April ii, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



141 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building. New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 1894. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article:— The Spring Garden. (With figure.) 141 



March in the Pines Airs Mary Treat. 142 



The Linntea : An International Botanic Garden in the Alps of Switzerland, 



G. H. Hicks. 142 



Foreign Correspondence : — London Letter IV. Watson. 143 



Cultural Department: — Early. flowering Magnolias J. G. Jack. 144 



Some Points in Pruning Fruit- trees T. H. Hoskins, M.D. 144 



The Hardy Flower-garden J. N. Gerard. 146 



Sub- irrigation in Greenhouse and Garden. (With figures.). ... T. Greiner. 146 



For Beginners in Vegetable Culture Will R. T?-acy. 147 



Frost and Flowers .... J. N. G. 147 



Dendrobium Dalhousianum, Fritillaria aurea. Double Hardy Violet, 



E. O. O. 147 



Garden Peas E. O. Orfiet. 147 



The Iona Grape E. P. Powell. 148 



Correspondence : — Dimensions of Minnesota Pine H. B. A. 143 



Propagation vs. Extermination James B. Smith. 148 



A New Field tor Seed and Bulb Growing T. D. 148 



Calanthes at Langwater Gardens T. D. Hatfield. 148 



Recent Publications 149 



Notes — . 150 



Illustrations : — A Garden Walk in Early Spring, Fig. 26 145 



Plan of Bench arranged for Subirrigation, Fig. 27. Cross-section of 

 Bench, Fig. 2S. Subirrigating Pipe, in perspective, Fig. 29 146 



The Spring Garden. 



THIS is the season for the appearance in the newspa- 

 pers of the annual pleasantries about spring poetry 

 and spring poets ; but, although the jest has grown stale 

 and flavorless by repetition, it is the outgrowth of a sub- 

 stantial truth. If the love of nature exists in any one, even 

 as a feeble sentiment, it is always stirred by the miracle of 

 renewed life which is seen in the swelling buds and in the 

 sender green of the springing grass. No flowers make so 

 strong an appeal to the imagination as those of early 

 spring. After the long trance of winter they bring with 

 them the freshness of a new creation and the promise of 

 abundant life. Only a plant with a sturdy spirit could 

 brave the wild weather of a northern March, and yet some 

 of our earliest flowers have a fragile grace which elicits 

 our warmest sympathy as they open trustfully above the 

 frozen earth. Nor do they lack a beauty which would 

 compel admiration at other seasons when the field is 

 full of rivals. In all the floral wealth of summer and au- 

 tumn there is nothing to excel in delicate beauty the 

 "vestal white and vernal green" of the Snowdrop ; there 

 is no blue more pure than that of the Siberian Squill or the 

 Alpine Anemone, while the Tulip rivals in the splendor of 

 its color the most gorgeous flowers of the tropics. We 

 make no apology, therefore, for again urging every one 

 to have a spring garden, for, if one has a garden at all, 

 spring is the season when it can be made to yield the great- 

 est delight. This advice can be given with special empha- 

 sis to that large class who leave their homes in summer, 

 and can only enjoy their gardens in April and May and 

 June. Perhaps it should be added that a spring garden 

 can be cared for with less trouble than other gardens, since 

 all the plants which flower now prepare to bloom the 

 year before, and many of them will live on and multiply 

 for successive years without renewal. This last considera- 

 tion, however, amounts to little, for no one deserves a 

 garden at any season who is not willing to give it all the 

 attention it needs. 



We have spoken of the spring garden as if the phrase 

 presented a single definite picture to the mind's eye. But 

 such gardens need not be confined to any one type and 



may be of infinite variety in structure and material. All 

 the temperate countries of the world and the lofty moun- 

 tains of warmer latitudes have been ransacked by collec- 

 tors for hardy plants, so that it is more difficult to decide 

 which ones to reject than which ones to choose. In one 

 of the early volumes of Garden and Forest (see vol. ii., p. 

 277), a garden was described which consisted essentially 

 of a moderate-sized lawn sloping toward the south and 

 east, and of a somewhat circular outline, in the midst of 

 which stood two noble Hemlocks, whose branches swept 

 the sod. The lawn was surrounded with an irregular shrub 

 border, which was backed by larger trees. Spring-flower- 

 ing shrubs, like the Spirasas, Exochordas and Forsythias, 

 were backed by taller ones, like the Dwarf Apples and 

 Lilacs, with isolated masses of Daphnes, Andromedas, 

 Azaleas and other dwarf-flowering shrubs to the front of 

 these, while the spaces between these masses were planted 

 with hardy bulbous and perennial plants which bloom in 

 the early spring. This idea of a lawn bordered with flow- 

 ering shrubs could be modified and multiplied to any 

 extent, and few better situations for such plants as Daffo- 

 dils and Squills, Iceland Poppies and Columbines, Lady's 

 Slipper, Blood Root and Trillium, in short, for all early- 

 blossoming plants, except those which have been devel- 

 oped by long cultivation into stiffness and formality, like 

 the double Hyacinths, for example. Of course, the arrange- 

 ment should always be simple and quiet, and its expression 

 would be marred by any glare of color like that produced 

 by large masses of garden Tulips. 



This sheltered and flower- fringed lawn, however, is only 

 one type of a spring garden. Many of these early flowers 

 adapt themselves even to formal designs. Many more are 

 well placed against house-foundations or under the lee of 

 walls and fences, where they not only appear to excellent 

 advantage, but where they receive some shelter from 

 the winds and catch the first increasing warmth of the sun. 

 Many others never appear more beautiful or happy than in 

 the crevices or pockets of a well-constructed rock-garden. 

 There are species and varieties for every situation, and so 

 numerous are they that a mere catalogue of their names 

 would cover many pages. We could have a succession of 

 Irises from early March until the Spanish and English Irises 

 burst into bloom. Before the Crocuses are gone the Daffo- 

 dils will begin to open, and will continue for at least six 

 weeks. Chionodoxas and Grape Hyacinths, Snowflakes and 

 Fritillaries,Orin thogalums, Alliums, Dog-tooth Violets, Lilies- 

 of-the-valley and the Tulip species are among the bulbous 

 plants which have well-known representatives in almost 

 every garden now, yet nearly every genus has newer and rarer 

 forms enough to furnish study and delight year after year to 

 the enthusiastic specialist. Besides these bulbous plants 

 there are a thousand herbaceous ones, many of them na- 

 tives of our own country, whose very names, if we had 

 space for them, are full of music and spring poetry. 



These spring flowers never tire us, be they ever so abun- 

 dant. Fortunately, therefore, some of them can break over the 

 boundaries of any orderly garden and give us increased de- 

 light as they run wild through the grass. Crocuses are never 

 more at home than on a lawn, and the}' are done blooming 

 before the grass is long enough to hide them. Chionodoxas 

 and Grape Hyacinths multiply like weeds. Lilies-of-the- 

 valley are never more attractive than they are along a wood- 

 land walk. The wild Hyacinth, Scylla campanulata, and the 

 Poet's Narcissus will thrive in the tall grass and give an added 

 beauty to any meadow-scene. Any of these can be used 

 to brighten up out-of-the-way corners, and they never serve 

 a better purpose than when they surprise the visitor in the 

 more remote and rougher parts of gardens and large 

 grounds. The illustration on page 145 shows a mass of 

 Poet's Narcissus along a shady walk on the grounds of Mr. 

 John L. Gardiner, in Brookline, Massachusetts, as seen 

 "from one of the windows of his house. Perhaps it should 

 be added that the spring garden alluded to above is a part 

 of the same grounds, but, in spite of the wealth of early 

 flowers which it containSj no one would complain that the 



