i 7 8 



GARDENING. 



Mar. j, 



and the tree left alone until this ball ot 

 earth freezes enough to hold together 

 when moved. If it snows or rains, or the 

 tree is in a low spot, a man watches it 

 and keeps the trench free of water. When 

 the ball is well frozen a four horse team 

 a gang of men go there and with timbers 

 and jack-screws the tree is placed upon a 

 low wagon and hauled to its destination. 



In the meantime a hole three feet deep 

 and ten to twelve in diameter has been 

 made for it and nearly filled with good 

 soil and then heavily covered with man- 

 ure to keep it from freezing. In this hole 

 the tree is planted, and if any roots had 

 gone outside the ball obtained they are 

 smoothly cut, and the head cut in a little. 

 This consists in removing any branches 

 that may be spared, right back to the 

 trunk, but those generally cut are the 

 laterals issuing from the main branches 

 that diverge from the trunk. 



Moved carefully in this manner, they 

 have been quite successful and many have 

 obtained beautiful specimens. It is ex- 

 pensive work, however, costing from 

 twenty-five to seventy-five dollars a tree. 



WISTARIAS. 



The wistaria is one of the most useful of 

 vines, its beauty when in flower in early 

 spring causing it to be much planted. It 

 ■was, evidently, a favorite with the early 

 settlers of Philadelphia as old vines of the 

 W. chinensis of monstrous size, are often 

 met with. If I mistake not Dr. Caspar 

 Wistar, after whom the genus was named 

 by Nuttall, was a born Philadelphian. 



For a long time but two sorts, our 

 native one, irutescens, and the Chinese 

 chinensis, were the only ones known. But 

 now there are white flowered and double 

 flowered varieties of these two, as w r ellas 

 a supposed hybrid sort, magnifica 

 and a Japanese one. multijuga, and a 

 white variety of it. These are all fairly 

 well known in cultivation now, and I 

 think most every one will agree with me 

 that first and foremost of all yet, is our 

 old friend the Chinese. I think it decidedly 

 the most showy of all. 



A great deal has been said in praise of 

 multijuga, the Japanese one, because of its 

 length of raceme of flowers. It is true this 

 raceme is often three feet in length, but 

 then there are no more flowers on it than 

 there are on the one foot raceme of the 

 Chinese. In fact, they are so scattered 

 that nothing like the display of the 

 Chinese is made. It may be that the flow- 

 ers are not a lighter color than those of 

 the Chinese, and that it is their scattered 

 condition which creates the impression, 

 but they seem to be so. 



The white flowered Chinese makes a 

 beautiful display when in bloom, and this 

 and the double variety of the common 

 one make a good addition to a collection. 

 When this wistaria — the Chinese— is given 

 room to grow there seems no limit to its 

 progress. There are plants of it here 

 which have been planted alongside of 

 Norway spruce trees and which have 

 ascended 60 feet, to the top of the trees, 

 and have environed the branches. In the 

 summer of 1895, at Hampton Court 

 Palace, London, I saw one which had a 

 trunk 20 inches in diameter and branches 

 8 inches, and which covered all the wall 

 allowed it, to which it was trained, which 

 was about 100 feet in length by 25 in 

 height. Besides its usefulness as a vine, if 

 planted on the lawn and tied to a stake 

 which will support it for two or three 

 years, a dwarf, tree-like specimen results 

 which when in bloom is one of the loveli- 

 est sights imaginable. 

 While I think many will agree with me 



in giving first place to the Chinese they 

 will be with me, I am sure, in saying our 

 native one, irutescens, is a splendid sort. 

 In the first place it is a real vine, running 

 rapidly over whatever is given it to cover. 

 A strong vine will make long, rope-like 

 shoots of 25 feet in length in a season. Its 

 racemes of flowers are not nearly as long 

 as those of the Chinese, but they are full 

 of flowers, which are produced in great 

 abundance, and they appear two weeks 

 later than the Chinese, and are of light 

 purple color. There is a white and a 

 double variety of it in cultivation. 



Another beautiful and valuable sort is 

 one called magni£ca. While said to be a 

 hybrid between chinensis and irutescens, 

 it displays close affinity to the latter, 

 with no perceptible resemblance to the 

 former. It was introduced from Germany 

 by a Philadelphia party many years ago. 

 The racemes are rather larger than those 

 of frutescens, and the flowers of rather 

 lighter color. A more floriferous vine it 

 would be hard to conceive. It flowers at 

 the same time as frutescens, and in my 

 opinion it is the better of the two. A 

 curious feature in connection with it is 

 that it produces seeds abundantly while 

 the frutescens rarely indeed has any in 

 these parts, though bearing them freely 

 enough in its wild state, as I am told. 



Philadelphia. Joseph Meehan. 



HYPERICUM MOSERIANUM. 



This French hybrid hyperieum was justly 

 much admired in the exhibit of Mons. 

 Moser at the World's Fair, and has since 

 then been distributed quite freely. 



It is to be regretted that it is not per- 

 fectly hardy in all sections of our country, 

 but as it moves easily and can be kept 

 dormant in cellars and cold frames, all 

 can grow it. This treatment naturally 

 disturbs its growing activity some, and 

 retards its time of bloom, but even then 

 it produces its lovely pure yellow flowers 

 so freely and continuously that all fall in 

 love with it. The numerous stamens 

 standing well above the petals and gen- 

 erally in the form of a rather close band 

 around the center, suggests the glisten- 

 ing texture of silk floss. It is quite dwarf 

 in stature and does well in partial shade. 



Hypericum aureum, from the mountains 

 of Tennessee, is hardy at Chicago with- 

 out protection and produces similar look- 

 ing flowers, but smaller and less continu- 

 ously. The picture does not do justice to 

 th<" subject. 



TAB SUCCESSFUL TRANSPLANTING OF T«E 

 OAK. 



It is a pleasure to note the increased 

 desire to plant the oak. There are many 

 old grounds on which not an oak tree is 

 to be found, save in cases where native 

 ones existed and were spared when the 

 grounds were laid out. But this is not 

 the case to-day. Such educators as Gar- 

 dening and the many prominent land- 

 scape gardeners have taught the public 

 how valuable the many species of oak are, 

 and on grounds recently laid out this tree 

 finds a prominent place. 



It is, therefore, timely to say to those 

 about to plant it that to succeed with it, 

 it must be closely pruned when planted. 

 There are some sorts easier to plant than 

 others, but on the whole but few trees 

 demand such a close pruning as it does. 

 In parks and public grounds where whet 

 is known as a nursery exists, small plants 

 of from two to three feet are often set out 

 closely, to remain there until of a suitable 

 size to set out in permanent positions. 

 Plants of this size, planted with care, will 

 not. require pruning. But of sizes above 



this, pruning should be performed, in- 

 creasing in extent as the trees do in size. 

 Should it be seedlings transplanted for 

 the first time, the work may be safely 

 done if the pruning be severe and the 

 plants not over about fivefeet. By severe 

 pruning is meant the trimming off of all • 

 side twigs, leaving but the main stem. 

 Let me mention here that the central 

 shoot should not be cut away. Oaks art- 

 slow in forming a new leader, and often 

 remain in a dwarf state for some time 

 after being so improperly cut. 



Wnen oaks have been twice or more 

 transplanted, as they should have been, 

 it is feasible to transplant those of eight 

 to ten feet, but for my own self I would 

 prefer a five to six foot tree to any other. 

 Such a tree, closely pruned is pretty sure 

 to live, and it is not too old or too large 

 to be brought into good shape should it 

 not already be. An oak tree, well pro- 

 portioned of about six feet, will have side 

 branches of four feet in length. These 

 should be cut back to two feet. Larger 

 trees should lose a greater proportion of 

 branches But it should be kept in mind 

 constantly that there must be no hesita- 

 tion to cut away a great deal of the 

 branches. 



When these trees reach a size that the 

 diameter of the main stem is, say four to 

 six inches, it is waste of time to trans- 

 plant them excepting in cases where prep- 

 arations have been made beforehand, by 

 root pruning them a year or two in ad- 

 vance. 



Of all our northern oaks there are two, 

 bicolor and palustris, which transplant 

 much easier than any of the others. Thev 

 will succeed with far less pruning than 

 the rest require. The reason is that they 

 make more small roots than any other 

 sort — a capital lesson to those who think 

 small roots are of but little account. 



There are three species better than any 

 of the rest for autumn color. Best of all 

 is the scarlet coccinea; next the red, 

 rubra, and the third is the pin, palustris. 

 A few others show some little change 

 worthy of notice, imbricaria, alba, nigra 

 and obtusiloba among them, and espe- 

 cially when in the seedling stages. But 

 such sorts as macrocarpa, bicolor, tinc- 

 toria, castanea, Phellos and Prinus are 

 not valuable at all in that way. 



Those contemplating planting oaks 

 should set them early, be it spring or fall. 

 Late spring will not do at all for it. If it 

 cannot be done before the buds move, defer 

 it until fall, then do it before the leaves 

 fall. The necessary pruning will take 

 away much of the foliage, the rest should 

 be hand-picked or cut off. 

 Philadelphia. Joseph Meehan. 



The Flower Garden. 



FLOWER GARDEN NOTES. 



The bulb beds will now need attention. 

 If a lot of mulching has been put on the 

 beds, the most of it should now be re- 

 moved as the warm days of spring will 

 cause the leaves to draw up and bleach, 

 and make them an easy prey to the late 

 frosts of spring. A word about mulching 

 may not be amiss at this season of the 

 year in regard to the covering up of brlb 

 beds. The idea is, I think, altogether 

 wrong, and I believe the practice does 

 more harm than good. How often we 

 see beds of such hardy bulbous plants as 

 tulips, hyacinths and narcissus covered 

 up to exclude all frost with the result that 

 when this is taken off in spring we find a 

 mass of bleached leaves that the first 



