i8g6. 



' GARDENING. 



359 



SMALL AZALEA 



very showy and bright. In yellows, our 

 other Italian importation, Austria, easily 

 leads; it is quite as fine in form as Italia, 

 almost as large, clear in color, and a 

 most beautiful flower in every waj'. 

 Prima is extremely good; dwarf free, 

 bright and clear; Lemoine's two dwarfs, 

 Comete and Cote d' Or are both very use- 

 ful for edging. In dark foliage sorts, 

 Egandale is grand, and though not new, 

 is not used nearly enough. It is early and 

 the flower is large and very brilliant and 

 one of the most lasting under sun and 

 rain of any of the family. S. A. H. 



Richmond, Indiana. 



FINE ftURflTUM LILIES. 



I stepped into the private garden of the 

 veteran nurseryman, Mr. George Ellwan- 

 ger of Rochester, the other day to see his 

 auratum lilies, and they were grand, the 

 finest I have ever seen. I counted over 

 fifty blooms on one stem alone. Mr. Ell- 

 wanger savs he planted 180 bulbs there 

 last fall, giving the ground no e.\tra 

 preparation whatever for the lilies, and 

 here's the result. The soil is good rich 

 garden earth, with some leaf mould 

 added. The bulbs were planted six inches 

 below the surface of the ground and a 

 little sharp sand put around each one. 

 They are growing in a northern aspect 

 under the partial or slight shade of 

 a Weir's cut leaf maple and purple beech, 

 where the conditions for their develop- 

 ment have been nice and cool. J. T^. 



A Book About Flower Bkds.— J. E. 

 H.. Colon, Mich., writes: "I am in vi-ant 

 of a horticultural book that treats as fol- 

 lows: Tells how to make a pretty flower 

 bed, shows the different cuts of flower 

 beds, tells what kind of flowers to use, 

 and gives all cxplan.itorv so one can un- 



derstand it easily. Nothing very expen- 

 sive, just medium." .4ns. We presume 

 you mean geometrical flowerbed designs. 

 "Designs for Fl ^wer Beds" by Geo. A. 

 Solly, may suit you. Its price is $3, but 

 we understand it is no w out of publication. 

 But are you aware that the most ap- 

 proved, modern garden taste is against 

 that sort of thing? At the same time we 

 believe there is a place for it, but it must 

 be kept to itself and not spread broadcast 

 over our gardens. 



The Greenhouse. 



GREENHOUSE flZflLEflS. 



By this we mean the varieties of Azalea 

 Indica usually cultivated in pots in green- 

 houses. Our illustration engraved from 

 a photograph taken last year of a plant 

 at Dosoris shows a specimen the second 

 year from Belgium. Manj'of our readers 

 may not know that most of the azaleas 

 grown in this country were, to begin 

 with, imported from Europe; our florists 

 find that they can buy young azalea 

 plants in Belgium, Holland or England 

 cheaper than they can propagate and 

 .ind raise them, our friend Mr. James 

 Dean of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, alone im- 

 ports about $5,000 worth a year. 



Azaleas are placed nut of doors over 

 summer in some sheltered spot, and 

 partly shaded from hot sunshine by neigh- 

 boring trees or buildings, or lath slatted 

 shades aresetupovertheni.and they may 

 be left outside till there is danger of frost 

 Although these azaleas will bear sharp 

 frosts with apparent impunity, it is not 

 well to submit pot grown plants to 

 frosty weather, the flower buds are apt 

 to get injued. At Washington these 

 azaleas are hardy and planted in the gar- 



dens as hardy shrubs, with no fear even of 

 the flower buds being injured. Theplants 

 in pots may be wintered in cool, frost 

 proof cellars, but never let them get very 

 dry. A few good varieties are Vervs- 

 neana, the subject of our illustration, 

 Deutsche Perle, white; Flag of Truce, 

 white; Iveryana, white; Roi de Hol- 

 land, intense scarlet-crimson; Sigismund 

 Rucker, rose, white and crimson blotch; 

 Madame Joseph Vervjene, rose bordered 

 with white; Stella, orange scarlet, 

 Eclatante, deep crimson, and Mars, 

 bright red. 



flow TO GROW CACTUS. 



Agreatmajointy of those who decide to 

 make cactus growing their hobby very 

 soon become enthusiasts in the cause. 

 They must secure a good collection and 

 all must be correctly named and healthy. 

 I have met many such people during the 

 last few j'ears who have succeeded in get- 

 ting together very creditable collections. 

 The first lot of plants received was all 

 named and of course all the plants were 

 named correctly (?). But others came 

 from other sources and something was 

 found to be wrong somewhere, or a 

 brother cactusian comes in and shakes all 

 confidence in the correctness of names of 

 many of the plants because they are not 

 named like his. This awakens a deter- 

 termination on the part of the owners to 

 find out what is right and they determine 

 to visit places where named collections 

 are kept. How easily such visitors may 

 be detected, for if they know in what part 

 of the place such plants are kept thither 

 will they wend their way, passing every- 

 thing else by unnoticed be it ever so 

 beautiful or attractive, for to utter their 

 own words they "came out to see the 

 cactus." On arriving at the spot, a book 

 containing notes most carefully collected 



