'34 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



September, 



The Christmas Rose or Hellebore. 



To rely on the common names of plants 

 exclusive of the botanical ones is to invite 

 confused ideas of kinds, as is often seen. 

 Take the interesting, if in America not well 

 known, old winter blooming plant named at 

 the head of the present article as an illustra- 

 tion. The common name would place the 

 plant among the Roses, when in fact it is 

 not even a near relative, but belongs with 

 the distant Crowfoots, and tirst cousin to the 

 Clematis, Pteony and Larkspur. Pleasant 

 as is the term Christmas Rose, it leads to a 

 wrong idea as to identity. 



But if burdened by a misleading common 

 name, our fine genus 

 suffers vastly more 

 from the common- 

 name business in ^~ 

 another direction. 

 We refer to its 

 strictly correct 

 name, Hellebore, 

 being dragged 

 down, as it were, by 

 ill-application as the 

 common n a m e o f 

 a well known 

 vegetable poison 

 that has to do with 

 killing plant lice 

 and caterpillars, and 

 as a specific for un- 

 pleasant human ail- 

 ments like itch, 

 ringworm, etc. 

 This is the White 

 Hellebore, which, as 

 to the plant yielding 

 it, is 'as far from the 

 true Hellebores as 

 the Christmas Rose 

 is from the true 

 Roses. The acrid 

 and virulent poison 

 referred to is a Ver- 

 atrum ( Veratrum 

 album); much better would it be for the 

 ornamental Hellebores had the latter name 

 prevailed as the common one of this poison. 



The unfortunate name feature aside, and 

 the Hellebores are in their finer varieties a 

 really valuable class of hardy perennials. 

 They are literally winter bloomers, flowering 

 in their different varieties from November 

 until April. The fact of their coming at such 

 a lime gives them special worth. 



But the question will arise, can any plant 

 bloom out-of-doors at this inclement time of 

 the year? True enough, the weather is then 

 often unfavorable to the perfection of bloom. 

 But so far north as Buffalo these plants 

 bloom out-of-doors in the shelter of build- 

 ings or fences year after year in the milder 

 weather of November and December, and 

 again in early spring, in a manner quite 

 satisfactory. Let us add, however, that it is 

 better to protect them from rain, snow and 

 wind by the simple cover of a sash. 



The culture is simple — a light soil well 

 drained and a place shaded* from the sun 

 most of the day, and sheltered from winds, 

 suit them well. In the flowering season a 

 mulch over the roots should be jn-ovided. 



As to varieties of the Christmas Rose, the 

 one sold in the hardy plant nurseries as 

 Hdlehunis niyer, with white or rosy-blush 

 flowers, would be one of the best for the 

 amateur to begin with. There are other 

 good ones, with red and purplish (lowers. A 



great advance has recently been made in 

 Europe in the raising of fine hybrids. The 

 beautiful one herewith illustrated is of these, 

 it being a perfectly white variety, spotted 

 with purple. It is known as a Spotted 

 Christmas Rose, Helkborus Covniierzienrath, 

 and has not yet been offered in this country. 

 Our engraving gives a fair idea of the form 

 and size of the flowers throughout this in- 

 teresting class of ornamental garden plants. 



Garden Notes from Lyndale. 



BY A. H. E. 



In a visit to town I noticed many shade and 

 fruit trees with ugly-looking bands of cotton 



A SPOTTED CHRISTMAS ROSE OR HELLEBORE.— (Pure white, with purjlle spots.) 



aiound the trunk .5 to 6 feet up, put there 

 for keeping off the Caterpillers. I question 

 the wisdom of such a couise. Admitting that 

 some Caterpillers are turned back (all certainly 

 are not), it does not kiTl them; they travel 

 to trees that have no protectors. These bands 

 remind me of the man who, starting with axe 

 in hand to cut down some superfluous Wild 

 Cherry-trees, he was met by a neighbor who 

 remonstrated with him, asking him to let them 

 live as " pasture" for the Web Caterpillers in- 

 stead of tlieir living on common CheiTies. 

 Insects, like weeds, should be dealt with for 

 wiping them completely out; poison I have 

 found will in one way or another do it well 

 and with proper care safely enough. 

 * * * 



Certain kinds of seed I save from my own 

 garden, and on such I can depend with great 

 confidence. Onion is one of the kinds. As 

 the bulbs mature I choose some of the earliest j 

 and best formed ones and keep them over for i 

 spring planting, in the carriage house loft, j 

 Early in the spring I plant out in one of the 

 best spots I can find, setting at 5 inches each 

 way, with the result almost invariabl of se- 

 curing a good crop of seed. 



Of Beet, Carrot and Turnip seeds, I prefer 

 raising what I need. I make my selection of 

 stock in the fall, taking the tiuest specimens at 

 the time of harvesting.. These are not topped 

 as closely as the main lotj tor the crown must 

 remain. I store over winter in barrels or bins 

 of sand in the cellar. In the spring I plant in 

 good soil, keeping the diiferent varieties as far 

 sepai-ate in my garden as possible. 



Seeds of Parsnip and Salsify are raised the 

 easiest of all kinds, for they may be left either 

 where they grow, or else be removed to a more 

 convenient spot at once in the fall. In saving 

 Parsnip seed I usually allow only the earliest 

 formed to mature, cutting the later bunches of 

 bloom away. Salsify I take as soon as the 

 seeds ai-e plump and full, though green, drying 

 the stem and«ll by hanging up in the airy car- 

 riage house loft. Birds are too fond of the crop 

 to trust it on the plants until dead ripe. 



* * * 

 Speaking of home-saved seed, when I sowed 

 my Pansies the other week I was struck with 

 the difference in the appearance of my own 

 seed and some imported from Germany. The 

 former was uniformly dark-looking and fully 

 twice as heavy as the 

 other, bulk for bulk. 

 Wo uld you know 

 why? I went over 

 my seed-bed every 

 other day, taking 

 only the ripest ves- 

 sels. These imported 

 ones were gathered 

 less often , perhaps 

 once a week and 

 there was little pains 

 taken to leave back 

 the green seeds, — 

 they weigh, too. 



The difference is 

 now easily seen in 

 the coming up of the 

 plants. While every 

 seed of our own seems 

 to make a plant, I 

 think not more 

 than one-third of the 

 imported ones are 

 doing as well. 



I have a Morning 

 Glory tree, a thing of 

 rare beauty. It is 

 nothing more nor 

 less than a Plum tree 

 which met with an 

 accident that killed 

 it, and over which 

 have run a great 

 profusion of these charming morning blossoms. 

 In the spring I saw that life was almost extinct 

 in the tree, so the soil near its base was worked 

 over, bi'inging some old hot-bed earth to it, and 

 in this I planted several packets of Henderson's 

 best Morning Glories. The rest is easily im- 

 agined. This Morning Glory tree is my most 

 attractive novelty of the year. 



# * 



A florist from a neighboring town, whom I 

 invited to visit Lyndale recently, was so 

 pleased with the Hollyhocks here that he said 

 he wished he could buy of the flowers for a 

 large order he had the next day. He knows 

 that I grow no flowers for sale, but still I half 

 suspected from the way he spoke of scarcity of 

 flowers that his large order had something to 

 do with his coming at this time. At any rate 

 I spared some flowers from my abundance, 

 without price, for the poor fellow no doubt was 

 in a straight and he had done me many a favor 

 in the past, which I was glad to repay in this 

 or any other way. 



But I was unaccustomed to look upon my state- 

 ly, handsome Hollyhocks as bouquet flowers. 

 The improved varieties are certainly very 

 double, of good form and texture and not lack- 

 ing in sweetness, so why should they not be 

 much used thus. Individuallj' they have no 

 stems to speak of, but my friend explained how 

 he supplies this deficiency with light wire and 

 a bit of match stick. This flower, always a 

 favorite with me, I shall now look upon as be- 

 ing even more useful than I had ever before 

 thought of. It seems that it is thus employed 

 extensively by the city florists. 



