84 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



January, 



The New Spring Dresses. 



Who sets the fashions, I'd like to know. 

 For the little people beneath the snow? 

 And are they working a weary while, 

 To dress themselves in the latest style? 

 There's Mrs. Primrose, who used to be 

 The very picture of modesty ; 

 Plain were her dresses, but now she goes 

 With crimps and fringes and furbelows. 

 And the Pansy family must have found 

 Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe underground : 

 For in velvets and satins of every shade 

 Tiiroughout the season they're all arrayed. 

 Pinks and Daisies and all the flowers 

 Change the fashions, as w^e change ours : 

 And those who knew them in olden days 

 Are mystified by their modern ways. 

 Who sets the fashions, Pd like to know. 

 For the little people beneath the snow ? 

 And are they busy a weary while 

 Dressing themselves in the latest style ? 



The Pine Tree. 



let me sing of the Pluc tree — I who know I 



1 am a dear disciple at his feet, 

 Faniiiar with his many moods, can tell 



Each winged thought within his swarthy brow 



The owl that governs all his midnight dreams 



The dove the spirit of a holier peace. 



The raven wrapped in melancholy's weeds,— 



And even the maiden moon forgets her vows. 



To fondle him all upon her lap, 



And run her pearly lingers through his hair 



( The while Endymion wakes upon the hills). 



He has the goodly gift of prophecy. 



It comes with whirlwind, with fire of storms. 



He rends his beard : He strikes his knotted brows 



The dew drips from his face in giant drops' 



He shouts the desolation of the world. 



The secrets in the caverns of mid-air ! 



O Pine Tree. God sends down His word to you 



By His own eagle, by His Ganymede ! 



—Edward Abram Valentine. 



We sow the seed, and we may reap 



The harvest flower, 

 But God alone can watch and keep ; 

 Lo! when our eyelids droop in sleep 



He sends the shower. 



— Y'outh's Companion, 



The catalogues are in bud. 



Harbingers of Spring, The forced bulbs. 



What fragrance in that early pot Hyacinth. 



For brightest bloom grow Bovardia in a cool 

 house. 



Are your gronnds now adoined with ever- 

 greens? 



Lily of the Valley forces readily, but January 

 i.s I'at her early. 



The flower of the Lilac retains its odor even 

 when withered. 



Orchids are moreand more becoming a leading 

 flower in New York. 



Get rid of it. (Ine plant louse remaining over 

 is good for a myriad next spring. 



If your Camellia buds drop before opening the 

 chances are that the plants suffered from drying- 

 out last summer. 



Novelties are veritable Koses in the catalogues, 

 but they often show the thorn in reality. Always 

 enjoy them with due care. 



Clematises of the improved types are propa- 

 gated loy grafting on the roots of a free growing 

 kind; they may also be layered. 



Color of flower is an important consideration 

 in the selection of plants for the window. Bright 

 colors should be given the preference. 



Decorate your door yard with some ornamentals 

 m this year 1890. Let those now iilant who ne\'er 

 planted before, and those who always plant, now 

 plant the more. 



A good resolution for .January is to help on the 

 cause of horticulture as never before by induc- 

 ing your friends and neighbors to become readers 

 of the present journal. 



Large Grape Vine. It is reported that a Grape 

 vine of the Mission variety, planted forty-seven 

 years ago by a Spanish girl in Carpentera, Cali. 



fornia, has a circumference of six feet at its base, 

 and at the height of six feet branches out in 

 every direction for a hundred feet. Its product 

 this season was estimated at four tons. 



Flower-Pot Hanger. Tonstructcd of three 

 wires of equal length each extending one-third 

 around the pot with its bottom end twisted to 

 the next wire forming an outwardly extending 

 arm, then all bent upwardly, their top ends 

 joined and twisted forming a hook thereon. It 

 is a convenient harness for suspending Orchid 

 pans and Fern pots; see illustration.— Jofin iane. 



Our Inquiry Department is intended for the 

 free exchange of information between our read- 

 ers, a sort of give-and-receivc department. Let 

 no one hesitate to ask questions on any horticul- 

 tural problem in regard to which he desires in- 

 formation; let no one hesitate to give informa. 

 tion of the desired kind when such is in his pos- 

 session. This department shows a becoming ten- 

 dency to enlarge just as we are glad to see. 



The Chicago Flower Show. This was a grand 

 success. The plan of having lady judges for the 

 flower work and decorating was decidedly just 

 right. John Lane's two fashionably dressed dolls 

 grouped among blooming Orchids and Chrysan- 

 themums under a placard inscribed "A Fair Ex- 

 change," one holding in her extended hand the 

 aristocratic Orchid, the other offering the Chrys- 

 anthemum, Mrs. A. Hardy, in exchange, attract- 

 ed much attention. 



Shelter belts, such as close evergreen hedges, 

 etc., while very desirable in some instances, are 

 a positive damage to orchards in others. The 

 Peach, for instance, is safer in a somewhat ex- 

 posed situation, where growth is retarded in 

 spring, than in the immediate shelter of a belt of 

 close evergreens, where a free circulation of air, 

 and the sweep of the winds is interrupted. Many 

 of our trees are not thankful for two much pet- 

 ting and protection. 



Northern Light Grape. Specimens of the fruit 

 of this Grape were shown us by Mr. W. W. Hil- 

 born of (Ontario. It is a white Grai>e of pure 

 flavor, claimed to be hardy enough for Ottawa 

 Ont. Bunch fair sized, compact, shouldered; a 

 little later than Champion. Vine a strong grower 

 and prolific bearer, with Concord foliage. The 

 quality of the f ruit,however,does not betray La- 

 brusca origin. This may yet prove an interest- 

 ing Graite for the extreme north, and we are 

 going to watch it. 



The Wagner Apple is hardly surpaa=ed in iiual- 

 ity, while the tree is immensely productive even 

 at an early age, so productive indeed, that it us- 

 ually commits suicide by o'i'erbearing. The fruit 

 needs severe thinning. The trouble with the 

 tree is that it hardly ever forms a healthy union 

 between graft and stock, and this influences tree 

 and fruit alike unfavorably. This Apple deserves 

 to have a little thought and effort bestowed on 

 it. Perhaps someway might yet be found how to 

 give it a sound root. 



For grafting the English Walnut on Black 

 Walnut the cions should be nice and well 

 ripened wood of last summers growth, cut be- 

 fore hard freezing, and buried where they will 

 keep moist and fresh on north side of a fence or 

 building. My mode of grafting is cleft on stocks 

 not over 2^4 inches in diameter and the time, 

 when the Black Walnut bloom is J4 to !4 inch 

 long. I put in my grafts, using only abou tfour 

 inches of top end of cion. If these directions 

 are followed you will succeed.— J'. Luther Bowers. 



A good compost for pot plants or any thing else 

 can be made as follows: Skim off slices of sods, 

 mix with fine brush and weeds, let get dry, and 

 turn the whole mass. Mi.v this well with some 

 leaf-mold, well decomposed manure (cow dung 

 being be.st\ one-third sand. This compost will 

 grow anything in the ordinary line to perfection. 

 If prepared in the fall, store out of the reach of 

 frost, and turn occasionally, liy spring it will 

 be in admirable order. An old gardener told me 

 this forty yeai's ago, and I have never seen it 

 fail to give good results — .S. Miller. 



Cut Worms and Tin Cans. I have used empty 

 salmon and lobster cans with excellent success 

 to protect young plants from cut worms. Such 

 cans can be easily procured in almost any town 

 for the picking up. I start a good hardwood lire 

 in a box stove, throw the cans in tf> mult off the 

 solder, when they spring open and can l:)e pnt 

 away ready for use. Last season I had 300 such 

 cans. After Tomato and similar plants were set, 

 I simply bent one of the tin cans around a plant, 

 and then pi-css it down; a few inches into the 

 ground. The protection was complete.— J". H, 

 SUvens, Ont. 



Japanese Maples. About twenty distinct va- 

 rieties of these lo\ ely ornamental trees ha\e been 

 derived by careful selection and grafting of rai-e 

 sports from Acer polymorphus. Among them 

 we have varieties of red, purplish, pinkish, green, 

 yellow and many-colored leaves. The contrast 

 in the colors of a group of these trees renders 

 them an object of attraction and admiration. 

 They delight in rich, loose soil sheltered from 

 the north wind, which is the worst enemy of the 

 tender foliage. The foliage and its color is shown 

 in their full glory and to best advantage during 

 the spring months. 



The Brazilian Tree Tomato. H. J. Goemans 

 of Kew (England) put .some fruit of the Cypho- 

 mandra betaeea on exhibit at the meeting of the 

 Dutch Horticultural .'5ociety, October SI, 1H89, 

 claiming that these fruits now and then seen at 

 Covent Garden, London, could become of great 

 importance in future as a new sort of Tomato. 

 The committee, however, did not adjudge a cer- 

 tificate to them because this plant is unfit for the 

 Dutch climate, first on account of not fruiting 

 before the second year, and not being able to 

 stand the winter. Besides it does not surpass 

 the common Tomato in flavor. 



A Good Blackberry is Ancient Britain, and if 

 Mr. Riehl could have seen my patch of IM acres 

 mostly of this variety about the middle of last 

 August, I think he would have made up his 

 mind that the berry wanted is found. With me 

 it is just about as early and hardy as the Snyder, 

 far more productive and much better in every 

 other way. I picked my first Britains the i:"th of 

 July, also first Snyder's same day, the last 

 Britaics the 21st of .September. Whole amount 

 picked and sold 201 bushels 1.3 quarts, which sold 

 for S(i.'>4.52, which was entirely satisfactory to 

 me.— G'ro. E. HnitehcU^ Wi^eetnain. 



Eosebu<?8 ai-e hard to kill with poison, it seems. 

 Two yeai's since. Col. Pearson of New .Jersey 

 thought that the copper mixture sprayed on his 

 Grape rines had killed or driven off the Rosebugs. 

 At the same time editor Carman of the Rural 

 New Yorker claim- 

 ed that he could kill 

 them by spraying 

 them with buhach 

 solution. Now Col- 

 Pearson states that 

 the only way he can 

 settle the Rosebug, 

 for good, is to smash 

 them. Pyrethrum, 

 he says, will intoxi- 

 cate or stupef.v 

 them, so that they 

 fall from the vines, 

 but recover after a 

 while and fly up 

 again. What we 

 would like to know 

 now is whether Co.l 

 Peai'son used the 

 fresh buhach, or the 

 stale pyrethrum of 

 our drug stores. 



Amateur Diaries, 

 A diary of all ojier- 

 ations with fiowers 

 and in the garden 

 carefully kept from 

 year's beginning to 

 end, while of course 

 a necessity to the 

 professional gar- 

 dener, would also be 

 a boon, and a source 

 of much enjoyment 

 to the amateur, and 

 perhaps often save 

 disappointmentandtroubleafterwards. If he has 

 scored a success, the management that lead to it 

 can be traced in all its details, and will be a guide 

 tor the future. If a mistake has been made, it 

 is recorded in its beginning, and in its results, 

 and a similar mistake can be avoided in future. 

 A well kept diary, indeed, wili be a valuable 

 record of events, of methods, of operations gen- 

 erally. lA't the amateur not neglect it. 



Choice Chrysanthemums, A lady, who visited 

 ourgi'ounds shortly after seeing the t^harleston 

 show, remarked that our Chrysanthemums beat 

 those in Charleston. They were certaiul.v lovely, 

 and many visited the groinids dail.v. Diana takes 

 the lead among the white ones with us so far. 

 One or two luid Mi's, .\lpheus Hardy in bloom, 

 but all said if they could have but one they would 

 take Diana. It is not large but the form is per- 



Flower-Pot Banycr. 



