t39i 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



155 



the lamented Henry Shaw, to whose munificence 

 the world is indebted for the famous gardens 

 with which his memory is so intimately asso- 

 ciated. The reports in this volume of the 

 "School of Botany," of the board of directors, 

 of the annual Hower sermon and the ban(iuet 

 are specially interesting. The volume devoted 

 to Tower Grove Park gives much information 

 concerning this fine public garden, and hand- 

 some engravings of the scener.v. Both volumes 

 are a credit to Prof. Trelease and Mi'. MacAdam 

 who preparecl them. 



Cure for Blues. They'll come. No one escapes. 

 Darkly, deeply, desperately blue. We've all 

 had such days, and are ready to say with l>avid, 

 "All men are liars " Its not much use to try to 

 flght them in the house, but one of the best 

 places for cure is a large conservatory. Look 

 at the plants, and find out the ways the florist 

 has to manage them. And one of the interesting 

 things is a kind of oven. Suppose there is to be 

 a large party in a few days, and lots of certain 

 flowers are needed, the florist uses his oven. 

 This is a long box-like thing, the bottom filled 

 with saw-dust through which hot water pipes 

 are run. There are shelves and covers that can 

 be lifted up or down for ventilation. At my 

 last visit. Lilies of the Valley were in demand, 

 and there were hundreds in the oven, a tew days 

 enough to bring them to flower. Or if growth 

 is to be retarded, and flowers kept for a certain 

 event, there is the cold box. This has glass 

 doors, shelves, and cool air can be introduced at 

 pleasure. And there are the boxes filled with 

 seedlings, and the thousands of thumb-pots, 

 each with its little plant, and the Kose house, 

 with its lovely buds, and the Ferns. Blues have 

 a hard time of it in a glass house, they generally 

 scamper as quickly as the green lice do when 

 the florist gives them a Tobacco smoke. There 

 is a saying, "A florist never hangs himself;" one 

 of them told me it was, "because one never got 

 time to do it."— Si«(e)- Oracious. 



Amazon Lily. For many years I have culti- 

 vated the Eucharis Amazonica as a house plant, 

 and find it quite satisfactory, notwithstanding 

 the assertion made by hoj-ticultural authorities 

 that it will do no good outside of a greenhouse. 

 1 have not seen such fine plants and flowers of 

 Eucharis in a greenhouse as I have in ordinary 

 kitchen windows, as has also a friend here. I 

 cannot make it do anything in my greenhouse, 

 nor could a florist of my acquaintanne, who 

 grew plants for the mailing trade, and had a 

 large estabUshment, and a good warm depart- 

 ment for heat-lo%ing plants. I find it of the 

 easiest cultivation, a plant that likes to grow. 

 But one thing it must have or it dies, and that is 

 warmth. It cannot afl'ord to be chilled. How- 

 ever, if the leaves should hang down of a sudden, 

 don't think the plant is dead, but at once carry it 

 into a warm place and in a short time the leaves 

 will stand straight and nice again. In potting 

 give it good rich soil and drain the pot with 

 pieces of pots and charcoal, and don't forget to 

 mix some good coarse sand with your soil. 

 While the plants grow thriftily, give them plenty 

 of water. Treat about like a Calla. They should 

 not go to rest, but along in the winter when the 

 days grow shortest some of the leaves will turn 

 yellow and should be removed. Then give 

 water less abundantly. At this state of the 

 plant's growth or non-growth is the time to 

 separate the bulbs if you wish to do so. The 

 bulbs multiply fast. In a few years one will have 

 a good supply, they are of good size. Treatment 

 that suits the tender Amaryllis will suit them 

 except they need more water. The flowers are 

 very beautiful satiny-white, and very fragrant, 

 half deciduous. Geo. H. Diemer, Nauvoo, III. 



How to Grow MuBhrooma. We bid a hearty 

 welcome to the new work on Mushrooms by our 

 friend and valued contributor, Wm. Falconer. 

 It contains 172 pages enlivened with many illus- 

 trations. Bound in cloth ; Price $l.T>ti. Published 

 by Orange Judd Co. of New York. It is pretty 

 well established now, that there is "money in 

 Mushrooms." While it is true that the great 

 majority of people who were favorably situated 

 tor the cultivation of this peculiar vegetable, 

 have remained almost in total ignorance about 

 the matter of growing it, yet it is also a fact that 

 there are no unsurmountable, or even great ob- 

 stacles in the way of success. The whole matter 

 becomes plain and simple enough when one 

 reads Mr. Falconer's book, in which the subject 

 seems to be well and exhaustively treated in all 

 its phases. Mr. Falconer urges the possibilities 

 of Mushroom growing especially upon women. 

 Many women, says Mr. Falconer, are searching 



for remunerative and pleasant employment 

 upon the farm, and what can be more interest- 

 ing, pleasant, and profltahle work for them than 

 Mushroom growing? After the farmer makes 

 up a Mushroom bed, his wife or daughter can 

 attend to its management, with scarcely any tax 

 upon her time and without interfering with her 

 other domestic duties. And it Is clean work, 

 there is nothing menial about it. No lady in 

 the land would hesitate to pick the Mushrooms 

 in the open fields, how much less then should 

 she hesitate to gather the fresh Mushrooms 

 from the clean beds in her own clean cellar? 





SiamiuaEO 



Producing New Strawberries. 



Mushrooms are a winter crop, they come when 

 we need them most. With an insatiable market 

 demand for Mushrooms all winter long at good 

 prices, no farmer's wife need care whether the 

 hens lay eggs at Christmas or not. When Mush- 

 room growing is intelligently conducted, there 

 is more monej' in it than in hens, and with less 

 trouble. 



Producing New Strawberry Varieties' The 

 mother variety, from which the seed is taken, 

 should be a pistillate, chosen for its good points, 

 with a good male parent in close proximity, in 

 which case a true cross is well nigh inevitable. 

 The following, was a favorite plan with the ven- 

 erable Seth Boyden. Plant four bi-sexual plants 

 of a select variety in a small frame, and in the 

 centre set a well chosen plant of the desired 

 pistillate variety for the mother as shown in 

 annexed illustration. Let all these plants be 

 forced to their highest development, especially 

 the mother plant. Just before the blooming 

 season cover the frame with a sash to exclude 

 insects from bringing foreign pollen. Remove 

 early from the center plant all but three or four 

 principle fruit stalks, that the strength of the 

 vital forces be concentrated on them. As soon 

 as the most important blooms on mother plant 

 open, remove the sash and fertilize with pollen 

 from the other plants, using a camel's hair 

 brush; then replace the sash, which should be 

 removed permanently as soon as the fruit is 

 well set; the finest only of these cross-fertilized 

 berries should be used for seed. At perfect ma- 

 turity wash the berries and wash out the chosen 

 seed; place the seed on ice for a few days, then 

 sow in a box placed in a greenhouse or conser- 

 vatory, and, when the plants attain sufBcient 

 size, transplant to the open ground. These 

 plants, with good attention and culture, will be 

 large enough to stand the winter well with suit- 

 able covering, and will speedily be in bearing 

 condition. The principles involved in choosing 

 parent varieties are, first, to choose those having 

 as many strong points as possible in common; 

 and, second, when the mother variety lacks in 

 some one essential, select the male parent having 

 that missing quality most fully. In short, ag- 

 gregate in the prospective progeny as many 

 strong points as are retainable. Of course we 

 cannot sum up all the good points of both 

 parents and know we have that aggregate, but 

 possibilities lie in that direction.— P. M. Augur, 

 before the Mtuif. Hnrt. S'oc. 



the Great Fairy Lily or Evening Star Flower. 

 This is a beautiful greenhouse plant (.Cuopcria 

 DrummutHlii), is a native of Texaj*, and was in- 

 troduced in 183.5. It has a bulbous root and 

 narrow twisted, pale-green leaves. The flowers 

 are produced in the greatest abundance on 

 scapes from 12 to 15 inches long. Each scape 

 produces a single star-shaped, pure white flower, 

 the tube of which is upward of four inches long 

 and of a greenish white color. As the flowers of 

 this plant usually expand in the evening, it is 

 somewhat of an anomaly in the order, and is the 



more remarkable because its nearest relatives 

 require the full sunshine to make them expand. 

 The flowers are also of the most exquisite fra- 

 grance. This Cooperia should be grown by 

 everyone who has room ff)r only two or three 

 plants, for it is one of the easiest of all to grow, 

 and is absolutely certain to bloom freely, and 

 moreover the plants reciuire but very little care 

 and attention. For summer and tall blooming 

 the bulbs should be planted in the open border 

 about the 1st of May giving them a deep well 

 enriched soil. The bulbs slioulil be taken up as 

 soon as their foliage has been destroyed by the 

 frost, and cleaned off and then placed in boxes 

 and covered with dried sand. These boxes can 

 be stored for the winter, or until they are 

 wanted again in any dry, cool frost-proof cellar. 

 For winter blooming the bulbs should be potted 

 early in September and placed in any dark situ- 

 ation until the pots are well filled with roots 

 when they can be started into growth. In 

 potting always use porous or soft baked pots and 

 let them be proportionate to the size of the bulbs. 

 See to it that they are well drained and give 

 them a light loamv soil. A light sunny situation 

 with an average temperature of from 50 to .W, 

 is the most suitable for them, and they should 

 be carefully supplied with water as long as they 

 continue in a state of growth. About the 1st of 

 May they should be taken out of their pots and 

 planted out in a deep well-enriched border in a 

 partially shaded situation and there permitted to 

 remain until September when they can be taken 

 up and repotted for another winter season's 

 bloom. Propagation is effected by offsets and it 

 they are treated as advised for summer bloom- 

 ing plants, nice blooming bulbs can soon be ob- 

 tained. The generic name was given in honor 

 of Mr. Cooper, gardener for many years at 

 Wentworth House in Yorkshire, England, and 

 the specific name in honor of its illustrious dis- 

 coverer.— (7ias. E. Parnell, QueeiiK Co. N. T. 



Every Plant to its Place. A subscriber has 

 taken us to task for noticing the Double Calys- 

 tegia so favorably in last month's issue, be- 

 cause she has grown it in her flower beds and has 

 found it a nuisance. Evidently the caution we 

 printed was overlooked by our reader. "Still the 

 Calystegia must be used with discretion. Plant 

 it in the midst of a rich garden in cultivated 

 soil and it might spread beyond desirable limits. 

 It.^ place fe in the wild garden or in anu unculti- 

 vated spot, where there can be no danger of its 

 crowding out more delicate plants." There are 

 many plants especially among native wild 

 flowers, which are wholly unfit for border cul- 

 ture in soil that is kept well enriched and clean 

 by tillage, but which are charming in the un- 

 cultivated wild garden, where neither manure 

 or the hoe ever come. Such are the Golden Rods, 

 Wild Asters and Roses, Sun Flowers, etc , and to 

 this may be added the pretty foreigner noticed 

 above. From another subscriber Mrs. L. S. La 

 Mance, McDonald Co., Mo., we have received a 

 note on the same subject, and as it so clearly sets 

 forth the right idea for using the Calystegia we 

 gladly print it as follows; "The vine (known 

 here as the ' Rosevine') is certainly neat, the 

 soft pink flowers pretty and useful, and for out- 

 of-the-way or waste places, rock-piles, etc., the 

 plant is admirably adapted, never dying out, and 

 heeding neither cold nor drouth. But in beds or 

 cultivated borders, it is simply out of place. 

 Five years ago this spring, I planted two or 

 three slips in a rich mellow bed, where they grew 

 and blossomed finely. The next spring, the 

 whole long bed was full of Calystegia sprouts. 

 Not fancying the idea of giving up one of my 

 best beds without a struggle, I promptly dug 

 the plants up, and put them where I should have 

 planted them at fli-st, at the foot of a rockery 

 where they could tangle to their heart's content, 

 without usurping the rights of other plants. 

 Though I have never allowed a sprout to remain 

 in the cultivated bed, going over it several times 

 each season with a sharp hoe, this spring I find 

 plenty of Calystegia sprouts coming up in the 

 bed from where the original plants were re- 

 moved four years ago. Equally obstinate in 

 claiming stolen ground is another member of 

 the great Convolvulus family, the IpomeaPandu- 

 rata, now being lauded to the skies. I know 

 whereof I speak, when I say that it is often a 

 nuisance instead of a joy. It sprouts immoder- 

 ately, where soil and climate are congenial, and 

 its deeply buried, tuberous roots are almost im- 

 possible to get out of the ground. Its blossoms 

 are indeed fair to look upon but like the Calys- 

 tegia, should never be planted where but a single 

 vine is wanted." 



