152 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



April, 



An April Violet. 



O violet; 



'Tls April yet. 

 The wind Is cold, sweet maid; 



For It doth Ijlow 



O'er lingering drifts of snow— 

 The ermine borders of spring's velvet green. 



Oh, art thou not afraid 



Thus early to be seen? 



Dost think thou'st won 

 The fickle sun. 

 Because he smiles to-day? 

 Yet he did bring 

 Like homage to the spring, 

 Only to flout her tender, trusting grace. 

 Dream not then, he will stay. 

 Constant to thy pale face! 



— Margaret Deiund, in Independent. 



Plant a Tree. 



He who plants a tree, 

 Plants a joy; 

 Plants a comfort that will never cloy; 

 Every day a fresh reality, 



Beautiful and strong. 



To whose shelter thl'ong 



Creatures blithe with song. 

 If thou couldst but know, thou happy tree. 

 Of the bUss that shall inhabit thee! 



He who plants a tree,— 

 He plants youth: 

 Vigor won for centuries, in sooth; 

 Life of time that hints eternity: 



Boughs their strength uprear. 

 New shoots, every year 

 On glad growths appear. 

 Thou Shalt teach the ages, sturdy tree. 

 Youth of soul is immortality. 



— Lucy Larcom, in Companion. 



'Mid the gentle moonlight with no mortal near, 

 Pansles are the dresses that the fairies wear! 

 Soft as silk or satin and iovlier to behold 

 In their blended beauty of purple and of gold! 



Late freezes are sore visitors. 



Poor gardenini^ won't pay in 1889. 



Arbor Day work will benefit the ages. 



for small space let the rule be few varieties. 



Try a few Virginia Creepei's over the front 

 fence. 



Next montli a twelve page supplement with 

 this journal. 



In labelling newly set out Trees, put on the 



date of ijlantinjf. 



For a solid garden walk try one part of 

 cement and two of coal ashes. 



Wonderful .the beauty that is wrapped up in a 

 five cent packet of tlower seeds. 



The Qolden Bod is suggested as "National 

 flower," Not much I it is too much a weed. 



For sometliing nnique as an ornamental pot 

 plant try the Celestial Pepper of most catalogues. 



AS for novelties, a single good one has often 

 paid me for twenty that proved worthless. O.V.G. 



You must expect no Pansies like the catalogue 

 pictures unless you have the soil very rich and 

 mellow. 



Fuctksias are by no means unsuitable for bed- 

 ding in places where the full noon sun can not 

 strike them. 



A Text for Arbor Day. " Be aye stickin' in a 

 tree, Jock; it'll aye be growin' when ye're 

 sleepin'."— i'coff. 



Plant trees and shrubs from the forests If you 

 can get no others. Any kind of ti'ee is a thousand 

 times better than no tree at aU. 



The Common Potato is a native born Ameri- 

 can, and that it should be called the " Irish " 

 Potato, is singular enough. 



That Note Book, Get it now, and keep a rec- 

 ord of this season's experience. The seed sown 

 now will bear fruit manyfold next year. 



The claim that foreign Gooseberries when 

 grown in tree form ai'e less subject to mildew than 

 when grown as bushes is whoUy a mistake. 



A Pink Uinulns, is found growing wild in the 

 Napa Valley of California. It is being introduced 

 into England as the Scented Musk plant. 



Take the Lead. Is the school yard bare of 

 trees and shrubs 'r A few neighbors, if asked, 

 would, no doubt, be glad to follow your lead in 

 some public-spirited work here. 



Progress in Horticulture. The first mention 

 of Tomatoes and Sweet Corn for table use is 

 stated in the Scientific American to have been 

 made in 1818 and 1815 respectively. 



The ^oot is the Tree. Planting of young trees 

 is to be urged, because they grow more rapidly 

 than old ones, as their roots are comparatively 

 much less injured in taking up and resetting. 



Lobelia littoralis, or more properly Pratia 

 angulata. with its white Lobelia-like flowers and 

 purplish-red fruit is a real pretty little perennial 

 from New Zealand, of creeping habit, and use- 

 ful for baskets and brackets. 



Of Little Use- Some one is talking coffee 

 dregs as a fertilizer for pot plants. Its of little 

 worth except for loosening the soil. European 

 gardeners are said to use the material only after 

 it has been composted with manure. 



A Novel Awning. A lady in Florida has used 

 the JVfoonflower vine over a skeleton awning 

 made of a few strips of lath, adjusted over the 

 top of the window frame, ajjd the awning was a 

 complete mass of bloom and an object of 

 admiration. 



A group of twelve Panicle-flowered Hydrangas 

 the plants set at three feet apart on a well pre- 

 pared spot, in the front yard will easily add fifty 

 dollars to appearances after three years. The 

 cost now should be less than five dollars. This 

 shrub is entirely hardy. 



A ttpring Hint! Why not now suggest Popu- 

 lar Gardening and Fritit Growinq to your 

 neighbor. Subscribers received this month will 

 secure the Insect Supplement that goes gratis 

 with the May issue. This alone will be worth the 

 cost of the yearly volume. 



A Fine New Spiieea. Among the many hand- 

 some shrubs lately introduced from Japan, 

 Spirrea Bumalda is one of the prettiest dwarfs, 

 growing only about one foot high with wide- 

 spreading slender stems. The flowers, borne in 

 broad and flat clusters, are of a delicate pink 

 and render the whole bush one mass of color. 



Moles in Hot-beds, A Berlin florist dips strips 

 of coarse sacking in tar and places them into the 

 mole runs outside the frames. This he says has 

 never failed to keep the moles at a respectful 

 distance. Bags satui'ated with kerosene, pieces 

 of Garlic, or the bark of Sambucus nigra are 

 frequently used in the same way by German gar- 

 deners with telling etSect.—Carl Marsch. 



A Perfect Onion. For reliabiUty of bottoming, 

 absence of " thick-necked " specimens, perfec- 

 tion in form, and long keeping qualities, it would 

 be hard to find a peer, much less a superior to 

 Danvers Yellow Onion. For many localities 

 this certainly is the market variety par excellence. 

 We were just reminded of this fact by having 

 placed before us a box of really perfect speci- 

 mens, grown by our friend and contributor, 

 M. B. Faxon, Boston, Mass. 



Hard and Soft Water. Several years ago I was 

 much troubled with small white worms, and tiny 

 white mites, in the earth of my plant pots. 1 

 tried many remedies but without effect. Until 

 that time I had used soft water exclusively for 

 watering them, but later I used very hard well 

 water, and since then the worms and mites have 

 not troubled me. If it is the lime in the water 

 that kills them, I wonder why waterings of strong 

 lime water were ineffectual 't— Elder's Wife. 



King of the Earlies, Although not very large 

 nor very good, and having a foliage not alto- 

 gether thrifty or healthy, is just the Tomato 

 which a South Jersey market gardeners says 

 brings him the money. The bulk of the crop 

 ripens so early that he got $2.00 per crate for it, 

 while the bulk of the later sorts. Perfection, 

 Potato Leaf, even Dwarf Champion, although 

 consisting of much larger, smoother and more 

 solid fruit, had to be sold to the caiming estab- 

 lishments at $6.00 per ton. 



A Wail Against the Express Companies. 



From far oft Manitoba, subscriber B. S. Smith, 

 writes: the express companies make it almost 

 useless to buy plants from any points fui-ther 

 south than in Minnesota or Wisconsin; packages 

 from Baltimore have been kept on the road from 

 ten to 14 days, some of the plants arriving dead, 

 the remainder so used up that they took several 

 months to recover their normal condition. I 



oannot understand why plants should be so long 

 when oysters are only four to flve days coming 

 from the same place. 



The Dirt Cure, One of our neighbors is a smart 

 lady, very fond of gardening, and spends houi-s 

 every day among her plants. She -was taken ill 

 with pneumonia recently. The doctor declaring 

 her a very sick woman, and she took the medicine 

 prescribed obediently, but sent one of her chil- 

 dren out for a flower pot full of earth. She put 

 it on a stand by her bed side, and every now and 

 then took some in her hand and smelt .of it. She 

 said it done her more good than the doctor's 

 stuff. Perhaps she is right, at all events, she re- 

 covered.— Si«(er Oracious. 



Tricks of the Horticultural Trade.~It is 

 stated that the floi-ists of Paris, where white 

 flowers are much sought after, plant the Noel 

 Rose, which has beautiful rose colored flowers, 

 in a cellar or other semi-dark place, and thus 

 change its color to an almost pure white. Camel- 

 lia buds are imitated by fitting a Hellebore bud 

 into a complete expanded flower of the same 

 plant, after the reproductive organs have been 

 cut away. These are rather innocent tricks of 

 the trade, compared with those lately exposed In 

 London, where the attempt was made to sell 

 evergreen shrubs grafted on Cabbage roots. 



Do you Grow Thnnbergia. Useful in many 

 ways is this annual of rampant growth and free 

 bloom. Sow the seed in fairly good soil, when 

 danger from late frosts is past. High cultivation 

 is not absolutely necessary. The vines begin to 

 bloom early, and soon cover themselves with 

 beautiful flowers, hiding stumps or other un- 

 sightly objects, making a beautiful screen for 

 the piazza, or transforming slender poles into 

 ropes of living green and many colored flowers, 

 according to the place and treatment they are 

 given. Few plants give such a continuity of 

 bloom until frost comes to put an end to all 

 this glory. 



That advertisers of horticultural planting 

 stock seek to bring their announcements before 

 our readers to an extent unequalled by the 

 patronage they bestow on any other journal pub- 

 hshed, is a direct compliment to the intelligence 

 and liberality of the grand Popular Gardening 

 family. And this is an attention which we trust is 

 fully appreciated by our readers as it certainly is 

 by oureelves. With the vast mass of superior 

 catalogue literature placed within easy reach of 

 the reader, by advertisers, every one should 

 order of it freely and study it intelligently,with a 

 view of improving their own planting stock 

 at this season. 



About Fruit Growing in Oregon. Mr. J. J. 



Harden writes that interest in this business has 

 increased to such an extent in the WilUametti 

 Valley that nureerymen cannot supply the de- 

 mand for Prune trees, and many have to defer 

 planting for another year. The growth and in- 

 crease in wealth of the western and southern 

 States, and especially the mining districts wUI 

 always keep the demand in advance of the sup- 

 ply of good Pears. Many large tracts of land are 

 being divided into small fruit farms, and the 

 right man can make fruit growing pay $100 per 

 acre, and can well attend to 20 acres, except dur- 

 ing harvesting. 



A Hardy Tree for Lawn or Street. We are 

 glad to see that the Kentucky Coffee tree is 

 spoken of by Prof. T. J. BurrUI as well deserving 

 a place on the lawn or along road sides. This 



Garden Edging of Brick. 

 tree when planted in open ground, assumes a 

 fine shape, and charms us with its massive yet 

 delicately formed and pleasantly tinted foliage, 

 and later with its great fruit pods that hang all 

 winter to the limbs; the bark of the trunk is 

 hard, and the wood firm enough to brave snow 

 and frost and winds. Let the apparent ugliness 

 of the young tree not prevent the reader from 

 planting this superb tree on the lawn, on streets 

 and country roads, or for variety near the house. 



A Simple Garden Walk Edging. The walks 

 running thi'ough vegetable or flower gardens 

 may play an important part in giving either an 

 air of neatness or otherwise, according to the 

 care bestowed upon them. Perhaps no one thing 

 adds more to the general pleasing effect than to 



