i8q6. 



' GARDENING. 



69 



a sash for top covering is a great shelter; 

 it is safer, however, to add a dry straw 

 mat and thin wooden shutter over it. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS AS WINDOW PLANTS. [SEE PAGE 72 ] 



flower in the garden than a bed of extra 

 early Parisian wall flowers. They were 

 started inside about the last of February 

 and planted out early, have been in con- 

 stant flower since the last of May and 

 they still are growing and floriferous as 

 ever; the flower sprays have always been 

 cut as soon as ready. It perfumes the 

 garden for a considerable distance and 

 has been very much admired when cut. 



Carnations, Vienna, Grenadin, Mixed 

 Border, Marguerites and some greenhouse 

 perpetuals have again given us more than 

 five months' supply from the open ground. 



Plainfield.N.J. E. K. 



GENTIAN-PRIMULA-STOCKS. 



Is it known whether the fringed gen- 

 tian, Gentiana crinita. is an annual or 

 biennial? Botanical treatises, as far as 

 seen, are silent on that point. Can it be 

 flowered in gardens, and if so, how? 



Primula, corpusoides, Japonica and 

 rosea have all failed to germinate, both 

 when sown in cold frame in iall and in 

 pans in Januarj-; other primulas, as auric- 

 ula, denticulata, elatior and vulgaris, 

 sowed beside them at same time having 

 germinated well. Can you tell me how 

 to get the former class from seed. 



I have little plants of various stocks 

 and wall flowers in cold frames; will they 

 need more than a sash covering to winter 

 safely? Inquirer. 



Gentiana crinita if raised from seed in 

 fall blooms next fall, and in this way acts 

 as an annual; if the seed does not germin- 



ate until spring it may not bloom till the 

 year following, when it acts as a biennial. 

 Houstonia ccerulea (bluets), Lobelia car- 

 dinalis (cardinal flower), and several 

 other common plants behave in much the 

 same way. Yes, it can be raised from 

 seed, grown and bloomed in the garden, 

 but it is a very difficult matter and this is 

 why we never see it in cultivation. But 

 if you have a clear, mossy, bog garden 

 and scatter newly ripened seeds over the 

 moss in November, the chances are that 

 same may germinate and a few plants 

 live on and bloom. In (act gentians of 

 any kind are difficult to get up into flow- 

 ering-sized plants from seed; still seed of 

 many of the ranker herbaceous sorts ger- 

 minate freely enough. We know of no 

 good reason why seeds of Primula cor- 

 tusoides, if fresh, shouldn't germinate; 

 we have always grown them without 

 any trouble. Cortusoides amxna, or 

 Sieboldii has given us some bother at times 

 though. With Japonica and rosea it is 

 different, though. If you have old plants 

 and they blossom and ripen seed, and the 

 seed drops on the ground, seedlings will 

 spring up there in myriads; let the seed 

 get a few months old and dry before sow- 

 ing and it does not germinate readily, in 

 fact, often not at all. Try to get newly 

 ripened seed. 



Yes. ^he wallflowers might pull 

 through all right, but the stocks are apt 

 to suffer. A warm aspect, shelter from 

 north and northwest winds, a frame-bed 

 perfectly free from surface water, and the 

 frame well banked around with earth, 

 ashes, leaves or manure, even with only 



THE FLOWER GARDEN. 

 The beds have been emptied of their 

 summer bedding plants and filled with 

 hyacinths, tulips, narcissus, crocus, scil- 

 las, etc , and the beds all smoothed 

 over with the rake. As soon as there 

 comes a crust of frost hard enough to 

 bear a horse and cart, we will haul a lot 

 of fine manure and cover the beds a few 

 inches deep. This can stay on in spring 

 or be removed, just as we elect. For 

 neatness sake we have cut over the 

 phloxes, larkspur and other herbaceous 

 plants of that kind and spread a coating 

 of half rotted strawy manure over them; 

 all of our fall-planted perennials have 

 been treated in this way even in nursery 

 beds. The evergreen plants as statice, 

 armeria, pansies, etc., have some pea- 

 brush laid over them, then a sprinkling of 

 rough material as cut down stems of 

 Arunda Donax or of eulalia grass spread 

 lightly over the brush, to save them from 

 wind, warm sunshine, and in a measure 

 heaving by frost. Over the arundo, eula- 

 lia, mistflow. r, and other barely hardy 

 plants we put a heavy coating of strawy 

 manure, and we give Hypericum Moseri- 

 anum a good dressing. While the last 

 named may be hardy enough under cer- 

 tain conditions, it is too good a plant to 

 take any risks with. Over lily of the valley, 

 and over and between well established per- 

 ennials a heavy dressing of rotten manure 

 put on now, and left there till spring 

 or altogether, strengthens them greatly. 

 If you leave the tritomas in the ground 

 over winter be sure that the surface 

 drainage is perfect, then gather the leaves 

 of each plant together into a knot and fill 

 up between the plants with a foot deep 

 of tree leaves, and over that spread some 

 litter or branches. Auratum and other 

 Japan lilies are hardy enough maybe, but 

 we strongly urge that a heavy mulching 

 over them is advisable, it does them much 

 good. We have planted a lot of foxgloves 

 and other hardy plants in the ravines 

 and open woods, and are now mulching 

 them with old aster, goldenrod, and 

 other plants mown down in the woods 

 to clean up things. This covering is light, 

 and should answer the purpose very 

 nicely. 



fl LIST OF HARDY PERENNIALS. 



Will the editor be kind enough to send 

 me a list of hardy herbaceous plants that 

 will bloom each month from early spring 

 till late autumn. H. T. T. 



Montclair, N. J. 



All hardy perennials bloom in that 

 time, hence you can appreciate the size of 

 your question But we will name a few: 

 In early spring we have Arabis albida, 

 Alyssum saxatile, moss pink and two 

 other phloxes, spring adonis, purple eory- 

 dalis, Virginia lungwort, doronecums, 

 epemedium, orobus, spring iris, lily of the 

 valley, trilliums, columbines, bellworts, 

 bellflowers, coreopsis, perennial candy- 

 tuft, the great host of bulbous plants as 

 narcissus, tulips, etc. Then we have 

 hardy pinks, pyrethrum, fraxinella, bap- 

 tisias, pa;onies, and the host of lilies, 

 larkspur, monkshood, clematis, and a 

 hundred others that bloom in summer. 

 For later work we have swamp rose 

 mallow, speceosum and Wallacei lilies, 

 white day lilies, orange asclepias, Japan 

 anemones, gaillardias, baltonias, Pyre- 

 thrum uligmoseum, Eupatorium agera- 

 toides, torch lilies, mountain fleece, sun- 

 flowers as Orgyalis and Maximilianus, 



