250 



GARDENING. 



May 



DENIM 



PUBLISHED THE 1ST AND 15TH OP EACH MONTH 

 BY 



THE GARDENING COMPANY, 



Monon Building, CHICAGO. 



Subscription Price. 12. CO a Year— 24 Numbers. Adver- 

 tising rates on application. 



Entered at Chicago postofflce as Becond-class matter 

 Copyright, 18W7, by The Gardening Co. 



Address all communications to The Garden- 

 ing Co., Monon Building, Chicago. 



GARDENING Is gotten up for Its readers and In their 

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

 Interesting. If It does not exactly suit your case, 

 please write and tell us what you want. It Is our 

 desire to help you. 



Ask any Questions you pleaBe about plants, 

 flowers, fruits, vegetables or other practical gardening 

 matters. We will take pleasure In answering them. 



Send rs 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 yOUS 



flowers, gardens, greenhouses, fruits, vegetables, or 

 horticultural appliances that we may have them en- 

 graved for GARDENING. 



CONTENTS. 



Landscape gardening. 



The World's Fair Wooded Island (4 illus.) . . 241 



TREES AND SHRUBS. 



Notes on flowering shrubs 242 



Some desirable hardy vines 243 



THE GREENHOUSE. 



Au amateur's greenhouses (7 illus.) 244 



Asparagus plumosus nanus. ... ..... 245 



THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



Plants in bloom April 15 246 



Perennial spring flowers 247 



Types of clematis 248 



Violets 218 



Bonemeal— Woodbine 249 



Something for vases 249 



THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



Spraying fruit trees 250 



Small fruits 251 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Nature study for public schools. . . . , . . . 251 



AstroDomy and horticulture 252 



Caryopteris mastacanthus 252 



Prizts for essays 2S4 



Soil around St. Paul, Minn 254 



Rust and paint can be removed from 

 the glass roofs of greenhouses by dissolv- 

 ing lye in boiling water and when cool 

 swabbing the glass with a bunch of rags 

 tied to a pole. 



TREATMENT OF NEWLY IMPORTED PLANTS. 



1 shall soon receive from England some 

 dormant potentillas and pyrethrums. 

 Will you kindly tell me how I ought to 

 treat them when they arrive. C. F. R. 



Massachusetts. 



If the plants were well packed and 

 arrive in good condition, with the pack- 

 ing around the roots still moist, they may 

 be planted at once. If the packing is dry, 

 and the roots look shrivelled, or if any of 

 them were youngplants from slips started 

 in pots, and partially in leaf, soak them 

 for an hour or more in lukewarm water, 

 and then plant. 



We presume your pyrethrums to be 

 hybrids of P. roseum. Make your soil 

 light and open and raise the bed so that 

 when settled from the digging it will be 

 four to six inches above the surrounding 

 level. They require perfect drainage. 



The potentillas may be planted in any 

 good garden soil on the ordinary level. 

 Pyrethrums may be planted one foot 

 apart, but the potentillas are better at 

 eighteen inches to two feet apart. 



The twenty-fifth biennial session of the 

 American Pomological Society will be 

 held in Columbus, 0., September 1 to 3. 

 P.J. Berckmans, Augusta, Ga., is presi- 

 dent and G. C. Brackett, Lawrence, Kans., 

 is secretary. 



A project to establish an international 

 botanical garden in one of the islands in 

 the Gulf ot Mexico seems Iikelv to be 

 realized. Prof. John M. Coulter, of the 

 University of Chicago, and editor of the 

 Botanical Gazette, is active in the matter. 



The time is not far off when those hav- 

 ing hot-beds shall haveemptied them and 

 have finished their planting. Prudence 

 suggests potting a few to be plunged into 

 some spare space of ground to be held in 

 reserve to replace any lost by accident or 

 other causes, in their regular beds. Hav- 

 ing done this, the owner's wants are sup- 

 plied. As a rule some plants are left over. 

 Don't throw them away. We know of 

 one writer for Gardening who each sea- 

 son when his planting is done, sends pos- 

 tal cards to those whom he knows would 

 like to grow flowersdid theirmeans allow 

 them even a hot bed. He requests them 

 to call and get some seedlings. The invi- 

 tation is cheerfully responded to, and 

 thus plants that might otherwise have 

 been thrown away are taken to homes 

 where they receive a loving care, and 

 whose blooms brighten and cheer an ap- 

 preciative household. Be charitable with 

 the treasures God has committed to our 

 care. 



Mr. J. A. Pettigrew, superintendent 

 of parks, Boston, says in a letter: "But 

 speaking of planting in poor soil to pre- 

 vent late growth ( for material not over 

 hardy where it is desirous that the wood 

 be well ripened before winter sets in) 

 suppose you try potash, as you know 

 probably, the people who profess to 

 know these things claim for potash, the 

 fibre building function. Stable manure 

 induces soft growth and leaf development. 

 That is because of the nitrogen in it, and 

 it contains hardly anything else. Manure 

 is considered an expensive fertilizer. I 

 am using a composition: Three per cent 

 nitrogen, eight per cent phosphoric acid 

 (soluble) and ten per cent potash. That 

 combination is supposed to be about the 

 correct caper for tree and shrub food. 

 The grass grows last enough and I don't 

 fertilize it only as it may happen to be 

 under trees and shrubs that are being fer- 

 tilized. To insure a genuine article I buy 

 subject to an analysis of an analytical 

 chemist. At Brooklvn I used the same 

 combination with astonishing results. I 

 shall never use stable manure again if I 

 can have this fertilizer, excepting for 

 mulching." 



A gentleman had a lot facing an im- 

 proved village road, which he fenced and 

 used for pasturage. From the lay of the 

 land, and the surroundings, he readily 

 saw the most appropriate situation for 

 the barn, when the place was to be im- 

 proved. He used this barn site for stor- 

 ing manure whenever easily obtained, 

 which had to be hauled in from the road- 

 way, necessitating a gateway on the 

 street line. He chose a place for this 

 gateway that seemed the proper one to 

 be eventually used. In this lot are several 

 fine old oaks, and the teams in delivering 

 the manure had to pass by or between 

 them. The teamsters naturally chose the 

 most direct route to the rear, and soon 

 formed a wagon track road. The place 

 is being improved and the line of the 

 naturally formed roadway is the one now- 

 adopted for the permanent one. It is 



one of the most graceful roadways that 

 ever came under the notice of the writer. 

 Every curve is a graceful and easy one, and 

 the large oaks stand as sensible sponsors 

 for each departure from a straight line. 

 When amateurs are laying out a drive- 

 way that is curved, and are in doubt as 

 to the outcome, drive a team over the 

 course a few times letting the horses have 

 their own way as much as possible and 

 if they "cut the corners"of the curves too 

 much, the form is not proper. 



The Fruit Garden. 



SPRAYING FRUIT TREES. 

 Since the advent of spraying fruit trees 

 a great deal more interest "is taken in the 

 fruit orchard than there had been for 

 many years. It is again possible to have 

 crops of apples pears, plums grapes and 

 other fruits. Formerly what with insect 

 depredations and the ravages of fungi, 

 there was too much exertion required of 

 the average orchardist. I have had much 

 to do with those who set out fruit trees 

 and I find a general dislike on the part of 

 an owner to have to give attention out 

 of the common run to trees he has pur- 

 chased. The temptation to have fruit, 

 and the comparatively easy work of ap- 

 plying spraying mixtures, has led to the 

 general adoption of spraying as part of 

 regular orchard work. 



Large orchardscall lor special machines 

 for the work, but amateurs who have 

 but a tree or two can get along very well 

 with an ordinary garden hand svringe. 

 There are not many sprayings required in 

 a season. Three or four are sufficient, 

 the exact number of times depending 

 somewhat on the weather. If rains 

 closely succeed a spraying the operation 

 would need repeating very soon, as much 

 of the mixture would be washed off. 



Spraying is for two objects, to destroy 

 and repel insects and to do the same with 

 fungus. The apple plum and cherry are 

 the Iruits mostly affected by insects, and 

 the pear with fungus, though the foliage 

 of the first named trees is very often the 

 subject of various blights. The foliage and 

 fruit of the grape both suffer from fungus. 

 How much the grape grower is indebted 

 to fungicides for his cropis now generally 

 understood. 



What is generally called Bordeaux mix- 

 ture is what is used for fungus attacks, 

 and Paris-green for insects. This mix- 

 ture requires the following ingredients: 

 Sulphfte of copper (blue stone), lime and 

 water. The mixture formerly contained 

 much more blue stone than is used now- 

 adays, and the tendency is still to useless 

 rather than more. One of the latest 

 works issued gives the proportions as 

 follows: Six pounds blue stone, four 

 pounds quicklime to 4-0 or 50 gallons of 

 water. My own experience has been lim- 

 ited to the spraying of pear trees, and in 

 that case I used but five lbs. blue stone 

 to 100 gallons of water, and the mixture 

 did its work most effectually. 



For the insects which injure the fruits 

 spoken of, Paris green is used. It requires 

 about one pound of it to 400 gallons of 

 water. 



There is no loss of strength to either 

 mixture by using a combination, which 

 may be made by adding four ounces of 

 Paris-green to fifty gallons of Bordeaux 

 mixture. 



Many persons practice the giving of 

 the first spraying just before the buds 

 burst in spring, again as soon as the 



