iS 97 . 



• • • GARDENING. 



T 39 



to have more trouble in retarding your 

 plants than in hurrying them into (lower. 

 Keep the azaleas and genistas as cool as 

 possible without letting them freeze. If 

 the marguerites are getting pot-bound, 

 repot them so as to encourage more 

 growth and a longer life, the same wiih 

 callas. Cannas potted now should bloom 

 at Easter. Late cinerarias if kept cool 

 and repotted can be delayed till Easter, 

 but the early and main crop will be pretty 

 well over by that time. Cyclamen and 

 Chinese primroses too will be mostly 

 past, but polyanthuses and all hardy 

 primroses if lifted early and potted can be 

 had in bloom then, and a nice variety 

 they make. Many begonias, especially 

 rubra, odorata, and the like, may be had 

 in full bloom Leave lily of the valley 

 outside till three weeks before Easter, 

 then bring it into warm quarters, and it 

 will have both good foliage and flowers. 

 Sow Machet mignonette now and grow 

 it on in pots, or plant it out on a bench 

 in the greenhouse and it will make fine 

 early heads. 



It is hard to keep freesias back so long, 

 better let them bloom earlier. Dutch 

 hyacinths won't need any- forcing at all, 

 in fact we shall have to watch them 

 strictly that they don't comein too soon, 

 it is easy enough to hurry them up a little 

 at that time of year, but a hard matter 

 to retard them if they get the least start 

 too soon. The same with tulips. Nar- 

 cissus are more difficult to handle, several 

 of them, notably the trumpet sorts, will 

 be in bloom out of doors at that time or 

 before it, so that it will take considera- 

 ble tact to get the potted plants to come 

 into flower later than the outdoor ones. 

 Keep them cool all winter and towards 

 spring have them in north-facing, sunless 

 cold-frames. 



Calceolarias grown along in the usual 

 way should be in good bloom at Easter. 

 By starting gloxinias in a warm house in 

 January or early February we can have 

 them in nice flower in April. Scarlet gera- 

 niums potted and given room enough to 

 make stocky growth should be full of 

 flowers after March. Show pelargoniums, 

 potted now and grown on as we would 

 calceolarias may be had in bloom in April 

 but as a rule we prefer to have them and 

 fuchsias come into flower after the rush 

 of Easter is past. 



Besides these "regular" plants we can 

 have amaryllis, ixias, crown anemones, 

 Bride gladioli, and a good many odds and 

 ends of plants. And much can be done with 

 early blooming hardy perennials; we have 

 lots of these potted and now at rest in 

 cold quarters preparatory to starting for 

 Easter, but if you have not got any up 

 yon can wait till March and then dig up 

 a lot, pot them, and start them into 

 growth. It is wonderful how kindly these 

 plants, after a long winter's rest, respond 

 to warmth in spring. Among them are 

 polyanthuses, auriculas, spring adonis, 

 golden alyssum, moss pink, white arabis, 

 trilliums, Canterbury bells, foxgloves, 

 forget-me-nots, columbines, feverfew, red 

 heuchera, daisies, lenten hellebores, and 

 the like. 



Hardy shrubs also play a prominent 

 part among Easter flowers. Most any 

 early blooming kind will answer. We 

 have potted up a lot of Spiraea bumalda, 

 S. cantonensis, S. Van Routtei, and S. 

 Thunbergii, weigelias, Japan hoteia, 

 hardy genista, forsythias, lilacs, xantho- 

 ceras, mollis azaleas, Hypericum Moseri- 

 anutn, snowballs, deutzias, double flow- 

 ering plums and cherries, etc. Xor are 

 these enough, we can call lots of annuals 

 to our aid. Emily Henderson or Blanche 

 Ferry sweet peas sown in pots now 



should bloom at Easter, and we can have 

 sweet alyssum, calendula marigolds 

 dwarf nasturtiums, ten week stocks, 

 mimulus, Swan River daisy, Coreopsis 

 Drummondii, collinsia, balsams, petunias. 

 Drummond phlox, torenia, etc. 



William Falconer. 



PROPAGATION OF FIGUS ELAST1CA. 



Please give me full directions for propa- 

 gating rubber plants. I have been told 

 that if a leaf was taken off and planted 

 it would grow. Is this so? E. J. 



The propagation of rubber plants from 

 a leaf is I believe impossible. And by cut- 

 tings in the usual way that the great ma- 

 jority of plants can be increased is a diffi- 

 cult operation unless you haveevery facil- 

 ity at hand which only the professional 

 gardener can command, and then it is not 

 often attempted because a much surer 

 way exists. 



If you have a good sized rubber plant 

 which has some side shoots take a sharp 

 knife and make an incision half way 

 through the shoot and from eight to ten 

 inches from end of shoot. Don't cut in 

 straight orat rightanglesto thestem, but 

 let the cut be slanting upwards and an 

 inch or so below an eye or leaf. Insert a 

 little sphagnum moss in the incision, 

 wrap round and tie there a bunch of moss, 

 which keep constantly moist. 



In two months roots will be found on 

 that part of the stem severed by the cut. 

 When the young roots are from one-half 

 to one inch long, cut the whole shoot off 

 just below the incision and pot in good 

 light soil and keep warm and moist. 

 They will soon begin to grow and you 

 will have a nice young plant. If you had 

 the convenience to give the young plant 

 a little bottom heat for the first month 

 or two after being severed from the 

 parent plant you would help it much in 

 making a quick root growth. 



Wm. Scott. 



GflRF. OF HYDRANGEAS. 



Kindly tell me how to treat hydrangeas. 

 Wish to know about pruning, soil, tem- 

 perature, and what time they should be 

 taken outdoors, etc. 



Last year I had a number of hydran- 

 geas which I wintered in the cellar. Early 

 in spring I put them in the greenhouse 

 where they grew very fast, the growth 

 being tall and slender. Some bloomed 

 and others did not. What flowers ap- 

 peared were pale blue, and some of a 

 greenish color. The plants were in good 

 soil, enriched with old cow-manure. 



The plants are now in the cellar, just as 

 thev were taken in last fall. How shall I 

 treat them? C. S. 



"C. S." has possibly made the mistake 

 of keeping his hydrangeas in too warm a 

 cellar. A cool, light cellar, or cool, light 

 room where the temperature remained at 

 about freezing would be the ideal place 

 to winter them. If they are wanted for 

 greenhouse decoration they can be 

 brought into the greenhouse at end of 

 February, and if brought slowly along 

 will be in full flower in May and J une, but 

 if flowered in the greenhouse will not last 

 long for veranda or lawn decoration. 



A rather strong loam with one-fifth or 

 sixth of animal manure suits the hydran- 

 gea. Small plants, or those that could 

 be grown in seven or eight-inch pots need 

 little pruning. Large plants in tubs can 

 be pruned just sufficient to keep them in 

 compact form. A large hydrangea plant 

 for the veranda or lawn is a beautiful 

 object and very satisfactory, lasting the 



entire summer in attractive appearance, 

 but for this purpose they should not be 

 moved from their winter quarters till 

 middle of April and then placed in some 

 sheltered corner and allowed to come 

 along with the advance of the season the 

 same as our hardy flowering shrubs. 

 Their showy blossoms will then last the 

 entire season. 



While resting leafless during the winter 

 months very little water is needed, but 

 they must not be allowed to get so dry 

 that the wood shrivels, which in a verv 

 cool cellar is not likely to occur. 



William Scott. 



PLANTS HURT BY FUMIGATION. 



From Lenox, Mass., comes an inquiry 

 from a subscriber for a list of plants that 

 are seriously hurt by tobacco smoke, those 

 that are not so badly injured and also 

 those that are impervious to the smoke, 

 and suggests a list of plants with some 

 sign indicating their qualities in this 

 respect. 



This is unnecessary as there are but lew 

 plants grown either by the amateur or 

 professional gardener that are much the 

 worse for fumigating unless it is done with 

 great carlessness. One of the greatest 

 mistakes about the operation of burning 

 tobacco to kill aphis on plants is that too 

 many amateurs, and even commercial 

 florists, put off the disagreeable job of 

 fumigating till they see fully developed 

 greenfly creeping round their plants and 

 then they "smoke" heavy as thev would 

 call it. If smoking is faithfully done once 

 every week, and that but lightly, no aphis 

 will trouble your plants. It may be 

 worthy of mention here what I believe is 

 a fact, viz.. that plants as well as animals 

 can be gradually accustomed to the fumes 

 of tobacco, and what would at first trial 

 make a man very ill at ease and cause 

 great distress, could after a tew "appli- 

 cations" be endured with indifference. I 

 am certain that in my own ex perience the 

 plants most easilv injured by the fumes 

 of tobacco have after a few smokings 

 been entirely uninjured by fumigation. 



Of all plants that are burned by tobacco 

 smoke the heliotrope is best known. 

 Maidenhair fern (Adiantum cuneatum) 

 and all the adiantums are easily burnt by 

 the smoke. The young growths of 

 Astilbe Japonica are very liable to suffer. 

 One of the greatest gardeners of England , 

 Mr. Baines, used to write in the Garden- 

 ers' Chronicle frequently to be sure and 

 cover your azaleas when fumigating, and 

 he may have been right, but I never found 

 it so and have long since ceased to either 

 cover them or syringe them when fumi- 

 gating. 



There is a question whether all plants 

 are not more or less hurt by this process 

 of burning tobacco and if some show most 

 plainly that they are hurt, have not many 

 others suffered more or less; have they 

 not been stunted and their vigor retarded 

 for a week or two. It is not the nicotine 

 that prevades the atmosphere when burn- 

 ing tobacco that is deleterious; it is the 

 hot smoke. There are a few rose growers 

 left that still say that fumigation is not 

 injurious to roses. The great majoritv 

 say different. The young petals of the 

 buds are injured and the flower comes 

 twisted and imperfect. 



To classify under different heads the 

 plants that were more or less injured by 

 smoke would be of little use, unless those 

 plants in each class wanted the same 

 temperatures and that would be impossi- 

 ble. Smoke mildly and frequently and little 

 harm will come, but burning tobacco is 

 not the most a ppro ved method of destroy- 



