sweet pea in cultivation 

 and it is the earliest of all. If the new 

 extra early variety of it is as the raisers 

 claim, ten days earlier, it will be a great 

 boon not only for outdoor cultivation, 

 but for growing in the greenhouse in 

 winter. It isn't as tall a grower as the 



average run of sweet peas and its seeds 

 are apt to be of the best quality and they 

 are low priced. If restricted t) one sort 

 of sweet pea get Blanche Ferry. At the 

 same time if one cannot afford to have 

 more than one packet or ounce of sweet 

 pea seed, by all means get mixed seed. 

 Emily Henderson is simply a white flow- 

 ered Blanche Ferry — the size, fo m, dura- 

 tion, earliness, etc. — everything except 

 the color of the flowers, being identical, 

 all of wh ch are an extra good recom- 

 mendation. 



YellowFlowerkd Sweet Peas.— We 

 haven't any. The varieties deseri ed as 

 yellow are of a creamy shade. Mrs. Eek- 

 lord is the best of them, but its large, 

 wide-opin, splendid form is more the 

 attraction than its creamy color. 



Double-Flowered Sweet Peas.— Not- 

 withstanding all the persistent efforts of 

 seed raisers to fix a double flower perma- 

 nently they have not succeeded, so far as 

 we have seen. This must be aggravating 

 to them because when our common sweet 

 peas are in the flush of their vigor and 

 bloom we often find among them some 

 "double" flowers. But Editor Seelye of 

 Rochester, N. Y., assured us last summer 

 that his folks had trained one down so 

 fine that a large percentage of the blos- 

 soms could be depended on as coming 

 double We must try it this year. We 

 are also informed by other seed growers 

 that they have established the strain 

 enough to assure them of a modera'.e per- 

 centage of double blossoms. 



The Fruit Garden. 



GREENHOUSE GRflPES. 



The foreign grapes such as Black Ham- 

 burgh and Muscat of Alexandria that we 

 grow in our greenhouses are of no use for 

 outdoor cultivation in the northern or 

 middle states, at the same time, with 

 very little trouble or cost amateurs with 

 a make-shift greenhouse in summer can 

 grow them in firstrate order, and I say so 

 from many years close practical experi- 

 ence in this line. [Growing grapes, 

 peaches and other fruits in greenhouses, 

 also mushrooms, and fancy vegetables 

 in winter for market is Mr. Gardiner's 

 business, and he is one of the largest and 

 most successful grovi-ers of these things in 

 the country.— Ed.] I have tested over 

 thirty varieties of thcseexotic grapevines 

 thoroughly and find that if they are 

 pruned in fall, and laid down and buried 

 in winter, having four or five inches deep 

 of loam over them they are perfectly 

 hardy here out of doors. I have had 

 Black Hamburgh and Muscat of Alexan- 

 dria growing outside for twelve years 

 and all the protection in winter they 

 received was a covering of four or five 

 inches of soil put on about the first of 

 November. Manj- amateurs, gardeners, 

 and floris' s use greenhouses in wintcrand 

 spring but leave them empty in summer, 

 now a market man like me cannot afford 

 to do that, and that there is no need of 

 you doing it. You can grow grapes in 

 that greenhouse in summer just as well 

 as not, and they won't interfere in any- 

 way with your winter flowers. In this 

 ease the vines should be planted out of 

 doors in the border and close by the front 

 of the greenhouse, and the canes may be 

 brought inside in spring and again taken 

 outside in fall through apertures made for 

 this purpose. This gives the vines a com- 

 plete rest in winter, and enables us to use 

 the greenhouse hot or cold just as we 



