March 27, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



151 



spot is wet thorough drainage is essential. Trenching- twenty 

 inches deep, with a tliick coat of manure worked in, will pay. 

 Get as good a strain of seed as you can, although I have grown 

 as fine Asparagus from seed gathered from the wild plants as 

 I have from any of the colossal sorts, and any " variety " you 

 may get will be full of other varieties. Asparagus, being a 

 dioecious plant, is hard to keep in strict strains. On one corner 

 of the plot selected for your bed, or near by, prepare a small 

 bed and sow the seed as early in spring as possible. As soon as 

 the young plants are large enough to handle, say two or three 

 inches high, and about the size of very fine knitting-needles, 

 lay off your plot in rows two feet apart and dibble the plants in 

 six inches apart. Keep them well cultivated all summer, and 

 in the fall give a coat of rough manure all over. The next 



Primroses. 



The true Primrose is very rare in this country. The flowers 

 generally grown and offered for sale in the flower-stores as 

 Primroses are hybrids ])rol>ably between the common Prim- 

 rose {Primula vulgaris) and the Co\\'slip (/*. officittalis), and 

 possibly {P. elatioT^ the Oxlip ; l;ut the varieties and hybrids 

 are so intercrossed that it is hard to trace their real origin. The 

 flowers are borne on short pedicels springing from a common 

 [)eduncle, and the whole may be termed an umbellate scape. 

 In the true Primrose the scapes are uniflorous, all springing 

 from the I'oot-stock or crown, the individual flowers being 

 much laiger and of better form than in the hybrids. 



The hybrid Primroses, as well as Polyanthuses, are easily 



The Cedars at Wilton House. — See page 147 



spring you can cut a little asparagus, and the roots being near 

 the surface it will be very early. The next fall and spring thin 

 out the plants in the row, leaving only every fourth one to 

 grow. The second spring give the bed a dressing of Kainit 

 (German potash salts) before growth begins, at about the rate 

 of a ton an acre. Then, when the young growth appears, cut 

 your tender green asparagus off at the surface of the ground, 

 and pity the deluded people who consider the white woody 

 underground portion of the stem eatable. 



The subsequent culture will be a heavy fall dressing of man- 

 ure and a dressing of Kainit once in three or four years. A one- 

 year-old Asparagus plant raised in this way is larger by far 

 than the two-year roots sold by nurserymen. I once planted a 

 large bed in this way, and the following spring marketed good 

 Asparagus from it, which could not have been done from two- 

 year-old roots buried several inches under groiuid. 



Crozet, Va. W. F. Massey. 



raised from seed sown in a cool green-house in March or in 

 frames in April. When large enough to be handled they are 

 transplanted into boxes and kept in a shady place imtil they 

 are large enough to plant into nursery-beds. We plant them 

 in beds surrounded by stout boarding or planking, which are 

 ivuown as "cradles," over which we can lay lattice-work, or 

 other light shading, during the hottest weather. In color the 

 flowers vary from almost white, through yellow to nearly 

 crimson. In some of the varieties a short, common peduncle, 

 with long pedicels, gives the plant the appearance of the com- 

 mon Primrose. These hylirids are largely grown for spring 

 bedding, especially in England. Owing to the practice of 

 transplanting in spring for immediate effect they are not so 

 satisfactory here as we could wish. Root-action is distinbed, 

 and vitality consequently reduced, so that the first few bright 

 days in May causes them to wilt so much that they begin" to 

 look "seedy" before they really arrive at their best. "Much 



