94 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



March, 



A spring Race. 



The Crocus and the DafEodU 



Had quite a breathless race. 

 To see which first should greet the Spring 



With sunny, smiling face, 

 The fragile Snow-drop hung its head, 



And trembled in the breeze, 

 Until a sunbeam, playing 'round. 



Came near, lest it should freeze. 



But e'en before the Violets 



Have ope'd their eyes of blue. 

 Or spotted spears of Alder-tongue 



Have pierced the damp sod through, 



Down in the forest's fragrant shade 



The sweetest blossoms blow, 

 For while the rest were fast asleep 



These grew beneath the snow. 



And here Arbutus is the first 



To whisper, " Welcome, Spring," 

 And never monarch on his throne 



Found lovelier ofi'ering. 



~M. K. Buck, 1)1 Golden Days, 



The Wal!-FIower. 



The Wall-flower ! the Wall-flower ! 



How beautiful it blooms ! 



It gleams above the ruined tower 



Like eunlight over tombs -, 



It sheds a halo of repose 



Around the wrecks of time ; 



To beauty give the flaunting Rose— 



The Wall-flower is sublime. 



Try a Sweet Pea hedge. 



Dusty plants are not nice. 



Hurry up plant propagation. 



More clubs would be welcome. 



Keep coal tar ofE from the bark. 



Flora starts modestly in her season. 



Free Growers need the most water. 



Field mice are enemies of the Crocus. 



Our Cytisus is aglow with sweet bloom. 



Flowers are the sweeteners of life's acids. 



The " Inquiry Department " is growing. 



The Kieffer Pear is looking up more again. 



Acacias have been called Winter Golden-rod. 



A bit of tough sod answers well for pot drainage. 



Too many plants for a given space is a great mis- 

 take. 



Why not plant a clump of improved Pseonies this 

 year? 



Trees that are the same before and after burning 

 —Ashes. 



For window culture the best Rose is the true 

 Agrippina. 



The White Garden Rose for tlie million is Mad- 

 ame Planlier. 



The secret of having large Pansy flowers lies in 

 liquid manure. 



Camellias are grown as open air plants about 

 London, England. 



We would like to see more people growing fruits 

 in abundance for their own use. 



Hake hot-beds to hold the overflow of windows, 

 other hot-beds and greenhouses. 



To let green cuttings of any kind wilt but once 

 is to do them irreparable damage. 



The bright, richly embellished catalogue covers 

 must not come to the children's mouths. 



Thousands who cannot have fruit trees or bushes 

 might grow Grapes to perfection against buildings. 



On one account commission seeds might perhaps 

 be praised. They never wear out from much trav- 

 eling . 



Aim to have every plant and tree a " specimen.'''' 

 That is how to acquire much pleasure from horti- 

 culture. 



A touch of Nature in the form of climbing vines 

 may render the most humble house a most 

 charming sight. 



It is claimed by European vintners that very old 

 Grape-vines bear finer fruit than younger ones of 

 the same variety. 



Thousands of American women don't know of the 

 health they might enjoy by turning their spare 

 time to light gardening. 



Some state that Begonias will not bear water on 

 their leaves. This applies with special force only 

 to the large-leaved Rex section. 



Amateur gardening gains in ijopularity with 

 every year. The improvement in the catalogues 

 from year to year plainly indicates this. 



" I can buy fruit and vegetables cheaper than I 

 can raise them'" too often means a table scantily 

 supplied, where it should abound with these things. 



Forget-me-nots make nice pot plants. In forcing 

 they are impatient of much heat. They like plenty 

 of water and light. M. dissitiJloi-a alba is a useful 

 variety for its white flowers. 



A new plant spraying apparatus is referred to in 

 a welcome letter from our correspondent E. H. 

 Cushman of Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, and which we 

 hope later to describe somewhat fully. 



Bones for Trees. Mr. Barry remarks that in 

 taking up trees from soil enriched by reduced 

 bones be has found every fragment within reach 

 of the roots enclosed in a mass of root fibers. 



Impatiens Sultani, This ever-blooming single 

 Balsam is better raised from seed that is sown now 

 than from cuttings. As a pot plant it is really de- 

 sirable and in favorable seasons an excellent bedder. 



Ferns. A generally good soil for potting them 

 in is composed of equal parts turfy loam and 

 fibrous peat, mixed with coarse sand and fine char- 

 coal Although they love moisture, free drainage 

 is of real importance. 



Some of the largest clubs ever received by this 

 paper have come in during the past month. For 

 these the senders have our sincere thanks; it is 

 largely by the kind efforts of club raisers that 

 Popular Gardening exists. 



Dr. Fisher, the successful Grape-grower of Fitch- 

 burg, Mass. , is using two and one-fourth inch chest- 

 nut stakes for his trellises that were cut and set 13 

 or 14 years ago and still answer their purpose. They 

 were all cut in late summer when in full leaf. | 



" Language of Flowers," Etc. From the en- | 

 terprising florist and publisher, Charles A. Reeser, , 

 of Springfield, Ohio, comes to our desk a little 50 ' 

 cent cloth-bound book on this subject, and on other 

 floral matters. It contains 142 pages and is just | 

 such a gem as all flower growers would delight in. 



To have a good lawn the roller should be a 

 companion implement to the mower. But the two . 

 should not be combined, for in such a case the band- ' 

 mower having a roller attached does not prove heavy ' 

 enough as a roller, while it proves to be too 

 heavy and possessed of too useless an adjunct 

 to be propelled the season through in the 

 weekly mowings. 



Bedding Designs. A useful new plate book 

 of such designs has reached us from GJeo. A. 

 Solly & Son, Springfield, Mass. It contains 

 over on handsome and complete plans of 

 flower beds, from simple to elaborate. Of the 

 latter some are printed in as many as eight 

 colors. Lists of plants accompany the plans. 

 Full particulars may be had of the firm named. 



Pretty Near the Mark. No one other thing 

 is more important to good tillage than the 

 thorough fining of the soil. Here is one good 

 gardener's suggestions put in his own way on 

 how he prepares soil for crops: "I tell my 

 men to harrow the ground until they think it 

 is harrowed twice as much as it ought to be, 

 and then I tell them it is not harrowed half 

 enough." 



The Knife You Use. When we see some 

 one haggle away at pruning a pot or other 

 plant with a case-knife of the usual dullness 

 we are glad indeed that it has never been 

 demonstrated that plants have feelings. On 

 this point Popular Gardening is clear: Every 

 gardener, and even those who grow but a few 

 pot plants, should have a sharp knife to use 

 expressly for pruning. — - 



Take up This Craze. In the last century _^ 

 <iuite a craze for planting individual trees 

 existed in England. For example: Byron 

 when he first went to Newstead Abbey, at the 

 age of 10, planted an Oak there. He had an 

 idea that as the tree flourished so should he. ' '"■^ 

 However he " awakened to find himself famous, 

 and, returning many years later to Newstead found 

 the sapling choked up with weeds and almost dead. 



Grape-vines and Bees. How to make the vine 

 and its trellise of some use in a bee-yard is well . 

 shown by A. I. Root, an extensive bee grower, of 

 Medina, Ohio, in the accompanying engraving 

 which he has kindly sent to us. The vine affords 



shade and the trellise supports a convenient shelf 

 for use when managing the bees. The space taken 

 up by the vine would be of no value otherwise, 

 while in this way it is made fruitful. Mischievous 

 boys would not be apt to trouble the fruit. 



Kind Words Appreciated. Letters praising the 

 character and worth of Popular Gardening reach 

 this oflftce in every day's mail, aggregating hundreds 

 and thousands. All such are most thankfully re- 

 ceived, for, independent of the friendly spirit ex- 

 pressed, they form a great source of strength to the 

 workers on the paper, prompting them to the most 

 strenuous efforts in making a better journal with 

 each month. To publish many of these letters would 

 be most gratifying, but the crowded state of our 

 columns forbids. 



The Weeping Cherry is one of our most beauti- 

 ful small lawn trees, and a few words on its propa- 

 gation may not be out of place. It is raised by 

 grafting or budding on some other stock, that of 

 the Mazzard Cherry being the best. To graft on 

 the wood of the previous year's growth does not 

 work as well as to employ growth that is about 

 three years old. We have been quite successful in 

 grafting it by the whip or splice grafting, as well as 

 by cleft grafting. The stock should be about six 

 feet high where it receives the cion. 



The Wild Yellow Lily Again. Seeing s. T. w.^s 

 account of cultivating Lily Canadense, in the Janu- 

 ary number, I offer my own experience. Two years 

 ago I took two bulbs from a swamp after the stalks 

 were sear, and planted them in a Dutch Bulb bed 

 The next season they grew flve feet high. One bore 

 three and the other seven flowers. Last summer 

 they reached seven feet high, and one had 33, the 

 other 28, all larger than those found in the wild state. 

 One produced sulphur yellow, the other orange 

 flowers.— W. H. Perry, Worcester Co., Mass. 



Bees and Early Flowers. Many of the early 

 cultivated flowers in the garden, window and green- 

 house attract the bees that are out searching for 

 early sweets But it is found that the visits of 

 bees are detrimental to the endurance of flowers, 

 for once these become well fertilized by pollen, 

 their maturing and the dropping of their petals is 

 hastened. It is desirable therefore to keep the bees 

 from our early flowers. In the case of window or 

 conservatory plants this may be done by the simple 

 use of wire or other screens over the openings. 



A $200 Lesson in Raspberry Planting. It cost 

 us at least $300 to learn that Raspberry plants to be 

 set out on sod ground should have this done very 

 early wherever Cut-worms abound. Those plant- 

 ed late are here liable to be very badly affected. It 

 is often stated that in setting Strawberries, avoid 



and Trellise Useful in the Bee Yard for Shade 

 setting upon sod ground, where the white grub is 

 liable to be bad, but we have never observed any- 

 thing written about setting Raspberry plants upon 

 sod ground. We have never been troubled with 

 white grubs in Raspberry plants. A. M. Nichol, 

 Licking Co., Ohio. 



Don't Uncover too Early. Just as some peo- 

 ple are liable to protect their shrubs, vines and 



