GARDENING. 



155 



iiiiiiiiuuiii temperature of 60° is desirable; 

 shade the ■ eed pans or boxes from sun- 

 shine ; nd guard them against drying 

 draughts. 



Snapdragons as winter flowers. — 

 About Boston they have been growing a 

 fine white-flowered variety' of antirrhi- 

 num for sonieyrars in the greenhouses for 

 winter flowers, and it has become quite 

 popular. Other people throughout the 

 country have now taken hold of it and it 

 is being grown considerably both in 

 private conservatories and commercial 

 greenhouses. Amateurs as a rule grow it 

 in pots as they do carnations or cinera- 

 rias, but the florists plant it out on 

 benches in the same way as they do car- 

 nations. New plants are raised from cut- 

 tings every year as we do stevias or car- 

 n itions, and are grown right along to 

 their flowering stage, for they need no 

 rest in winter as hardy herbaceous peren- 

 nials generally do. True, they are more 

 biennial than perennial, and out of doors, 

 if sown in spring, they bloom nicely as 

 annuals. By pinching back the flower 

 tips we can retard the blooming time as 

 late as we wish; also by not raising the 

 young plants so early in the season we 

 can have them come into bloom, without 

 much pinching at the required season. 

 Altogether this white snapdragon is a 

 ])retty and useful and easily grown addi- 

 tion to our winter flowers, but we ques- 

 tion its popularity being long-lived. 



The Japan Crimson Glory Vine {Vitis 

 Coignetiee) is a recent introduction from 

 japan. It is a tall growing hardy orna- 

 mental woody vine whose foliage in fall 

 assumes a splendid glowing crimson hue. 

 .\lthough a few plants obtained originally 

 from Japan have been in cultivation in 

 Europe for several years, it has so persis- 

 tently defied the propagator's art, that 

 it is only since a year or two that it has 

 been offered for sale. Now let us give A. 

 Blanc & Co., of Philadelphia, their due 

 share of credit in this matter, they offer 

 it in their catalogue for 40 cents each. In 

 the English catalogues just to hand the 

 price charged is seven shillings and six- 

 pence a plant, exactly four and a half 

 times as much as we can buy it for in 

 America. This difference between the 

 priceof I'lt/sCo^g-nef/a? there and here may 

 be taken as a common example of the 

 prices charged there for new plants as 

 compared with what is charged here. 

 The general public here here refuse to pay 

 big prices for plants, and our florists and 

 nurserymen know better than to charge 

 big prices. When our florists get hold of 

 a new and meritorious plant they urge its 

 propagation to the utmost, "believing 

 that there is more money to be made by 

 selling a thousand plantsat 25 centseach 

 than a hundred at a dollar apiece and we 

 all reap the benefit of this impulse. 



Planting Trees.— If you desire to 

 |)lant any trees this spring prepare for it 

 now. Make up your mind as regards 

 what you want to plant and measure the 

 ground and mark off the places for the 

 trees; and as soon as the frost leaves the 

 earth prepare the holes. The preparation 

 of a hole does not consist ol scooping out 

 enough earth to make a cavity large 

 enough to hold the roots of the tree to be 

 planted, and no larger. Dig the holes 

 deep and wide, say 2 leet deep and 4 to 8 

 or more feet wide, removing the sand in 

 the bottom and filling up with good sur- 

 face earth, then you are giving a tree a 

 start in life that you will be glad for in 

 later j-ears. .\s soon as the holes are dug 

 out fill them up full and let them stay 

 filled till you are readv to plant the trees, 



■when it is a small matter to redig them 

 enough to plant it. Inselectingthe trees, 

 don't go out into the woods for them, 

 but send to a reputable nurseryman for 

 the best nursery-grown stock obtainable. 

 The nursery trees are straight stemmed, 

 well headed, lull rooted, and sure togrow 

 from the first; but that from the woods 

 is uncertain at best and often bitterly dis- 

 appointing. 



"Poisoned by chrysanthemums— Are 

 THEY guilty?"- In relation to this item 

 page 138, I would answer Rev. J. C. Ber- 

 rien in the affirmative; at least my own 

 experience with these plants seems to 

 prove that they are guilty of "poisoning " 

 the skin. It also appears to me thatthey 

 are much more liable to cause this irrita- 

 tion spoken of by your correspondent, if 

 handled while the foliage is wet. To pre- 

 vent the trouble I provide myself with a 

 pair of driving gloves, from which the fin- 

 ger ends have been cut. These gloves I 

 always wear when I work among the 

 "mums," and thus obtain practical 

 immunity from the annoyance. I also use 

 as a further preventive an alcoholic solu- 

 tion or tincture of lobelia, which mav be 

 obtained in any drugstore, and which I 

 always apply both before and after touch- 

 ing the plants If we may judge from the 

 results attained in my case, I think that 

 the Key. Mr. Berrien by using the means 

 indicated above will be able to continue 

 raising "mums" and escape thetrouble of 

 which he complains. Above all things, 

 however, let him keep his hands off" while 

 the foliage of the plants is wet. 



Dayton, Ohio. Theo. Meuche. 



Canna Italia —In this we have some- 

 thing wonderful. It was raised in Italy 

 about four years ago. An illustration 

 and description of it in Gardening World 

 just to hand prompt us to referto it. We 

 read "The plant attains a height of 6 feet 

 to 9 feet and bears spikes of bloom about 

 16 inches in length, and the individual 

 petals measure 4 inches to 5 inches. * * 

 The flowers are of a brilliant scarlet, con- 

 spicuously spotted, and have a broad 

 border of golden yellow. The leaves 

 resemble those of a musa in shape and 

 size. ' ' A colored plate of the flowers that 

 we have seen shows enormous blossoms 

 of the Oueen Charlotte type. Now for a 

 bit of inside history. Just as soon as this 

 Italian wonder was born and bloomed, it 

 was noted by an American florist. The 

 next season this florist offered $1,000 for 

 three plants of it, but the off'er was 

 refused; $2500 was asked for six roots. 

 The American would not pay this. Nego- 

 tiation were again opened between them 

 the next summer ('94) when the Italian 

 firm offered to sell fifteen roots of Italia 

 and the same number of a similarly large 

 flowered yellow one called Austria to the 

 American for $2500. This may seem to 

 be a big story, but the original Italian 

 letter is in our hands. Italia is now in an 

 American greenhouse, however, and the 

 owner of it writes us: "Now don't think 

 for a moment that I paid $2500 for them 

 but I have now two hundred plants of 

 each, and am going to sell them soon at 

 $5 a plant We have had it in bloom for 

 some weeks and it is fully up to the 

 description." Being here means multipli- 

 cation of stock by the most rapid 

 methods practicable. 



Wild Plants r. Nursery Stock.— A 

 landscape gardener came to us the other 

 day to find out w here he coud get certain 

 wild shrubs which grow in swamps, as he 

 wished to dig up a largequantity of them 

 to plants in masses to obtain certain 

 effects. We answered him in this way: 

 If you want to do good work, work that 



will satisfy the proprietor and redound 

 in after years to your own glory, let those 

 bushes stay in the swamps where they 

 are, and go or send to the nurseries for 

 the best nursery-grown stocu of thekinds 

 you want, and take no other. Plant these 

 and they will grow and look well from the 

 first. Mr. A. B. does not want any cheap 

 trash on or about his place; he' wants 

 nothing planted to-day that will be an 

 unkempt dying or dead shrubbery— as 

 your swamp collected stuff will be— next 

 year. Don't talk about the cheapness of 

 it. We have been in the nursey business 

 and know how cheaply nursery stock can 

 be gotten up and sold; we have also dug 

 up rhodora, winter berry, azalea, clethra 

 and other shrubs in swamps and planted 

 them in gardens, with the usual mortify- 

 ing results. True, certain nurserymen 

 make a business of collecting wild p'la ts 

 and growing them in nursery rows ixjrone 

 or two years till they become "estab- 

 lished" plants; well, this stock is al right, 

 for in disposing of it they sell only what 

 is well rooted and in good health, reject- 

 ing the rest. And as a rule we can buy 

 this stock from them cheaper than we 

 ourselves can collect it. These nursery- 

 men also collect small plants or young 

 seedlings, as of kalmias or rhododen- 

 drons, and transfer them to thtir nur- 

 series,gro wing them on forsomeyears.and 

 making good stock out of it. 



SUMMEH-FLOWERING BULBS, ETC. 



Don't let canna roots get very dry. 

 They should have been siored with the 

 earth adhering to them; if you didn't do 

 this spread a little loam over them to 

 keep them from getting too drv. Keep 

 them cool but always above 40-. A few 

 canna roots potted now and brought 

 into the greenhouse will make nice bloom- 

 ing plants in two or three months. Star 

 of '91 is one of the best for this purpose. 



It doesn't matter much how dry we 

 keep the dahlia tubers they seem to keep 

 well enough, still overdryness shrivels 

 and weakens them, and much moisture 

 causes them to grow prematurely. If you 

 have any extra fine variety vou wish to 

 get more of put it into a" pot or box of 

 earth now and bring it into the green- 

 house or window and let it grow; the tip 

 of every shoot can be taken ofT and used 

 as a cutting in the same way as we make 

 and strike cuttings of other plants. 



It is well to go overthe gladiolus bulbs, 

 pick away the bulblets and save them, 

 and remove the rough outer husk and 

 dead bulb from the base. See that they 

 are quite dry and stored in small bulk, 

 that is not over a few inches in depth; 

 also keep them cool, 45° to 50 ', to pre- 

 vent them starting into growth too soon. 

 Keep the bulblets by themselves and in 

 spring sow them out of doors in rows as 

 one would peas. If the hard dark col- 

 ored skin on these bulblets is peeled ofl^or 

 partly off, the little bulbs will make a 

 much bigger and surer growth in summer 

 than if be left untouched, but this peeling 

 had better not be done till within two to 

 three weeks before planting. Gladiolus- 

 aside from G. Colrillei— are now largely 

 grown as greenhouse plants for spring 

 and early summer flowers. Try a few. 

 Take well ripened bulbs of such varieties 

 as Brenchleyensis, vermilion-scarlet; 

 Shakespeare, creamy white and carmine 

 striped; Eugene Scribe, rose and deep 

 rose, variegated; Napoleon III, scarlet; 

 John Bull, whitish; and Romulus, dark 

 red with white blotch on lower petals. 

 Pot them about as )ou would hyacinths 

 and set them under the bench of the 

 greenhouse but away from the hot air of 

 the heating pipes, and keep drip away 



