THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



549 



HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE 



riie Peony is undoubtedly 

 RETARDING the most gorgeously beauti- 



PEONY BLOOMS. '"1 oi all our hardy flowers, 

 and the ease with which it 

 may be cultivated, and the fact that it is under any rea- 

 sonable condition sure to produce a fine crop of blooms 

 every year after it is established, make it deservedly a 

 great favorite. 



Its only drawback is its habit of opening all its blooms 

 nearly at the same time, giving a great surplus of flowers 

 for a few days and none afterwards. It is not generally 

 known that the blooming of Peony buds can be very 

 easily delayed from several days to several weeks, de- 

 pending on the variety and the method of treatment. 



To delay the opening of the blooms for a few days, they 

 are cut when the petals are just loosening, but when none 

 of them have turned back. All the leaves are removed, 

 except a few of the upper ones, sufficient to give the 

 flower a proper setting of green. They are then wrapped 

 somewhat snugly — one dozen or less in a bunch^ — in two 

 thicknesses of damp (not wet) newspapers, leaving the 

 lower four or five inches of the stems uncovered. The 

 bundles of blooms so wrapped are placed in jars of water 

 so that the lower one-third of the stems are submerged, 

 and placed in a cold, dark location. A cool cellar is an 

 ideal place. In this condition they will keep up to a week 

 without opening, but will open very quickly when un- 

 wrapped and brought into the light and warmth. 



If it is desired to retard them a longer time, they are cut 

 earlier, while showing full cjlor but before any of the 

 petals have loosened at all, and treated in the same way. 

 The tighter the bud is when cut, the longer it will keep. 



Some few varieties can be retarded only a few days in 

 this way without being injured, while others can be held 

 back for a very long time. The professional Peony 

 grower, after preparing the blooms as described, will 

 place them in cold storage warehouses, where the tem- 

 perature is kept very low and perfectly even, and will hold 

 them there for six weeks in the case of some varieties. 



Where the advantages of artificially cooled storage with 

 an absolutely even temperature cannot be had it is prob- 

 ably not advisable to attempt retarding the blooms over 

 two weeks in this way, while some varieties can be held 

 only a very few days. — The Horticultural Society of 

 Chicago. 



Scraping the rough, loose 

 SCRAPING bark of fruit and shade trees 



THE BARK. to prevent the lodgment of 



insects and to improve the 

 appearance of the trunks has long been practiced, 

 but, according to State Director Kane, the bark- 

 scraping has been carried to dangerous e.xtremes in 

 Mas.sachusetts. Not only single trees but whole orchards 

 in various towns have been scraped so clean that the live 

 bark has been injured or destroyed, leaving a surface as 

 smooth as if sandpapered. This is done to promote a 

 rapid, healthv growth, free from moths, dnd to make the 

 trees look well. On a large estate in Weston the trees 

 were scraped so far into the quick that there is danger of 

 their dying, the life oozing out by degrees. The cambium 

 deposit is exposed to the action of wind and rain and is 

 evaporated, and the trees suffer from root to branch. Ex- 



perts are puzzled to know what to apply to these naked 

 trunks to stop their loss without doing injury to the trees. 

 — Exchange. 



Xo other business has such 

 NO HARD AND elastic rules as those gov- 

 FAST RULES. erning the gardening profes- 

 sion. This is generall}' ad- 

 mitted yet occasionally we find some men who seem to 

 think things must work mechanically. The very fact of 

 vastly dififerent methods resulting in equally good results 

 convinces one there are more ways than one to "produce 

 the goods" (or perhaps it leaves us in a quandary). As 

 you roam the country you find no two places are alike ; 

 something can be learned from each transfer or visit. 

 At times the newly acquired knowledge does not "pan 

 out." Why? Because conditions are dififerent and you 

 probably are lacking in some details your informers have 

 grown so accustomed to that they overlooked to mention 

 them. Look at the vast stretch of country covered by the 

 one name — America — with its many and varied climates, 

 all of which are specially adapted for the growing of some 

 particular product. When these, what we might call, 

 natural specialties come to be grown in another state they 

 are not so prolific or elegant. In a similar way the 

 products of the greenhouse will vary, some sections being 

 better suited for certain crops than others, yet we often 

 find these obstacles have been surmounted b_v giving a 

 little here and taking a little there which might have to be 

 reversed by a neighbor or friend elsewhere. Occasion- 

 ally drastic steps have to be taken which to the casual 

 observer would seem outrageous, but after an explanation 

 things are viewed in a different light. I know there are 

 instances every season where we have to divert from the 

 beaten track, yet the writer always tries to take subjects 

 collectively rather than individually. Each man has to 

 study his own crops individually and even then the same 

 routine cannot always l^e carried out. Approximate 

 dates for doing this or that can be used but not set fast. 

 A cold spell such as that which has wrought such havoc 

 amongst the crops in different states during the past 

 spring may change it all and the crops in the greenhouse 

 would suffer too if due allowance is not made for the 

 changing climatic conditions. To use an old phrase. 

 "There are a hundred and one things to be taken into 

 consideration," each da\' bringing some change or vary- 

 ing condition. The fixtures are ver\- few — a fact whicii 

 we all have ever to remember. — George H. Pemar. in 

 Horticulture. 



"Horticulture today oflfers 



ur^TPTTriTT TTTRTT Opportunities for intellectual 



HORTICULTURE, growth and culture offered by 



nothing else, and whether you 



follow it professionally, or as an amateur, it will be an 



unfailing source of mental stimulus and enjoyment. 



... I furnislied a man some trees twenty-eight years 



ago. the man being at that time 57 years of age. Many 



of the peach trees liavc died and been cut away, and the 



pears are large, bearing trees ; yet the man still lives in 



sufficiently good health to gather and enjoy the fruit." — 



Green. 



