66 



GARDENING. 



Nov. is, 



lor the common spruce or hemlock, as the 

 peculiarities are not usually developed at 

 an early age. '• B- G. 



Flushing, N. Y. 



The "Our Native Cedar" you refer to is 

 probably the "red cedar" which is not a 

 cedar at all but a juniper (Juniperus Vir- 

 giniana). There are only three true ced- 

 ars in the world, namely, the Mount At- 

 las cedar f Cedrus Atla'ntica) , the Hima- 

 layan Deodar iC.Deodara), and the Cedar 

 of Lebanon (C. Lebanh, and some excel- 

 lent botanists insist that all three of them 

 are forms of the same species. 



SHRUBS FOR A SMALL TOWN LOT. 



E. C, Petersburg, Va., sends us a plan 

 of his garden, and asks us to recommend 

 some small shrubs to plant on "each side 

 of the front steps or side steps, no steps 

 on the south side; from front steps to 

 gate 18 feet, from side steps to gate 10 

 feet. What about Japanese maples— will 

 they grow too big? Also arbor vitses? 



As regards what to plant and how to 

 plant it, you must use your own judg- 

 ment; we can only tell you what things 

 are low growing and suitable for such 

 limited area. Don't plant arbor vitals; 

 they aren't good enough. If you want 

 evergreens, get some of the finer retino- 

 sporas, as pisifera. st/uarrosa, filifera, 

 plurnosa, or some of the yews, as cuspi- 

 data repanda, stricta or a tree box. But 

 at the pathside we don't think you will 

 have room enough for them. On theeast 

 and north, if sheltered from bleak winds, 

 rhododendrons should thrive well, so will 

 deciduous azaleas; if much exposed, plant 

 A'osa rugosa. A clump or two of the 

 common yucca would be pretty. Among 

 flowering shrubs, Spiraea callosa alba and 

 Bumalda; Deutzia gracilis and parviHora, 

 Daphne Mezereon or others of such low 

 stature should grow well there. By 

 Japan maples we presume you mean vari- 

 eties of palmata and/apon/ca,suchasare 

 sold in nurseries for their beautifully col- 

 ored and much divided foliage Yes, they 

 are all right and very desirable; if they 

 ever grow too big for the place you may 

 conclude you have been in luck, and better 

 still, no matter how big they are they are 

 easy to transplant. 



years planted a heavy dressing of manure 

 spread broadcast over them will be of 

 great benefit to the shrubs. Arbor vita;s, 

 yews, retinosporas, sephalotaxus, podo- 

 "carpus, junipers and other evergreens 

 that are likely to have their branches or 

 bodies weighted down or spread apart by 

 winter snows, should be tied together 

 with marline or other stout cord in such 

 a way that the cord cannot be seen from 

 the outside and at the same time it shall 

 be perfectly effective in keeping the 

 branches together. In the case of young 

 trees or shrubs, especially in clay land, 

 see that the earth is hilled up against the 

 stems somewhat so as to throw the 

 water away from them; and no water 

 should be allowed to rest on the plat in 

 which the trees are growing. 



TREES AND SHRUBS. 

 The pruning may be done most anytime 

 in winter, it consists of cutting out one 

 or two branches where they rub together, 

 sawing off broken branches close to the 

 stem, shortening in shoots or branches 

 that run out too far. It is a hard matter 

 to tell living wood from dead now that 

 the trees are leaflless, so we don't bother 

 about that unless we know the branches 

 to be dead. The same with shrubs, also, 

 we do a deal of thinning in their case, cut 

 out the scraggy useless wood, and over 

 crowding branches, and likewise the old 

 flower spray wood, so as to give the 

 younger shoots more room and light for 

 next spring's work. If you planted out 

 some trees this fall and they need a stout 

 stake to support them against being 

 tossed bv wind or broken by animals, 

 give them the stakes. A good ligature to 

 use in tying is marline put through a 

 piece of old rubber hose. In the case of 

 rhododendrons and azaleas a heavy 

 mulching of forest tree leaves help them 

 wonderfully, indeed, it is the same with 

 most evergreens, and a windbreak made 

 of boards, brush, orcorn thatched hurdles 

 is a great protection to them. In thecas" 

 of shrubbery borders especially if several 



JAPAN QUINCE-A FREAK. 

 I have this day, November 3, a Japan- 

 ese quince in full bloom, also a few flow- 

 ers on Lonicera Henrotin. How is this 

 for cold Iowa? [Bad. Blooming in the 

 fall is caused by some severe check in sum- 

 mer, such as is caused by a hard drouth 

 preceding copious rain, and is always to 

 be dreaded, for it makes the subject an 

 easier prey to the inclemency of winter 

 than are those having firm, well-ripened 

 shoots that had not started prematurely 

 into growth. Ed.] But I write mainly 

 about a freak shown by the Japan quince. 

 On one of its stems, about three feet from 

 the ground, a shoot starts which is a reg- 

 ular vine, entirely without thorns, and 

 about 5 feet long. Its lower part has 

 advent buds same as on the regular plant. 

 How can I propagate this shoot? I think 

 it will be much easier to handle this than 

 the regular plant. C. T. 



Davenport, Iowa. 



By layering the shoot and making it 

 into cuttings, then caring for these, or 

 safer, graft it. 



NATIVE KALMIA-AZALEA-HOLLY. 



Why do not people plant more of the 

 American laurel and the Azalea nudidora 

 and vi'scosa? Few foreign shrubs are 

 equal to them in beauty, they are plenti- 

 ful, easily procured, and bloom so full. 

 Whv are they neglected by so many? 

 Also the American holly? Slow growing 

 to be sure, but give it a soil similar to 

 where it lives, plenty of leaf mould and a 

 mulching when young and it is reliable. 



Westbury, L. I. Isaac Hicks. 



We are glad you have asked these ques- 

 tions for you are a nurseryman and know 

 what you are talking about. Now let us 

 get your head in chancery. When the 

 people buy shrubbery for their gardens 

 they want to get good sized; well-estab- 

 lished, bushv plants that will flower the 

 first year, to begin with, and every suc- 

 ceeding vear they want these shrubs to 

 keep on getting bigger, handsomer and 

 more floriferous. Have you got in stock 

 Kalmia latifolia (laurel) plants, say two 

 feet high, full, bushy, and well rooted, of 

 this sort, and if so, will you sell them at 

 the average price of other shrubs, say 50 

 cents each? If you have not and won't, 

 the answer is clear, good plants are too 

 expensive and hard to get, amateurs 

 don't want to turn nurserymen and grow 

 their plants, they want them already- 

 grown But if you will furnish plants as 

 good as this and at this price then you 

 are a missionary deserving of credit and 

 encouragement; in fact we will give you a 

 big order. Of course these shrubs are wild 

 in the woods and amateurs can have 

 them for the digging, and so on, all of 



this is true, and nurserymen have the same 

 privelege, still it is queer that they will 

 grow Persian lilacs, Japanese spin-eas, 

 and hybrid roses to twice the size of these 

 kalmias and sell they for half the price 

 they charge for the laurels that they can 

 go out into the woods and get for the 

 digging. Besides, most amateurs prefer 

 paving the nurseryman a fair price for a 

 good shrub, than be bothered carving it 

 home from the woods let alone digging it 

 up there. The two azaleas mentioned 

 are capital shrubs but often of scraggy 

 ungainlv habit and they areslow to mend 

 their shape. Small plants of the Ameri- 

 can holly do not appeal to the general 

 public, they are so very slow growing 

 and we have to wait so long before they 

 begin bearing berries. At the same time 

 we recommend it to our readers for they 

 ought to have it. The Fiuropean holly 

 is not hardy north of Philadelphia. 



A TREE ARCH. 



I am sorry you think the idea of a tree 

 arch overagateway is not pretty, in fact 

 puerile, for some years ago I was childish 

 enough to make such an arch over the 

 front gateway of a village residence and 

 took much comfort in it; even the neigh- 

 bors didn't known any better than to 

 admire the effect. The lot was quite wide 

 and deep, with house about in the center. 

 Two young elms, Scotch and English, 

 eight or nine feet high, were planted on 

 the further side of each gate post and the 

 little tops bent over, interlaced and tit d 

 together with stout twine. It was a 

 prettv arch to begin with and a little 

 pruning kept it in shape and increased its 

 size and symmetry for several years, or 

 as long as I lived there. I do not think 

 "A. W. C." will make a serious mistake 

 in forming such an arch. 



Wm. H. Coleman. 



Albany, N. Y., October 24, 1896. 



The arched arbor of pin oaks at Dosoris 

 see illustration in Gardening [August 1, 

 1803, page 348. They are 24 feet apart 

 acrossthe road, and30feet asunderin the 

 row, and are 19 years planted] and the 

 arbor is the most perfect and beautiful 

 thing of the kind in the country, and it is 

 annually becoming fuller and better. The 

 oaks were planted in opposite pairs and 

 trained up straight to tall stakes, then a 

 wide bow was make of long hickory sap- 

 lings, and the oak tops tied down to it, 

 and kept growing on in this way till they 

 met and were joined to each other and 

 became self-supporting, and to do this we 

 had to keep the shoulders cut in, or the 

 trees always persisted in an effort to rush 

 up from the perpendicular. Still there 

 was no use shutting our eyes to the fact 

 that if these oaks were left to their full 

 natural development from the beginning 

 the same arch or arbor end would have 

 been obtained before now by cutting in 

 the inner branches up to as high as we 

 wanted our arch, and letting the outer 

 ones stay right down to the ground. 

 Don't you think the effect would have 

 been more pleasing and satisfying than 

 that obtained bv arching in the tops? 

 We do. 



DOUGLAS'S GOLDEN JUNIPER. 



This is a gem among hardy evergreens. 

 It is a yellow variegated variety of our 

 common wild juniper (Juniperus commu- 

 nis) and was first brought to notice and 

 disseminated by our esteemed friend Mr. 

 Robert Douglas, of Waukegan, Illinois. 

 This was about a dozen or so years ago. 

 It was so good a shrub that for several 

 years the demand for it was far in excess 



