92 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



May, 



Firstlings of Spring. 



Pretty golden Dandelions. 



With your seeds of feather. 

 Starring ail the country side 



In the sunny weather. 

 Violets filled with dewdrops. 



Delicate and sweet, 

 Giving out .your fragrance 



Underneath our feet. 

 Daisies in the meadow 



With your silver frills, 

 Roses by the wa.yside. 



Kingcups on the hills: 

 When I see you Ijlooming, 



All a honeyed crew. 

 Into songs of gladness 



My heart blossoms, too. 



-a. Hall. 



A Spring Song. 



Scatter in spring-time a handful of seeds. 

 And gather in summer a lapful of flowers: 

 This is the song of the birds in the i:)Owers, 



This is the song of the wind in the reeds. 



Down by the roadside and over the meads, 

 Under the sunshine and under the showers. 



Scatter in spring-time a handful of seeds. 

 And gather in summer a lapful of flowers. 



— Harper'n Young People. 



Magnolias are opening. 



Tulips ilose in the dark. 



Cuttings root easily now. 



Protect the roadside trees. 



Spring clubs continue in oi'der. 



Stick mainly to the old, tried sorts. 



Everybody's flower : the Dandelion. 



Pretty-faced Pansies are companionable. 



Have you sown the Morning Glory seed >. 



The Tuberose appeared in Europe in 1(532. 



Heliotrope comes richly colored now, if ever. 



Pelargoniums are less popular than formerly. 



The May crop of subscribers shoidd be a large 

 one. 



The variegated Cobita does not come from 

 seed. 



Various gains rome from staking newly set 

 trees. 



The Berberry shrub niiikes a fine ornamental 

 hedge. 



Thunbergias flower all winter out of doors, 

 in Florida. 



A big increase of subscribers last month. 

 Keep it up. 



Away with too much formality in the garden 

 arrangement. 



Be cautious about trusting tender plants 

 outdoors too early. 



Mulberry leaves are used to fatten sheep in 

 some parts of Syria. 



The old-fashioned Sweet-brier Rose is being 

 planted considerably. 



A thin scattering of straw makes a good 

 shading for seed beds. 



Wanted ! At this Office. More Postal Card 

 correspondence, giving news and other items 

 about gardening. 



Pot Mignonettes that are looking unattract- 

 ive, it planted out, will flower freely again 

 later in the season. 



We maintain that good care has more to do 

 with having fine house plants than good posi- 

 tion has: though they go well together. 



Begonia for Name, To "Sister Beatrice," of 

 Nebra.ska, the editors would say that the plant 

 of which she sends a leaf and flower, is the 

 Coral Begonia, Betjonia Savndersoni. 



One thing is sure, no Dock or other weed, how- 

 ever vile, can live long in your lawn if you 

 will only persist in cutting it off, .I'ust below 

 the surface, every time a shoot appears. 



Talk in the Garden. " Wifey dear, why is a 

 good gardener like your cheeks?" "Now, John, 

 you know I never can guess conundrums. 

 Why is he?" "Because he is the culler of 

 roses, love." 



Poor Plants. If the room at your disposal 

 is limited, weed out the poor plants rather 

 than crowd the good ones to their detriment. 

 It is easily seen that poor plants detract from 

 the beauty of the good ones. 



The large-leaved Catalpas are often not 

 handsome trees until they are quite old, but b5' 

 cutting them down to the ground every year, 

 they will send up a multitude of stems, bearing 

 immense bright green leaves, which give a 

 very striking effect. 



A Sportive Geranium. Mr. George Urban, 

 Jr. , of this city has handed us the truss of a 

 Geranium, one half of which is a distinct 

 brilliant scarlet, the other half a clear salmon. 

 Similar freaks are not uncommon, liut rarely 

 is one of quite such a striking appearance met, 



The white-flowering Roman Hyacinth, so 

 much prized in winter for cutting, is perfectly 

 hardy. Being of comparatively recent intro- 

 duction it is seldom seen in gardens, but where- 

 ever found, true to its nature, it is fully two 

 weeks ahead of all other Hyacinths to flower. 



New York City can boast of having had two 

 very successful Flower Shows within one 

 month, recently. Our old friend, Mr. C. F. 

 Klunder, was the projector and main exhibitor 

 of one of these, and fairly outdid his former 

 liberal efforts in this line of Spring E.xhibitions. 



No Doubt of It. John Thorpe is of the opin- 

 ion that the 1S8(J Cln-ysantheraum shows will 

 excel those of last year. Why not ? There are 

 hundreds of towns that might get up such 

 shows easily and with great credit to them- 

 selves. This is something for the Popular 

 Gardfning family to be leaders in. 



Spare the Birds. Says a government report: 

 In the United States the loss of agricultural 

 products through the ravages of insects amounts 

 to probably more than :300,000,000 of 

 dollars each year, and that, with a lit- 

 tle care, from one-quarter to one-half 

 of this vast sum might be saved by 

 preventive meastires. 



It is an excellent jilan to have vases 

 and hanging baskets planted early 

 enough so they can remain under glass 

 until the plants become well estab- 

 lished. But if this is done two weeks 

 before the time for putting them out, 

 they will do better than if it should 

 go longer. If confined under glass, in 

 the baskets, too long beforehand, there 

 is danger of the closely crowded plants 

 becoming drawn and delicate. 



Fresh All Around. " I like the mild 

 spring air," said Deacon Gillipin, as 

 he sat down on 'Squire McGill's porch 

 floor the other morning, for a friendly 

 chat. " How fresh everyt-hing seems. 

 Do you know of anything fresher than 

 the gentle fresh spring zephyr;" "No, 

 I don't know as I does," replied the 

 'Squire, " unless it is that 'ere paint 

 you're setting in. 'Tain't been on the 

 floor over two hours. " 



Who Owns the NewsT We are sorry to see 

 the Aiiirriciin /-Voi'/.s-/ of Chicago, the new 

 trade paper which has more than once been 

 favorably referred to in these columns, acting 

 for all the world as if it held a copyright claim 

 on every floral news item of the continent. Of 

 course, an attitude like this, for any paper, is 

 simply ridiculous in the eyes of all periodical 

 news-gatherers outside of the staff of the 

 Florisi. 



Nip the First Flowers. We mean on newly 

 propagated Heliotrope, Geraniums, Fuchsias, 



etc. It is usually the ca.se that the slips of 

 these are taken from end shoots, having flower 

 buds coming on, and these develop and would 

 flower perhaps within a few weeks after the 

 cutting is rooted. To allow them do so is 

 doing the young plant an injury, as it is not at 

 this time sufficiently well established to bloom. 



The Scarlet Sage or Salvia. Dm-ing the lat- 

 ter jiart of summer no object of the flower gar- 

 den can be more attractive than a plant of 

 this. Set out a plant after frosts are past, be 

 it ever so small, in rich earth, in a sunny ex- 

 posure, and by fall it may be five feet high and 

 the same distance through, and completely 

 covered with spikes of dazzling scarlet flowers. 

 Those of our readers who have never tried the 

 IDlant should do so by all means. 



Sometimes the leader of an Evergreen, or 

 Birch, or some other ornamental tree of taper- 

 ing form is broken out by storm or accident. 

 To preserve the natural form of the tree a new 

 leader should be provided. This may be done 

 by tying a stout stick on the trunk to project 

 a foot or two above the break, and then, bring- 

 ing the uppermost remaining strong branch 

 against this, secure it by binding, for a new 

 leader. After one season's growth this will 

 retain its new position unsupported. 



The Bleeding Heart. This conspicuous May 

 flowering plant, botanieally known as Dicentra 

 spcctiibilis, has long been prized as one of the 

 best ornaments for lawn and border. As re- 

 gards its adaptability to different climates it is 

 interesting. A native of Siberia, where the 

 ground remains frozen until June, and where 

 plants barel.v come in flower until mid-sum- 

 mer, yet it is hardlj- counted as reliable in the 

 open groimd of England, while thriving 

 grandly with us. The plant is a great favorite 

 with the Chinese. 



Massachusetts Horticultural Society. To the 

 Secretary of this society, Mr. Robert W. Man- 

 ning, Boston, Mass., we are indebted for a Re- 

 port of its Transactions, for last year, and for 

 other courtisies extended. Some of the papers 

 read before the Society and here given, together 

 with the discussions they called forth, are of 

 unusual excellence. We refer to such as " Old 



THE SCARLET SAGE OR SALVIA. 



and New Roses," by Joseph H. Bourn, Provi- 

 dence, R. I. " Propagation of Trees and Shrubs 

 from Seed," by Jackson Dawson, Jamaica Plain. 

 "Herbaceous Plants rx. Bedding Plants," by E. 

 L. Beard, Cambridge, and there are others. 

 The Society has our thanks for placing its val- 

 uable reports in our possession. 



Hydrangea. Brother G. B. L., of the N. Y. 

 branch, very truthfully writes of these plants, 

 that they are heavily taxed in bearing their 

 many monstrous clusters of flowers. On this 

 account, he says, they need a rich soil. A good 



