1887. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



175 



which never loses its freshness; they lay their 

 beautiful robes at our feet in autumn; in winter 

 they " stand and w^ait," emblems of patience and 

 of truth, for they hide nothing, not even the little 

 leaf-buds which hint to us of hope, the last element 

 in their triple of symbolism.— Dr. O. W. Holmes in 

 Atlantic Monthly. 



White Leaved Shrubs. One of the most charming 

 bits of shrubbery on the writer's grounds consists 

 of the Variegated-leaved Cornelian Cherry, the new 

 Variegated-leaved Siberian Dogwood, the Variega- 

 ted-leaved Elder, and the Silver-leaved Corchorus 

 placed in a group. These shrubs are all of easy 

 growth, and, with the exception of the Elder, which 

 requires frequent cutting back, are of line compact 

 form. The two first-named are unexcelled among 

 growths of their class for the whiteness displayed 

 in their leaves, while the Corchorus is an abundant 

 bloomer. The contrast in color presented between 

 these and the surrounding grass and shrubs is of a 

 mild but remarkably pleasing form. 



Ben: Perley Poore. In the death of this eminent 

 writer for the press, on May 20, Agriculture and 

 kindred pursuits lost a warm friend. Besides being 

 a terse and vigorous writer he was an active culti- 

 vator of the soil, engaging in many works that 

 shall leave their impress on the future. Major 

 Poore's pet grove of forest trees, which he seemed 

 to love as if they were human beings, gained from 

 the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of 

 Agriculture a premium of SI,O0O, which had been 

 otfered for the best growth of forest trees within 

 ten years from the time of planting. It consisted 

 of twenty acres of Oak, Chestnut. Hickory. Walnut, 

 Locust, Fir and Pine, every tree of which the 

 major planted with his own bands. At the time of 

 bis death Mr. Poore was in his GSth year. 



The Swiss Stone Pine. Pine trees would be 

 more common on lawns were it not that those 

 which are the best known, the Austrian or Black, 

 the White, the Scotch, etc., are strong growers, 

 requiring more space than can well be spared 

 for them. In the Swiss Stone Pine iPinus cevibra), 

 of which a life-like engraving is herewith presented, 

 we have a well-tested species, which while it ranks 

 among the hardiest of the Pines, is of slow growth 

 and small stature. Ctn this account it is admir- 

 ably suited for planting where the larger kinds 

 would be inappropriate. It is a most beautiful 

 tree of silvery-green foliage and pyramidal form, 

 and which we are sure needs but a fair introduction 

 to become a great favorite. It may now be had of 

 a number of our leading nurserymen at about the 

 average price of young Pines. For the use of the 

 faithful engraving given we are indebted to Mr 

 Thomas Meehan, Germantowu. Pa. 



Making Straight Rows. I like them in the 

 garden. I use a marker I made myself, and 

 although rough it answers admirably. I took a 

 pine strip six inches wide and three feet ten inches 

 long. On one side of this, crosswise. I nailed hard- 

 wood pieces three inches wide, four long and one 

 and a half thick, at the top, shaped like a sled 

 runner in front and like a wedge underneath. Four 

 of these i-unners were nailed on one side at one foot 

 apart, three on the other IS inches apart. I made 

 a straight tongue of an old broom handle, putting a 

 good brace on either side so as to hold securely. 

 With this affair I can have the rows one foot apart. 

 or by skipping one mark two feet; by using the 

 other side 18 inches, or three feet. The runners 

 make furrows deep enough for all kinds of garden 

 seed but Peas. I find it very convenient.— iV. J. 

 Shepherd. Miller Co., Mo. 



Kaising Fine Fruit. Mr. Virgil Bogue, of the 

 famous (Orleans County fruit region, in this State, 

 in a letter to us puts it that he would go about rais- 

 ing fine fruit very much as he would raise fhie Com 

 for market. He says: "The demand is for large 

 fine Apples and other fruit. They can best be pro- 

 duced by a frequent and thorough stirring of the 

 soil just as one would do to produce good Corn. 

 The tree is in fact as much benefited by good cul- 

 tivation as is the Corn plant. If we in this large 

 fruit belt were to market our Com in the ear and 

 give it no more cultivation than we do our trees, 

 there would soon be as much said about the need 

 of sorting as there is now of fruit. The blossoms 

 now promise a large crop of fruit; let us do our 

 part in developing it by plowing under any crop 

 that is in the orchard, then harrowing well every 

 ten days till September. The result will be a moist 

 blanket over their roots to prevent the bad effects 

 of drought and giving vigor and regular growth. 



A Seed-Starting Device. For the following 



welcome article with accompanying drawings we 

 are indebted to a subscriber at Cincinnati, O., who 

 modestly signs himself *' An Amateur." " It works 

 well. After preparing the seed bed by thorougli 



spading and a top dressing about two inches thick 

 of good loam, sharp sand and leaf mold in e*|ual 

 parts, I give It a soaking and place upon it small 

 frames like Fig. A, made of common lath, without 

 top or bottom and to fit any regular glass panes to 

 be used for covers. An H x 10 size will start more 

 flower seed than most persons want. I use a frame 

 to one or several kinds of seed, separating them 

 when more than one with strips of pasteboard In 

 sowing I cover very lightly, giving to fine kinds 

 like Petunias scarcely more than a dusting of 

 earth. The glass is shaded with whitewash or a 

 little soil dusted on when it is wet. Giving each 

 kind of seed a separate frame is a great advantage, 

 as some start much sooner than others. When the 



B C 



Simple device.'^ made of Lath, Nails and Olass^for 

 starting Flower Seeds. 



seedlings are through the soil, air is admitted by 

 sliding around the glass as shown at C. In case of 

 rain the glass is tilted up as at B, placing a prop 

 underneath." 



What is If? Mr. W^m. Jackson, of Godfrey, 

 Illinois, sends us a card upon which is shown I)r. 

 Diehl's enlarged drawing of the minute insect that 

 is believed to cause rust and blight on the Straw- 

 berry. While little is claimed to be positively 

 known of this insect, even Dr. Diehl saying that its 

 classification at present is impossible, our corres- 

 pondent concludes from observations that it is not 

 this or any insect that leads to the blight, but cer- 

 tain other causes. Says Mr. Jackson: ""One thing 

 is particularly noticeable, viz., that those who 

 removed their mulching from their Strawberries 

 very early on account of the unseasonable spring- 

 like weather, or did not mulch at all, suffered 

 severely, in fact, will have comparatively no crop 

 at all. On the contrary I did not remove the 

 mulching from my plants till the 2d of April. 

 Many of my neighbors were surprised at my tardi- 

 ness, but results show that my course was the best 

 for I had a good crop of Strawberries. I suspected 

 that the fine weather was premature, and I cannot 

 but conclude that the failure here is due to mis- 

 management aided by violent weather changes. 



The Cut-leaved "Weeping Birch. Concerning 

 the history of this favorite ornamental tree, the 

 well-known Rochester nurserymen, Messrs. EU- 

 wanger & Barry, furnish to a foreign exchange the 

 following brief sketch: " In the summer of 1848 the 

 late Mr. Henry W. Sargent, of Fishkill-on-the-IIud- 

 son. was traveling in Europe, and wrote to the late 

 Mr, A. J. Downing about this tree. In the famous 

 Booth Nurseries of Hamburg he wrote: 'Among 

 other trees and shrubs rare to me I noticed a 

 Weeping Birch peculiar to Germany. It had de- 

 scending shoots :W feet long; the branches hang 

 perpendicularly downward.' Upon reading this 

 we at once sent an order for some of the trees, and 

 received them the following spring. These were 

 the first imported into this country. It proved to 

 be one of the most popular trees ever introduced 

 here, and its popularity continues to this day. As 

 an erect-growing graceful tree, with pendulous 

 branches, it really has no equal. The first tree we 

 planted out, some thirty-four years ago, was cut 

 down a few years since, to clear the ground. An- 

 other, planted some twenty-five years ago, is now 

 .*iO feet in height. The trunk is r> feet 3 inches in 

 circumference near the ground, and branches from 

 -1 feet above the ground.'" 



New York Floral Notes. 



This is what Londoners call the "silly season'' as 

 far as florists are concerned. There are no great 

 receptions or public functions, and the number of 

 weddings is on the wane. Flowers are painfully 

 cheap: the market is flooded. The street venders 

 of flowers increase and multiply, and every other 



woman wears a great bunch of outdoor blossoms. 

 The florists are racking their brains to contrive 

 novelties for next season. The greatest number of 

 designs are now made as parting gifts to people 

 going abroad. These steamer souvenirs do some- 

 thing towards bridging over the chasm between 

 the .spring and winter trade. 



Decoration Day was observed with more floral 

 tributes than was expected. A great many plants 

 were used on this occasion. Experience every- 

 where this year shows a greater demand for loose 

 flowers than for designs. This was the general 

 rule at Kastertide and Memorial Day. It is rather 

 an improvement, too. Last year a great many 

 designs at the grave of a great soldier were in 

 immortelles, in such pleasing tints as aniline crim- 

 son, chrome yellow, arsenical green and vivid pur- 

 ple, and the combinations were calculated to put 

 an artist into a cold perspiration. Some very 

 charming effects are produced by the use of Cape 

 Flowers and Immortelles in their natural colors, but 

 as a rule dyed everlastings are a mistake, if one 

 cares for artistic fitness. 



Very elaborate designs, especially funeral pieces, 

 are often comparatively meaningless. The writer 

 remembers a case in point, in a west<?rn city. A 

 prominent citizen of the -genus "tough" met with 

 an untimely end, the cause of his taking-off being 

 a beer-glass thrown in a saloon fight. His sorrow- 

 ing friends wished to offer some mark of their 

 respect in the form of a floral design. The emblem 

 chosen was a white Iamb, with the word Rest on 

 one side, and Peace on the other. It was slightly 

 incongruous. 



Florist's flowers are hard pressed just now by all 

 sorts of field blossoms. The Marsh Buttercups, so- 

 called, which were sold by the bushel during April 

 and May, have now given place to the real Butter- 

 cups of the meadow, and the Ox-eye Daisy. These 

 two flowers together make an exquisite harmony of 

 white and gold. They are not only sold by the 

 street venders, but find their way in leading flower- 

 stores. Outdoor Lilacs are over in this section, 

 but some fortunate florists get them down East, 

 where they are at their best. 



When any large piece of decorating is done the 

 florist depends chiefly upon outdoor stuff. Great 

 masses of Weigelia and Syringia are most effective, 

 and Mountain Laurel, with its clusters of rosy 

 blossoms, finds a place by its sisters of the garden. 



Some people have been trying to re-introduce the 

 use of taller table decorations, but the sensible 

 fashion of low plateaus still holds good. It is a 

 regular nuisance to be obliged to dodge a lot of tall 

 plants, in order to catch sight of one's vis-a-vis. 



The prettiest table decorations are low banks of 

 Ferns, with a few selected flowers lightly placed 

 among them. This is the most advantageous way 

 of showing off Orchids; Cattleyas or Lfelias are ex- 

 (luisite in such a position. It is a great mistake to 

 mix these flowers with a lot of other stuff; they are 

 not nearly so striking. Gloxinias are charming, 

 used in the same way; they show off beautifully 

 banked in any position, and they come in such 

 exquisite lamplight shades of pink and porcelain 

 blue Their use in floral decorations is compara- 

 tively recent. 



The prettiest wreaths now made are certainly 

 those made in the form of a crescent, with the ends 

 tied together with ribbon. They are e.vquisite when 

 made only of Ivy leaves, with a knot of flowers, or, 

 in the case of an aged person, a bunch of wheat on 

 one side The Ivy leaves are well washed, and then 

 slightly ofled, giving them a brilliant gloss. 



Apparently everyone does not regard cloth bears 

 with shoe-button eyes as out of place in a floral 

 design, for we are told that the basket with this 

 menagerie thrown in, described in the last issue of 

 PopiLAR Gardening, has met with great favor 

 among the patrons of the ingenious florist who 

 originated it. 



Bouquets show no new departures so far; they 

 are stiU big pyramidal nosegays. We are told that 

 corsage bunches will not be so large, but it still 

 appears the custom for each lovely creature to 

 wear as big a bunch as she can obtain . By the 

 way, there is a new patent fastening for corsage 

 bouquets which is very convenient. It is built on 

 the same plan as a safety pin, but instead of a 

 straight bar it fastens into a spiral spring, strong 

 enough to hold the flowers in place, yet yielding to 

 accommodate a large bunch. Very convenient. 



Apparently the favorite boutonniere is still a 

 round bunch of Violets, as displayed by the youth 

 with a big stick and a baggy suit of clothes. 



It is a wonder tliat the modest English Primrose 

 has not appeared this spring for the corsage or 

 button hole: apart from its own beauty it would 

 suggest a familiarity with the Primrose League, 

 highly attractive to the admirers of our English 

 cousins. Emily Louise Tai'UN, 



