82 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



January, 



Winter Care of the Grounds. 



W. C. .rENNISON, MIDDLESEX CO., MASS. 



We should walk over the grounds occa- 

 sionally during the winter season, especially 

 when it freezes at night and thaws through 

 the day. We may find shrubs that were set 

 last spring half way out of the ground by 

 this time with their roots all bare. If so 

 give them a covering and reset in the 

 spring. Had they been given a good mulch 

 at the beginning of winter they 

 would not have been thrown out. 



Here you see is a place where 

 the water could not all run off 

 and so the ground is covered 

 with a thin cake of ice which 

 freezes at night and thaws 

 during the day. If this con- 

 tinues for a great length of time, 

 all the plants underneath will 

 be killed, even if they are called 

 hardy. Better cover them im- 

 mediately with something to 

 stop this continual freezing and 

 thawing. Here again is a spot 

 where those hea\'y winds which 

 we had some time ago, have 

 blown the covering all off the 

 plants, and their being only half 

 hardy will necessitate more 

 covering if you wishto save them. 



Here is a sunny place where 

 the poultry like to congregate, 

 but they are eating the leaves 

 all oflf the Pansies, Sweet Will- 

 iams, etc., and the plants must 

 be covered with boxes or Pine 

 boughs, or else the poultry 

 must be kept out of the way. 

 Have your eyes open and you 

 will all the time find some- 

 thing that needs care. 



The pests of winter will be on 

 hand to bark the young trees if 

 not prevented. It is a fact that 

 mice are unusually abundant 

 the present year in many parts. 

 They are liable to girdle trees 

 under the snow line and to pre- 

 vent which the snow should be 

 tramped close against the tree 

 or shrub. As other food is 

 scarce for them this becomes an 

 effective time to trap these 

 pests. Rabbits may be kept 

 from trees by smearing the trunks with 

 bloody meat. A watch should also be kept 

 for the cocoons and eggs of insects; destroy- 

 ing everyone that is met. 



Commercial Flower Growing. 



How NewYork florists manage their plants 

 and grow flue flowers in the easiest and 

 simplest way, so as to enable them to make 

 a living at the business, is told in Country 

 Gentleman by our friend Mr. Falconer. 



The greenhouses, he says,are mostly span- 

 roofed and hip-roofed, and with the broad 

 side facing south. They are usually built 

 of wood, and of such size and height as tg 



The Double Tiger Lily. 



A favorite subject in every flower garden 

 is the common Tiger Lily. It was brought 

 from China almost a hundred years ago, 

 and is considered indispensable ou both the 

 most modest and the most pretentious 

 grounds. Its bright deep orange-red flowers 

 with their numerous small purplish-black 

 spots are known to all who have an eye for 

 the beauties of lawn and border, and they 

 never fail to excite admiration. 



A fine double form of the Lilium tigri- 

 num, or common Tiger Lily, was brought 

 from Japan in 1871. This is the Double- 

 Flowered Tiger Lily(ii/n(»i tiffrinum florc- 

 plcno), infloresenee of which is shown in il- 

 lustration. The flowers are bright orange- 

 red, densely spotted with blackish-purple, 

 with segments multiplied into about six 

 series. It appears to be of even stronger 

 growth than the common form, and may be 

 used either as a companion or as substitute 

 for the other. Surely it gives us a most 

 welcome variation, and adds a renewed in- 

 terest to the whole class of Tiger Ijilies. 



The over-abundance of pollen, furnished 

 and shed by the single form, is sometimes 

 urged as an objection. Of course the double 

 form is free from this. 



FLOWER OF DOUBLE TIGER LILY. 



best accommodate the plants meant to be 

 grown in them, so as to have the plants as 

 near the glass as possible, and at the same 

 time give them plenty of head-room. The 

 greenhouses instead of being divided into 

 several compartments, or built in fanciful 

 shapes, or scattered about the place, as is 

 the case generally with those in private 

 gardens, are erected in one common group 

 with the several houses running parallel to 

 and close beside each other, and each house 

 is devoted to one particular class of plants, 

 and all open into a long shed built along 

 the north end of the houses. 



In such on arrangement there are no un- 

 due bends, or dips, or rises, or other per- 

 plexity in the heating pipes, for the flow is 

 straight and unchecked from one end of the 

 house to the other, and this means an im- 

 mense saving in labor and fuel over that 

 expended in the nonsensical architectural 

 "beauties" of many private greenhouses. 

 And the working, as bench-making and 

 filling, potting, watering, flower-gathering 

 and packing, staking and the like can all be 

 done without going out of doors, and what 

 a comfort and convenience this is ! 



In country places the florist can get plenty 

 of fresh .soil, but in suburban and city green- 

 houses, this is a hard matter. The way 

 these florists do is to spraedout their old soil 

 along the roadside and leave it there for a 

 couple of years, then bring it in again and 

 use it. The richness of this soil by the way- 



side becomes a happy home for grass and 

 weeds which soon divest it of sourness and 

 noxious matter, and by the end of the sec- 

 ond year it is a sweet friable earth full of 

 fibre. When composted, fresh but well 

 rotted manure is added to it. For Roses, if 

 at all practicable, fresh pasture loam is de- 

 sired so as to get rid of the Rose grub. 



A plentiful supply of water is of vital im- 

 portance to the florist ; he cannot afford to 

 bother with a pump or well. In 

 the absence of reservoir water, 

 a windmill and tank are an 

 absolute necessity, as he does 

 all his watering with a hose, 

 unless it be a few odds and 

 ends and cuttings and seeds. 



The florists do not grow a little 

 of everything ; they conflne 

 themselves to a few things 

 which they prove most success- 

 ful in growing, tor which their 

 soil and houses are best adapted, 

 and for which there is the best 

 market. For instance, one flor- 

 ist will throw his main strength 

 into Roses, another into Carna- 

 tions, another into Violets, an- 

 other into Palms, and another 

 into bedding plants, and soon, 

 but all have to grow sufficient 

 variety of plants to justify a full 

 succession and occupancy of 

 their greenhouses all through 

 the season. Such successions 

 may include Roses all the time, 

 Carnations in quantity from 

 September till March, Chrysan- 

 themums in November, Stevias 

 in November and December, 

 Poinsettias in December, Calla 

 from November till April, bulbs 

 in variety from November till 

 May, and so on. And some 

 florists are specialists with cer- 

 tain flowers— to wit, Orchids, 

 or Pond Lilies. 



Florists do not like old plants. 

 They much prefer to raise a fresh 

 stock every year of Chrysanthe- 

 mums, Stevias, Bouvardias, 

 Carnations, Tea Roses, Violets 

 and the like, also bed ding plants; 

 and although they raise annual 

 batches of Poinsettias and 

 Bouvardias, these are also good enough 

 when two years old. And in order to lessen 

 labor and secure a healthy growth in their 

 stock, they plant out in the open ground 

 in summer all stock that experience has 

 taught them are benefltted by such treat- 

 ment; Violets. Carnations and Bouvardias 

 are included among these and most all soft- 

 wooded plants for stock purposes are planted 

 out. Callas are rested in a dry state in 

 summer, aud Poinsettias and Heliotropes 

 are grown in pots in summer, because when 

 planted out their tendencv to over-luxur- 

 iance causes them to wilt badly.or to become 

 a good deal defoliated after being lifted. 

 Where hardy perennials or shrubs are large- 

 ly used for forcing, the great points to be 

 observed are to get these to complete their 

 growth as early in the season as possible, 

 have them well rooted, prevent a second 

 growth in the fall, and give them a thorough 

 and long rest. 



Carnations, Violets, Tea Roses, Bouvar- 

 dias, Smilax, aud Climbing Fern and Aspar- 

 agus, are planted out in beds ; so -sometimes, 

 too, are Poinsettias, but in order to check 

 over-luxuriance ot foliage at the expense of 

 flowers, Callas are kept in pots. 



Many plants receive different treatment at 

 the hands of diflereut florists, but one thing 

 is observable everywhere — namely the total 

 ahscence of empty space in the greenhouses; 

 succession crops are being got ready long 

 before the waning crops are removed. The 



