278 | MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, — 
On the south side of our greenhouse is a clematis known as Cle- 
matis coccinea. It has reddish flowers, has been in this situation 
for some eight or nine years and regularly makes a nice growth and © 
flowers profusely. It is much admired by most of our visitors. 
Clematis Jackmanii promises well and a little later will be covered 
with its purple flowers. Coreopsis lanceolata is just now very 
showy, and it is such a simple thing to grow that it should be in 
every garden. It is seldom killed out, and often when it is there are 
generally a sufficient number that come up to take the place of 
those that have died. 
The Buckthorn hedges make a pretty showing at this time, and 
its value for either high or low hedges should he more generally 
known in the state. It is perfectly hardy. 
There is one feature in the use of shrubs that is quite plainly em- 
phasized in our grounds this year, and that is, that low places can 
often be filled with shrubs to better advantage and at farless ex- 
pense than filled withearth. This was brought tomy mind bya hol- 
low on our grounds near the dining hall, where at aturn in the drive 
a hollow was planted with shrubs several years ago and is just now 
beginning to take on their characteristic colors and forms. As the 
shrubs are low and the drive comes close by, there is a good chance 
to look down on the tops of the plants, which is generally the pret- 
tiest view that we can get of any plant. In many of our cities there 
have been ponds, swamps and other low places given to the city for 
park purposes, and very often the work of laying out these is put in 
the hands of a civil engineer whose idea generally is to fill up the 
hole and grade it the same as he would grade a road for carrying’ 
off water. If we will stop to think of it for a moment, we will recall 
that the prettiest natural gardens in the world are sunken gardens; 
that is, they are valleys where the tops of the plants can be seen 
plainly. In fact, in many of the European countries gardens are 
often excavated before they are planted, so that they will be below 
the walks which are upon the terraces; and some such sunken gar- 
dens are quite celebrated. 
This is the time for starting geranium cuttings and other peren- 
nial plants for winter flowering. Geraniums rooted at this season 
of the year and given plenty of pot room and all the flowers pinched 
off until the first of November, will generally flower freely all win- 
ter and are in every way superiorto old plants taken up in the au- 
tumn which have flowered all summer and have theirroot system 
disturbed at the time when it is especially desirable that they should 
be growing vigorously. 
Alyssum, candytuft and marigolds sown the latter part of this 
month will flower profusely in the winter. 
It is very important to keep the plants growing vigorously from 
now on if we expect them to flower during the wiuter. 
Our sweet peas are coming nicely into flower—and in this connec- 
tion itis important to remember the desirability of picking all the 
flowers, since when the seed is produced the plants are very apt to 
ripen up and die. 
