20 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 255. 



bench can be spared, Mignonetto, such as cannot be grown 

 out-of-doors in summer, may be had in perfection at this sea- 

 son of the year, and no plant is easier to grow. Heliotrope, 

 with its own distinct and pleasant fragrance, is seasonable 

 either as a pot-plant, to be planted out and trained to a single 

 stem, or for covering the walls or the end of the building. 

 The Camellia, once so popular, still deserves mention at 

 this season, since it is worth possessing for its bright glossy 

 deep foliage alone. Chorozema ilicifolia and its varieties are 

 seldom seen, but a plant in (lower now always commands 

 attention. 



Dongan Hills, N. Y. W^'«- Tricker. 



Mistakes of the Year. 



LAST year was a hard one for vegetables. Until the ist of 

 July there were such constant rains that it was difficult to 

 get crops planted in time or to properly care for them after- 

 ward, while the remainder of the season, until well into the 

 autumn, was an almost unbroken drought. 



The first mistake was in not being ready to plant as soon as 

 the season permitted. Early in May there was a favorable op- 

 portunity for planting Corn, during which the earliest Sweet 

 Corn and a portion of the main crop were planted, but other 

 things interfering, and there being plenty of time under ordi- 

 nary circumstances, further planting was delayed until heavy 

 rains came on and made it impossible to plant. With Potatoes 

 it was the same. My early crop was planted in April, and 

 yielded finely, but the late crop was checked by excessive rain 

 during the early stages of growth, and never recovered ; in 

 fact, we finished planting one field with the dibble in the mud, 

 but might as well have left it unplanted, for the ground packed 

 so hard that the crop amounted to nothing. Thousands of 

 acres of late-planted Potatoes in southern Michigan and north- 

 ern Ohio and Indiana were in the same condition. I shall here- 

 after plant all my Potatoes early and push them to maturity as 

 soon as possible, for there is not one year in five here that they 

 can be kept growing through the summer drought and receive 

 the benefit of the fall rains. 



The next mistake I recall was an attempt at double cropping. 

 I had a piece of sandy land planted to Melons, and concluded 

 to utilize a portion of it until the Melons needed the ground by 

 growing a crop of Radishes. The Radishes did finely, but the 

 weather being dry the Melon-vines among them received a 

 check from lack of thorough cultivation, so that the crop on 

 that portion of the field was a total failure. Possibly in a wet 

 summer the plan might succeed, but it is evidently a risky one. 



Another mistake was in the late plandng of Peas. In order 

 to prolong the season, several plantings were made in the lat- 

 ter half of May, and even into June, but none of these yielded 

 anything like a fair crop. 



Tomatoes were about the most successful of anything I 

 raised ; in fact, nearly half of my earlycrop was sold before any 

 others from the vicinity appeared in the market. The year has 

 demonstrated more fully than ever the importance for the early 

 crop of setting large stocky plants on well-prepared and care- 

 fully selected soil. There was fully three weeks' difference in 

 the ripening of the crop on several sandy knolls and on lower 

 land adjoining. Sun-scald was the most serious trouble I had, 

 and artificial covering of the growing fruit was found neces- 

 sary to save it. In raising the plants tin fruit-cans, with the 

 bottoms removed and sides unsoldered, were used to some 

 extent, but nothing was gained by their use, though, perhaps, 

 there would have been had the weather been dry at the time 

 of setting ; but Tomatoes transplant very easily, and if stocky 

 and well hardened a little disturbance of the roots in trans- 

 planting does no particular harm. Nothing was gained by very 

 early planting. A few plants set May nth ripened their first 

 fruit only a day or two earlier than the main planting. May 30th, 

 after the weather had become warm and settled. Frost did no 

 harm to the early set plants, but they became pinched and blue 

 and required a long fime to recover. . . ^ 



Ann Arbor, Mich. A. A. CrOZier. 



Heliotrope. — The cultivation of Heliotrope in pots has not 

 been altogether satisfactory, and last year I concluded to try it 

 in the ground. The house in which it was planted is ten feet 

 wide, with a flue on one side, over which there is a bench, the 

 opposite side being nearly level with the walk. A little of the 

 earth was removed from a section of this bench and replaced 

 by clippings of shrubs. Over this some three inches of coarse 

 manure was thrown, and the whole well covered with soil 

 which had been prepared for potting. When finished the 

 bench was eight inches above the walk, and the Heliotrope 

 was then planted in it. The result was a vigorous growth, 

 with healthy foliage and abundant bloom, while plants in pots 



on the bench directly opposite lost a large pordon of their 

 foliage by rust. With very little attenfion these plants con- 

 tinued to bloom through the following summer. It was my 

 intention to remove them in early fall and plant a new bed for 

 this winter, but when September came they showed such a 

 vigorous new growth and such promise of bloom that they 

 were allowed to remain, and have been blooming freely 

 through November and December. They still continue in 

 vigorous condition, although they are losing their leaves on 

 the lower portion of the stems. It would, no doubt, have been 

 better to have cut them back near the ground about the ist of 

 September and to have applied an inch or more of fresh soil. 

 A modification of this plan might be applied to ordinary win- 

 dows, or more especially to;.bay-windows, by using boxes not 

 less than one foot square and six inches deep. Jersey Beauty 

 is the most satisfactory variety I have ever tried for general 

 purposes. Fleur d'Et^, nearly white, is a strong-growing va- 

 riety, with remarkably large foliage, which it holds well, but it 

 does not produce much bloom. Queen of the Violets is a 

 very fine dark variety, which succeeds fairly well, but, like all 

 the very dark kinds, is specially liable to rust. 



Mannettia bicolor is another plant which does not always 

 prove satisfactory m pots, and seems to do better planted out. 

 Last spring some plants came up from self-sown seed near one 

 of the supports to our greenhouse, and were allowed to grow 

 and twine around it all summer, reaching the top, which was 

 about six feet high. These plants commenced to bloom about 

 December ist, and the flowers have continued to increase in 

 number all through the month, so that they are one mass of 

 bloom, and bid fair to increase in beauty for several months 

 to come. This plant is one of the easiest to grow from cut- 

 tings, and would, no doubt, have commenced to bloom much 

 earlier if grown in that way. To keep it thick at the bottom 

 several plants may be grown in a box for the window, and the 

 vines may also be trained to run down the supports as well as 

 up. The foliage should not be wet in damp and cloudy 

 weather, as continued moisture is likely to cause the leaves to 

 decay. 



Ruellia macranthra.— This is a shrubby plant with foliage like 

 a Justicia, and with monopetalous, tubular, expanded flowers 

 two to three inches across. These are a deep rose-color 

 when first open, fading to pale rose, with a white throat well 

 marked with crimson veins and a large cream-colored blotch 

 on the upper segment. They are very showy, last a long 

 time, and tlie plant may always be relied on to bloom in De- 

 cember and January if properly treated. It is a very strong 

 and rapid grower, with large foliage, and requires considera- 

 ble pot-room and plenty of water during the latter part of the 

 season. To prevent it from getting out of reach, it may be 

 started in a moderate-sized (say four-inch) pot for a fair-sized 

 plant, in spring, and kept pinched backfill midsummer, when it 

 can be potted on in larger sizes, as it requires. I have one now 

 in a nine-inch pot that produced fifteen stems, all laden with 

 flowers. This plant stands at present three and a half feet 

 high, but it should have had one more shift, as it has lost 

 its lower leaves ; it required water so often in its cramped 

 quarters that it did not always get enough. I have some 

 smaller plants which were cut back severely and repotted 

 about September ist, and they are all that could be desired in 

 foliage, but the cutting was done too late, and most of them 

 will not flower. .^ 



Hammonton, N.J. Win. P . Bassett. 



Passiflora, Constance Elliott.— One of my favorite climbers is 

 the white Passion Flower, Constance Elliott. It was intro- 

 duced with a great flourish some years ago, but it now seems to 

 have secured a fixed position on the list of forgotten favorites. 

 No doubt the causes of this are its shyness of bloom and its lack 

 of entire hardiness. It has, however, merits that ought to out- 

 weigh these defects. Its habit is peculiarly graceful, its foliage 

 is handsome and is retained later in the season than that 

 of almost any other deciduous climber. In this latitude, our 

 first killing frosts occur about the last of October. From that 

 time on we have occasional spells of freezing weather, with 

 spits of snow and sleet, and cold north winds. About New 

 Year's, winter sets in in earnest, and though less severe than 

 it is farther north, the mercury drops several degrees below 

 zero almost every season. Yet my notes show that this Passi- 

 flora has retained its foliage until the 6th of January in the 

 severest winters, and in one instance it kept in full leaf unfil 

 the 28fh of January, when a sharp drop in the temperature 

 brought the leaves in a shower to the ground, while still as 

 green as ever. To me, these deeply cleft, five-fingered leaves, 

 thick and firm of texture, and as deep green and glossy as 

 those of a Myrtle, are quite as beautiful as flowers, and they 



