1 88 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number K55. 



the Lilac has come into quite general use among florists. The 

 Flowering Almond, the Peaches and Cherries, and, among 

 others, Pritnus Pseudo-eerasus, force well, and the last is very 

 pretty and lasts in bloom a long time, although it cannot be 

 counted a florist's flower. 



Well-grown grafted plants of varieties of the beautiful flow- 

 ering Japanese and Chinese Crab Apples are easily brought 

 into early bloom if planted the preceding year in tubs or pots, 

 and not forced into too rank growth. The flowers of our 

 Chokeberry [Pyrus arbutlfolid) come out well under artificial 

 heat, and the deep green shining leaves are attractive, although 

 the plants have a rather straggling habit. 



An interesting plant for early forcing is the very dwarf form 

 of the Japanese Quince, which is known as Pyrus Maulei, and 

 which bears a profusion of orange-scarlet flowers. It is better 

 than many of the forms of P. Japonica, because of its more 

 compact habit and its more numerous and slender branchlets. 



Staphylea Colchica is now quite extensively cultivated and 

 forced for commercial purposes, and, when well grown, its 

 fragrant tuberose-scented flowers are among the most beauti- 

 ful to be obtained from forced shrubs. This species surpasses 

 any- of the other hardy Staphyleas for forcing purposes. 



Among many others of its genus Rhododendron Vaseyi 

 blossoms as charmingly when hastened in the greenhouse 

 as it does when left to bloom in the open air with the coming 

 of warm weather. 



Well-grown and full flower-budded plants of our American 

 Laurel {Kalmia latifolid) may be forced into one of the most 

 beautiful objects of winter decoration. The dark evergreen 

 leaves are always attractive, but when the clusters of white or 

 pinkish flowers appear, few greenhouse plants can compare 

 with the Kalmia. Under the influence of a moderate artificial 

 heat, the Rhodora does not take long to open its buds and 

 display its beautiful, rosy purple flowers on its naked branches. 

 It probably would not pay to force this for commercial pur- 

 poses, but a few plants may give much pleasure to the 

 amateur. This is also true of the Mayflower, or Epigaea, 

 clumps of which may be moved from its native woods in the 

 autumn, and, being transplanted into boxes or pots, the flowers 

 may be produced, whenever desired, throughout the winter. 

 Andromeda floribunda and A. Japonica are naturally so early- 

 flowering that it is an easy matter to force them, and they 

 make admirable decorative plants in winter. It takes longer 

 to get flowers from A. speciosa, but they are among the love- 

 liest of the genus, and well worth waiting for. 



Among the showy-flowered hardy Daphnes the blossoms of 

 D. Mezereum are very easily brought out, and D. Genkwa, 

 from Japan, gives promise of being one of the most interest- 

 ing plants of its kind for forcing. 



Many of the Spiraeas are useful for their winter bloom. 



The flowers of S. Thunbergii are easily brought out, but a 

 forced specimen of this shrub usually looks disheveled and 

 unsatisfactory, but 5. Cantonie?isis (Reevesiana) and the plant 

 known in nurseries as S. Van Houttei do better. 



Grafted plants of the Japanese Red-bud (Cercis Chinensis) 

 will be found much better than our native species, inasmuch 

 as the flowers of the former are earlier, larger, and even 

 brighter in color. Dwarfed and well-grown plants of the 

 common Chinese Wistaria are very handsome when forced 

 early, and it is a species which seems to do very well under 

 these conditions. Some of the hardy species of Cytisus are 

 well worth the trouble of bringing into early bloom. 



The Forsythias are among the plants which very readily 

 and quickly come into flower under the stimulus of gradual 

 heat. Only those with numerous flower-buds should be 

 selected, and F. suspensa and the form sold as F. Fortunei 

 will be found more satisfactory for forcing purposes than 

 F. viridissima, which they also excel for garden culture. The 

 shrubby Magnolia stellata will easily produce its fragrant 

 white blossoms if the buds are well developed. Among later- 

 flowering hardy shrubs which have come into extensive use 

 for forcing purposes is that long known as Viburnum plicaticm, 

 and which is in every way a much better plant than the old- 

 fashioned Snowball-sterile or form of V. Opulus. 



That the latest as well as the earliest of our flowering shrubs 

 may be profitably forced is shown by the fact that Hydrangea 

 paniculata grandiflora is now grown for commercial purposes 

 in greenhouses. While almost any shrub may be forced into 

 growth before its due season, only a limited number of kinds 

 will be found profitable to the florist, while the amateur and 

 enthusiast has a long and varied list from which he may select 

 subjects for experiment. He will find that many of them 

 never look as well at any other time as they do when blooming 

 out-of-doors in their proper season. 



J. miaica Plains, Mass. J- 



Hardy Narcissus. 



'THE article on Hardy Narcissus, in Garden and Forest 

 -*- for March 25th, was interesting and timely, as the first of 

 these beautiful flowers are bursting their sheaths {N. Scoticus 

 being in the lead, and showing flowers on Good Friday). Mr. 

 Orpet's advice about due care in plantinglate arrivals of bulbs is 

 sound, and the same remarks would apply to all hardy bulbs, 

 for unless some root-action takes place before freezing weather 

 losses are almost inevitable among the hardiest of them. But 

 there may be an exception taken to the advice to plant deeply 

 in our climate, if this means the climate of our eastern states. 

 That detail seems to me to depend, as with other plants, very 

 much on the garden in which they are to be planted. In my 

 own it is not possible to grow Narcissi deeply planted, neither 

 have I found it necessary so to plant them to grow them suc- 

 cessfully and produce flowering bulbs for the following season. 

 As a matter of convenience, where there is a proper depth of 

 suitable soil, deep planting may in some cases be desirable, 

 but it is doubtful if it is necessary in any case. My soil is a 

 heavy retentive one, nine to twelve inches deep, with a clay 

 hardpan, and deep-planted bulbs simply deteriorate to the 

 diameter of a lead-pencil. Planted from one to three inches 

 deep, they thrive as well as one could wish. If an open fall 

 allows the foliage to appear above ground, as it often does, 

 little or no damage seems to be done by following frosts. In 

 December of 1889 I bought a lot of A^. Horsfieldii too late to 

 plant out, and planted them in three-inch flats in light potting 

 soil. They were lightly watered and placed in a rather open 

 cold frame through the severe weather, and bloomed in the 

 open. They were carefully ripened off, and, the offsets being 

 removed, were planted at a suitable time in the border. They 

 have been blooming freely since April 15th. This experience 

 would seem not only to confirm Mr. Orpet's theory that late- 

 planted bulbs, if properly grown on, would prove satisfactory, 

 but also that very shallow planting is sufficient; in this case 

 only enough soil being used to actually cover the bulbs. 



While from necessity a second crop is always grown over 

 my bulbs. I think it is somewhat at the expense of the bulbs ;. 

 and where space is not important and bulbs are valuable, bet- 

 ter results will be had if the beds are left exposed and without 

 a second crop. If this is a matter of necessity, plants which 

 require little moisture or are deep-rooting, like annual Pop- 

 pies, seem most desirable for such a position. Of course, in 

 garden matters, one only judges from his own glebe and expe- 

 rience. Fortunately, many plants are not as particular as the 

 gardener, and will grow under vastly differing circumstances, 

 so that general rules do not often seem applicable. 

 Elizabeth, n.j. J.N. Gerard. 



How to Make a Wild Garden. 



T F we have only a few feet of ground in some shady nook, 

 *■ on the north side of a building or beneath the shade of 

 trees, we can have a constant succession of flowers from early 

 spring until late autumn. And to all lovers of flowers this 

 wild nook will be more enjoyable than a prim, conventional 

 garden of florist's flowers. 



The wild garden will be vastly more satisfactory if it comes 

 by slow growth. It should never be made in haste, but as we 

 have time now and then in any season of the year to wander 

 amid Nature's groves and gardens and note how the wild 

 things which we desire grow, and also notice their surround- 

 ings and the trees which overshadow them, we shall be better 

 prepared to know with what we can best succeed. 



There is but little difficulty in growing many of our earliest 

 spring flowers. The Hepatica, the Blood-root, the Wind- 

 flower, the Spring Beauty, the Trilliums and all of our 

 lovely Violets will grow almost anywhere in good garden soil. 

 But there are others which require skill and patience to make 

 live and thrive after being removed from their native haunts. 



Perhaps if I give some account of my own failures and suc- 

 cesses with wild plants it may help those who wish to secure 

 some of these shy woodland gems. In my wild garden I have 

 some shady places where I concentrated my skill on some of 

 the most difficult of our wild flowers. One of these places is 

 an irregular spot only about fourteen feet the longest way and 

 about ten feet in the widest part. It is situated between three 

 trees which form a kind of triangle, — a large Oak, the body of 

 which is covered with English Ivy, mingled with variegated 

 Evonymus, and an old Pine (Pinus rigida) mingles its leaves 

 with those of the Oak, and a Trumpet-creeper has climbed up 

 its rugged sides to its very top, showing clusters of bright scar- 

 let flowers among the deep green pine-needles ; the other, 

 tree is a Cedar with branches nearly to the ground. This little 



