i886. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



65 



fering with their use as parks. The marketing 

 is done in the momiug of certain days only. 

 Tents are used for stalls, and long before noon 

 of each daj' everything is moved away slick 

 and clean. This leaves the place free for after- 

 noon visitors and loungers, with hardly a sus- 

 picion of the use it had been put to in the moi-n- 

 ing. A Parisian idea, and said to work well. 



The Variegated Cobsea. I^ufortunately the 

 variegated form of C'oba>a scandens, of which 

 we give a small representation, cannot, like the 

 parent, be grown from seed. The only means 

 of propagating it is by means of cuttings, and 

 it is not, at that, the easiest thing in the world 

 to succeed with. They should be taken in a 

 young state, at about this season, or a little 

 later. In.sert in pots of sandy soil, in gentle 

 bottom heat. Those amateurs who do not suc- 

 ceed iu raismg it can usually buy of florists. 



" Feet of Glass." Friend Meeban, of the 

 (lonlcnn-s' Monthh/, reasonably enough thinks, 

 that gardeners should adopt some general 

 standard of meaning, when speaking of " feet 

 of glass,"' in connectiou with heating and the 

 like. Now no one can tell whether the actual 

 surface of the vitreous substance in sloping 

 roofs, gables, laj)n, and every part that may be 

 figured in, or merely the number of feet of the 

 earths surface covered over is meant. As be- 

 ing the most convenient, we prefer to have the 

 phrase indicate squai'e feet of earth surface. 



Learning. A Jamestown florist has been 

 making rapid progress in this, but on too costly 

 a scale. He had worked hard and long to be- 

 come established in business. Last fall his 

 houses were well stocked, everything thiiving 

 aud prospects good for the winter cut flower 

 trade. Then he thought to improve appear- 

 ances about the greenhouse, and so blacked the 

 st«am pipes with gas tar. They did look nice 

 and shiny, but the loss in plants ran way up 

 in the hundreds of dollars. He has our hearty 

 sympathy in this matter, but we must publish 

 the ca.se, that our readers may guai'd against 

 similar harsh experiments. 



Political Floriculture. An English editor 

 who deprecates the practice of making flowers 

 of any kind the badges of party politics, or 

 religious sects, because of the hatred liable to 

 be evolved towai'ds the innocent things through 

 partisan or sectarian feelings, very sensibly 

 gave expression to his ideas in his paper. The 

 result of this was a general outbreak of explo- 

 sions from Canons, thunders from Exeter Hall, 

 protests from Radicals and growls from Tories, 

 putting the editor completely into hot water. 

 He still stands up for the innocent flowers as 

 against the party men who woiild press them 

 into their turbulent circles. 



FloralWorld subscribers, who happened also to 

 be direct subscribers to Popular Gardening 

 when the purchase of the former by the latter 

 was made, will have their credit extended on 

 our books for the entire time the combined sub- 

 scriptions will pay for, provided they vprite to 

 us stating the facts in the case. This they 

 must do, or they will receive two copies of the 

 present paper, for it is hardly likely that we 

 could, with our thousands of names, detect the 

 repetition, A better plan, we think, would be 

 for you to get some friend to take one copy, 

 notifying us to such effect. This then would 

 be helping towards those ,50,000 names, you see. 



Tree Faeonies. These hardy shrubs, are so 

 attractive, that it is not much wonder that their 

 cultivation amounts almost to a mania among 

 the Chinese, where they are at home. But why 

 not oftener seen with us; They are hai"dy and 

 thrive in any good garden soil. A well estab- 

 lished plant will bear a hundred or upwards of 

 the large showy flowei'S in a season. The plants 

 may be bought of the nurseries for about one 

 dollar each. Propagation may be done by layer- 

 ing or by renewing the suckers that often spring 

 up around the old plants It is not advisable to 

 divide the plants, as they receive a serious 

 check from this, which it takes a long time to 

 recover from. 



Leigh Hunt, in speaking of gardens on the 

 streetside of town homes, says: Imagine (what, 

 perhaps, will one daj" be the case) whole streets 

 adorned in this manner, right and left; and 

 multitudes proceeding on their tasks through 

 avenues of Lilies and fieraniums. Why 

 should they not? Nature has given us the 

 means, and they are innocent, animating, and 

 contribute to our piety towai'ds her. We do 

 not half enough avail ourselves of the cheap 

 riches wherewith she adorns the earth. We 

 also get the most trivial mistakes in our head, 

 and think them refinements, and are afraid of 

 being "vulgar!" A few seeds, for instance, 

 and a little trouble would clothe our houses 

 every summer, as high as we chose, with dra- 

 peries of green and scarlet. 



Shifting Backwards. " Did you really mean," 

 writes Mr. B. H. Young, of San Diego, Cali- 

 fornia, "that Fuchsias in being started from 

 their dormant winter state should be shifted 

 into pots a size or two smaller, as you said on 

 page 38;" Yes, that was ,iust what we meant 

 to say. The remark was based on a long ex- 

 perience in Fuchsia growing. The reason for 

 such a course is, that until the dormant plants 

 referred to get fairly underway in growing, the 

 soil in full sized pots — rich as it is likely to 

 be — might become sour and lie uufit for the 

 roots before it was occupied bj- them. With 

 the soil scant at the beginning, the roots can 

 soon spread throughout the mass, taking in 

 nourishment and moisture. Then as the soil 

 proves inadequate, shift up into larger pots 

 one time after the other as fast as required. 



Not in the Business. Requests frequently 

 come to us for catalogues of seeds, plants and 

 so on,as if we were dealers in this line of things. 

 Nothing is further from the truth. We haven't 

 a thing in the world to sell but this paper and 

 a few incidental ' books, we will not even offer 

 seeds and plants as premiums, because we think 

 it unfair to compete with those in this trade. 

 We do aim to give every subscriber the full 

 worth of his money or more, in the paper itself. 

 When Popular Gardening (unlike some other 

 so-called garden journals) recommends a plant, 

 it is from an unbiased standpoint, and not be- 

 cause it has some of the stock to dispose of. 

 So don't send to us for catalogues, it will be a 

 waste of trouble and expense. Apply to those 

 who publish them and who advertise in our 

 columns ; or if they do not, who ought to. See 

 the list of catalogues recently received at 

 this office, given on page 63. 



A Fine Volume. The members'of the Ameri- 

 can Horticultural Society must feel that they 

 are well dealt with, in return for what it costs 

 to belong to this society, as they read the year- 

 ly volume of transactions, furnished to each 

 one of them, not to speak of other advantages. 

 Here before us lies the volume of this kind for 

 188.5. It is a large, handsome, well printed and 

 illustrated work of 257 pages. It is loaded with 

 the wisdom of our' prominent horticultural 

 writers, as put forth in the essays and discus- 

 sions delivered at the last annual meeting of the 

 society. One such volume goes to each mem- 

 ber. This thriving association should have 

 many more members than it now has. Were 

 these had, horticulture in general would greatly 

 be the gainer. We would like to see the 

 names of many of our readers enrolled. Pull 

 particulars, by addressing the secretary, W. 

 H. Ragan, Greencastle, Indiana. 



The Red Spider. Allow us to introduce this 

 insiduous enemy of the plant-grower by giving 

 his portrait. But he is such a very minute 

 fellow that we give it on a largely magnified 

 scale. Our object in doing so is to show plant- 

 growers, that this common and troublesome 

 pest is not a spider at all, although it spins a 

 sort of web. Many people heai" about the Red 

 Spider and look for it on their ailing plants, hav- 

 ing the ordinary spiders and their webs iu mind. 

 Then they wholly miss finding the troubler. 

 What they should look for, is a grayish discol- 

 oration on the under side of the leaves, aud the 

 scarcely noticeable web. Along with these 



look for exceedingly minute and rapidly mov- 

 ing brownish insects, perhaps present in great 

 numbers. This then is " Red Spider." It 

 is very destructive, and yet there is one 

 simple remedy that is sure death to it, namely, 

 the free use of water iu washing the under side 

 of the leaves, and more moisture in the air. 

 Double Poppies and the Railroads, Perhaps 

 these .■psthetie and gorgeous flowers will soon 

 be met along all our railroads at intervals, 

 raising their heads and bowing to us as we 

 speed by. At any rate, some French railroad 

 managers have used of these plants with 

 success for fixing the loose soil of newlj'-made 

 embankments along their lines. They should 

 succeed as well with us. Unlike the Grasses 

 that are used ordinarily, but which need sev- 

 eral months for developing a considerable mass 

 of roots, the Poppy germinates quickly, and 

 by the end of two weeks, it is said, grows enough 

 to give some protection, with a rapid increase 

 later. Though the plant is an annual, it sows 

 itself freely after the first year. Let our own 

 railroad officials give the Poppy a trial for 

 such purposes. But Popular Gardening 

 suggests in the interests of the public, 

 that distinct colors of the fiowers be sown in 

 different plots ; this would add greatly to the 

 effect, from an ornamental point of view. 



Grafting Clematises. This is the course pur- 

 sued in propagating the improved varieties; it 

 accounts, in part, for the plants costing more 

 than do those of most other climbers. A cor- 

 respondent, who is at work in a nursery, thus 

 tells in an interesting way about the operation : 

 About the middle of February a few plants 

 of each kind are placed in a slightly-heated 

 greenhouse, and syringed once or twice a day. 

 This ti'eatment soon causes them to start, and 

 as soon as the shoots are firm they ai"e taken off 

 and cut up into lengths for grafts, the two 

 leaves and the piece of .stem forming the inter- 

 node being quite sufficient for each graft. The 

 stocks upon which the grafting is done are the 

 string-like fleshy roots of Clematis Vitalba or 

 C. flammula, every root thick enough to take 

 the graft being used. Either wedge or side 

 grafting answers, and the tying is done with 

 grafting cotton. Each 

 grafted root is then 

 potted into small 2 1-3 

 inch pots, the roots be- 

 ing twisted round in 

 the pot so that the 

 point of union is just 

 buried. They are then 

 plunged into a propa- 

 gating frame, and 

 very soon are ready to 

 V>e hardened off. 

 Oleander Slips. As 

 The Red Spider -Greatly the experience of our 

 Magnified. correspondent, "Aunt 



Addie,"of Bergen Co., N, J., shows, it is much 

 better not to give up in despair in floriculture, 

 if our first efforts seems not at once to promise 

 success. She writes: "The slip was given to 

 me last June and I was sure it would root 

 nicely, for there were two branches on the 

 main stalk. Into a bottle it went, and the 

 bottle in a sunny place. As late as November 

 no roots were yet in sight, although the 

 branches were fresh. I was disheartened and 

 thought to throw the whole thing out. Off 

 came a branch, then another; when my com- 

 passion arose iu behalf of the pet, and plead to 

 give it one more chance. So one branch was 

 again put into water, and imagine my surprise 

 and delight, to behold, only five days later, 

 roots starting from the torn end. Now, at 

 date of writing, the plant is well established 

 in a pot of soil, aud I see visions of floral 

 beauty ahead," To which we add, that the 

 trouble was in using too old and hard a sec- 

 tion of growth, it having been a main stalk, with 

 branches. The single branch was of a better 

 age, as the result shows. See how patient the 

 slip was to outlive ignorance, aud do so well 

 when it but had a chance, 



