224 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 8, 1889. 



roof, thereby enclosing the plants in quite a respectable 

 green-house. During the day, under the influence of the sun, 

 the inside temperature of this improvised house generally ran 

 up to about 80°, sometimes even higher, and ahhough the 

 nights were sometimes pretty cool, a nice temperature was 

 maintained until next morning. Every plant perfected all its 

 Howers — the most of them being as fine as could be desired. 

 Those who have bulbs on hand need not be deterred from 

 planting them out-doors because the season is getting late. 

 Milwaukee, Wis. Jaines Ciirrie. 



The Perpetual Carnation seems to have been overlooked as 

 a bedding or border plant for the garden. Strong plants from 

 cold-frames in five-inch or six-inch pots are preferable. They 

 should be planted as early as the first of May in a sunny posi- 

 tion, and in deep, rich soil. They should be firmly set in the 

 ground, and a neat stake should be placed in each plant, to 

 which the flower-stems should be loosely tied as they grow. 

 In making a selection those varieties with long flower-stalks 

 should be chosen, especially for cutting during the very hot 

 weather. The following will be found among the most desira- 

 ble : E. G. Hill and Portia, scarlet ; Century, May Queen and 

 Charles Henderson, carmine or rose ; Hinzes'White and Silver 

 Spray, white ; Buttercup and Columbia, buff and yellow ; 

 Crimson King, Black Knight and Orient, crimson ; Chester 

 Pride, Petunia and Star of the West, variegated. 

 Pearl River, N. Y. John Thorpe. 



Notes from a Northern Spring-Garden. 



"XTO plant, among those which have opened their blossoms 

 ■'■ ^ during the present week, is more showy in flower than the 

 very old-fashioned Adonis vernalis, which was seen more fre- 

 quently in gardens a century ago than in those of the present 

 day. This species of Adonis rises only a few inches above the 

 surface of the ground ; the leaves are produced mainly near 

 the summit of the stems, and are finely cut into narrow'^ slen- 

 der divisions. Each stem is now surmounted with a Ranun- 

 culus-like flower, two or three inches across, with ten to 

 twenty nari'ow petals of a clear, yellow color. These flowers, 

 when a great mass of the plants are grown together, make a 

 display of color which in bright sunshine is almost indescriba- 

 bly brilliant. They close during the night and in dull weather. 

 This Adonis grows best in deep, rich and rather moist soil. It 

 is slow in establishing itself, and several years are required to 

 obtain all the beauty it is capable of giving at this season of 

 the year. It should never be disturbed when once, fairly 

 established, and should be allowed to spread and to obtain as 

 strong a hold on the ground as possible. 



The European Dog-tooth Violet {Erythroniian Dens-canis), 

 which is now in bloom, flowers here several davs earlier thaii 

 our common native species. The flowers are" large, having 

 been greatly improved by selection and by long cultivation, 

 and they show considerable variety of color from almost red 

 through rose and pink to white. It is an attractive and per- 

 fectly hardy plant, thriving in the shade of trees and in more 

 exposed situations, and it is a capital subject to naturalize by a 

 wild wood-walk or along the margins of shrubbery. The 

 Dog-tooth Violet is grown in immense quantities bv the 

 Dutch bulb-farmers, and the bulbs, which should be planted in 

 the autumn, can be imported very cheaply. In speaking of 

 very old-fashioned flowers the Grape Hyacinth {Muscari 

 botryoides) should not be forgotten. This, like most of the old 

 familiar bulbous plants of gardens, is a native of Europe, and 

 has been in cultivation for centuries. The short, compact 

 racemes of dark blue, gloljular flowers, resembling, fancifully, 

 miniature grapes (whence the popular name), are familiar 

 sights at this season of the year in old country gardens, whence 

 this plant has occasionally escaped into neighboring woods 

 and fields, so that it may in time become fairly naturalized. 

 There is a variety with pure white flowers, and others with 

 flowers of pale blue and of flesii color, but none of these are 

 equal to the old and more familiar type. This, like the Dog- 

 tooth Violet, is an excellent plant to naturalize in our New 

 England woods and fields. 



Corydalis solida, or, as it is more generally known, Corydalis 

 biilbosa, seems destined to become a troublesome weed in the 

 rock-garden, springing up everywhere and spreading rapidly. 

 It is now covered with its short racemes of rather dull purple 

 flowers. It is the earliest of the genus to flower here, and 

 certainly requires no care, except to keep it within reasonable 

 bounds. More attractive is its American relative, Dicoiira 

 Cucullaria, with its finely-divided, pale green leaves and slen- 

 der racemes of gracefu'l, white flowers tipped with canarv- 

 yellow. It is well established here at last (for it is rather im- 

 patient of cultivation, and adapts itself slowly to changed con- 



ditions), and is now beautifully in bloom. And so is the Pasque 

 Flower {^Anemone Pulsatilla), with its great, solitary flower, the 

 mass of golden stamens making a fine contrast with the vio- 

 let-purple sepals. The finely-divided, silky, glaucous foliage 

 is attractive as well as the very showy flowers, and so are the 

 large heads of fruit, which resemble those of a Clematis. It 

 well deserves a place in every garden. Primula rosea (see 

 page 141 of vol. i.) improves on longer acquaintance, and I 

 can only say of it again what I said a year ago, that " it would 

 not be easy to find among early flowering hardy plants a more 

 striking and beautiful object than a mass of this Primrose." 

 The Twin-leaf {Jeffersonia diphylla), so named from its curi- 

 ously-divided leaves, is in flower fully two weeks earlier tiian 

 usual. It is always attractive, even after its large, pure white, 

 but very fugacious, petals have fallen. It is a native of west- 

 ern woods, is very easily cultivated, and may be increased by 

 division or from seed, which is freely produced and germi- 

 nates quickly. I wish that this and scores of other little- 

 known North American wild flowers could be more often 

 seen in American gardens. It is because they are American, 

 I believe, that we see so little of them in this country, except 

 in their native haunts. 



Very showy now are the flowers of the European Orobiis 

 vernus. It is, as I wrote a year ago, " one of the hardiest and 

 in every way most satisfactory of the early flowering, herba- 

 ceous plants." It forms a compact, bushy mass of foliage less 

 than a foot high, now completely covered with nodding, pea- 

 shaped flowers, purple and blue when they first open, but 

 later turning deep blue This little Veitch will thrive in any 

 good garden soil, and will reappear year afteryear, but without 

 spreading and without care beyond an occasional division of 

 the roots, to insure vigorous growth — a practice which greatly 

 benefits all herbaceous plants, especially those of vigorous 

 growth and strong digestion. 



I invite the attention of all persons interested in spring-gar- 

 dening to Magnolia stellata, or, as it is sometimes known in 

 American collections, Magnolia Halleana, so named by Par- 

 sons, who first cultivated it in this country, it having been one of 

 Dr. Hall's early introductions from Japan. This Magnolia is 

 suitable for the smallest garden or the tiniest lawn. Here in 

 this country it is a low shrub, not yet more than three or four 

 feet high, although in the forests of Japan it is said to become 

 sometimes a small tree ; it is perfectly hardy, and it is 

 the earliest of all the Magnolias to flower, its pure white, 

 deliciously-fragrant fiowers appearing here fully a week 

 earlier than those of Magnolia conspicna, formerly the 

 earliest of the Magnolias. The flowers of M. stellata are pure 

 white, three inches in diameter, with petals which are at first 

 spreading, giving to the flowers a star-like' appearance ; but 

 later becoming quite reflexed. It is a good plant for the 

 door-yards of city houses, for the rock-garden, or for any situ- 

 ation where spring-flowers are esteemed. 



The Allegheny Andromeda floribunda and its near relative 

 from Japan, A. Japonica, are now flowering here side by side, 

 and the plants afford a good opportunity for comparison from 

 the garden point of view. The panicles on the American 

 species are smaller, more rigid, and are upright ; the flowers 

 are whiter and more leathery, and are more than half the 

 size^ of those of the Japanese species; the leaves are smaller, 

 more rigid, and much darker green; the habit is more com- 

 pact and less pleasing. On the whole, the Japanese plant, with 

 its broad, drooping panicles of large flowers; its freer and 

 more rapid growth and more graceful habit, is the more attrac- 

 tive garden ornament of the two species. Here at the north, 

 however, it will never ])e as valuable as its American relative, 

 as the flowers appear so early that it is only in an exceptional 

 season like the present that they are seen to advantage. Did 

 it appear every year as it does just now, Andromeda Japonica 

 would be one of the best evergreen shrubs known. It is just 

 now by far the most attractive shrub in this garden. Perhaps 

 some of the readers of Garden and Forest who have had 

 an opportunity to watch this plant in a beter climate for it 

 than that of New England, will make public the results of 

 their observations. 



It is interesting to read in an English journal that the 

 "Glory of the Snow," as Chionodoxa ZwrzYziZ' (mentioned in 

 my last letter) is now called in England, is spreading in gardens 

 in that country from self-sown seed, and that it can be natur- 

 alized in the grass. When this plant is more common and bet- 

 ter known it will, I believe, be one of the most popular, as 

 it is one of the most beautiful, of spring-flowering plants. 



The difficulties of gardening in this climate and the varia- 

 tions of the New England climate in April may be well illus- 

 trated by the fact that on Saturday of last week the thermom- 

 eter marked 84° in the shade. Easter Sunday was nearly as 



