THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[January, 



pots as often as it is necessary and plant out in the 

 open air, when all clanger of frost is over. 



[Mr. Parnell does not in the least underrate the 

 beauty of this fine plant and its great merits for 

 summer decoration in American gardens. It be- 

 longs to the class popularly known in America as 

 the " Morning Glory," from its early blooming 

 peculiarities. It usually closes before midday. 

 The editor has not seen a plant for many years. 

 His recollection of it as a greenhouse plant is that 

 it was a great favorite with red spider. — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Chrysanthemums at Fairmount Park, Phil- 

 adelphia. — The collection at Fairmount Park de- 

 serves more than the passing notice of the daily 

 papers. On a recent visit we found them to com- 

 prise probably the grandest collection in America. 

 We believe it embraces nearly two hundred varie- 

 ties, some having flowers actually six inches across, 

 and others as small as an English daisy. There 

 was also every conceivable shade of white, pink, 

 yellow, red, and purple among them. The plants 

 were remarkably well grown, being trained up to 

 single stems, but pinched back in their earlier 

 growth stages to make them bushy. Some were 

 three feet high, and nearly as wide. The Gardener, 

 Mr. Minguey, is justly proud of his success as a 

 grower of Chrysanthemums. The grand display 

 is made in one of the large houses devoted to bed- 

 ding plants in the spring. The effect on Chrysan- 

 themum culture in Philadelphia is very marked, 

 and the florists who grow Chrysanthemums have 

 been more than usually patronized. 



Fairmount Park, comprising 2200 acres, is so 

 large that the money for maintenance and improve- 

 ment would form but a thin spread if laid over the 

 whole. The plan of the landscape gardener, Mr. 

 C. H. Miller, to have at least a few points very supe- 

 rior, is a very good one. His beds of foliage plants 

 in high keeping, have been highly praised by the 

 citizens the past few seasons, and this effort with the 

 Chrysanthemum has been another illustration of 

 the value of doing at least some things well. 



Diamond Tuberose. — Our readers will remem- 

 ber that it. was charged by Mr. Thorpe and Mr. 

 Henderson in our columns, that they had good 

 reason for beheving that the " Diamond " was noth- 

 ing but the " Pearl " under a new name. As about 

 that time the introducers thought proper to with- 

 draw it from sale, in order to test it another year, 

 we did not think it necessary to print the articles 



sent us in full. But as we see the plant again ad- 

 vertised, it is only proper to remind our readers that 

 the original charge has not been cleared away. 



Potting Plants. — This is an operation which 

 every beginner considers himself skilled in, but 

 which is, nevertheless, often badly performed even 

 by practical gardeners. The first point to be no- 

 ticed is properly draining the pots. When a suit- 

 able outlet for the superfluous water is not made it 

 is hopeless to expect success, for no plant can thrive 

 in sour soil. In draining the smallest sized pots 

 one crock (piece of broken pot) over the hole in 

 the bottom, with the concave side downwards, cov- 

 ered with the roughest of the soil, is generally 

 enough. Indeed, a little rough soil in the case of 

 strong-growing, strong-rooting plants is often 

 enough. For plants in 6-six pots one large crock 

 covered with rough lumpy soil may be enough for 

 Balsams, or even Fuchsias, when growing rapidly. 

 For Heaths and plants of a similar nature, small 

 crocks carefully arranged to the depth of fully an 

 inch should cover the central one, and over the 

 small crocks a little moss, or the fibre from the peat 

 or loam, is necessary to prevent the soil stopping 

 the drainage. For a 12-inch pot from three to four 

 inches depth of drainage will be necessary, and 

 more according to size. 



Having drained the pots, the next thing is plac- 

 ing in the soil. When the smallest pots are used 

 for potting cuttings or seedlings enough soil should 

 be placed in the pots, and pressed firmly down, that 

 when the roots of the plant to be potted rest lightly 

 on it the part of the stem which was at the surface 

 of soil before may be fully a quarter of an inch be- 

 low the rim of the pot. Holding the plant in this 

 position, in the centre of the pot, with the left hand, 

 soil should be placed into the pot with the right, 

 and pressed down firmly and level, the surface of 

 the soil being a quarter of an inch below the rim 

 of the pot. This space is for holding water. When 

 the plants are to be taken out of cutting boxes each 

 should be lifted out carefully with a good ball of 

 earth, and only as much being carefully removed 

 without bruising the roots as will reduce the ball so 

 that it may be easily introduced into the pot in- 

 tended for it. 



When plants are to be shifted the same rule 

 should be observed. Plants do not need shifting 

 unless the soil in the pots is well occupied with 

 roots, and it is considered desirable or necessary to 

 increase the size of the plants. When the plants 

 are turned out of the pots the drainage should be 

 removed, and any unoccupied soil carefully picked 



