37° 



' ' • GARDENING. 



Sept. /, 



plant will be seriously impaired. If prop- 

 erly cared for in this respect the rhodo- 

 dendron will endure a good many more 

 degrees of frost than if weakened from 

 lack of nourishment. One secret of Mr. 

 Harris' success with rhododendrons and 

 hardy azaleas lies in the fact that all 

 flower heads are pinched off as soon as 

 the blooms have fallen, so that no seeds 

 are allowed to form, half a dozen men 

 being employed at once upon this work. 

 Of all the attractions at this beautiful 

 place none surpass the rhododendrons, 

 which bring thousands of visitors during 

 the flowering season. The display this 

 year is pronounced by Mr. Harris to 

 have been the finest on record, the season 

 having been especially favorable forthem. 

 No description can convey an idea of the 

 beautiful spectacle so well as the photo- 



in the center. New canvas is required 

 about once in two years. 



LIST OF RHODODENDRONS RECOMMENDED 



AS PERFECTLY HARDY BY MR. F. L. 



HARRIS, WEI. LESLEY, MASS. 



Album elegans Kettledrum 



Album grandiflorum King of Purples 



Alex. Dancer 



Atrosanguineum 



Chas Bagley 



Chas. Dickens 



Caractacus 



C. S. Sargent 



Delicatissima 



Edward S Rand 



Everestiana 



F. D. Godmau 



Francis Dickson 



Guido 



H. W. Sargent 



Lady Armstrong 

 Lady Grey Edgerton 

 Maximum Wellesia- 



n um 

 Mrs. John Clutton 

 Mrs. R. S Holford 

 Old Port 



Purpureum grandi- 

 florum 

 Ralph Sanders 

 Roseum elegans 

 Sir Wm. Armstrong 

 Rosabelle 



C. Deodara and C. Libani. There is a 

 lovely blue colored one of atlantica, called 

 glauca, and this is the one most common 

 in cultivation. When it reaches a height 

 of about 6 feet and over it rivals in 

 appearance the famed Colorado blue 

 spruce, Picea pungens. Its appearance 

 on a green lawn is beautiful This species 

 is a native of Mt. Atlas, Algeria, and 

 answering for Pennsylvania, it is entirely 

 hardy. 



The Cedar of Lebanon is also quite 

 hardy. There are what might be called 

 full grown trees of it about Philadelphia 

 were it not for the knowledge of the 

 monsters to be seen in England. But the 

 trees here are large enough to product- 

 cones, as they have been for many years, 

 and some of them are perhaps 50 feet in 

 height. 



RHODODENDRONS AT MR H H. HUNNEWELL'S. WELLESLEY. MASS- 



graphs which we present in this issue. 

 Many of the plants are thirty years old, 

 and specimens twelve to fourteen feet 

 through are not infrequent. The beauti- 

 ful specimen plant shown in one of the 

 photographs is one of many fine seedlings 

 raised by Mr. Harris, but never named. 



The tender varieties are stored in pits 

 during cold weather. As soon as the sea- 

 son opens they are taken outdoors and 

 planted where during the flowering sea- 

 son they are to be protected by a tent. 

 Those varieties that are tardy in bloom- 

 ing are kept a week or two later in a pit 

 with a glass roof so as to advance them 

 and bring the full display on at one time. 

 If the plants show lack of sufficient moist- 

 ure when removed from the pit the roots 

 are thoroughly saturated with water 

 before planting. This is done by dipping 

 them in alarge tank, a laborious job with 

 the big plants and their heavy clumps of 

 roots. The tent is spread over them 

 when they begin to open the flowers, and 

 is removed assoonasthev fade, the plants 

 being left as they stand till November 1, 

 when they are returned to the cellars. 

 The tent shown in the photograph covers 

 about half an acre and is thirty feet high 



The kalmias are in bloom with the later 

 rhododendrons and make a grand show. 

 Mr. Harris attributes the many failures 

 in kalmia planting, as in evergreen plant- 

 ing, to the lack of dense fibrous roots in 

 much of the stock purchased, and which 

 can onlv be secured by frequent trans- 

 planting in the nursery rows while the 

 plants are young. Imported plants are 

 apt to give greater satisfaction for this 

 reason, transplanting being systemati- 

 cally followed up in the European nur- 

 series. The border of variegated Funkia 

 japonica makes a pretty edging for the 

 kalmias. It requires less care than grass, 

 and being a rapid grower soon makes a 

 dense close growth to the exclusion of all 

 weeds. 



THREE BEAUTIFUL CBDflRS. 



In former numbers of Gardening favor- 

 able mention is made of the Mt. Atlas 

 cedar, and certainly it deserves the great- 

 est praise as a lovely, hardy evergreen. 

 In this vicinity there are three species, all 

 of which are hardy. They are the Mt. 

 Atlas, the Deodar, and the Lebanon, 

 known respectively as Cedrus atlantica. 



The Mt. Atlas one resembles this a 

 great deal in its habit of growth, but is 

 always readily distinguished by its 

 foliage, the Lebanon being of dark green 

 while the Mt. Atlas is of a silvery blue. 



The deodara is perhaps hardly as hardy 

 as the others. In winters when deep 

 snows prevail I have seen it lose its foliage 

 above the snow line, but not the wood, 

 new leaves forming where the others had 

 been as soon as growth started in spring. 

 To see the deodar and the Mt. Atlas 

 growing near each other, viewed from 

 a distance, one would think the deodar 

 possessed the bluer foliageofthe two, but 

 it does not, though it is of a silvery color. 

 The impression is caused by the greater 

 amount of foliage possessed by the deodar 

 as it makes a far bushier growth than the 

 other, and thus it seems to be the best. 

 As the Mt. Atlas gets larger and more 

 branches are made, it is easily seen to be 

 the better. 



To succeed with these trees, plant them 

 on some elevated place, rather than in a 

 hollow. To winter them successfully they 

 are wanted to make a short, sturdy 

 growth which will ripen well. This 

 usually follows the planting in high, well 



