248 



• GARDENING. 



May I, 



Published the 1st and 15th of each Month 



— Br — 



THE GARDENING COMPANY, 



Monon Building, CHICAGO 



Subscription Price. K.IX) a Tear— 24 Numbers. Adver- 

 tising rates on application. 



entered at Chicago postofflce as second-class matter. 

 Copyright, 18t8. by The Gardening Co. 



Address all communications to The Garden- 

 ing Co., Monon Building, Chicago. 



Gardening Is gotten up for Its readers and In tbelr 

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

 Interesting. Lf It does not exactly suit your case, 

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

 desire to help you. 



Ask ant Questions you please about plants, 

 dowers, frultfl, vegetables or other practical gardening 

 matters. We will take pleasure In answering them. 



Send vs 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 your 



dowers, gardens, greenhouses, fruits, vegetables, or 

 horticultural appliances that we may have them en- 

 graved for GARDENING. 



CONTENTS. 



Herbaceous plant notes. 241 



Bedding plants 242 



i Irnamental bedding (ii illus. ) 242 



Flower seed growing in America 243 



T\v u bard) plants (illus.) -44 



Primula vulgaris (ill us. j 245 



Crotons (illus.) 24S 



Noirs from E^umluU' 245 



Planting aboul the home 240 



Sophora Japonic:! (illus.) 247 



The national Qower movement -48 



Workers in horticulture (portrait) -i'.» 



Raspberries, blackberries and devt i"-rri»'> 249 



Strawberries in Kentucky 25(1 



Tin- si. Joseph strawberry 250 



Tin* radish maggot 250 



II nrrant borer 250 



More about cowslips 2,50 



Mouse-ear duckweed on lawns 251 



Books and bulletins 251 



Societies 252 



Arbor Day was a great success in 

 Pueblo, Colo., this year, thanks to the 

 industry of the local Park and Improve- 

 ment Association. Over 2,000 trees were 

 planted, mostly catalpas. 



Fifteen thousand people assembled 

 within the confines of Alamo Plaza, San 

 Antonio, Tex., April 21, to witness the 

 Battle of Flowers, and the occasion is 

 said to have been one of the most mem- 

 orable in the history of the city. 



Growers of gooseberries are liable soon 

 .to be troubled with mildew, and it would 

 be well for such persons to refer now to 

 the note on this subject which appears 

 on page 167 of our issue of February 15. 

 Prevention is better than cure. 



We have received from Mr. Robert 

 Shore, of Ithaca, N. Y., photos of a speci- 

 men of Phalienopsis Schilleriana with a 

 panicle carrying eighty-five expanded 

 flowers. The plant was grown in the 

 greenhouses of the botanical department 

 of Cornell University. 



The principal of the Gorman school, 

 St. Paul, Minn., recently received an 

 assortment of garden seeds from the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, 

 through Congressman Stevens. The 

 pupils have planted six large beds in the 

 school yard, and already some of the 

 seedlings have made their appearance 

 above the soil. Great interest is being 

 taken in the beds by the teachers and 

 pupils. 



Do not be in a hurry to set out plants 

 taken from the greenhouse or hot-bed 

 unless they have been well hardened off 

 by being left uncovered a few nights. It 

 takes some plants quite a while to re- 

 cover from the effects of injudicious expo- 

 sure. 



When planting trees this spring take 

 a measurement of the diameter or circum- 

 ference at a point one foot above the 

 ground, also the height, after the necess- 

 ary cutting back, and record it, together 

 with the date of planting. In after years 

 you can look back and note development. 



If you see a Kilmarnock willow, weep- 

 ing mulberry or any grafted tree in your 

 neighbor's garden with suckers springing 

 up from the root, or branches growing 

 out from the stem below where it is 

 grafted, call his attention to it, and tell 

 him to cut them off, as they are stealing 

 the vitality from the head. Advise him, 

 also, to subscribe for Gardening, which 

 will keep him posted on all such matters. 



Plants of Rosa polyantha nana, in 2- 

 inch pots, are in bloom. 1 he seeds were 

 sown in the greenhouse March 1, and the 

 first flower opened in just forty-nine days. 

 The plants stand from two to three inches 

 high, carrj'ing single pink roses three- 

 quarters of an inch in diameter. A rose 

 bush in bloom small enough to wrap up 

 and carry in one's vest pocket is quite 

 interesting. 



A committee has been formed with a 

 view to securing funds for the erection, 

 at Brussels, Belgium, of a monument to 

 Jean Linden, botanist and explorer. 

 Comte de Kerchove is president; M. 

 Kegeljan, treasurer; and M. Lubbers, 

 secretary. Botanists and horticulturists 

 throughout the world are invited to co- 

 operate in the movement, and subscrip- 

 tions should be addressed to M. Kegeljan, 

 president of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society of Namur, Belgium, in the form 

 of postal orders, payable at Namur. 



In planting rhododendrons or azaleas, 

 especially imported stock that has had a 

 long journey, soak the rootballs in a tub, 

 letting them remain until all air bubbles 

 cease to appear. Each air bubble repre- 

 sents a dry space where the water has 

 entered. It is almost impossible to reach 

 these drj' spots near the center after the 

 plants are in the ground. Moisture all 

 through the roots is an essential element 

 in their culture. When setting them in 

 the ground, pound the soil around the 

 ball as hard as you can, the object being 

 to endeavor to have the soil around them 

 as compact as the ball itself, otherwise 

 when watering afterward, the harder 

 ball will shed the water instead of 

 absorbing it. 



It is often necessary to retain the 

 individual names in a bed of hardy phlox 

 or the Japanese iris, so that if some spe- 

 cial kinds please you or your friends, and 

 you desire to obtain more, you know 

 what variety to ask for. Wooden labels, 

 set at each plant in a large bed, remind 

 one too much of a cemetery. It is much 

 better to obtain some soft copper sheet- 

 ing, cut into squares — say one inch 

 square — stamp numbers on them, or im- 

 print the number with a stylus, and 

 attach to pieces of telegraph wire stakes, 

 eight inches long. Insert these stakes in 

 the ground at the base of the plant, so 

 that the copper square lies on the ground, 

 or you can put an inch or so of soil over 

 them. Enter the names in your "garden 

 book" with their corresponding numbers 

 and you have a record that is permanent 

 and still unobtrusive. 



THE NATIONAL FLOWER MOVEMENT. 



The following is an abstract of an 

 address delivered before the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society recently by 

 Frederick Leroy Sargent : 



During the fortunate years of peace that 

 have thus far blessed the second century 

 of our national independence, we have 

 seen developed throughout the United 

 States a popular movement to bring 

 about the adoption of a national flower. 

 Here is a matter of pure sentiment seeking 

 legislative recognition; a question of 

 taste, if you will, leading to widespread 

 organized efforts, to the formation of 

 national societies, and to the calling of a 

 national convention. The desire for a 

 national flower — now so widely felt 

 among the best people of our country — 

 springs mainly from two sentiments, 

 which are the love of our native flowers 

 and the love of our native land. For us 

 a fitting national flower would bring to 

 the service of patriotism an emblem 

 whereby ourlove for the fatherland would 

 find expression through one of its fairest 

 products. If our people ever come to 

 enjoy the benefits of such an emblem, 

 surely every true American must rejoice. 



The first candidate to be publicly sug- 

 gested was the mayflower or trailing ar- 

 butus. The principal reasons advanced 

 are these: It was one of the first blossoms 

 seen by the Pilgrims at Plymouth after 

 landing from the Mayflower, and by 

 Washington's army after their winter at 

 Valley Forge. Its flowers suggest five- 

 pointed stars, and its leaves are laurel- 

 like. It grows wild in the thirteen 

 original states, and displays an independ- 

 ence of spirit by defying cultivation. 

 Unfortunately, its early blossoming in 

 April and May makes it unavailable for 

 decoration on any national holiday — that 

 is to say, when we most v> ish to use the 

 flowers. Moreover, not only is the plant 

 unknown in the wild state over three- 

 quarters of our territory, but to those of 

 our fellow Americans who dwell in that 

 vast region, it must remain unknown 

 even in cultivation. It has been recog- 

 nized for several generations as the floral 

 emblem of Nova Scotia, which alone 

 should make it unavailable for our use. 



In many ways a more happy suggestion 

 was that of the goldenrod. The fact that 

 it grows wild in such profusion almost 

 everywhere in the United States, and in 

 such a brilliant adornment of the road- 

 side, made it at once a popular candidate. 

 Much enthusiasm was shown, and for a 

 while it looked as though the goldenrod 

 would carry the day. It is difficult to use 

 for decorative purposes, physicians main- 

 tain its unhealthfulness, farmers either 

 despise it as the "yaller weed," or hate it 

 because of its dark record of injury to 

 cattle, and therefore it has been dis- 

 carded. 



As the Columbian celebrations ap- 

 proached the desire for a national flower 

 increased. Among othercandidates were 

 the pansy and the Indian corn. In com- 

 parison with the goldenrod the pansy has 

 the decided advantages of variety of 

 color and simplicity and distinctiveness 

 of form, combined with entire harmless- 

 ness. On the other hand it is not a native 

 flower, and is entirely without associa- 

 tions that would connect it with our 

 country rather than any other. In the 

 advocacy of Indian corn a hearty Ameri- 

 can feeling expressed itself. It is hard to 

 recognize in a maize plant what we mean 

 by a flower, and for purposes of decora- 

 tion there might as well be no flower. 



Certain persons who did not know or 

 did not care whether their candidates 

 were the chosen emblems of other nations 



