6o 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



January, 



Crocuses. 



I love their faces when by one 



And two they're looking out ; 

 I love them when the spreading Held 



Is purple all about. 

 I loved them in the bygone jears 



Of childhood's thoughtless laughter, 

 When I marvelled why the rtowers came first, 



And the leaves the season after. 

 I loved them then, I love them now— 



The gentle and the bright ; 

 I love them for the thoughts they bring 



Of Spring's returning light ; 

 When first-born of the waking earth 



Their kindred gay appear. 

 And with the Snowdrop usher in 



The hope-invested year. 



— L. A. TwamJey 



" What kind of fruit do you like the best ? " 



He iiuestioned the maiden fair, 

 "The juicy Apple with rosy cheeks. 



Or the sweet and luscious Pear ? " 

 The gentle jnaiden smiled and said : 



" The fruit that pleases me 

 Better than all the fruits I know 



Is the fruit of the Christmas tree." 



Bleak %vintry winds and moaning blasts 



Sweep o'er the snow-clad fields. 

 Yet Nature's hands are fashioning, 

 Hid from all curious questioning. 



The flowers that summer yields. 



-Charlotte M. Palmrr. 



More sun, more Violets. 



Now put the sash in order. 



Give thought to the garden. 



Trees are God's architecture. 



Pot Tulips should be in bloom. 



Use fertilizers sparingly on pot plants. 



1887 should see the family trebled in size. 



Five papers in one. Price $1.00 a year. See'/ 



Sweet Alyssum signifies worth beyond beauty. 



Onion seed cannot be trusted beyond two years. 



Are the cellars and root pits secure against frost? 



House plants appear glad for the lengthening 

 days. 



Too much water tor plants is quite as bad as too 

 little. 



Kid glove gardening don't deserve to amount to 

 much. 



If one must have knock-about plants, take the 

 dwarfer Cactuses. 



In fruit growing nothing is so really expensive 

 as a poorly prepared soil. 



" I've turned over a new leaf." January Jst en- 

 try in Rose Geranium's new Diary. 



Sorrel can be eradicated from fields by generous 

 applications of unleached wood tishes. 



Eemember the 15,000 clubs referred to last 

 month. We count you in that calculation. 



" There is 'a lesson in each flower,' sure enough," 

 sighed the tired student in the botany class. 



Ferns because they need no sunshine should not 

 be thrust into a dark place. They need light. 



What Flower Pots Do. In Nature plants are 

 fixed in habit; tlower pots endow them with loco- 

 motive powers. 



Is the mind tired and harassed by cares'; Turn 

 to the contemplation of fresh flowers and plants, 

 and it will be refreshed. 



The American Horticulturist joins hands with 

 our family. Welcome! every reader of that ster- 

 ling journal into our ranks. 



For a small plot the Sharpless Strawberry, 

 grown by keeping all runners cut, can be recom- 

 mended. The soil should be rich. 



Asclepias tuberosa (Pleurisy Root) is a valuable 

 honey plant, at the same time that it is one of our 

 most ornamental native perennials. 



The people are ready to stand by Popular Gar- 

 dening if invited. Invite the people that are in- 

 cluded among your friends, reader. 



That kind of love for gardening which is fi-uitful 

 of good and patient work in the care of each subject 

 is what brings success and pleasure 



" No luck " are words made to shield a deal of 

 bad mana,t<ement in gardening. Of course this ap- 

 plies to no Popular Gardening readers. 



Queer ? A man who will swallow any kind of a 

 dish with an imposing French name will steer way 

 to one side of the Latin name of a plant. 



Now study up the beneflts of and plan for an 

 evergreen screen on the cold-wind side of the home. 

 Later in the season see that it gets planted. 



Large Pots. My idea is that as a rule when peo- 

 ple complain of failure in flower culture it is owing 

 to the use of too large pots— Gilchrist. 



Currant Trees, To grow such having tnmks, 

 the buds from that part of the cutting that goes 

 into the ground should be removed.— J. J. Robinson . 



Let the first crop of the new year be a crop of 

 good, well-matured plans for a fine 1887 garden. 

 Popular Gardening could suggest nothing better. 



Cost of Gro-wing Strawberries, . Mr. Farns- 

 worth, of Lucas Co., Ohio, puts this, in a certain 

 case of his own of two acres, at $126 when the fruit 

 was ready to pick. 



One Chrysanthemum, a bloom of the M. Guys 

 variety, in the Japanese section at the recent New 

 York Flower Show measured nine inches in diam- 

 eter It was a fantastic monster. 



People who have no real taste and never did 

 have any are the ones who try to make certain 

 flowers fashionable to the exclusion of all other 

 kinds.— Frederick Mitchell. 



The gardening journals have not yet properly 

 occupied their field, when a noted clergyman 

 could ask, in all earnestness, " How many seeds 

 does it take to produce a tree'?" as one did of a 

 prominent fruit grower some time ago. 



Popular Gardening, unlike a garden crop, 

 should make its greatest growth in mid-winter. 

 But hke good garden and orchard crops, to grow 

 well it needs the help of good gardeners and fruit 

 growers. Garden lovers will you help this crop'? 



Many holiday gifts are old and forgotten before 

 two months have passed. This is not true of Pop- 

 ular Gardening when sent as a gift for a year. It 

 comes around fresh and new every month, and is 

 quite certain to increase in appreciation with each 

 issue. Such a present does the giver great credit. 



In gardening poor and rich occupy common 

 grounds. We are thinking of a magnificent Ivy- 

 leaved Geranium that we lately saw in a poor la- 

 borer's window. It was the result of a woman's 

 work of love. It is our opinion that not the best 

 hot-house in the land could show a better specimen. 



Florists have one knack in prolonging the fresh- 

 ness of flowers with which few amateurs seem to be 

 familiar. It is to cut off a bit of the stem with a 

 sharp knife after the flowers have been in the water 

 for a day or more. This has the effect of bringing 

 fresh cells in direct contact with thfe water, and 

 the flowers as a result put on a new brightness. 



Groups on the lawn. To make these satisfactory, 

 study Nature's groups along the borders of streams 

 swamps, and along fence rows. Nature does things 

 well, and the highest skill in this direction is only 

 acquired by long study and the most careful obser- 

 vation. The main difflculty Ues in the tact that 

 shrubs grow and one needs a prophetic eye in plan- 

 ning his plantation —C/iarfes A. Garfield. 



Apples for Missouri. E. P. Henry, of Butler 

 Co., in that State recommends as the best six for 

 profit the following, in the order named : Ben 

 Davis, Willow Twig, Jonathan, Grimes Golden, 

 Minkler, Huntsman. For the Family, Early Har- 

 vest, Sweet June. Sops of Wine, Lowell, Maiden's 

 Blush, Red Streak, Fameuse, Grimes' Golden, 

 Minkler, Jonathan, Huntsman, and Lady Sweet. 



Salt Water for Mildew. The venerable horticul- 

 turist, Jean Sisley, Lyons, France, recommends this 

 to Americans in the proportion of six pounds of 

 salt to 25>i gallons of water. It is used in Fi-ance, 

 he tells us, to destroy mildew on Roses and Peach 

 trees, and he thinks it possible that it will also de- 

 stroy the black spot with which Roses in America 

 are affected, as that is possibly a fungus as well. 



A rapid growing tree with great spreading 

 branches should show many newly-formed clubs 

 each season. Do you catch the idea'? The tree is Pop- 

 ular Gardening ; the great branches are its acqui- 

 sition of other papers; the clubs refer to the vigor- 

 ous new growth takmg place as the result of good 

 tillage. The implied husbandman is the gai'den- 

 lovers of the land, who work hard among their 

 friends everywhere to aid the growth of the tree. 



Two Good Lindens. As a class the Lindens, of 

 which the Basswood is the well-known American 

 representative, should be oftener used in ornamen- 

 tal planting in America, Of these the European 

 White-leaved and the White-leaved Weeping are 

 really very superior ti'ees. They are hardy, and 

 injurious insects and destructive diseases appear to 

 pass them by. Their growth is rapid, the form 

 beautiful and majestic, while the foliage of each 

 is singularly handsome and tenacious. 



The best Tomatoes. -Vs the result of experi- 

 ments on a large scale, during the past season at 

 the Michigan Agricultural College, the following 

 six varieties would be selected by their projectors as 

 the choice ; Boston Market, Conqueror, Red Val- 

 encia Cluster, Trophy, Livingston's Beauty, and 

 Paragon. While with growers for market the va- 

 riety grown is a matter of no little importance, for 

 the family garden simply any one of the standard 

 sorts will be found to meet all requirements. 



Miniature Cactuses. The writer has heard much 

 about miniature tree-growing in China, but he has 

 seen the growing of miniature Cactuses in Germany, 

 and this has impressed him far more favorably. 

 It is an act which aU plant lovers can readily adopt. 

 It consists of the use of the smallest sized flower 

 pots, say one and one-half inches across, and in 

 these growing any of the smaller sized Cactuses, 

 in almost pure sand, keeping them rather dry The 

 little pots are painted vermillion, and with the 

 plants in them present a decidedly unique appear- 

 ance on the table or mantle. 



A Blade of Grass. " Gather," says Ruskin, " a 

 single blade of grass, and examine for a moment, 

 quietly, its narrow, sword-shaped strip of fluted 

 green. Think of it well, and judge whether, of all 

 the gorgeous flowers that beam in summer air, and 

 of all strong and goodly trees pleasant to the eyes 

 or good for food, there be any by God more highly 

 graced, by man more deeply loved, than that nar- 

 row point of feeble green. Consider what we owe 

 to the meadow grass, to the covering of the ground 

 by that glorious enamel, by the companies of those 

 soft and countless and peaceful spears.'' 



Liquid Manure for Pot Plants, The idea of 

 liquid manure in the house for the plants is natur- 

 ally distasteful, while its efficacy on many plants 

 as they are coming into bloom is nowhere ques- 

 tioned. So when M. E. S. of Livingston Co., Mo., 

 sends by postal card her directions for making this 

 by a decidedly neat course, we are glad to give 

 them place here: " Into a thin muslin bag I place 

 a ladleful of dry chicken manure and a small bit 

 of super-phosphate. This I suspend a day and a 

 night in a bucket of water, after which the water is 

 used sparingly on the plants twice each week." 

 Amaryllis Culture. At a Horticultural meeting 

 in Woodstock, <.mtario, a Mr. Gilchrist said that 

 with regard to the blooming of these plants there 

 is very little difference between success and failure. 

 "A few years ago a lot of gentlemen in Guelph sent 

 to Germany for Amaryllis, very expensive ones. 

 They could not get them to bloom, and they sent 

 them to us to see what we could do with them, and 

 we put them in the greenhouse. In every case 

 they had the Amaryllis in the centre of the pot 

 with the earth raised 

 away up around them. 

 They would never grow 

 in that way. All we 

 did was to plant them 

 just on the top of the 

 soil, and we succeeded 

 well with them." 



The Cultivation of 

 Cyclamens Urged. 

 This Mrs. J. C. Hubbel 

 of Lee Co., lU., does in 

 a welcome note to our 

 editors, as follows : 

 " They should be much 

 oftener seen, and es- 

 A Rapid Propagator. pecially -n'here the 

 number of plants cultivated is for want of space re- 

 stricted to a few. They are beautiful both in leaf and 

 flower, require but little care, and are i-emarkable 

 for their freedom of bloom. Mine last winter were 

 covered with blossoms from the last of November 

 until May. An added charm is their novelty, as 

 they are so different from all our ordinary bloom- 

 ing plants. Gei'aniums, for example, while richer 

 in coloring, are seen so constantly that they ap- 

 pear common indeed alongside of this favorite. 



A Rapid Propagator, A case similar to the one 

 here shown is considerably in use throughout En- 

 gland, and the same principle might, in one form or 

 another, often be found valuable whenever plants 

 are propagated. As is well known where the sand or 

 other medium in which cuttings are rooted is some 



