i8q6. 



GARDENING. 



55 



■■ -Si 



SCROLL BED IN HIGHLAND PARK. PITTIBURGH. PA. 



such as pansies, Canterbury bells, Eng- 

 lish daisies, forget-me-nots and suchlike 

 plants, will be the better for the sash on 

 them on cold nights, but do not coddle 

 them; give plenty of air and have sturdier 

 plants to stand the cold winter. If you 

 are short of foxgloves and have any self- 

 sown seedlings lift them and put into a 

 frame if you can spare the room; they 

 will make nice flowering plants by spring. 

 The same may be said of sweet williams 

 and forget-me-nots. Foxgloves treated 

 as biennials do nicely. They do not win- 

 ter very well with us here, so we sow the 

 seed in July, and winter them over in a 

 cold frame. 



I have spoken several times about the 

 fall asters, but it is now that they are 

 appreciated; mostly everything else in the 

 garden is frost killed, but these hardy 

 asters are still at fine flower, and it takes 

 a sharp frost to hurt them. It is to 

 these plants we-must now look for our cut 

 flowers at this time of year, for there are 

 very few flowers even in the greenhouse. 

 Although a few early chrysanthemums 

 may be had, a variety is wanted, and 

 these asters are just the thing; even the 

 commonest of them are welcome. In shel- 

 tered places of the garden the Japan anem- 

 ones are still in good flower; the pink one 

 is much hardier than the white; it was 

 cut by the first white frost we had; while 

 the pink one stands up nicely yet. 



Schizostylis coecinea is a fine fall and 

 early winter flowering bulbous plant. We 

 have it in flower in the greenhouse; a few 

 bulbs put in a 5-inch pot and planted out 

 in spring make nice plants for lifting in 

 the fall, and their tall spikes ot scarlet 

 flowers are quite showy; they last a long 

 time in flower, and coming as they do so 

 late in the fall months thev- ought to be 

 largely grown. David Fraser. 



Mahwah, N.J. 



SOME PRETTY WILD ASTERS. 



A collection of wild asters which were 

 transferred from the woods and fields to 

 my garden a few years ago, have done 

 very well and given us much pleasure. 

 The following are the kinds I gathered 

 and every one of them is worthy of a 

 place in the garden: Corymbosus, rosy 

 white; cordifolius, bluish white; patens, 

 blue; Xovse-anglix, purple; puniceus, pale 



purple; prenantlioidcs. pale blue; Isevis, 

 bluish purple; oblongifolius, light purple 

 and Norwbelgii, blue, varying to white. 

 Of these the two that make the best display 

 are Xovse-angliw and puniceus, the growth 

 being robust and tall and the flowers 

 showy. Both are found wild in damp 

 places, though, as with many another 

 plant, they do very well in any ordinary 

 garden situation. Oblongifolius is an 

 exceedingly showy sort. It makes a 

 rounded, bush-like growth, throwing 

 over all a sheet of lovely light purple 

 flowers in late autumn. It is the only 

 one of those named that is not a native 

 here. I found it growing on the railroad 

 bridge at Harper's Ferry some years ago. 

 Patens is cf slender, though strong 

 growth, and when a number of the plants 

 are together and in bloom, the effect is 

 most pleasing. 



Of those named, the first to flower is 

 corymbosus, while cordifolius, a rather 

 tall grower with numerous small bluish 

 white flowers, is one of the latest If 

 these wild asters are dug up in the fall 

 and divided into little clumps and planted 

 carefully and then mulched, they will 

 thrive and flower nicely the next season. 

 I have great success gathering and sow- 

 ing the seeds. Gather them as soon as 

 ripe and sow them when all have been 

 collected. Do not wait till spring, but 

 sow before the ground freezes. Sow- 

 almost on the surface, covering lightly 

 with soil. The seedlings will appear 

 earry in spring and will flower the same 

 year in the fall. This is the advantage of 

 autumn sowing, for if not put in the 

 ground until spring, it is not so certain 

 that flowers will follow the same season. 



Philadelphia. J. Meehan. 



uicr, they c lorcd up intensely, keeping 

 their color a long time. The white used 

 in the wheel is crushed Ligonier stone. 

 We are indebted to Mr. James Blackmore 

 for the photograph trom which our 

 engraving was made. 



SCROLL FLOWER BED IN HIGHLAND PARK, 

 PITTSBURGH, PA. 



Our illustration shows part of the 

 flower garden scroll work on the reser- 

 voir bank at Highland Park, facing the 

 main entrance. The pattern is neatly 

 executed and of long flowing design and 

 showed up vividh' as a background to a 

 spacious flower garden, on the level be- 

 tween it and the gate. The plants used 

 in it are red and yellow alternanthera, 

 and being on the slope of the bank where 

 the drainage was perfect this wet suin- 



The Partridge berry vine. — H. C. B., 

 New York, writes: "I am just in receipt 

 of some plants from a southern nursery 

 and among them are some marked Epigsea 

 repens, but they are entirely unlike plants 

 ot this kind that I have had before. I 

 enclose herewith two sprigs for name. 

 My gardener tells me that the plant is a 

 form of the Partridge Berry." 



Ans. — Your gardener is right. Thev 

 are Mitchella repens, the genuine par- 

 tridge berry v ine. It is a real pretty non- 

 climbing, carpeting plant under trees and 

 shrubs in our woods, and is exceedinglv 

 abundant in New York state, and, in fact, 

 in all our northern states in the woods, 

 and in the mountains of the south. It 

 isn't the easiest thing in the world to 

 establish in your garden, however; but if 

 you get firm sods of it and plant them 

 among your rhododendrons they should 

 take hold and grow all right. 



Hardy perennials for cut flowers in 

 summer.— J. A. L., Akron, Ohio, asks for 

 "a short list of hardy plants for cut flowers 

 during the summer months, I mean such 

 as have long stems. I have many that 

 are pretty to look at in their beds but 

 whose stems are too short for vases." .4ns. 

 Paeonies of many kinds, Trillium grandi- 

 florum, although wild is still a beauty; lily 

 of the valley, which you should allow to 

 naturalize itself; double and single pyreth- 

 rums so lovely in early summer, also the 

 golden coreopsis C. grandiflora, which 

 yields so lavishly in June; several bell- 

 flowers, such as the peach leaved persica?- 

 ' folia and Platycodon grand iflorunr, the 

 hybrid delphiniums, which you can raise 

 from seed, German irises for early summer 

 and Koempfer's Japanese irises for late 

 June and early July, spi aeas of sorts such 

 as venusta, Ulmaria, and filipendula get- 

 ting the double-flowered forms of the last 

 named two; Clematis recta, double if you 

 can get it, which you can cut in sheaves; 

 the new Golden Glow or double-flowered 

 rudbeckia; phloxes in great variety, giv- 



