i8q6. 



GARDENING. 



27 



$m 



AH WING. A CHINESE GARDENER IN CALIFORNIA. 



ferns that can be grown for pot, bracket 

 or basket work in dwelling houses, and 

 its fronds last long and well when cut. 

 Its botanical name is Nepbrolepis exal- 

 tata var. Bostoniensis. It isafast grower 

 making many fronds from 12 to 30 inches 

 long and throwing out a large number of 

 thread-like stolons that when they touch 

 ground take root and start into new 

 plants. Although Boston had a monop- 

 oly of this fern for a long time its fame 

 has got beyond the Hub and now it is 

 being grown by thousands in other 

 towns; in one florist's place in New York 

 we visited the other day he had four 

 large span-roofed greenhouses entirely 

 filled with this fern and he was pretty 

 happy over it. 



Dirty pots in the greenhouse. — A 

 gentleman, an enthusiastic beginner in 

 gardening, was walking through the con- 

 servatories with us the other day when 

 he stopped, and pointing to some half- 

 dirty pots, remarked: "What of all this 

 talk in the paper about having ones 

 flower pots kept so clean, clean both in- 

 side and out, and see these pots are dirty, 

 they are covered with green?" Now 

 every flower pot in that greenhouse had 

 been washed clean three weeks before 

 then, and at that time they were only 

 half-dirty, but the point struck right 

 home and next morning was wash-day in 

 that compartment. Some pots, by rea- 

 son of the earth within them being kept 

 wetter than in others, get green sooner 

 than the others do; look out for such and 

 wash them twice as often as you do the 

 others, else you too may be "called over 

 the coals." 



No Yankee Corn or Pumpkin Pie for 

 me is the outcry of a happy Briton in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle. He writes "As to 

 the green cobs * * delectable as they 

 may be to Canadians and citizens of the 

 United States, they do not take on here 

 at all. We have a wonderful wealth of 

 fine vegetables in this country, far be3'ond 

 what America can furnish, hence there is 

 less need here for such a vegetable. * 

 The British people ar no more attracted 

 by green corn cobs than by pumpkin 

 pies." Such darkness and corruption of 

 palate! The Americans are satisfied to 

 eat the corn, they don't care to tackle 

 the cob. When it comes to pumpkin pie, 

 though why, bless you, man, you know 

 not whereof you speak, but how could 

 you? You never were in America and 

 never tasted an American pie, so we pity 

 you. Sub rosa stick to potatoes and 

 myosotis, you know a good deal more 

 about them than you do about sweet 

 corn or pumpkin pie. 



Old well rotted cow manure. — 

 "What soil do you use for those chrysan- 

 themums?" asked a visitor here the other 

 day. Sod loam and some old cow 

 manure," we remarked. ' Good," he 

 replied, "that's just what I want to see. 

 I've been trying to get old, well-rotted, 

 cow manure since a couple of years, and 

 have the greatest difficulty in finding it 

 so I would like to see what your's is 

 like." We lifted a handful of the soil with 

 some lumps of manure in it and showed 

 it to him, when a painful look of disap- 

 pointment spread over his face. "Why," 

 he exclaimed, "I can get lots of stuff like 

 that. I thought it had to be dry, earthy 



line, many years' old stuff!" No, no, 

 that idea is wrong. Cow manure is old 

 enough, and rotten enough for pottingor 

 other compost purposes, as soon as it is 

 free enough to handle, to chop up and 

 mix up with soil, without being pasty; 

 just as soon as it loses that wet, sticky 

 nature of fresh manure it is old enough 

 lor garden pot purposes. 



Dipladenias —We wish to call your at- 

 tention to our fine pictures of these splen- 

 did tropical vines in this issue. These 

 pictures are half-tones engravtd from 

 photographs, hence they are the absolute 

 truth; the}' show the plants and flowers 

 just as they existed with their every per- 

 fection and ever}- fault. We have a rea- 

 son for noting this: Some years ago a 

 prominent American gentleman who 

 knew plants well, and loved them and 

 who owned a large collection of them, 

 both hardy and tender, saw a most fas- 

 cinating picture of dipladenias as grown 

 at Sion House, England, in one of the 

 London horticultural journals, and as he 

 was on the eve of visiting Europe, when 

 he got to London he made a special jour- 

 ney to Sion House to see that plant, and 

 when he saw it he was bitterly disap- 

 pointed. The picture showed a plant of 

 luxuriant growth, lull and perfect foliage 

 and having an extravagant crop of big 

 open blossoms, it was a wood cut made 

 from a doctored drawing; the plant itself 

 was only of common merit and nothing 

 like as good as shown in the picture. 



JOHN GfllNflMflN AS GARDENER. 



China is called the "Flowery Kingdom," 

 and it would naturally be supposed that 

 Chinamen would make good gardeners. 

 During the many years in which I have 

 been interested in floriculture in California 

 1 have had opportunitiestocompare their 

 abilities with those of various other na- 

 tionalities. The latter, however, have 

 come and gone, but Ah Wing, represented 

 in the picture, has remained with me. 

 He has his peculiarities and imperfections 

 and sometimes is a little sulk}-, but he is 

 industrious, faithful and reliable. He 

 never wastes any time and is always 

 willing to follow instructions. He takes 

 as much interest in the place as if it be- 

 longed to him, and to have things "high- 

 toned" is his ambition. He is much dis- 

 tressed if anything goes wrong. 



He came to me several years ago, a 

 common unskilled laborer, having been 

 field-hand, miner, cook, vegetable gar- 

 dener, etc., I engaged him for two orthree 

 weeks' work, and liked him. At the end 

 of that time he came to me and said: "I 

 heap likee work for vou. I likee work for 

 you long time. No likee change." His 

 "No likee change" pleased me. I deter- 

 mined to give him a trial, and have never 

 regretted it. He said, after I engaged 

 him, "You look see some man, workee 

 heap good. You no look see, he heap 

 lazy. I no that way. I work alle same 

 you no look, no lazy tall." He has no 

 patience with Uzy men. 



He has twice left my employ for a few 

 weeks, once to raise beans forhimself, and 

 once because he became most too impor- 

 tant, but his anxiety to return both times 

 "was so great that I took him back, for I 

 missed his faithful and intelligent service. 

 He is very slight and thin, not weighing 

 over one hundred pounds, and is not able 

 to do heavy work, but he does all the 

 irrigating, waters greenhouses and lath- 

 houses, gathers and cleans seeds, sets out 

 plants, superintends the other Chinamen 

 when I have Chinese help, and can be 

 trusted to do well anything he under- 

 stands 



Not long since after gathering som 



