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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



July, 1912 



Summer Care of Sweet Peas 



Eniest Heggi, Hamilton, Ont. 



Much lliouf^ht has been given with re- 

 gard to the Ivest method of supporting 

 sweet peas. Wire netting is extensively 

 used, but training the plants up the wire 

 requires a lot of attention. High winds 

 also dash the blooms against the wire, 

 and cuts tliem. Hazel sticks are the 

 best when they can be procured. 



When you have planted the seedings 

 out, give them short twigy sticks. The 

 plants thus obtain a good start to climb, 

 (live them their flowering sticks when 

 they are about a foot high. These sticks 

 should Ix; from seven to eight feet high. 

 Have two strong poles at each end of 

 the row, and run a strong cord along 

 the row, about half-way up, so as to 

 keep the sticks in position. Train the 

 plants to come up on the outside of the 

 row, so as to allow the air and light to 

 penetrate through the row. 



FEEDING THE PLANTS 



Do not give the plants any liquid 

 manure until they have teen flowering 

 for a little while, and then only once or 

 twice a week. Soot water is excellent, 

 if applied when of the colour of weak 

 tea. 



Strong doses of any kind of liquid 

 manure are fatal to good results. A good 

 plan is to spread some short manure, 

 each side of the row, during July, which 

 keeps the soil moist and cool. When 

 the rains come it washes the goodness 

 to the roots. 



CUTTING THE BLOOMS 



Always cut the blooms with a pair of 

 shears at the base of the stem. The best 

 time to cut the blooms is in the early 

 morning or the last thing at night. The 

 blooms last longest in a cool room free 

 from draughts. 



It is a mistake to give the cut flowers 

 fresh water every day. Instead, put a 

 pinch of salt into the water, and fill up 

 every day with more. Cutting a little of 

 the stems off every day makes the 

 blooms last twice as long as they other- 

 wise would. This applies to all kinds of 

 cut flowers. 



Culture of the Fuchsia 



H. Gibion, Ottawa 



The fuchsia likes a good deal of water, 

 both at the roots and overhead. If the 

 drainage is perfect and the .soil light and 

 porous it is difficult to give it too much. 

 It must never be allowed to become dry 

 at the roots or it will receive a check, 

 and probably drop its leaves and buds. 



As most varieties are of slender habit 

 some support is needed. The use of 

 racks or trellises is to be deprecated ; 

 they are heavy, unsightly affairs, and a 

 plant trained on one is never very grace- 

 ful. A very satisfactory support is a 

 stout iron rod with holes punched five 

 or six inches apart. Through the holes 

 run a heavy wire, twisted in and out in 

 such a manner that the loops in it pro- 

 ject eight or ten inches on all sides of 

 the rod. Do not attempt to make these 

 regular ; they will not be seen when the 

 plant grows up, so it doesn't matter how 

 they look when the frame is made. Tie 

 the main stalk to the rod and let the 

 branches dispose of themselves among 

 the wires. Trained in this way a natural 

 graceful specimen can be had, in con- 

 trast to the formal, prim, flat, rack- 

 trained specimen. 



Some varieties, like Little Beauty, are 

 of a drooping habit and never look well 

 trained in an upright position. I^t 

 them train themselves. A very good 

 elTect is produced when such a plant is 



grown on a bracket half-way up a win- 

 dow. 



There seems to be an idea prevalent 

 among amateur gardeners that the 

 fuchsia is, or ought to be, a winter 

 bloomer. Many persons keep them in 

 the window hoping to get flowers all 

 the winter. This they generally fail to 

 do, much to their disappointment. It 

 is not a winter bloomer save with one 

 exception, and the place for the plants 

 in the winter is the cellar or other frost- 

 proof place. There they should go by 

 the end of November, and there they 

 should remain until the beginning of 

 March. Give little water; in fact, no 

 harm will come if they are kept so dry 

 that they shed their leaves. 



A First Prize Flower Garden on the Canadian Pacific Railway 



The garden here illustrated, situated at tho railway' feition, Markdale, Ontario, on the line of the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway, won the grand prize offe „.{ last year for the Ontario division of this 

 railway company. The garden was planted and looked aft^r by the agent, Mr. John Caesar. The 

 planting of flower beds of this nature at the stations of the great railway oompaniee is a Une of 

 work that is meeting with increased favor on the part of the public. The flower bed on the left 

 COOtaine the name of the station, althouf^h the illustration does not show this yery clearly- 



Garden Notes 



Keep the hedges clipped. 



Lawn clippings and green waste from 

 the garden make good chicken feed. 



Keep the cultivator and weeder going. 

 They not only kill weeds, but con.serve 

 moisture. 



Keep the sweet peas picked. It is bet- 

 ter for the plants, and the house can be 

 made more attractive by their use. 



Thin the apples and plums if too 

 heavily loaded. 



Chicken wire makes a good trellis tor 

 tomatoes. A single stake will do or a 

 barrel-hoop supported about two feet 

 from the ground by three stakes is good. 



Keep the new strawberry bed clean 

 cultivated until the runners are matted 

 too much to permit the cultiAator to go 

 through. 



If the strawljerry plants arc vigorous, 

 and the bed not too weedy, it may pay 

 to renovate it for another year. Mow 

 the plants clo.se to the ground, rake off 

 the foliage and burn it. Plow a furrow, 

 cutting out all but about one foot of the 

 row, and then go through and take out 

 the weeds and diseased plants in this 

 row. Fill the furrow with thoroughly 

 rotted manure and cultivate the soil 

 back. Keep up a thorough cultivation 

 of the soil all the season. 



-Stalk borers are the worms which 

 make holes in the stems of lilies, dahlias, 

 golden glow, fieonies, and other flowers, 

 causing the stalks to fall over. They 

 come originally from weeds, and the 

 eggs are laid at the base of certain weed- 

 stalks in the fall, and hatch the follow- 

 ing spring. .A garden adjoining a weedy, 

 neglected lot is apt to be troubled. 

 .Sticky tanglefoot of medium thickness, 

 which can be bought easily in large quan- 

 tities, applied over a space of three 

 inches wide on the outside of the base- 

 board of a fence, or a board barrier plac- 

 ed for the purpose, has been found to be 

 an effective preventive, since the worms 

 cannot cross the sticky band. This 



should be done early in the season, and 

 calls for more than one application, in 

 order to keep the barrier sticky. 



