2l6 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



July, 



Morning-CIorles. 



*' Red and purple Morning-glories, 



Lightly swaying in the breeze, 

 you seem filled with fairy stories : 



Won't you tell them to me, please ? 

 " Little maid, we have no stories. 



True or fairy, new or old. 

 We are liut laughing Morning-glories 



For your pretty hands to hold ! 



St. NichoUis. 



If the June Rose could guess 

 Before the sunbeam wooed her from the bud. 

 And reddened int^ life her faint young blood. 

 What blight should fall upon her loveliness. 

 What darlcness of decay , what shroud of snow- 

 Would the Rose ever blow ? 

 Atas, and yet ala^s, 

 For glory of existence that shall pass ! 

 For pride of beauty and for strength of song I 

 Yet were the untried life a deeper wrong. 

 Better a single throb of being win. 

 Than never to have been I 



Kate Putnam Osgood. 



Annual Finks like saQd.v soil, 



A clean tranlon is a pleasure garden, 



Fortnlaccas are Sun-flowei's in truth. 



Sow seeds "t perennials as soon as ripe. 



Have yon tried tlie new Zebra Zinnias V 



Asters like lieh feed and plenty to drink. 



The Salsify is a handsome Moorainf? plant. 



The Water Lilies also are glorious tiowers, 



Fnblic Parks aie atipreciated more and more. 



A fine Elm tree was appraised at $900 in Uuffalo 

 latel.v. 



Our handsomest tree : a young Colorado Blue 

 Spruce. 



Thin the Feaches, if you have any to thin; and 

 do it soon. 



Blackberries excel all other small fruits for 

 tine bloom. 



Fine beds with little trouble; those of self- 

 sown Petunias and Poppies. 



Charcoal and burnt earth are unequalled for 

 Kiving sweetness and porosity to soil. 



Ko import duty on plants— that seems to be 

 the sentiment of the great mass of tioiists. 



Did the common Quince reach us as a new tree, 

 it would be highly and justly praised for its 

 fine blooming iiualities. 



The discarded Strawberry patch may be made 

 to yield yet a good crop of Potatoes, Celery, 

 Turnips, Spinach, or Sweet Corn. 



A Text for Bose Growers. Lirjuid or any other 

 manure is only of use when the plant i.s in full 

 growth and health, at all other times it is poison. 



After all that can be said for the winter beauty 

 of Evergreens (conifers), these same trees, when 

 in their young spring growth, match any others 

 for fine effect. 



For a large lawn the horse mower is the tool ; 

 that which is hard work for a man, is light work 

 for a horse, and that too when more than double 

 the width of swath is cut by the latter, 



" Mignonette when rightly treated, becomes a 

 perennial," says a certain writer. Yes but few 

 care thus to grow it when it can be raised so 

 quickly to a flowering size from the seed, 



Florida phosphate rocks, at least some of them, 

 are repeated to be much softer and richer than 

 those of South Carolina, easily ground, and their 

 plant food partially available without acid 

 treatment. 



That excellent authority, Jlr. George Ellwan- 

 gcr, pronounces Forest Lawn, Buffalo, next to 

 Spring Gro\'e at Cincinnati, the finest garden 

 cemetery in America— and that really means in 

 the world. 



With all the more recent introductions, the 

 old English Woodbine or Honey suckle LiDnicera 

 Pcriclymcnum is one our most gratifying 

 climbers at " Woodbanks." The Bowers are 

 freely produced, and delightfully scented, and 

 the growth of the bush very attractive. 



Oriental Foppies. what splendid flery blossoms 

 they are, and so easily grown even on any poor 

 dry land. The flowers, if cut before they fully 

 open, will last in good condition several days. 



A Tree peddlar has recently found victims in 

 some of tlie counties of New Jersey. He agreed 

 to take the next season's crop in pay for his 

 stock, but nevertheless accepted the farmers' 

 notes, which, as might have been expected, 

 turned up in the hands of "innocent purchasers." 



Dead Seeds tell no tales. We have our sus- 

 picions that some high-priced novelties bought 

 to test on our grounds had been before they 

 reached us treated for destroying the germ. At 

 last they did not grow under favorable circum- 

 stances and when others of the same kind did. 



The Insect Powder plant, Pyrethrum roseura, 

 comes out in full glory on the Popular Garden- 

 ing grounds and makes a brilliant show at this 

 time. If entirely hardy, as it seems to be, this 

 class of plants must be regarded as one of the 

 most handsome of spi'ing-fiowering perennials of 

 easy culture. 



The Wilson Peach is a new seedling intro- 

 duced by Chas. Wright, Seaford, Del., under the 

 claim that it is equal to Reeves' Favorite, or 

 larger, much more productive, and ripening from 

 four to five da.vs iti advance of it ; large to very 

 large, yellow with a red cheek and a free stone; 

 exceptionally productive on poor sandy soil. 



Monstrosities in Evergreens, Of all the sad 



sights seen as one drives about our village 

 streets, the most pitiful is the Evergi-eens shaven 

 into fantastic forms. If any one desires the 

 monstrous let them get it carved out of wood, 

 painted green and set in the yard. It will then 

 never need trimming, or cost any care.— E,P,P. 



A Heavy Bainfall, When it is reported that 

 in a single night, that of June 4th, niin fell at the 

 PopuLAH Gardening grounds to a depth of 

 more than one inch and thi-ee-fourths, and that 

 this was but one of a series of heavy rains here 

 during two months following April 1,5th, some 

 idea may be obtained of how discouraging the 

 season has been to all planters and tillers of the 

 soil in these parts, 



A delightful syrup, it is said, can be made 

 from Watermelons by chopping them, pressing 

 out the juice, and boiling for several hours. The 

 red coloring matter then coagulates, rises to the 

 surface, and is skimmed off, when the juice 

 remains as clear as distilled water and of a pale 

 amber color. Boiled a little longer, it thickens 

 into a rich, fruity-flavored syrup, jjerfectiy clear 

 and the color of t,)uince or Apple jelly. 



Bone-Eating Trees The discovery of insect- 

 eating plants has given rise to some fabulous 

 yarns about bone-eating trees. Bone-eating 

 trees will lean over in the night and their 

 bunches of leaves will close about all flesh, and 

 bones, and creatures, that are underneath and 

 devour them. The natives feed them carefully 

 and fear them. It is not impossible that insect 

 eating plants have been observed by the natives, 

 who have exaggerated facts,— B. P. P. 



Combination mixtures for plant diseases an<l 

 insects at ime operation may work all right. We 

 hojic so; but before ever using Paris green with 

 the Bordeaux mixture for spraying trees. Grape 

 vines, Potatoes or anything else, we would like 

 to find out whether the arsenic is not dis,solved 

 through the agency of one or the other ingre- 

 dients in the Bordeaux mixture to such an ex- 

 tent as to make the whole altogether too risky 

 for us to use. 



Death of Another noted horticulturist, Mr, 

 Chas. Gibbs of Abbotsford, <.»uebec, who had 

 been to ("hina and Japan to study the horticult- 

 ure of those countries, died in Egypt on his way 

 home, on March 8th of this year, aged 4,') years. 

 His efforts te discover and introduce into the 

 colder regions of North America fruits from 

 East Europe and other parts of the world, that 

 will endure the climate, have made his name 

 known far and near. His death is a sad and 

 irreparable loss to the horticultuie of the north. 



Fruits and How to Use Them is the title of a 

 volume of 240 pages, price $1.W1, by Mrs, Hester 

 M. Poole, just publislied by Fowler Sc Wells, 7:W 

 Broadway. New York. A work of this kind has 

 been needed for some time, and we welcome it , 

 heartily hoping that it may aid in promoting the 

 free use of fruits. The department of recipes 

 is very complete, beginning with the Apple, for 

 the pieiiaratiou of which alone nearly 100 differ- 

 ent ways are given. The information contained 

 in I his well-written, well-printed and well- 



bound work will be a valuable aid for the house 

 keeper and fruit lover. 



Propping trees to assist them in bearing up 

 under an excessive load without breaking down 

 is simpl.v an outrage on the tree, and im Nature. 

 If not interfered with, the overburdened tree 

 would find relief in letting go part of its branches 

 with the surplus of fruit. By propping you 

 refuse this relief, and as a result get a lot of 

 inferior if not unsalable fruit. The only proper, 

 just and sensible way of treating the overbur- 

 dened tree is to relieve it of part of its burden 

 by thorough thinning, thus enabling the tree to 

 give you first-class fruit, and all it is able to 

 bear, and to yield more money than the excess 

 of poor stuff would bring. 



Wooden boxes are decidedly better f(jr many 

 purposes of plant culture than earthen flower 

 pots. Plants in them do not dry out so soon as 

 those in pots fully exposed to the air. and the 

 boxes provide a more equitable temperature, 

 being cooler in summer, and warmer in winter. 

 Boxes are easily made, or obtained from stores 

 as waste product, and when nicely painted, are 

 not at all unsightly. Oaken butter tubs, or casks 

 saweil in halves, are cheap and serviceable for 

 receiving large bushy, or tree-like plants, and 

 with a little paint may be made quite ornamental. 

 Large boxes or tubs may have hooks screwed 

 into their sides for convenience in handling and 

 moving. The faculty of flower pots to absorb 

 water is at least a verj' questionable advantage. 



Humming Birds and th<>ir Nests. Did you 

 ever see a humming liirds nest? I never found 

 or saw over half a dozen in my life outside of 

 collections. But if you wish to get back to be- 

 lieving in fairies you must see one. It is reall.v 

 the most exquisite little bit of manufacture in 

 the word. It is among nests just what the hum- 

 ming bird is among birds. It looks like a bit of 

 the tree so far as color is concerned, and is deco- 

 rated or covered with moss. The walls of the 

 nest arc not only artful but artistic and ipsthctic. 

 The Moss and Lichens are put on with exquisite 

 taste something like thatching. I often see a 

 dozen of these flashes of light and love in m.v 

 Lilacs at one time; but so skillful are the.v at 

 hiding that I have hunted almost always in vain 

 to discover their homes; but when found it is 

 always by accident.— K. P. P. 



The Tradescanthia and Commelinas are closely 

 allied flowers from Mexico, the former some- 

 times Vicing known as Flower of a Day. The 

 species kitown as Tradesciinthia Virginica isb.v 

 far the best, being a hardy perennial of good 

 habit and free bloom. It grows from one to two 

 and a-half feet high and flowers abundantly 

 during summer. The original type has showy 

 purple-blue flowers, but there are a number of 

 varieties, one with double violet, one with single 

 rose-colored, one with single \"iolet and one with 

 single white blossoms. There is also the grandi- 

 flora section represented by a white and blue 

 flowering variety, 

 the blooms of 

 which are of larger 

 size than those of 

 the type. All are 

 well worth grow- 

 ing in mi.xed bor- 

 ders of flowers. 

 They will grow in 

 any soil, even in 

 heavy clay. Prop- 

 agatetl by division 

 in the spring. 



The Weeping 

 Sophora- This is a 

 beautiful and use- 

 ful weeping tree. 

 Mr. F. L. Temple 

 gives the following 

 method of produc- 

 ing tall, clean un- 

 branched stocks of six to nine feet in height, in 

 one season, for top-working with the weeping 

 variety. The Sophora will grow extremely fast 

 in a close, moist place. In spring, after the 

 greenhouses are emptied, dormant Sophoras, 

 about thiee- fourths of an inch in diameter, arc 

 planted in the earth bottom of the liousc, which 

 should be made fairly rich; cut them back to the 

 crown, and set them one foot apart each way, 

 and by December 1st, they will be out of the 

 top of the house and as smooth as Willows. Then 

 lift, and keep them protected in a cellar or 

 frame, or heel them in deep in a well-drained 

 place till spring, when they can be planted in 

 nursery rows and grafted at the same time with 

 good results. 



Flower of Commclina. 



