3516 



WINDOW-GARDENING 



WISTERIA 



a shady corner or a northern exposure, more delicate 

 plants may be used. For the former, such plants as 

 geranium, coleus, achyranthes (iresine), Paris daisy, 

 double petunias, may be used; or, if a more pretentious 

 display is desired, crotons, colored-leavea dracenas, 

 acalypha, aspidistra, or small palms may be employed. 

 Low-growing plants for the front of the box may con- 

 sist of the dwarf white-leaved geranium Madame Sal- 

 leroi, the golden feverfew, lobelia, sweet -alyssum, and 

 the white-leaved cineraria. For the drooping vines, 

 nothing excels the variegated-leaved vinca, nasturtiums, 

 tradescantia, and German ivy. If the position is shady, 

 vigorous-growing ferns, such as the nephrolepis, a few 

 of the pteris, and perhaps the hardiest of the adiantums 

 are effective. The narrow-leaved dracena (Cordyline 

 indivisa), grevillea, and Rex begonias are all good 

 plants for shady places. 



After the plants have filled the box with roots, it will 

 be necessary to work into the soil more plant-food, 

 either a light coating of bone-meal or a thicker layer of 

 well-rotted manure; still better would be a watering 

 about once each week with dilute liquid manure. 



One of the objections to veranda-boxes, especially 

 those that are fastened permanently in place, is that in 

 winter they are usually bare of foliage and therefore 

 unsightly. This disadvantage may be overcome and a 

 seasonable appearance given by the use of small coni- 

 fers, broad-leaved evergreens, small Irish junipers, 

 low-growing junipers, arbor-vitse, both pyramidal or 

 globular, young trees of spruce, hemlock, or pine. Of 

 broad-leaved evergreens, dwarf box, mahonia, Evony- 

 mus radicans and pachysandra or Vinca minor are all 



4003. A window-box of evergreens for winter use. 



available. To lighten the somber effect of the solid 

 green, small shrubs bearing bright-colored fruits may 

 be introduced, such as dwarfed plants of barberry, 

 either Berberis vulgaris bearing long clusters of dark 

 red fruits or B. Thunbergii with bright scarlet berries 

 borne along the gracefully bending branches. Privets, 

 either Ligustrum vulgar e or L. Regelianum, are good for 

 berries, both bearing clusters of blue-black fruits con- 

 trasting well with the green of the conifers or the reds 

 of the barberry; these fruits are held through the winter 

 without change in color. Hardy strains of English ivy 

 or drooping plants of Evonymus radicans may be used 

 to hide the boxes in winter. 



It often happens that one or more plants in a box 

 fail to thrive and the desired effect is lost. An attempt 



to remove such a plant by digging it out injures the 

 remaining plants, or if the plant is cut out spaces are 

 left. This condition may be obviated by using pot- 

 grown plants, setting the pots containing the plants in 

 the boxes and filling in around the pots with earth or 

 moss; by so doing, any one plant may be removed and 

 another substituted without injury or check to those 

 remaining. By this method it is also possible to effect 

 quick changes in the character of the boxes. The 

 change may be from the winter material to spring- 

 flowering bulbs, from bulbs to pansies, then to summer- 

 blooming annuals, and again to autumn-blooming 

 plants. Combinations may be changed at will, seasona- 

 ble effects be secured, and the monotony of a planted box 

 be overcome. It is not necessary to grow the plants in 

 large pots, a 4- or 5-inch size being large enough for most 

 of the kinds to be used. In employing this method, 

 however, it is best to have 2 or 3 inches of rich earth in 

 the bottom of the box on which to place the pots; the 

 roots of the plants will escape through the hole in the 

 bottom of the pot and find sufficient food to develop. 



This plan of filling the boxes with potted plants will 

 recommend itself when it is not possible to heat the 

 room at all times, as a schoolroom from Friday until 

 Monday; in this case the plants may be carried home 

 over this period. c. E. HUNN. 



WINTER-GARDEN: Planting, Vol. V, page 2677. 



WINTERGREEN: Gaultheria and Pyrola. W., Flowering: 



Polygala paucifolia. 



WINTER PROTECTION: Planting, Vol. V, page 2684. 



WISTERIA (named for Caspar Wistar, 1761-1818, 

 Professor of Anatomy in the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, but spelled Wisteria by Nuttall, author of the 

 genus, the spelling Wistaria being a later adaptation). 

 Leguminosae. WISTERIA. WISTARIA. Attractive large 

 twiners with pea-shaped flowers, planted for covering 

 porches (Fig. 4004), arbors, and buildings; the noblest 

 of the woody vines for temperate regions. 



Stout vines, often attaining great age and with woody 

 trunks reaching several inches in diam. : Ivs. odd- 

 pinnate, alternate, with 9-13 Ifts. : fls. blue, lilac, pur- 

 plish, or white, in long drooping racemes, in late spring 

 and early summer; calyx bell-shaped, somewhat 

 2-lipped from the 3 lower teeth being longer than the 

 2 upper ones; standard large, reflexed, narrowed below 

 and typically with 2 callosities or appendages at base; 

 wings falcate, auricled at base; keel obtuse, scythe- 

 shaped; stamens diadelphous: fr. an elongated 2- 

 yalved torulose pod. The recognized species are 2 

 in the eastern U. S., and 4 in eastern Asia. Under 

 the American Code, the genus takes the name Kraun- 

 hia; the name Bradleia has also been applied. The 

 so-called "evergreen wisteria" is Millettia megasperma, 

 described on page 2706, Vol. V. The species of Wisteria 

 are so much confused in domestication that few por- 

 traits of them are cited in the following account. 



Wisterias will live in rather dry and sandy soil, but 

 they prefer a deep and rich earth. The roots are long 

 and few and go down deep, making few fibers. They 

 resemble licorice root. They are hard to transplant, 

 unless they have been pot-grown for the purpose or 

 frequently transplanted in the nursery row. Unless 

 manured heavily when transplanted, they are very 

 slow in starting into vigorous growth. The most 

 satisfactory method of propagation for the amateur is 

 layering in summer; the following year the layers may 

 be detached. Seeds grow readily, but do not reproduce 

 the horticultural forms; such forms may be grafted on 

 seedlings of W. frutescens or other available stock, the 

 union being made at the crown; sometimes root-graft- 

 ing is employed. Cuttings of roots, an inch or two long, 

 are also frequently used. Cuttings of ripened wood may 

 be struck under glass. 



