for December, 1920 



409 



LATE ROOT ACTION AND BUD 

 FORMATION. 



The importance which gardeners attach 

 to the early Autumn planting of all trees 

 and shrubs is probably due to the fact that 

 root action is continued for a considerable 

 period— varying undoubtedly according to 

 the season and conditions of the soil as to 

 warmth and moisture, particularly the for- 

 mer — after the branches have shed their 

 leaves. To allow this period to pass before 

 the greater part of planting is completed is 

 a great mistake. Many amateurs and others 

 not conversant with the growth and habit 

 of trees and shrubs do not fully realize 

 this, as it is seldom indeed that, having 

 carefully planted a tree, occasion arises to 

 lift the same a few weeks later, and so they 

 remain in ignorance, as it were, as to 

 whether the roots are still active or have 

 become, and will remain, dormant until the 

 following Spring. It is not merely the 

 power of taking hold and becoming estab- 

 lished in fresh soil that makes Autumn 

 planting a success, but also in assisting both 

 wood and fruit buds, which are then de- 

 vclopip.g, to store up such matter as will 

 promote clean growth and fertility the com- 

 ing season. 



The subject is of great interest, and 

 should receive careful thought by those who 

 would be successful, especially in fruit cul- 

 ture. What a mistake it proves, that be- 

 cause the trees have yielded their crop, and 

 .show signs of the fall of the leaf, further 

 attention is withheld in the way of seeing 

 that the rooting medium at least is kept in 

 a suitably moist condition. Yet this is far 

 from being the case during the Autumn 

 with trees growing against walls, and also 

 with fruit-tree borders under glass. Liquid 

 manure may not be necessary where the 

 trees were well looked after and regularly 

 fed while the crop of fruit was developing, 



but what would prove beneficial, especially 

 with trees bearing stone fruits, would be 

 lime-water. The ground may have become 

 manure sick : then all the more reason to 

 treat it with lime. In other directions one's 

 thoughts turn to the value of not only pre- 

 serving but encouraging prolonged Autumn 

 root action. This, however, is lost sight of 

 by many who dig ruthlessly about their fruit 

 trees at that season, because it is a practice 

 to bury leaves and rubbish and present a 

 neat appearance. How much damage can 

 easily be done, and the prospect of full crops 

 in the future seriously risked by severing 

 all the feeding roots with the spade. Per- 

 haps this proves no worse, however, than 

 lifting the trees carelessly and injuring all 

 the roots, on the preservation of which the 

 future crop largely depends. — Gardening 

 Illiistrntctl. 



PROPAGATING RETINOSPORAS. 



Those accustomed to the raising of Con- 

 ifers from seeds will have noted, particu- 

 larly in the case of several specie? of 

 Cuprcssus and Thuja, that the juvenile type 

 of foliage is widely dilTerent from that of 

 the adult. In the young state the leaves are 

 comparatively long and spreading, whilst in 

 ihe adult stage some of them are little more 

 than scales. Furthermore, when raised in 

 (|uantity from seed it will be found that 

 soine individuals remain in the juvenile 

 stage much longer than others ; indeed, oc- 

 casionally that character becomes fixed, or 

 nearly so. M one time such juvenile forms 

 were known under the generic name of 

 Kctinost'Ora. 



Of the Cupressus the most marked is C. 

 plumnsa, represented by two or three color 

 varieties, and C. squarrosa, with an even 

 more juvenile type of foliage than the pre- 

 ceding. This is still very often met with 



as Retinospora squarrosa, but its correct 

 name is Ctiprcssus pisifera squarrosa. 



Under the name of Rctmospora ericoides, 

 a dwarf, rounded shrub, which acquires a 

 brownish tinge in Winter, is often met with 

 in gardens. It is really a permanent juve- 

 nile form of Thuja oricntalis; a correspond- 

 ing one of Thuja occidcntalis being known 

 popularly as Retinospora dubia. In propa- 

 gating these different ("onifcrs from cut- 

 tings it will be found that those formed of 

 the shoots clothed with juvenile foliage will 

 strike root much more readily than those 

 taken from the adult portions of the plant. 

 Those in which the infantile leaves are 

 permanently established, such as the few 

 examples referred to above, are among the 

 eas'est of all Conifers to strike from cut- 

 tings. If shoots from four to five inches 

 long are taken in the Summer or early 

 .Autumn and dibbled firmly into well-drained 

 pots of sandy soil, they will, if kept close in 

 a frame or covered with a bell glass, 

 root without difficulty. — The Gardeners' 

 Chronicle. (English.) 



BY AND BY. 



.All that we have willed, or hoped, or 



dreamed of good, shall exist, 

 Xot its semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor 



good, nor power. 

 Whose voice has gone forth, but each sur- 

 vives for the melodist. 

 When eternity confirms the conception of 



the hour. 

 The high that proved too high, the heroic 



for earth too hard. 

 The passion that left the ground to lose 



itself in the sky, 

 .\re music sent up to God by the lover and 



the bard ; 

 Enough that he heard it once ; we shall 



hear it by and by. 



— Robert Browning. 



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An English Garden from English Seeds 



N 



OWHERE are more charming gardens than in England. You too, can 

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 this year. 



For many years we have been carefully developing flower and vegetable 

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■We publish a "Garden Guide" that contains the offerings that will en- 

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kic(j07t^i 



cntcs 



Royal Seed Establishment, Reading, England 

 AMERICAN REPRESENTATIVES 

 H. P. Winter & Co. The Sherman T. Blake Co. 



64-G Wall Street 429-G Sacramento Street 



New York, N. Y. San Francisco, Cal. 



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