i54 



GARDENING. 



Feb. /, 



I'UdLISHED THE 1ST AND 15TH OF EACH MONTH 

 BY 



THE GARDENING COMPANY, 



Monon Building, CHICAGO. 



Sibscrlptlon Price, K. 00 a Year— 24 Numbers. Adver- 

 tising rates on application. 



Eitered at Chicago postofflce as second-class matter. 

 Copyright. 18<7, by The Gardening Co. 



Address all communications to The Garden- 

 ing Co., Monon Building, Chicago. 



Gardening Ib gotten up for Its readers and In tbelr 

 Interest, and It behooves you. one and all. to make It 

 Interesting. If It does not exactly suit your caBe, 

 please write and tell u*. what you want. It 1b our 

 desire to help you. 



ask any questions you please about plants, 

 dowers, fruits, vegetables or other practical gardening 

 matters. We will take pleasure In answering them . 



Send us NOTES of your experience In gardening In 

 any line; tell us of your successes that others may be 

 enlightened and encouraged, and of your failures, 

 perhaps we can help you. 



Send us Photographs or Sketches of you 

 flowers, gardens, greenhouses, fruits, vegetables, or 

 horticultural appliances that we may have them en- 

 graved for gardening. 



CONTENTS. 



AQUATICS. 



Nymphsea Greyae (illus.) Ho 



ROSES. 



The Cherokee rose ... 145 



A climbing moss rose (illus.) ... . . . 14o 



New rose Sou'-, du President Carnot (illus ) . .140 



TREES AND SHRUBS. 



Experience with shrubs 14(i 



Insects destroying ornamental trees 147 



Ornamental birches 148 



The "White Plume" spirsea (illus.) . . 1)9 



Vitis Coignetia: 149 



THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



Hardy plants, for shady positions . 149 



I. ilium giganteum 15") 



Perennials from seed U0 



Various questions from Minnesota 151 



Eremurus robustus 152 



Cottage gardening 152 



ORCHIDS. 



The "Dove Orchid" (illus.) 152 



TROPICAL VEGETATION. 



The "Traveler's tree" (illus.) 152 



THE GREENHOUSE. 



Atpinias— Strelitzias— Mignonette 155 



Heating a small greenhouse 155 



Phosphoric acid as a fertilizer 156 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Sowing seeds of acorns and nut trees 158 



Beeches —J. Wilkinson Elliott, a good 

 authority, states that all beeches should 

 be transplanted in the fall. 



William Elliott, the senior member 

 of the New York seed firm of V\ m Elliott 

 & Sons, died January 16, aged 72 years. 

 Mr. Elliott started in the seed business 

 in New York City in 1854. 



Don't be in a hurry to start your hot- 

 beds; better be a little late and safe, than 

 early and be caught with a crowded hot- 

 bed waiting for suitable weather to plant 

 out. Plants in this condition are never 

 stocky and strong. 



If on cold or clay soil, raise your 

 flower beds. The warmth of the sun 

 reaches the roots of the plants easier, and 

 ypu can control themoisture. If unusual 

 and prolonged rains occur, your drainage 

 prevents damage. If drouth sets in you 

 can supply moisture. 



Pvrethrum roseum from the Orient is 

 quite hardy, but is apt to damp oft" in 

 summer unless in a well drained position. 

 Those who have had this trouble with it 

 can remedy it by raising the bed in which 

 they are planted. Have the surface fully 

 five inches high when settled. Of late 

 there are many handsome forms of this 

 plant, both single and double. 



In I'Sing branches of lilacs or any hard- 

 wooded stemmed plants in vases, remove 

 the bark from all that portion that goes 

 into the water. The moisture is thus 

 more easily taken up by the steins and 

 the blooms remain in condition much 

 longer than those that are compelled to 

 draw up the water from thecut end only. 



The Ohio State Horticultural Society 

 has issued a call for a national convention 

 of State Horticultural and kindred socie- 

 ties to meet at the Ebbitt House, Wash- 

 ington, D. C, 10 a. m., March 5, 1897, 

 to consider and recommend the most 

 appropriate federal and state legislation 

 for preventing the introduction or diffu- 

 sion of noxious insects and fungi in the 

 United States. 



This has been an open winter so far, 

 with alternate freezing and thawing. If 

 your perennials were not protected, notice 

 if any of them are lifted by the frost. 

 Lobelia cardinalis for instance is very apt 

 to throw itself out of the ground. If they 

 show signs of lifting and do not posess 

 evergreen leaves like theOriental poppies, 

 place an inverted sod over them and you 

 may yet save them. 



Khus cotinus, the Venetian sumach or 

 "Smoke tree," of which a beautiful speci- 

 men was illustrated in the January 1 

 number, has very minute flowers of a 

 greenish color, only a small number of 

 which mature seed. The greater part are 

 abortive and are succeeded by long, silky 

 hairs, forming a closed-like mass that 

 almost hides the foliage. These light and 

 feathery appendages suggested the name 

 "smoke tree." 



In your planting next spring bear in 

 mind that all large quick-growing plants 

 such as cannas, castor bean plants, cala- 

 diums, musas, large leaved solanums, etc., 

 require generous doses of manure; in fact 

 you can hardly over-do it. Common 

 sense will tell you that any plant that 

 reaches the size and robustness that any 

 of the above will in one season, it well 

 grown, must have a well-filled store 

 house of nutritious food to draw 

 upon. 



The annual meeting of the American 

 Carnation Society will be held at Cincin- 

 nati Ftbruary 18* and 19. There will be 

 essays and discussions on the various 

 phases of carnation culture and an exhi- 

 bition of new varieties, the merits of 

 which will be passed upon by committees 

 of experts. The society has done much 

 good in preventing the dissemination ot 

 varieties not equal to or inferior than 

 existing sorts. Mr. Albert M. Herr, Lan- 

 caster, Pa., is secretary of the society. 



At the recent annual meeting of the 

 Horticultural Society of Chicago the old 

 officers were re-elected and steps taken 

 looking to the holding of the annual fall 

 exhibition in November next, and also a 

 spring exhibition in 1898. This will be 

 the fit st spring exhibition given by the 

 society. Resolutions were adopted rec- 

 ommending to the incoming national ad- 

 ministration the discontinuation of the 

 free seed distribution by the government, 

 and to the new governor of Illinois a list 

 of names of well known and competent 

 gentlemen who would prove useful mem- 

 bers of the park boards in case changes 

 were made. 



The common name "horse chesnut" as 

 applied to the Aisculus hippoeastaneum 

 is supposed to have been suggested on 

 account of the fruit being ground into a 



meal and fed to the horses in Turkey, and 

 its resemblance to the fruit of the true 

 chestnut, castanea. In fact the common 

 name is a literal translation of the specific 

 one. Some people presume that the name 

 was given it because the leaf scars on the 

 young wood resemble somewhat the im- 

 print of a horse's foot, showing the nail 

 heads of the shoe. It is a curious fact if 

 the first supposition is correct, that the 

 leaf-scars should also suggest the same 

 name. 



The word cork signifies bark, as ap- 

 plied to the outer part of some of the family 

 of oaks. The main cork of commerce is 

 obtained from the Quercus suber, an ever- 

 green oak growing in Southern Europe 

 and northern Africa. This tree is esti- 

 mated to attain an age of fully two hun- 

 dred years, and after it is twenty years 

 old can be stripped of its bark every six 

 or seven years, but the best product is 

 from trees over forty years old. Its 

 height at maturity is about forty f et. 

 There are a few other varieties of the oak 

 that furnish an inferior cork. Instances 

 are recorded where young cork oaks in 

 the humid Western Port district of Victo- 

 ria, have grown four feet in a year. 



On January 11 the National Horticul- 

 tural Society of America was organized 

 in New York City with officers as follows: 

 John M. Hunter, president; W. G Gomer- 

 sall, vice-president; Jas. i. Donlan, secre- 

 tary; N. Butterbach, treasurer. The ob- 

 jects of the society, as we understand it, 

 are to bring about closir relations be- 

 tween the existing hoiticultural societies 

 throughout the country, and to supply a 

 working organization through which 

 matters of national rather than local 

 interest may receive effective attention. 

 The purpose is certainly good. The 

 address of Secretary Jas. I. Donlan is 51 

 West 28th street, New York City. 



Owners of nurseries or fields where 

 constant and thorough tillage is prac- 

 ticed do not worry much if the season be 

 a dry one. If a wet one the soil is worked 

 only when in fit condition, and to keep 

 down the weeds. All well-regulated 

 grounds are tile-drained to carry off the 

 surplus water. In dry seasons thorough 

 tillage closes the surface "pores" and 

 causes a retention of the natural moist- 

 ure in the soil preventing evaporation. 

 Weeds are in reality a blessing. Their 

 extermination becomes a necessity, and 

 the act of extermination is cultivation. 

 Without cultivation the soil becomes 

 hard and baked and the product dwarfed 

 and poor. Weeds are couriers sent by 

 Mother Earth to remind us of our negli- 

 gence. 



Polygoni'M Baldschuanicum is the 

 name of a new climbing plant now in the 

 hands of M. V. Lemoine, of Nancy. France. 

 It is a native of Turkestan, and grows 

 wild at an altitude of four to five thou- 

 sand feet. It is an herbaceous perennial 

 with stems woody at the base, and a 

 strong, robust grower, medium sized 

 plants reaching a height of ten to thirteen 

 feet in two months' time. The plant is 

 quite hardy at Paris, and if the stems do 

 die down in winter, fresh shoots come up 

 in the spring. The stems are twining, 

 attaching themselves to any available 

 support. It flowers from June until Sep- 

 tember. The following is its description 

 as given in an European journal: "The 

 leaves are a beautiful green, cordiform or 

 hastate, the flowers white, faintly rosy, 

 forming long handsome trusses; they are 

 succeeded by winged fruits, white at first, 

 then red, and themselves decorative." 

 The flowers are useful for cutting. 



