232 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



July, 



Sweet Pea. 



Why I love you so is plain to see — 



You are the dearest flower of all, Sweet-Pea! 



A bit of purple cloud caught on a stalk ; 



A rosy vapor floating up and down my garden 



walk! 

 The spirit of a flower, with wings of flight, 

 Yet held by cliuging roots tor our delight. 

 A lovely type you are of souls, ah me. 

 Earth-bound yet ever reaching up, Sweet-Pea! 

 M. F. Btitts, in Wide Awake. 



Among the Lilies. 



She has been among them lately. 

 Where they grow so white and tall ; 



She has touched their blossoms stately. 

 She, the fairest flower of all. 



Something in her face doth show it- 

 Breathes the tale where'er she goes 



Shall 1 tell you how I know It? 

 There is yellow on her nose! 



It Is evening in the park, 

 And the softly coming dark 



Sees the toads 

 Snipping up the helpless flies. 

 Each a dainty, juicy prize, 



In the roads. 



Sweet Williams gain in popularity. 



Liberal feeding tor Phlox Drummondi. 



Our grounds are your grounds; visit them. 



The voice ot the lawn mower is in the land. 



Oreen fly on Hoses mean defective plant health. 



Late growth in Raspberries is all i"ij?ht. Try it. 



The bloom of annuals advances with the 

 season. 



We want no better orchard cultivator than 

 the Disk harrow. 



Defective ventilation is a great enemy to 

 small greenhouses. 



A healthy toad would take good care of the 

 insects in one hot bed. 



The Edinburgh, Scotland, botanic gardens are 

 now opened to the public on Sundays. 



Would you have a collection of hardy peren- 

 nials? Many can easily be grown from seed. 



Plants of Mammoth Improved Dandelion have 

 been received and are growing on our grounds. 



We here repeat that in summer watering little 

 and often is not desirable. Soak the soil way down. 



Fiasa King Asparagus, from Piasa King farm 

 (Godfrey, Ills.,) was fine, tender and delicious 

 "grass" indeed. 



The roar of Niagara Falls may be clearly 

 heard in all favorable weather at Woodbanks, 

 six miles away. 



" Mitlcuttah," " Silens Messor," etc.,— what 

 kind of lawn mower nomenclature is this? Will 

 our English friends explain? 



An Apple, bloomless, seedless, coreless, is 

 announced from Flag Pond, Va. is it one of 

 nature's freaks or of man's humbugs? 



Sunlight is one of nature's greatest antisep- 

 tics. In the construction of forcing houses as 

 much sunlight as possible should be admitted. 



Why plow up a Strawberry bed when only two 

 years old? I have a bed IB years old and it bears 

 as well now as ever.— IT'. W. R., Toronto, Can. 



Next month we will illustrate a simple and 

 useful non-patented cultivator which is at work 

 almost continually in the Popular Gabdenino 

 grounds. 



Onion Fly. An English gardener insists that 

 to scatter sand that has been soaked in petroleum 

 over the beds, will keep away this pest that leads 

 to so much trouble. 



This We Have Learned. Tinder the best of 

 garden culture a plot of Strawberries in which 

 all runners are clipped will bear far less fruit 

 than one in which free running is allowed. 



A Good Work, Will not every reader help on 

 the cause of horticulture by influencing one 



person to subscribe to this, the cheapest and the 

 leading horticultural journal of this continent? 

 The Colerain, a new white Grape, has done 

 well on Mr. Carman's grounds, and conditionally 

 he regards it as the best native white Grape in 

 cultivation. It is thought it will adapt itself 

 over a wide range of country and climate. 



Flower pots are useful, but for many purposes 

 connected with plant culture boxes or tubs are 

 decidedly better. Butter tubs after once having 

 served their purpose can generally be had very 

 cheap at the groceries, and when painted red or 

 brown are not at aU unsightly.— T. K. 



Ants on Lawns. I tried every known per- 

 suasive to make colonies of ants move ofE my 

 lawn, of which they occupied a portion of about 

 four feet in diameter, but all in vain. At last I 

 applied hellebore mixed with a little sugar to 

 each ant hole— and now they have disappeared. 

 —Mrs. W. H. Dick. 



A berry crank, that is what I was called ten 

 years ago, being the only man in Vernon Co., 

 Mo., who grew berries. Now our most intelli- 

 gent men and women are becoming "berry 

 cranks," and I receive more inquiries how to 

 grow small fruits, etc., than I have time to 

 answer.— Jacob Faith. 



A delicious privilege of our village homes is 

 this living and growing up with fruits, flowers 

 and vegetables. I object to flowerless lawns, to 

 fruitless, flowerless, vegetableless places, how- 

 ever correct otherwise, simply because they can 

 not be considered well furnished, nor the children 

 reared there well brought up.— F. K. Phwnix. 



Insects on Plants. I have discovered one 

 thing of value in greenhouse management, and 

 that is that insects do not like the atmosphere 

 and treatment which plants most enjoy. Give 

 the latter proper air, light, heat, space, soil and 

 water, and insects are easily kept down ; neglect 

 them as to these points, and the insects will 

 thrive.— JcMTiie Raines. 



We venture to say that no visitor to the Popu- 

 lar Gardening grounds at La-Salle-on-the- 

 Niagara in this year of 1889 will be disappointed 

 with the work in hand, if only the fact be kept in 

 mind that this is the first season's work. All 

 operations have been pushed with vigor, and the 

 work in its infancy can hardly fail to be satis- 

 factory of inspection by horticulturists. 



English Layering Pins. In the English mar- 

 ket may be found neat and serviceable layering 

 pins made of galvanized wire in the patterns 

 shown annexed. One of these pins is double 

 looped— the other single looped. The former 

 has a stronger hold on the layer and is less liable 

 to cause the branch to break. This one is fur- 

 ished at about 35 cents a hundred as against 

 18 cents for the single. 



What glorions benefit from thorough mulch- 

 ing in this dry weather. Ask the poor plants 

 how the rough straw or manure mulch looks in 

 the garden and see what a unanimous vote they 

 give in commendation of the supreme beauty of 

 the 'mulch. Handsome is that handsome does, 

 and I hold with the mulch protected plants that 

 in time of severe drouth thorough mulch is the 

 handsomest gai'den adjunct.— F. £r. Plianix. 



Strawberries in Central Kansas, Here it is 

 usually hot and dry during the month of July, 

 sometimes beginning in latter part of June and 

 extending well into August. I find the James 

 Vick the hardiest and most prolific under these 

 conditions from among Manchester, Downing, 

 Crescent, Countess and Wilson. My Manchesters 

 were entirely kiUed during the dry spell of hist 

 August. These dry seasons render the red 

 varieties of Raspberries incapable of withstand- 

 ing the winters and care bestowed upon any of 

 them is generally fruitless effort.— J. A.Smith. 



Zinnias in Pots, Every flower grower knows 

 that there is generally a scarcity of gay bloom- 

 ing plants late in autumn, and although Zinnias 

 are not generally cultivated in pots, they are most 

 valuable for that purpose, their gay colors and 

 fine large globular flowers making quite a dis- 

 play indoors long after they cease blooming in 

 open beds, where damp nights and heavy rains 

 generally cut short their beauty. Any left over 

 from planting should have their flower-buds 

 nipped out and be potted up at once for this pur- 

 pose, after which set them in the shade for a few 

 da.vs until they get a hold of the soil and then 

 put them out in open situation. — Caiuidian. 



To Florists, By all means make your plans to 

 attend the Buffalo Convention of Florists to be 

 held Aug. 20-Z'i. You will find ours an interest- 

 ing city to visit and in the floral embellishing 



done on our thousands of lawns, some valuable 

 lessons may perchance be learned. The Iluffalo 

 parks and cemetery are not excelled on the con- 

 tinent; these you must see, and Niagara river 

 and falls at our door are worth a journey of 

 thousands of miles at any time to behold. The 

 Popular Gardening grounds at La-Salle-on- 

 the-Niagara with the experiments in lawn 

 making and flower and shrub bedding of special 

 interest to florists, must also be kept in mind. 

 Rochester, with her famous nurseries, is but two 

 hours' ride from here. Come to Buffalo. 



Herbaceous Grafting. It is not generally 

 known that Coleus and even Cucumbers and 

 other herbaceous plants may be grafted quite 

 successfully, and surpi'ising effects may often be 

 secured by such operation. To graft Coleus 

 choose vigorous young plants, cut horizontally 

 to the wood where it is a little smaller than an 

 ordinary lead pencil, and split the stock in the 

 center of top, about one inch deep. The stock 

 and base of scion of course must be of same 

 thickness, so that the rinds meet Use firm little 

 cuttings, not too soft, about one and a half inches 

 long, for cions. Cut wedge shaped, one inch in 

 depth and insert into the split stock. Bind with 

 soft worsted. April and May are the best months 

 for the operation. The plants should be kept in 

 a propagating case or bed in a temperature of 70° 

 to 80° and remain shaded until the union is formed 



Nasturtiums and Petunias, Last summer I 

 saw some beautiful dwarf Nasturtiums and 

 broke off several slips with different colored 

 flowers. They rooted easily, made strong plants 

 and in February commenced to bloom. The 

 colors were very soft and brilliant. The pot 

 stood on a bracket in my small conservatory 

 and the leaves were close to the glass. They will 

 not do well unless they have a great deal of sun- 

 light. Close to the bracket is a pot holding Pe- 

 tunias which grow like \'lnes, the tops being 

 close to the window in the roof. There were 

 several kinds in one pot and the lovely flowers 

 opened every morning. The Nasturtiums and 

 Petunias alone made a brilliant show. They are 

 so easy to grow that it makes them the plants for 

 amateurs. Nasturtiums do not need much water, 

 but the Petunia while in bloom is the thirstiest 

 plant I know of. I fill the saucers sometimes 

 twice a day. I find slips broken off in the sum- 

 mer are better for the house than seedlings and 

 you can easier choose the colors.— Sfeter Gracious. 



Blue Gum Tree. It is only a short time since 

 the praises of the Eucalyptus globulus (Blue 

 Gum tree of Australia) for its beauty, useful- 

 ness and its malaria-absorbing qualities were 

 sung in almost every agricultural periodical. 

 Yet all this clamor has not been able to make it 

 popular for the simple reason that it is entirely 

 unsuited for open air culture in this country, 

 being disease-alHicted in Florida, and 

 too tender everywhere much north of 

 that state. For pot culture, especially 

 when treated as an annual, however, 

 it is an interesting subject, of beautiful 

 habit of growth, as a glance at the 

 illustration will show. Leaves are of a 

 bluish green color. Good plants can 

 readily be obtained in one season by 

 sowing seeds in January or February, 

 in light rich soil and exposed to a tem- 

 perature of .55° to 60°. They need plenty 

 of water in summer but no particular- 

 ly high temperature. Their growth is 

 rapid and the size they attain in one 

 season's growth genei'all,y enforces 

 their retirement in fall. The leaves of 

 English Eucalyptus citriodora or Lemon-Scen- 

 ^^MnT" ted Gum Tree, when gently rubbed, 

 emit a pleasant odor. This species is 

 also well suited for pot culture in the same 

 way as E. globulus. 



Detroit Flower Show. Our first exhibition 

 took with a rush. Over 14,000 people went to see 

 the flowers two days and the second evening the 

 crowd inside the rink was so great the doors had 

 to be closed for an hour and meanwhile thousands 

 collected outside and some waited two hours for 

 a chance to pay their quarter to see the show. 

 There were beds arranged on the floor, the pots 

 put into sawdust, so it was like looking down on 

 a bed of flowers in the garden; beds of Geran- 

 iums, Begonias, Marguerites, Carnations, while 

 choice Roses were arranged on shelves. There 

 were twenty-one booths with the young ladies 

 attending dressed in costumes appropriate to the 

 flowers they represented and sold. Twenty-one 

 different charities will be benefitted, and each 

 will get over five hundred dollars. DayUght was 



