374 



GARDENING. 



Sept. /, 



Ans. The time for pruning any of them is 

 most anytime in mildish weather between 

 November and the first of April, but 

 March would be a safe time In your neigh- 

 borhood. In lactwe attend to pruning of 

 these and such like plants any time in 

 winter providing the weather isn't severe, 

 for wounds made in hard frosty weather 

 don't heal up as nicely as those made in 

 mild weather. As regardsthe hydrangea, 

 exit it back to the second joint of the cur- 

 rent year's growth. The comus needs 

 very little prunnig, maybe some thinning 

 and shortening of the shoots to make a 

 symmetrical specimen. The amorpha 

 needs very little of the knife; cut off the 

 old flower spikes, shorten the shoots a 

 little that are running out too far and 

 cut out dead wood. 



Si'iK.BA Anthony Waterer.— W.O. C, 

 asks; "Will spiraja Anthony Waterer 

 prove hardy in this climate, where it 

 sometimes gets as cold as fifteen degrees 

 below zero? Will protection such as is 

 given to half hardy roses prove beneficial? 

 Am well pleased' with it, its habit of 

 growth and foliage is beautiful, and it is 

 continually in bloom. It is certainly an 

 acquisition if it will prove hardy in our 

 climate." Ans. If Spirwa Bumalda is 

 hardy in your neighborhood so is 

 Anthony Waterer. The degree of cold 

 you mention should not hurt it, at the 

 same time there are other conditions be- 

 sides the intensity of cold that help to 

 destrov plants, for instance long contin- 

 ued cold, changeableness of weather in 

 winter, open exposure to frosty winds, 

 and late severe cold snaps. Shelter from 

 cold winds, and a mulching or protection 

 of branches, or such as you give the roses, 

 will certainly aid in preserving it if your 

 climate is too severe for it. 



(iET Kiu OK Loci'ST.— A Michigan 

 reader wants to known how to get rid of 

 the common locust; its sprouts come up 

 all over the place. Ans. By carefully 

 rooting up and removing every sprout in 

 sight and keeping this up. Where old 

 trees have been cut down the roots left in 

 ihe ground are sure to throw up sprouts, 

 and they keep on doing this for two or 

 three years. 



The Flower Garden. 



SUMMER OUT DOOR FLflNTS. 



Can.nas of the Crozy type, may be 

 placed in the front rank of summer out 

 door plants, for their great beauty and 

 adaptability for various purposes. 



Himscus Rosa Sinensis.— Its great va- 

 riety of single and double sorts, make 

 gorgeous masses when bedded out; the 

 plants are equally beautiful grown as 

 specimen plants in pots or tubs, flower- 

 ing profusely during onr warm weather. 



Lagekstrjemia or crape myrtle.— It 

 may appear a little out of place to put 

 what grows here to a large shrub or 

 small trees among these plants, but when 

 I look about my nursery during our hot- 

 test summer weatherand see the glorious 

 masses of richest crimson in L. Regitm 

 .ind the equally beautiful bushes of the 

 white, pink, purple and other varieties, 

 I feel I cannot too stronglj' recommend 

 them. Farther north where not hardy 

 they may be grown in pots, tubs, etc., and 

 wintered in a cellar or any place from 

 severe frost. [At Dosoris we planted 

 I hem out in April and lifted them about 

 ihc end of October or first of November, 

 and heeled them into a cold pit, and thev 



blossomed beautifullv for us every year. 

 -Ed.] 



Tabern,«;montanas or Glory of the 

 Day —Flowers of the purest white, double 

 and deliciousl}' fragrant, and borne in 

 great profusion on bedded out plants. 



Abelia rupestris. — For Washington 

 and south this is a pretty, compact, hardy 

 shrub, blooming profusely during summer 

 and fall. Where not hardy it will well 

 repay for pot culture— protection during 

 winter and planting out in summer. [At 

 Dosoris it was not hardy, but we treated 

 it just the same as we did the crape m^'r- 

 tle and it behaved splendidly and kept in 

 bloom all summer long. — Dd.] 



Crotons are not flowering plants, but 

 among the very finest foliage plants 

 for bedding out in summer, the large 

 leaved variety are best for this purpose. 



SoLANUMS are vines orclimbing plants, 

 Wendlandii, Seafortbianum and jasmin- 

 oides grandiHorum succeeds beautifully 

 in the open air during summer, place 

 around them some branches three or four 

 feet high over which they can scramble 

 at pleasure. They grow profusely. 



Tecomas. Smithii, Capeasis, Makenii, 

 Stans, etc., bed out finely, flower pro- 

 fusely, and are handsome and distinct 

 plants. 



Ipomcea Briggsii.— Cultivators who are 

 acquainted with that fine old plant 

 Ipomoc-a Horsfallia: have in this an er|ually 

 beautiful plant, flowers similar in color, 

 a tree grower, succeeds admirably in the 

 open, running rapidly on branches or 

 stakes and flowering profusely. 



Erythrinas. — Crista galli, compacta, 

 Mme. Belangitrs, and others are beauti- 

 ful plants of easiest culture. Plant out in 

 May when weather is fine. They grow 

 oft finely and commence blooming early 

 and profusely duringsumnier.giving rich, 

 deep coral red flowers. Lift the plants 

 before severe frost and place them in a 

 dry, warm cellar or under the greenhouse 

 stage for winter. 



Plumbago Capensis has lovely azure 

 blue flowers freely produced during warm 

 weather; Albos is a white variety of the 

 last equally beautiful; old plants can be 

 stored during winter in the same way as 

 erythrinas. P. Larpentse is a dwarf, 

 hardy species with flowers of a bluish 

 purple color. 



Tritomas (Knipbofia), Flame or Torch 

 flower. — We have now many beautiful 

 species and varieties of these showy 

 plants and they bloom finely in the open 

 air, they are distinct and effective. 



John Saul. 



Washington, D. C, August 17, '<,»0. 



T«E CRAPE MYRTLE flS fl BEDDINO PLANT. 



Last year some one was oft'ering crape 

 myrtles cheap so I sent and got a hun- 

 dred of them. They were long bare sticks, 

 but I cut them back and planted them out 

 in a bed between small plants of Hydran- 

 gea paniculatagrandiffora and the way in 

 which they grew and bloomed astonished 

 me. They came into bloom about the 

 time the hydrangeas were at their best or 

 on the decline and lasted in beauty till 

 frost, and the flowers were so odd, and 

 pretty and lace-like, that we were charmed 

 with them. As soon as frost came we 

 headed the plants back a little and lifted 

 them and stored them close together, 

 their roots in soil in a bench, in a cold 

 greenhouse, there to remain over winter. 

 Last spring we planted them out again 

 and they arc bigger and better than ever 

 this year. It is a very common hardy 

 garden shrub in the south, but not hardv 



in the north, however, it has come into 

 my garden to stay. J. T. Temple. 



Davenport. Iowa. 



The merits of the crape myrtle as a gar- 

 den plant in the north have never been 

 fully appreciated because the people do 

 not generally know how good a thing it 

 is with us. We had it at Dosoris— red, 

 white and purple flowered forms, and it 

 always grew and flowered beautifully. 

 We lifted the plants in November, as we 

 did evergreen euonymus, pomegranate, 

 abelia, and other barely hardy shrubs, 

 and heeled them in in a cold pit over winter, 

 planting them out again next April. We 

 have also left them out of doors over 

 winter, mulching them deeply, but we got 

 better growth and better success by lift- 

 ing and wintering them in the pit than 

 leaving them out in the ground, that of 

 recent years we restricted ourselves to 

 that practice. From Washington south- 

 ward it is as common as a hardy shrub 

 in gardens as are lilac bushes in New Eng- 

 land. 



Having a space about seventy by 

 twenty feet laid out in garden, small 

 geometrical beds bordered with dwarf 

 box, in a sunny location, lam desirous of 

 planting it with hardy perennials that 

 will make it uniform in appearance and 

 have as much bloom as possible during 

 the entire season. Will you kindly sug- 

 gest the best treatment for it? 



Northern Ohio. A Subscriber. 



Small geometrical flower beds are not 

 well adapted for hardy perennials, be- 

 cause the plants won't have room 

 enough in them to attain their full de- 

 velopment and make a good and perma- 

 nent show. Perennials last only a short 

 time in bloom, and in order to have 

 flowers all summer long we must use a 

 large assortment of kinds and several 

 plants of a kind. In big beds and spacious 

 borders we can so arrange our planting 

 that when one plant is out of bloom 

 another springs up alongside of it to take 

 its place. In small beds this is hard to 

 do. For instance, if it had a clump of 

 Oriental popp3', pa;onias, delphinium, 

 bleeding heart, or Davidiana clematis in 

 a small bed there would be very little 

 room left for anything else. When the 

 pa;onia or bleeding heart would be cut 

 over we would have to fill up with 

 annuals; when the delphinium would be 

 cut down there would be bareness in that 

 bed till the second growth would spring 

 up, and so on. We advise you to get up 

 a nice selection of neat hardy perennials 

 that will cover the whole season with 

 bloom, and use these as your situation 

 may suggest. A list like this would in- 

 clude white rock cress, golden alyssum, 

 spring adonis, lungwort, large white 

 trillium, spring German and Japan iris; 

 columbines, moss pink, summer and 

 panicled phloxes; yellow (Hava) and 

 golden (nitilans) day lilies, single and 

 double pyrethrums, evergreen candytuft, 

 Carpathian, peach-leaved and other cam 

 panulas. hardy pinks, white day lily, mist 

 flower, Japan sedum, Siebold's sedum, 

 Japan anemone, Maximilian's sunflower 

 and a host of bulbous plants like nar- 



EULflLlfl JflPONICfl. 



There is no class of hardy ornamental 

 grasses more suitable for the adornment 

 of public or private grounds than the 

 I-Ailalia. With a simple winter protection 



