266 



4 ' * GARDENING. 



May 15, 



Published the 1st and 15th of each Month 



BT 



THE GARDENING COMPANY, 



Monon Building, CHICAGO. 



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Entered at Chicago postofflce ae second-class matter 

 Copyright, 18U7, 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 

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

 desire to help you. 



* Ask any questions you please about plant*, 

 flowers, fruits, vegetables or other practical gardening 

 matters. We will take pleasure In answering them. 



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

 enlightened and encouraged, and of your failures, 

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 flowers, gardens. greenhouBeB, fruits, vegetables, or 

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CONTENTS. 



AQUATICS. 



A pond of aquatics (illus.) . .257 



the flower garden. 



Plants in bloom May 1st ... 257 



Dicentra spectabilis alba ... 258 



Perennials to precede bedding plants .... 259 

 Lobelia Gherardi— Oralis. . . .260 



Fuchsias in summer 260 



Notes and comments 260 



Alstromeria — Oxalis 261 



Hardiness of Louicera Halleana . .261 



Sicana odorifera 261 



trees and shrurs. 

 A beech tree over 7oo years old (illus.) ... 261 



Notes on shrubs and trees. . . . , 261 



The tulip tree in the south . .... 262 



the greenhouse. 



Lachenalia Nelsonii (illus.) . . 262 



New amaryllises (illus.) . .262 



Calceolarias (illus.) 262 



Show pelargoniums (illus.).. . 2b2 



miscellaneous 



Horticulture 263 



Poplar myths .... 264 



ORCHIDS. 



Forms of Cypripedium caudatum (dlus ). 261 



Stanhopeas . 261 



the fruit garden 

 Caring for newly planted fruit trees . . 266 



Small fruits .... .... 267 



Root pruning fruit trees . . 



Sweet chestnuts ... 



268 



The Santa Clara Floral Society will 

 hold an exhibition of sweet peas in San 

 Jose. Cal., in July, during the visit of the 

 Christian Endeavor Society. 



"What are the essential qualifications 

 of the ideal park superintendent, and 

 what is their relative importance?" This 

 will be the subject of a paper by Mr. O. C. 

 Simonds at the next meeting of the Hor- 

 ticultural Society of Chicago. 



It is reported that a Danish scientist 

 has discovered that plants are susceptible 

 to the influence of ether or chloroform, 

 but that in their case the effect is to 

 awaken them instead of putting them to 

 sleep. It is also stated that the drugs 

 named induce a rapid growth and at any 

 season. But we had best await the 

 results of experiments by American scien- 

 tists before trying the effect of these pow- 

 erful drugs on any of our favorite plants. 



Sweet Peas.— Bulletin No. 127 ot the 

 Cornell University Experiment Station, 

 Ithaca, N. Y., is" devoted to "A second 

 account of sweet peas" by A. P. Wyman 

 and M. G. Kains. Itcontains much mat- 

 ter of interest about the newer sorts of 

 the sweet pea and includes a tabulated 

 record of the time of blooming, height, 

 length of stem, quantity of bloom, pro- 

 duction of seed, size and substance, of a 

 large number of varieties. Our under- 

 standing is that these bulletins are sent 

 free on request to any one interested. 



We have received the first number of 

 the Canadian Horticultural Magazine, 

 which is to be issued monthly by the 

 Montreal Horticultural Society. The 

 first issue (April) contains a number of 

 useful original articles treating mainly 

 on fruit growing. 



"The Dahlia" is the title of a new 

 English book, a copy of which has been 

 received from The jVlacmillan Co., New 

 York (Price 75 cents). It contains 81 

 pages and treats upon the history of the 

 dahlia, its improvement, the various 

 types, botany, propagation, cultivation, 

 insect enemies, lifting and storing, exhib- 

 iting the blooms, etc., and gives a very 

 full list of varieties, arranged in classes, 

 with brief description of each. 



S. B. D., Jackson, Mich., writes that 

 the tops of some weeping cut-leaved 

 birches died back in his vicinity, and that 

 he sawed them just below where they 

 were dead and found in the wood a num- 

 ber of small white worms from an inch to 

 an inch and a quarterlong and somewhat 

 larger round than a match, and that 

 these trees have since died. The worms 

 were the effect, not the cause, of decay. 

 It is well known that the borers and 

 other pests attack trees as soon as they 

 become weak from other causes, and 

 probably hasten decay. 



A sudden freeze on April 20 did 

 serious damage to early flowering shrubs 

 and herbaceous plants around Boston 

 and the effects can now be seen. Wis- 

 tarias, magnolias, Deutzia par'viflora, 

 half hardy hydrangeas, Astilbejaponica 

 and all lilies that were above the ground 

 were entirely ruined for this year. For- 

 sythias escaped with partial injury. Spi- 

 raea prunifolia, Andromeda ftoribunda, 

 Prunus pendula and Daphne cneorum are 

 all nicely in bloom and show no evidence 

 of having been harmed. With the ther- 

 mometer below freezing point tor two 

 nights and one day, with a strong dry 

 wind, more damage might have been 

 expected. Among the tough things that 

 bid defiance to the freezing winds were 

 Dirca palustris, Cornus Mas, Lindera 

 Benzoin and the trailing Rhus aro- 

 matica. 



In The spring of 1896 two Japanese 

 weeping cherries were planted in good 

 sized holes dug in a clay loam. One was 

 planted in a well-drained situation, and 

 is in good condition this spring. The 

 other was in a rather low spot and the 

 natural soil in which the hole was dug 

 belonged to a "sandy streak" always 

 quite wet in rainy weather. This tree 

 started well and duringthe summermade 

 good growth. The fall was very wet, 

 and water sto id in the hole. Along in 

 September the leaves suddenly drooped, 

 and the owner noticing it, dug a drain 

 from the hole, but could only make a shal- 

 low one owing to the situation. This 

 spring the tree showed signs of weakness 

 and upon examination of the roots, they 

 proved to have rotted back to the center. 

 How well drained is the soil in which are 

 those you planted this spring? 



AMUSING CLAIM FOR PLANTS. 



The English Gardeners' Magazine prints 

 the following amusing claims for plants: 



The Cardiff Burial Board r ntly purchased 



some land for the purpose of enlarging the oeme 

 tery, and three of the tenants claimed compensa- 

 tion. One of the claims was for t'500. and the 

 specified items included the following: Two hun- 

 dred Michaelmas daisies, eleven polyanthuses, 

 Hve roots anemones, three Jacob's ladders, six 

 aule major, one evening primrose, four feet father 

 before son, two lilacs, eleven pink carnations, one 

 sunflower, four hundred ami twenty daisies, one 



pansy, two musks, two Noah's arks, a further two 

 Michaelmas daisies, and two gladioli. Our 

 knowledge of Welsh plant names is not sufficient 

 to enable us to identify "aule major" or "father 

 before son," and none'of the dictionaries of plant 

 names that have a place on our bookshelves afford 

 us any assistance. "Jacob's ladder" is, of course, 

 Polemonimn co-ruleum. and "Noah's ark" is Cyp- 

 ripedium pubescens. 



The Fruit Garden. 



CARING FOR NEWLY PLANTED FRUIT TREES. 



It has been my fate to witness the loss 

 of so many freshly planted fruit trees that 

 a few hints to those who have planted 

 some this spring may be of use. Presum- 

 ing that what have been planted have 

 started into growth, care must be taken 

 that what leaves are made are preserved. 

 Many trees push out a few leaves but 

 make no fresh growth. This indicates 

 that but few roots are active. I have 

 seen gardeners prune in such trees, think- 

 ing that by lessening the top, fresh and 

 better growth would ensue, but it never 

 does. Such trees usually die when so 

 pruned. It is a g-eat mistake to prune 

 away the foliage which a weak tree has 

 made. The preservation of the leaves, 

 few and small though they be, will ensure 

 the life ot the tree, and the following sea- 

 son a good growth may be looked for. 

 To preserve it place a mulch of some 

 kind about the tree, to keep the soil cool 

 and moist; and see that no insect or 

 fungous foe attack the leaves. Mulching 

 is one of the greatest helps a newly 

 planted tree can receive. 



Many trees are lost by permitting them 

 to flower and fruit too early Trees often 

 start vigorously the first season, and will 

 flower and set fruit. It is wrong to per- 

 mit them to have their way the first sea- 

 son. It new shoots are being made, a 

 fruit or two perhaps, to verify the kind, 

 is allowable. But where leaves only are 

 made it is entirely wrong to allow fruit 

 to form. Flowers should becut off before 

 expanding. And even on treesof a year's 

 standing there will be but little growth 

 made should fruiting be permitted. 



What a drain fruiting is on thegrowing 

 of a tree I have often seen illustrated in 

 the case of two trees of the silver maple 

 which grow near by. One of these is a 

 seed bearer, the other is not. At this sea- 

 son of the year the non-seed bearer is full 

 of well formed leaves, and an inch or so 

 of new growth appears at the end of each 

 shoot. The seed bearer has not a leaf 

 expanded. It is hanging full of seeds. In 

 a week or two the seeds will drop, and in 

 a few days or a week thereafter out will 

 come the leaves. If it were better realized 

 what a tax fruiting is to a tree there 

 would be more care exercised that freshly 

 planted ones should not be permitted to 

 doit. 



A great many well rooted trees die 

 from not being firmly planted. They leaf 

 out perhaps, but as soon as this occurs, 

 winds toss them about, and the swaying 

 loosens them still more. A tree of this 

 description cannot make roots. The mo- 

 tion caused by the wind extends to the 

 roots, snapping off newly made fibers, 

 and, as far as growth is concerned, no 

 progress is made. If ramming of the soil 

 will not stiffen the tree, which is some- 

 times the case with large headed ones, 

 staking should be done to hold the tree 

 for the first season. 



Unless the soil is already rich, the mulch- 

 ing previously spoken of should be of 

 rotted manure. Treated in this way the 

 first season, trees will be preserved, and 



