Editors Letter- Box. 123 



Viola, Worcester. — How can I secure a fine bed of pansies of various 

 colors ? Will they live and do well out doors over winter ? — Buy the very best 

 seed you can get, no matter what it costs, and sow in August or September, and 

 transplant in autumn into cold frames, or into beds in open ground, and cover 

 through the winter with coarse hay or evergreen-boughs. When they bloom, 

 select the finest, and transplant by themselves ; and save the seed of these best 

 flowers, and thus you will secure a select stock of this interesting flower. We 

 have a small bed that stood out all winter, with slight protection, from which a 

 thousand blooms can be plucked any day. 



I. N. C, Auburndale. — Double-flowering peach. There are several varie- 

 ties, the flowers varying in color from pure white to deep pink. They are not to 

 be recommended for ornamental planting in New England, because, like the 

 common peach, the flower-buds are apt to be winter-killed, and the flowers are 

 what make the plant desirable. The trees themselves, like all peaches, are not 

 graceful in growth, and are short-lived. These double varieties sometimes pro- 

 duce fruit, as many of the flowers are only semi-double. There is a fine weep- 

 ing-peach, known as " Reid's Weeping Peach," which is very ornamental. The 

 tree is of very graceful growth, the flowers large, rosy, and single. This should 

 be budded at least eight feet high to show to the best advantage. The fruit of 

 all these ornamental varieties is worthless. 



A fine variety of almond, with large double red flowers, as hardy as the 

 peach, and far more showy, may be procured from florists under the name of 

 Ainygdalus rosco fiore plena. 



MoRELLO, Auburn, N.Y. — Your letter is but one of many received on the 

 same subject. As you say, Mr. Elliott, in an early number of " The Journal of 

 Horticulture," especially recommends the morello stock for dwarf cherries. 



On writing to Mr. Elliott, however, we can obtain no reference as to where 

 these stocks can be found. Nursery-men can furnish dwarf cherries on mahaleb 

 stock in plenty, but none on morello ; and the morello cherries are even worked 

 upon the mahaleb. We do not take it that the morello stock is a new discovery ; 

 and, if as valuable as represented, it is strange that no nursery-men have them 

 for sale. Our cherries are worked on mahaleb, and thrive to our satisfaction. 



Try Again, Worcester. — The Early Purple Guigne is one of the earliest 

 cherries, and is very sweet and good. In favorable seasons, it comes in about 

 the 20th of June. Your trouble with birds is an old one, and your experience is 

 not peculiar. Try growing cherries on dwarf trees, and cover with nets when 

 the fruit begins to ripen. As to robins, if you are not afflicted with the sickly 

 sentimentality of robin-redbreasts, get a good gun, and shoot them : they make 

 a very good pie, and do far more injury than any possible good in the garden. 

 The only objection to the shooting is that the noise of the gun frightens away 

 other birds, such as wrens, sparrows, and linnets, which are worth all the saucy 

 thrushes ever hatched. If you dine from robin-pie, you may have cherry-pie 

 and cherries for dessert. 



