266 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 384. 



slight covering of Pine-needles before severe frost, there is 

 no real difficulty in obtaining good results in ordinary sea- 

 sons. The flowers, which are nearly as large as those of 

 the (jerman Iris, open late in June, or even early in July, 

 and present a wide range of color, from pure white to deep 

 blue or purple, with various shades of yellow intermingled. 

 The foliage is deep green, linear and not overabundant. 

 The bulbs should be planted in October or early Novem- 

 ber ; they are grown in large quantities in Holland and 

 are very cheap ; either named varieties or "mixtures" can 

 be used. The cost of the bulbs is so little that, unless 

 the soil and situation is very favorable, it is better to 

 throw away the old bulbs after blooming and obtain a 

 fresh supply annually. The Spanish Iris, I. vulgaris (His- 

 panica or Xiphium) is very like the English Iris, but has 

 smaller flowers and blooms a week or ten days earlier. It 

 requires the same care and general treatment as advised 

 above for the English Iris ; it is, perhaps, a little hardier and 

 more likely to continue in good condition from year to 

 year. The flowers present great variety in colors ; some of 

 the dull, tawny yellows and blues are quite by themselves, 

 and are apparently made to suit the artistic tastes of the 

 present day. Some varieties of the Spanish Iris force 

 easily : a pure yellow, Diana ; a pure blue, Antelope; Brit- 

 ish Queen, the Pearl, good white, are among the best for 

 this purpose. 



OsTROwsKYA MAGNiFicA IS now in bloom at the Bussey Institu- 

 tion in Boston. The plant has been growing in the open air 

 for three years and has bloomed twice. There are two stalks, 

 each with a single flower ; the stems are about eighteen 

 inches high, fairly well provided with foliage, which, how- 

 ever, quickly dies away after the fading of the flower. This 

 plant apparently is perfectly hardy and requires no particular 

 care in cultivation, provided the border in which it is planted 

 is well drained, fairly sheltered from cold winds and rather 

 dry in summer. Growth begins soon after the frost leaves 

 the ground. The large campanulate flower (it is described 

 and figured in Garden and Forest, vol. vi., page 274) is 

 quite distinct and is certainly very handsome. The plant 

 is well worth the persistent attempt which seems necessary 

 to establish it in our gardens. Plants are now offered by 

 the Dutch dealers at moderate rates. 



Eremurus. — Only one species of this genus has been 

 extensively tested in the United States, although several 

 others are under trial. Eremurus robustus has been flow- 

 ered in many American gardens, and Mr. Endicott and 

 others have described its habits and requirements in our 

 columns. The whole genus, however, is rapidly growing 

 in favor with cultivators of hardy plants, and there are now 

 about thirty species known, most of which have been in- 

 troduced, but only few of them have become established. 

 Concerning these plants, Mr. Watson writes that failure 

 is generally due to an initial mistake — that is, they are 

 planted in unsuitable positions. In a sunny sheltered 

 border, where the soil is deep and rich and properly 

 drained, they grow well and become permanently estab- 

 lished. Once planted they should be left undisturljed, but 

 they require an annual mulch of good manure and the soil 

 forked up about them. In the garden of Professor Foster, 

 near Cambridge, there were lately sixty strong spikes of 

 bloom of various species of Eremuri, some of which were 

 seven feet high. The best of the dozen species represented 

 at Kew is E. robustus, which has been known to produce 

 spikes ten feet high, their upper third being crowded 

 with star-like pale pink flowers. Next to this in beauty, 

 and on account of its good behavior in the garden, is 

 E. Himalaicus, which has shorter spikes of pure white 

 flowers. In Mr. Gumbleton's garden at Queenstown, Cork, 

 this species is a great success, growing freely and estab- 

 lishing itself from seeds like a weed. E. spectabilis, with 

 spikes a yard long and yellow flowers, is another good gar- 

 den plant. Where they are happy these plants are most 

 effective, and they are worth a trial in any garden where 

 the conditions are likely to suit them. They are all Asi- 

 atic, all hardy enough to bear the cold of an ordinary 



English winter, and most of them can probably be grown 

 with success in our middle states and, perhaps, in New 

 Enarland. 



Cultural Department. 



Best Time for Transplanting. 



pERHAPS no question is propounded to an orchardist, a 

 -'■ nurseryman or an editor oftener than "What is the best 

 time to transplant ? " unless it be the equally difficult question, 

 " What is the best time to prune ? " It Is quite as easy to give a 

 wrong answer as to give a right one in either case, no matter 

 which alternative is taken. The truth is, that almost any other 

 point IS more important than the lime, merely, in the matter 

 of performing any of these operations of the orchard or nur- 

 sery. Trees, not only small ones, but very large ones, have 

 been moved while in full leaf with entire success by strict 

 attention to the proper conditions ; while the opposite result 

 is apt to attend upon their neglect, even with the smallest ones. 



If the removal of a tree or plant is so conducted as not to 

 interfere with its supply of nutriment and moisture — the last 

 bemg the most immediately important — it is certain to take 

 root and grow, with scarcely a check to its growth and future 

 thrift. This has been many times demonstrated, and nowhere 

 more fully and remarkably than at the Chicago Exposition. If 

 full-grown trees of many kinds can be thus taken up and 

 removed without hindrance to their nutrition and growth, it 

 should not be difficult to transplant almost any young fruit or 

 shade trees. 



While there is a best time to do almost anything, and while 

 it is not best to remove any tree or plant in dry, hot weather, 

 yet, if it must be done, as in building operations, there is no 

 absolute impossibility about it, and if every incident of the 

 work is made to accord with nature's laws, success is inevita- 

 ble. As for small trees, even when lightly covered with soil 

 or heeled in, either in fall or spring, and left without atten- 

 tion, they rarely, if ever, die. Tlie reason for this probably is 

 that the work is promptly, even if hastily, done. I have known 

 of trees left so for two or three years, which when planted in 

 the orchard grew quite thriftily. By intelligent pruning these 

 can be brought into good shape. Now, if under such careless 

 treatment successful results are not impossible, how utterly 

 needless is it that any failure should occur under ordinary 

 conditions ? Even trees left lying about, uncovered, in the hot 

 sun for a week, in a nursery, liave been picked up, buried for 

 a week in moist ground, planted out and brought into health 

 and fruitfulness. 



But the possibility of such results is no excuse for careless 

 work. The best of anything is not too good, and the best 

 methods are the most profitable. As to fall or spring plant- 

 ing, when all the work has been timely and carefully done, 

 I liave never noted much difference between them. If the 

 work should be done in spring, it is best to transplant as soon 

 as the frost is out of the ground, and in fall as soon as the 

 leaves will strip easily, which is soon after the first sharp 



^'"'^'^'•s- T u tj ;• 



Newport, vt. T. H. Hosktns. 



Greenhouse Celery. 



T^HE regular supply of Celery from storage generally runs 

 -'- out ai.iout the latter part of April. For a considerable 

 period before this time the stored produce becomes tough and 

 flavorless, losing the brittle crispness which is so desirable in 

 this vegetable. It has long been a problem how this evil 

 might be remedied and the season of good marketable Celery 

 prolonged. Hitherto the strong demand during the summer 

 months has met with no supply, although excellent prices 

 could then be secured. The chief difficulty in the way of 

 greenhouse culture has been in the blanching of the crop. To 

 blanch a plantation by the ordinary process of earthlng-up 

 would require a large amount of space between the plants, and 

 this would seriously curtail the profits, and it is questionable 

 if a crop raised under such conditions would yield any profit. 

 Some Celery grown here last year was in excellent condition 

 during the months of May and June, but the plants were too 

 close to allow of earthing-up, and no other system of blanch- 

 ing was then considered practicable. This year again we made 

 another plantation, and our experiments in blanching have 

 been highly satisfactory. 



The seeds were sown in shallow seed-pans December loth, 

 and placed in a temperature of about sixty-five degrees. The 

 seedlings were pricked off into pans January ytli, and after 

 being hardened off somewhat they were finally planted seven 

 inches apart In the solid bed of a house in which the tempera- 



