148 



GARDENING. 



Feb. /, 



of the ground and there will be but a small 

 chance for other plants to succeed if we fail 

 to provide ample nourishment. We must 

 therefore not only see that a liberal 

 amount of manure is annually worked into 

 the soil, but we also must supply nour- 

 ishment in a liquid form duringthe grow- 

 ing and flowering season, otherwise we 

 could not reasonably expect a normal 

 development of either the plants or their 

 flowers. These applications should be 

 especially liberal in late summer and in 

 fall, assisting thereby our tardy bloomers 

 to perfect an abundant crop of flowers, 

 for that is the time we really need the 

 enlivening color among the green foliage 

 of the earlv flowering shrubs. 



J. B. Keller. 



tions of any ordinary garden, and then 

 the deadlv frost at last secures them for 

 its own. " J. H. Mayer. 



Pennsylvania. 



WHEN TO SOW PANSIES. 



The vexations that attach to the rais- 

 ing of pansies in the autumn are so many, 

 and the results correspondingly so meagre, 

 that it has induced many gardeners to 

 sow for their main crop some time in 

 January or early February. Poorstrains 

 are not worth growing and are in fact a 

 costly article to have around, but good 

 ones are easily obtained from reliable 

 sources, and these if sown now in flats of 

 fine soil, and placed in a temperature of 

 55° at night, will give excellent plants, 

 the best possible to set out at decoration 

 time, when those carried over from the 

 autumn sown seed will have about done 

 flowering. I never could tell just why it 

 is that there is always such a poor ger- 

 mination of pansy seed in fall as com- 

 pared with the same seed sown under 

 glass in winter, and when one goes to the 

 trouble and cost of fine strains like the 

 Bugnot or Cassier it is decidedly best not 

 to sow in fall. 



As soon as the young seedlings are up 

 and large enough to handle they must be 

 pricked off into flats at once, and by the 

 end of March they will be both large and 

 strong enough to set out in a gentle hot 

 bed, where they will come quickly and 

 soon begin to flower. There is also an 

 advantage in having the use of the cold 

 frames for the storage of the many things 

 that need such protection. We used to 

 have many sashes filled with pansies that 

 are now used for other plants, this year 

 it is pot strawberries that are brought in 

 at suitable intervals in batches to force 

 for early fruit. E. 0. Orpet. 



SEEDLING SWEET FEflS. 



I see by an exchange that Mr. Lynch, of 

 Menlo Park, California, has just sown 

 seventy -five acres to sweet peas for seed. 

 During a visit to Mr. Lynch last summer 

 he was just gathering the crop from fifty 

 acres. He has had made a threshing ma- 

 chine through which the dry stalks are 

 put. He showed me one seedling of Ovid 

 which he valued at $1,500. This plant 

 had at that time three pods, but as he 

 irrigated it he would get many more. 

 The plant was three inches high and one 

 foot in diameter, the flowers being of the 

 same shade of red as in its parent. He 

 also had several seedlings of similar char- 

 acter from Lady Nina Balfour, the 

 blooms of which were all mauve or a 

 light blue, thus making the national col- 

 ors. Red, the new seedling; white Cupid; 

 blue, the new seedlings. I have no doubt 

 they will be used extensively for carpet 

 bedding and borders. Cupid is used a 

 great deal this way now. Mr. Lynch 

 showed me 20,000 chrysanthemums in 

 one block, and over four acres of violets. 

 Eastern people have no idea how many 

 of the latter are used on the coast. A few 

 years ago 1 had occasion to pass by the 

 Sunset Nursery quite often and could 

 smell the violets over one-half mile dis- 

 tant. Over $3,000 worth were whole- 

 saled from this nursery in February, 1888. 

 Tuos. H. Douglas. 



RIGINUS COMMUNIS. 



The various kinds of castor oil plant 

 are valuable in gardening for tropical 

 effect, and many are used every year. 

 The plants, however, attain their full 

 beauty rather late in the season, and the 

 first severe frost puts an end to their ex- 

 istence. Thus their season of utility as 

 decorative plants is under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances a comparatively short one. 

 If a few are started in February in four- 

 inch pots, they will make good sized 

 plants by the middle of May and can 

 then be planted out and the season of 

 their beauty lengthened and their size in- 

 creased very materially. Many cata- 

 logues name these plants as annuals. As 

 usually grown they are practically 

 annuals, while in reality they are not — 

 forming trees in some parts of the tropics. 

 Without any difficulty I have wintered 

 some on various occasions, and their 

 growth the following season was very 

 fine, so vigorous and healthy indeed as to 

 give the plants or trees the appearence of 

 being good for many years. Unfortu- 

 nately they become so large during the 

 second year's growth as to render safe 

 housing impossible with the accommoda- 



THE RESERVE GARDEN. 



The reserve garden is a place devoted 

 to the cultivation of plants for filling 

 vacancies in the garden proper, and to 

 provide a supply of cut flowers, thus pre- 

 serving to the beds and borders arranged 

 for effect their proper dignity and wealth 

 of bloom. A place of this kind is almost 

 indispensable in a garden of any preten- 

 sions, more especially if hardy plants are 

 grown in quantity. Here one will find 

 just the plant to close the ugly gap that 

 inevitably stands out conspicuous in the 

 perennial border now and then, and here 

 may one with ample basket cut and come 

 again. 



Complicated patterns or plans should 

 be avoided in making a reserve garden. 

 Th s is not a garden for dress parade; 

 this is a place to work in, a place to mul- 

 tiply stock and to grow it. Beds or bor- 

 ders from five to six feet wide are the 

 most convenient in such places, with nar- 

 row walks between. The beds should 

 have an edging of some kind, and a three- 

 inch board nailed to posts driyen in the 

 ground serves the purpose very well in 

 the absence of better material. Dwarf or 

 trailing plants, such as violas, veronicas, 

 Phlox subulata, moneywort, etc., may be 

 grown soastocoverthis rather unsightly 

 framework, if a good appearance is desir- 

 able, but this is not at all essential to the 

 utility of the scheme. 



As for the other plants grown here, the 

 individuals of each kind should be form- 

 ally and orderly arranged or grouped 

 together. By following out this system 

 one may readily put his hand on a given 

 plant or flower, and is not compelled to 

 search all over the reserve ground for 

 something which he knows to be there 

 but cannot remember its exact location. 

 It is also wise to label all the plants in 

 the reserve garden. Labels that will 

 serve their purpose are objectionable in 

 the more decorative portion of the 

 grounds, and those that will not last are 



worse than useless — they are a nuisance. 

 But good solid labels can be used in the 

 reserve garden without fear or trembling, 

 and that is the place for them. Some 

 keep a record of reserve plants by making 

 a plan of the ground, the name of the 

 plant on the plan representing its position 

 in the garden. This is useful where the 

 plantation is permanent, Out very 

 unhandy and unreliable where one is con- 

 tinually moving and changing the plants. 

 The plants in the reserve garden should 

 not be permitted to establish themselves 

 thoroughly in their position. This would 

 curtail their usefulness somewhat, for 

 such plants could not be moved when 

 needed without more or less retarding 

 their growth. This refers particularly 

 to perennials, the clumps of which should 

 be divided with such regularity as will 

 render it safe to move the plants at any 

 time. In dividing the clumps of the per- 

 manent plantations, as is often necessary, 

 the divided stock will be all the better for 

 a year in the reserve garden, for the roots 

 are generalh' so far mutilated in the oper- 

 ation that the plants require fully a year 

 in which to recover. Given the reserve 

 plants are now in proper condition to 

 take the place of those removed, as they 

 should be, there will be no serious break 

 in the display where the plants are 

 employed for effect. But in general the 

 perennial border cannot be overhauled 

 without serious loss in this respect where 

 there is no reserve garden to aid in 

 the work. 



Many perennials are raised from seeds, 

 and such seedlings should always be held 

 a year in reserve, for while a large pro- 

 portion of them may bloom the first 

 season, many will not produce a sin- 

 gle flower until the year following 

 These seedlings should be given plenty of 

 room, so as to develop healthy and 

 stocky plants before they are required for 

 their final quarters. And stdl give them 

 plenty of room even if there is no immedi- 

 ate prospect of their being needed else- 

 where, for to those who like these plants, 

 they are just as interesting and beautiful 

 in the reserve ground as they can be in 

 the flower garden, though perhaps less 

 effective. 



Here also should be found a corner for 

 annuals, so many of which are useful for 

 cutting, including sweet peas, mignonette, 

 nasturtiums, stocks, asters and the other 

 good things of this character too numer- 

 ous to mention. A large number of these 

 plants can be used with good results to 

 take the place of such early flowering 

 bedding plants as daisies, forget-me-nots, 

 silene, etc. I used quite a number of 

 annuals in this way last season, and 

 although many of them were in bloom at 

 the time, they stood the operation very 

 satisfactorily where care was taken to 

 move them with good sized balls of earth 

 attached to the roots. 



This is a convenient place to propagate 

 hardy trees and shrubs, and plants from 

 the nursery may be temporarily disposed 

 of in a vacant plot. In all these uses for 

 a reserve garden, I have not by any 

 means exhausted the list; but sufficient 

 have been named to show that the reserve 

 garden has much to recommend it, and 

 many others will suggest themselves to 

 the progressive gardener. 



David Fraser. 



Alton Horticultural Society.— At 

 the annual meeting held Saturda3\ Janu- 

 ary 15, the following officers were elected: 

 President, William Jackson; vice-presi- 

 dents, J. M. Pearson and E. A. Riehl; 

 treasurer, F. Hoffmeister; secretary, Miss 

 Helea Riehl; librarian, H. G. McPike. 



