240 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



September, 



Flax Flowers. 



Blue as heaven, light as air, 

 All their slender st«ui8 can bear, 



Nodding, swaying, as they float. 



Each one like a restless boat; 

 If the wind that murmurs sweet 

 Would but start the tiny fleet. 



Surely their light keels could pass 



Over seas of meadow grass: 

 Safely they could sail and steer 

 Round the Islands of the air. 



Trees and bushes, growing low, 



Where the rippling wind does blow. 



—Margaret Dcland, in Harper's 



Frost and Flowers. 



He is in the garden. 



Let me haste! 

 He is in the garden. 



Making waste. 

 Marigold and Pansy, 

 Dahlia, Aster, Tansy,— 

 Such a nosegay scarce Is to my taste. 

 Mignonette, my dearest. 



Art thou here? 

 Tuberose, thou fearest? 



I am near! 

 Come, each bud and flower, 

 Come and grace ray bower. 

 Come, It is the falling of the year. 

 He is in the garden. 



Let him be. 

 Will he ask our pardon? 



No, not he! 

 But the flowers are blooming. 

 All the house perfuming. 

 Safe beyond the touch for you and me. 



— Ida Benhani, in Youth's Companion, 



"Oh the Corn field Pumpkins three 



Conversed in a gleeful chorus; 

 " A beautiful trio we! 



Why the sun shining brightly o'er us 

 For yellowness can't compare. 



And we're all of wondrous sizes; 

 And oh, how they'll stare at the country fair! 



And oh, the tickets and tags we'll wear! 

 For we'll certainly take the prizes." 



Try a band at slipping cuttings. 



What is a garden without Hyacinths. 



Bav« the liiUest-podded Heans for seed. 



Already we must tear the frost monster. 



Coleus! Your brilliant hues will be mis.sed. 



Lawn seeding this month is usually successful. 



Sweet Peas have been a glut in the city mar- 

 kets. 



Anyone can succeed with Hyacinths as house 

 plants. 



The florists know what dull summer trade 

 means. 



Australian Apples are reported on sale in the 

 New York market. 



The Birch is lovely during every hour ot the 

 year.— S. B. Parsons, Jr. 



Bosebags. Prof. Kiley finds Pyrethum a 

 most promising remedy against this terrible pest. 



The North rejoices over the fine Watermelons 

 supplied by the Southern States, from July on, 

 each summer. 



Horticulture is the best clothes, the spare room, 

 the parlor, the nick-nacks, the holiday of agri- 

 culture.— M. A. Thayer, Wiwotisin. 



Injury from Frosts. Editor Carman suggests 

 that our public experiment stations, spend some 

 ot their large appropriations, for experiments on 

 early frost injury. 



The best time to transplant Lilies is soon after 

 the bloom and growth of the season is past. All 

 kinds begin to make new roots very soon after 

 the flowers fade. The roots ot Lilies are always 

 more or less acti\ e.— i. L. 



As October approaches one is led to ask if it be 

 worth while after all, to spend much money on 

 tender bedders ot short duration, when the same 

 outlay will go further in securing satisfaction in 

 hardy flowering plants, shrubs, etc. 



Peanuts. About two million bushels are pro- 

 duced yearly in the United States. Large quan- 

 tities are converted into oil, nearly a gallon be- 

 ing the yield from one bushel, of twent.v pounds, 

 in the hull. The oil is chiefly used in making soap. 



We wish every one of our friends would see 

 what they could do towards extending the sub- 

 scription list of this .journal. It seems to us this 

 is a reasonable request, for certainly the more 

 subscribers we have, the better paper we can 

 make. 



Twelve Window Plants. My choice of twelve 

 hou,se plants, to afford attractiveness the year 

 around, are these: Scarlet Geranium, Rose Ger- 

 anium, Calla, Aspidistra, Hegonia, Fuchsia, Hya- 

 cinth, Heliotrope, English Ivy, Wax Plant, Oxalis 

 floribunda.— iVcffieTV. Ray, Marlmi Co., Indiana. 



A Hint on Seed Saving. The seed saved from 

 a nice Melon bought in the market, may not 

 produce Melons equallj' nice. A Cucumber or 

 Squash field may have been near where the 

 original was raised, and the Melon flowers bo- 

 came impregnated with foreign pollen. 



Decay in an Iris Boot. Early in the spring I 

 had given me a choice white Iris root. But it was 

 much decayed and growing worse. I separated 

 each crown, and after cutting away all signs of 

 decay and washing the roots thoroughly, bedded 

 them out in fresh, mellow soil. Each crown is 

 now g lowing nicel.v. — Mrs. f'. L. Pattersoyi. 



A New Bedding Tropn?olum, Mrs. Clibran, is 

 said to be a remarkably distinct dwarf bedding 

 variety ot great promise, by reason not only of 

 its dwarf, compact, and tufted habit, but also for 

 its brilliant orange flowers that will make a gay 

 displa.v of color in bed of border. It blooms with 

 great freedom, and varies from four to si.x 

 inches in height. 



Some things that are welcome at this office 

 from every subscriber: Subscriptions of friends; 

 notes of success in gaidening; notes of failure 

 in gardening: drawings or photographs of ob- 

 .1ects suitable for illustrations in these columns; 

 queries about garden matters. One thing we 

 over-looked: The prompt renewal ot your own 

 subscription. 



Floral Snow. If our readers appreciated Snow- 

 di-ops on the lawn as they should, every bulb 

 dealer would be cleaned our of his stock of these 

 early spring flowers before November. How 

 use them? Plant in masses the individual bulbs 

 three or four inches apart, in October. The 

 crowns should be down about two inches, and 

 covered. The pretty flowers will be past by 

 lawn-mowing time. 



Liberal Prizes. For the best mantel decora- 

 tion that will be shown at the annual exhibition 

 of plants and flowers, of the Massachusetts Hor- 

 ticultural Society, Sept. 1-4, a prize of SlOO will 

 be given; for second best, $7.5. At the November 

 show, a prize of $75 is ottered for the best ten 

 vases of Chrysanthemums, ten varieties, one to a 

 vase. The second prize is $.50. Other prizes cor- 

 respond in liberality. 



In arranging exhibits it is 

 an admirable plan to class them 

 somewhat as to size. To have, 

 for instance, a delicate variety 

 of Apple or Chrysanthem jm, 

 however beautiful, stand- 

 ing along side of some coarse 

 giant is to do the smaller 

 variety great injustice. We 

 do not desire to see the giants 

 disappear, but let the grad- 

 ing be done somewhat accord- 

 ing to size and quality.— C C. 

 Oay, Lajicaster Co., Fa. 



Village Improvement. The New York Trib- 

 une is doing a good work in popularizing sub- 

 urban improvements. Kecentl.y it published in 

 its columns a comprehensive article on this sub- 

 ject, by Mr. B. G. Northrop, of Connecticut, 

 which attracted wide attention. The matter 

 now appears in pamphlet form at a low price. 

 The article is to be followed by others by the 

 same capable author jiiid lecturer. 



Cultivate the Fruit Trees. 1 wish every young 

 fruit-grower who aspires to success, could see 

 two young two-year planted Pear orchards with- 

 in a half-mile of where I write. One orchard is 

 kept cleanly tilled, although there are Potato 

 and Corn rows between the trees in one direc- 

 tion; the other, on equally good soil, has run to 

 rank grass, which has absorbed the moisture and 

 food from the soil. The growth of the grassy 

 orchard is not one-fourth that of the other; the 



foliage looks really pitiful as to size and color as 

 compared with that of the other.— /. C. T/ii/ngs. 



A Good Plan. Sujit. Doogue, of the Boston 

 Public" Garden, shows good Judgment in provid- 

 ing a large stock of Chrysanthemum plants to 

 take the place of the more tender Geraniums, as 

 soon as these are discarded from the summer 

 beds. We do not see much to admire in his 

 enormous shield surmounted by a "vegetable" 

 eagle, or his other designs wrought out of plants. 

 The admiration manifested by this sort of lid- 

 ding clap-trap is not as sincere or deep-seated 

 as some may suppose. It is a wrong direction in 

 which to educate the people. 



American Perfume. Why should we not get 

 at manufacturing perfumery in this country')' 

 According to the Los Gatos Mail (California), a 

 Mrs Whittell began the making of Kose water, 

 etc., in that town the present season. A Rose 

 garden, some sixteen acres in extent, had previ- 

 ously been planted and the bushes brought into 

 flower. There are about 10,000 bushes in the 

 garden, which were imported a year ago from 

 France, Several acies have been planted with 

 Orange trees for their flowers, and the Rose 

 Geranium, which is largely used as an adulterant 

 for the ottar of Roses and ,the sweet-scented 

 Acacia. 



The Japan Snowball is a favorite wherever 

 introduced. In recent years the old-fashioned 

 Snowball bush has been much infested by aphis 

 on the leaves, causing them to curl and look badly. 

 The Japan species is never thus troubled. More- 

 over the leaves are simple, serrate, feather- 

 veined and regularly wrinkled, instead of being 

 lobed. The globular flowers are a better white 

 than in the old form, and contrast beautifully 

 with the dark green leafage, which again is 

 deeper and more striking in color than is the 

 other. There can be no two opinions as to its 

 beauty, and whoever is without it is deprived of 

 a rich treasure in the month ot June. 



The Cauliflower. Mr. A. Crozier, of AnnArbor, 

 Mich., has just come out with a nice little work 

 of 230 pages, well bound in cloth, on the Cauli- 

 flower and its culture. One of the most interest- 

 ing parts, is the one treating on the great money 

 returns that the successful grower can expect 

 from the crop. In this respect the Cauliflower 

 seems to stand at the head of all vegetables. Mr. 

 Crozier has treated the subject quite exhaust- 

 ively and interestingly. The Cauliflower is a 

 vegetable that offers great possibilities, and yet 

 one quite generally neglected in the home 

 garden. The book may serve as a corrective, 

 and merits a large sale. Published by the author. 



Nothing for Sale. For the instruction of our 

 new subscribers, we must repeatedly state that 

 no plants, trees, seeds, etc., are for sale by the 

 publishers ot Pop0i.ar Gardening. Our 

 grounds of thirteen acres, are conducted solely 

 for making tests and experiments, for the beneflt 

 of our readers. Having no stock for sale, our 

 repcu'ts on varieties arc not liable to be biased- 

 From the numerous inquiries regarding buying 



A Potatn perforated by Couch Grass. See opposite page. 



stock from us, received, it would seem difficult 

 tor the minds of many to disassociate the idea of 

 a horticultural journal, from that of a nursery, 

 as if the two must be run together. Nothing for 

 sale here but our Journal, books, etc. 



Success with Dutch Bulbs, Procure good stock. 

 Plant in rich, mellow, well-drained soil. They 

 like some sand; they dislike stagnant moisture. 

 Cover Hyacinths and Narcissus five Inches. Tu- 

 lips four inches. Jonquils, Scillas and Colchicums 

 three inches. Crocuses and Snowdrops two inches. 

 Anemones one Inch deep, and you will not be 

 far amiss Bulbs may be planted from two to 

 three times their diameter apart. After planting 

 cover the bed with coarse litter; it breaks the 

 force of the winter's lold, prevents undue freez- 

 ing and thawing, and helps the quality of the 

 bloom. Follow these simple directions and Pop- 

 ular Gajidenino will vouch for results. 



