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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



April, 191 1 



year . The bulbs can be procured from 

 almost any seedsman for a small price. 

 I plant all my bulbs deep . Tulips about 

 a foot deep, the smaller bulbs in pro- 

 portion to their size. All will do much 

 better if the hose is not used continually 

 on the soil. Mulch well instead of us- 

 ing so much water. 



Take them up, select, and replant 

 every third year. Keep your narcissus 

 well down also, say about 8 to 10 inches. 

 This deep planting will allow one to stir 

 the soil, fork over and manure. Before 

 beginning to plant put the soil in good 

 shape, trench it two spade deep, and 

 turn into it all the manure you can. If 

 the soil is light use all the wood ashes 

 and cow manure you can get. 



If the soil is heavy use horse manure, 

 some lime, leaf mould, and always use 

 a mulch of tine manure or leaf mould 

 during the summer, to prevent heavy 

 soil from baking on the surface; it 

 keeps the roots cool and moist, which is 

 much better than using hose so freely, 

 as we often see done. 



A Year's Work in a Calgary 

 Flower Garden* 



In this paper I will merely give a re- 

 cord of my successes and failures dur- 

 ing the past year in gardening work un- 

 der conditions that were somewhat new 

 to me. For my display of annuals, I 

 depended mainly on those old and tried 

 favorites, which invariably give satis- 

 faction here — Asters, Stocks, Verbenas, 

 Petunias and Phlox. The varieties of 

 asters I grew were "Queen of the Mar- 

 ket" and "Comet," in various colors. 

 These were sown under glass the last 

 week in March, transplanted once in- 

 side, and then into the open borders 

 the first week in June. Queen of the 

 Market came into flower two weeks ear- 

 lier than the Comet, but was inferior 

 both as regards size of bloom, intensity 

 and clearness of color, and decorative 

 value generally. It is six or nine inches 

 shorter than the other variety, and 

 should, therefore, be kept nearer the 

 front of' the border. I grew two varie- 

 ties of petunias — the ordinary fringed 

 variety and "Giant of California." The 

 latter produces enormous blooms, but is 

 not nearly so floriferous as the com- 

 moner kind. If I desired to secure a 

 brilliant display of color in my garden, 

 and was confined to one kind of flower, 

 I think I should select the petunia. For 

 vigor and flowering qualities it is by 

 far the best annual I have grown in Cal- 

 gary. The ordinary double German ten- 

 weeks stock was the kind I grew, and 

 this was raised under glass in the same 

 manner, but owing to the fact that it 

 germinates and grows more rapidly, I 

 did not sow this till the second week in 

 April. 



'Extract from a paper read by W. B. Beader 

 before the Calgary Horticultural Society. 



ADVISE THE PTJEOHASE OP PLANTS 



I would Strongly advise the purchas- 

 ing of plants, by which means the gar- 

 den will be bright by the beginning of 

 July. By sowing in the open, without 

 taking into consideration the risk of 

 late frost destroying the seedlings, one 

 cannot reasonably expect to see much 

 flower until the end of that month. 



SWEET PEAS 



I sowed Sweet Peas in the open bor- 

 der the first week in April. I also sow- 

 ed under glass about the same date, in 

 long boxes three inches wide and three 

 inches deep, made of ordinary laths. 

 When ready for planting out, I prepar- 

 ed drills as for sowing, removed the 

 laths from the bottom of the box, and 

 deposited the whole contents of box in 

 the prepared trench. In this way there 

 was no root disturbance, and the peas 

 treated in this manner flowered much 

 earlier and were altogether better than 

 those sown directly in the ground. 



Easter Flowers 



Plant Asters Early 



C. Mortimtr Bczz* 



Flower growers should place their 

 orders for aster plants with their respec- 

 tive dealers at as early a date as possi- 

 ble. Many people defer ordering until 

 June, which is a great mistake. To get 

 the best possible results from asters, es- 

 pecially the medium and ^ate varieties, 

 seed should be started in a cold frame 

 as early in the spring as the frame can be 

 brought into use. The reason for this 

 is as follows. The blooming period for 

 asters ranges from August ist to the last 

 of September, according to the variety ; 

 and each variety will bloom pretty close 

 to its respective season, regardless of 

 the date on which the seed was sown. 



To illustrate, the writer conducted a 

 series of experiments of which the follow- 

 ing is typical. I planted seed of one vari- 

 ety on April 15, May 15 and June 15, of 

 the same year, and under the same con- 

 ditions, except as to date. Now, where 



there was a month between each sowing, 

 there were only a few days between the 

 dates of blooming; but the difference in 

 the quality of the bloom was great. The 

 early ones had had a chance to become 

 vigorous and robust before the blooming 

 period arrived, consequently were able 

 to produce much better bkxjm. 



If growers of plants sow seed early, 

 the plantg are much too large to send out 

 if delayed until the middle of June. If 

 orders are placed early the plants may be 

 sent out when at the best size for trans- 

 planting, and the results to both grow- 

 er and planter will be much more satisfac- 

 tory. 



Remedies for Millipedes 



Millipedes, or thousand legged worms, 

 have caused much injury to the tulip 

 beds on Parliament Hill and Major's 

 Hill, Ottawa; and as over one hundred 

 and fifty thousand bulbs are bedded 

 each year it becomes a very serious 

 matter. Mr. Thos. Davis, the florist, 

 states that he has been successful in 

 keeping them well under control by an 

 application of one and a half pounds 

 of Vaporite to each eight square yards, 

 together with a liberal dressing of wood 

 ashes. Mr. Fred Adams, Toronto, ad- 

 vises the mixture of sugar, bran, and 

 just enough Paris green to color the 

 same. 



Mr. C. Gordon Hewitt, Dominion 

 Entomologist, has the following to say 

 on this subject : 



"^Vith regard to fertilizers as reme- 

 dies for these creatures, frequent light 

 dressings of nitrate of soda have been 

 recommended. Good results have some- 

 times been had by mixing in the soil 

 some tobacco dust or giving the soil 

 a good soaking with kerosene emulsion. 

 The millipedes can also be trapped by 

 leaving about slices of mangel, potato, 

 etc. These should be collected in the 

 morning and the millipedes destroyed." 



It is generally supposed that commer- 

 cial fertilizers are obnoxious to earth 

 worms and insects of different kinds. 

 Many vegetable gardeners have obtain- 

 ed good results from an application of 

 kainit. The reason that kainit gives 

 better results as an insecticide than the 

 more concentrated potash salts is due 

 to its impurities, which are chiefly salts 

 of sodium and magnesium. We would 

 recommend that experiments be con- 

 ducted with a fertilizer mixed in the 

 proportion of four parts of nitrate of 

 soda, five parts acid phosphate, and 

 eight parts kainit. These materials 

 should be mixed at the time of applica- 

 tion, as the materials will form a sticky 

 mass if left in combination for any 

 length of time. 



Liberal feeding is the best antidote for 

 weeds in the lawn. Moisture and plenty 

 of plant food will push up a growth of 

 grass that will smother all kinds of weeds. 



