Notes a?id Gleanings. 33 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



W. P. writes from Nashville, Tenn., " The Lagerstroemia hidica (Crape 

 myrtle) is, I find, considered a very tender plant, and therefore regarded as 

 unfit for out-of-door culture in the Northern States ; but, as this shrub is so 

 highly ornamental and profuse flowering, I am induced to describe its degree of 

 hardiness as it exists here in Tennessee. 



" It is cut down to some extent every winter by the cold in its growth, say 

 from six to ten feet to two feet or even a few inches from the ground ; but in no 

 instance have the roots been injured. I have this spring, for the sake of pro- 

 curing more plants, divided one, that had been blooming for ten years, in a very 

 rough manner, by splitting the mass of roots and stems into as many plants as 

 had fibres attached to the stem : all of these, as I have heretofore found, are push- 

 ing out young shoots from near the surface of the ground, and will flower this 

 summer, as it usually does in June, and continue to do so till frost. It is com- 

 mon in the gardens about New Orleans ; but there, from the neglect of pruning, 

 is not so ornamental as with us, where the frost annually performs that operation. 

 It there grows to the height of from fifteen to twenty feet, with long straggling 

 stems, supporting bunches of flowers and leaves ; whereas, here, a plant of two 

 or three years' standing will consist of a dozen or more shoots from the ground, 

 and form a compact bush. If protected about the roots by leaves or straw, I 

 have little doubt but that the roots will do as with us, — keep alive, and put out 

 flowering shoots. 



" Tea-roses are much more difficult to protect, and are frequently killed 

 entirely. 



" If you think such communications worth publishing, I will with pleasure 

 give my views regarding the hardiness of some other plants." 



[We thank our correspondent for calling attention to this plant ; for there are 

 few more ornamental, or better adapted to general culture. 



We should, however, doubt the expediency of leaving the plant out all winter 

 in the Northern States, even with the most thorough protection. The better plan 

 is, on the approach of winter, to take up the plant with a large ball of earth, and 

 place it in a cellar where the temperature does not fall much below freezing, or 

 rise over 50°. The plant will lose its leaves, and go to rest. If it become very 

 dry, give occasional sprinklings of water during the winter ; and, in spring, prune 

 in the plant, and set out in the garden. It will bloom from July until October, 

 and always be ornamental. There is a variety with white, and one with deep-red 

 flowers. L. spcciosa (showy) is of dwarfer growth, and rose-colored flowers. — Ed.] 



Fruit in Northern New Jersey. — To complain about the weather is one 

 of the foibles of mankind. 



It is never exactly right to suit everybody, and no one is satisfied with it for 

 any considerable time : consequently, we all feel at liberty to complain, and with- 

 out fear of being called unreasonable, because the habit is so very general. 



VOL. n. , 



