194 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



June, 



For Remembrance. 

 It is only a Rose, my darUngs. 



Do you ask what the tale can be- 

 Why a Rose that Is withered and faded 



Should be so dear to me? 

 Somebody sent It me, darlings, 



Back in the days of yore. 

 On the night that his ship was sailing 



Away to the dreadful war. 

 But I had my Rose, my darlings. 



To comfort me day by day. 

 As I read the bitter tidings 



Of the fighting far away. 

 Tin it drooped and died, my darlings. 



And I read its message plain. 

 That he who had given that little Rose 



Would never come back again. 

 And now I am old, my darlings. 



And life draws near Its close. 

 You know my heart Is happy 



As I watch my sweet dead Rose, 

 Our life has another chapter 



To read in the world to be. 

 And love like a new Rose. darUngs, 



WIU blossom for him and me. 



—CasseVs Family Magazine, 



Strawberry Song. 



Jennie come, Bennie come, let us be quick: 

 Here are the Strawberries, ripe and .so thicljl 

 Ha! the gay fellows, so red and so fine: 

 Jennie come, Bennie come, clear every vine! 

 Jennie come. Bennie come, gather some more. 

 Never such beauties were seen here before. 

 Bright, luscious berries, all sprinkled with cream. 

 Truly a dish that is fit for a queen! 



Youth's Companion. 



Oh stay, because thou art so fair. 

 Sweet Rose-month, green and sunny June! 



With thee dies music from the air. 

 The blackbird's and the throstle's tunc; 



Oh! stay, sweet June, delay 



Peg down the Verbenas. 



Vieit " Woodbanks " this summer. 



We thin mir vegetable and flower jilauts early. 



Climbers without support can hardly Ije satis- 

 tory. 



Summer plants, like people, do not thrive in a 

 close crowd. 



It is the seed pods that bring the display of 

 annuals t^) an early close. 



Do not forget that t he Aster likes, above all else, 

 rich food and constant moisture. 



Grow Strawberries If you can; buy them if 

 you must— but eat plenty of them anyhow. 



The Insect Powder Plant (Pjrethrum roseumi 

 has proved entirely hardy en our grounds this 

 year. 



We want bloom right along, and therefore we 

 must keep on sowing hardy annuals for a month 

 to come. 



Thnnbergias are very pretty and easily grown 

 annuals and are worthy a place in every garden. 

 —Argynnis. 



We are going to make at least a trial of the 

 wringing method with one or two canes on our 

 Grape vines. 



The Lady Busk .Strawberry is claimed to dry 

 up after being picked, rather than melt or rot 

 like most other varieties. 



The Cnrrant Worm, that dreadful pest of every 

 garden, is not a native American, but is of 

 the bad emigrants from Europe. 



They Peel so Easily. Now is the time when 

 young trees have no greater enemy than a care- 

 less band on plow and cultivator. Keep your 

 eye on the whiflSetree, and the whifBctree off the 

 young tree. 



The Dewberry is just the thing for a dry and 

 sun-exposed situation. But stake it, by all 

 means stake it, or its creeping propensities will 

 make you tired. 



For cut flowers, or corsage bouquets the 

 amateur should have Geraniums, Gladioli, Lilies 

 and Tuberoses. All of these stay fresh for a 

 long time after being picked even without water 

 —ATa]p\ni». 



Emll Winter Pear. True it can not be com- 

 pared in flavor to the Seckel, Bartlett or Anjou : 

 but on the 11th of April last I found it tolerably 

 good in flavor for a Pear kept fully sound with- 

 out any more extra care than keeping out of the 

 reach of frost— ^4. A. Blumer, Mo. 



Tnlip Sport. I have a Tulip in bloom, the 

 leaves of which measure eighteen inches by six 

 inches, and the stalk is single, and very thick 

 for five inches, then separates into four stalks, 

 each over four inches long, and carr.ymg a large 

 perfect Tulip.— If. J. R.. Sin^ingfield, I'.h. 



Be fair with the Asparagus. Many people con- 

 tinue to cut far too long, and in this as in all 

 other cases covetousness meets its reward. The 

 beds must be very strong that will bear cutting 

 after June. If young seedlings spring up from 

 last year's scattered seed, weed them out. 



By His Fruit Ye Shall Enow Him. We mean 

 the man who makes fruit growing pay. Now go 

 into the markets, note the No. 1 .'Strawberries, 

 and other fruits, and you wiU find his name 

 nicely stencilled on the clean crates. He is just 

 the one (and about the only one) who gets big 

 pay for his work. 



Castor Beans make stately plants for late sum- 

 mer and autumn. While young they are often 

 attacked by the stalk borer. If the plants begin 

 to look unhealthy, look for holes in the stalk and 

 leaf stems and with a sharp small-bladed knife 

 split the stem from the hole until the worm is 

 reached.— -t rgim n >■■<. 



Japanese Persimmons are now being fruited 

 in California to the extent of being freely offered 

 in the San Francisco market. The demand for 

 this fruit, however, is reported to be ratherslow. 

 While considered one of the finest fruits by some 

 f)eople, the majority are repulsed by the astrin- 

 gent taste of the green fruit. 



London's Flower Trade. It is estimated that 

 London spends between 87,000,000 and §8,000,000 

 on potted plants and cut flowers. Many of these 

 flowers come from Holland, France and even 

 Italy. A single culturist in southern France 

 claims to send every year SfiO.OOO worth of 

 white Lilacs. Snowdrops, Lilies-of-the-valley, 

 and Roses to London. 



In Bnshy Park near London are some long and 

 noble lines of Horse Chestnut trees which border 

 the roadway through the park from Teddington. 

 Every spring, when these are in full bloom, tens 

 of thousands of Londoners and residents of the 

 surrounding country flock to the park to ad- 

 mire the trees. The railway company even runs 

 special trains Sundays for the purpose. 



Calla Lily Bulb PoiBonous. .^t least thisap- 

 l>ears to be the case according to an incident 

 reported In Therapeutic Gazette. A child hav- 

 ing eaten a piece of the bulb which one of the 

 neighbors had thrown out, was only saved by 

 stimulation and prompt use of remedies; and 

 remained for several days in a crictical condition. 

 Some caution in ttie management of Calla bulbs 

 ma.v be advisable. 



Coppsras is not plant food proper. Yet in re- 

 cent experiments made with it, it was found that 

 it increased the yield of vines, and in a 

 measure protected the vineyards against 

 parasites. It also increased the yield of 

 Clover and Potatoes, and tended to sup- 

 press Potato diseases, etc. There is some 

 mystery about this substance. Which of 

 its constituent parts is the effective 

 agent, the iron or the sulphuric acid, 

 and how does it act? Who can give us 

 light on this dark subject? 



A good gardener, Prof. Bailey observes, hard- 

 ly ever knows much about weeds, as he keeps 

 the ground stirred so often that they have little 

 chance to exhibit themselves. The weed seeds 

 may be in the soil, but the sprouting plants are 

 killed before they reach the light. Thus treated 

 weeds give but little trouble, and the crops do 

 all the better for this frequent loosening of the 

 sui*face. 



Water Melon Cosmetic. It is said thatsouthern 

 girls, have for generations, used the juice of 

 Watermelons to beautify their complexion. It 

 Is believed that nothing is so soothing to the face 

 and hands, after a long drive or summer outing, 

 than the water from both the pulp and rind. 

 " The first, crushed by dainty hands and rubt)ed 

 on the face, takes off all sunburn, while the ap- 

 plication of the cool white pulp next to the red 

 meat removes the stickiness and gives a softness 

 to the skin of the Melon bather that can be ob- 

 taincil from nothing else. This is nature's own 

 cosmetic." 



Trade in Chopped Apples. According to Mr. 

 Michael iJoyle's statement, the export trade in 

 chopped Apples— a dried product from inferior 

 fruit and material left after the preparation of 

 the best quality of evaporated fruit— had in- 

 creased from small orders in 1880 to 11,000,000 

 pounds in i8«(8, and 30,000,000 pounds could have 

 been sold in 1889. Cider is consumed in France 

 at the rate of 376.000,000 gallons annually. 

 American chopped Apples are largely used for 

 conversion into cider, and preferred to the home 

 grown article, being better preserved and of finer 

 flavor. It appears now that there is room for alj 

 we will be able to export. 



The Begonia Bex This the type of the large- 

 leaved Begonias, and which is the subject of the 

 fine engraving on the opposite page, continues to 

 be one of the finest plants of its class. It is a 

 robust grower, possesses handsome colors and 

 contrasts in the foliage, and is in every way a 

 desirable pot plant, either for window culture or 

 for the warm greenhouse. It is an easy plant to 

 manage : give it light rich soil and an abundant 

 supply of moisture and little else is required for 

 its well-doing so long as a congenial heat of .50** 

 or upwards is maintained. It is also suitable for 

 the open air, in a three-fourths shady position 

 and where rough winds do not reach to break 

 the foliage. 



Tomatoes in Tree Form, It anyone will follow 

 the directions "how to grow Mansfield's Tree 

 Tomato," which accompany each packet of that 

 variety as sent out by its introducer, to the 

 letter, we will wari-ant the result to be a true 

 Tomato tree, no matter what variety was planted. 

 The directions arc as follows : " Plant seed the 

 fore part of March in the house or hot-bed, set 

 in garden in May in rows east and west, eighteen 

 inches apart, near water, give them stakes or 

 trellis eight feet high; hoe out a ditch five or six 

 inches deep, one foot in front of plants, and fill 

 it with water morning and night. Nip off every 

 side sh(»ot as fast as they appear. Keep them 

 well tieil up, well trimmed, and no end of watei'." 

 Early Thinning of Fruit Essential. The hor- 

 ticulturist of the Missouri E.xperiment Station 

 has made some analyses uf ,\pples during the 

 different periods of their growth, which show 

 that much of the greater proportion of the ash 

 is stored up in the early part of the growth of the 

 fruit. This is urged as an additional reason for 

 thinning as soon as the wormy and imperfect 

 specimens of the fruit can be distinguished. 

 A barrel of large and perfect Apples takes a 

 smaller amount of minei-al plant food from 

 the soil than a barrel of small, inferior fruit. 

 The Apples on an acre of ground where the 

 tree stand thirty feet apart and yield ten 

 bushels of fruit to the tree, take from the soil 

 more than 13 pounds of potash. This suggests 

 the use of ashes, or of the potash salts, as a dress- 

 ing for orchards. 



Tall Chrysanthemums have their uses, but for 

 many puri)oses the cut-back, compact, bushy 

 plants are more satisfactory. These are just the 

 thing for small greenhouses and conservatories. 

 This cutting back induces a wealth of rich 

 green vigorous foliage clothing the stems to the 



BROKEN WEEDERS AND TROWELS UTILIZED. » 



edge of the pots. The individual flowers, al- 

 though not extra large, are usually well-shaped 

 and fine in color. The whole process is simple. 

 Strike the cuttings and y row the plants in the 

 usual way until about first week in June, then 

 cut them down to within a few inches of the'soil. 

 Thin the strong latterals which will spring up to 

 three or four in number, and repot in the pots 

 in which they are to remain for blooming. To 

 secure really fine flowers, only one should be 

 left to each stem. Of course there are some vari- 

 eties which will not do well under this treatment, 

 but the majority do. 



Visit Ihe Orounds. Last year numerous sub- 

 scribers visited the P0PP1.AR Gardening 

 grounds at La Salle-on-the-Niagara, on the occa- 

 sion of a trip to Niagara Falls, from which famous 

 resort, as all our older readers know, we are only 

 five miles distant, with many trains daily. This 

 year we hope to see many more of our friends, 

 if for no other reason than that these grounds in 

 which every sulKcriber has an interest, are in a 



