238 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



December, 1907 



given to the posts, which transformed them 

 into Japanese stone lanterns and gave us the 

 keynote to our garden. 



A small iron hoop encircles the cap of each 

 post, and around this the clothes lines are 

 secured, and from there led to the hooks on 

 the back of the house. Thus our garden is a 

 back yard one day of the week, and a garden 

 the remaining six days. 



Gaining a Year on Artichokes 



L. E. R., Connecticut 



THE artichoke is an excellent vegetable 

 which is little known in this country 

 because it takes two years to raise it from 

 seed and the plant is not hardy. An enter- 

 prising Boston seedsman offered for the first 

 time last year large artichoke plants for May 

 delivery, thus making it possible to grow the 

 crop in one season. The plants cost about 

 twenty cents each. 



Another way of getting the crop the first 

 season is to buy the roots, which are kept by 

 a few Southern dealers. These are really 

 suckers, which are freely produced about the 

 crown of the plant. The peculiar advantage 

 of this plan is that it enables you to get the 

 best varieties, for these do not come true 

 from seed. 



Still another way is to sow the seed indoors 

 in February and transplant in May, but this 

 means a greenhouse. 



If these methods are too expensive, let me 

 tell you how you can raise artichokes from 

 seed even in the North. It will take two 

 years but it is well worth while, for aside 

 from its use the artichoke is one of the most 

 beautiful plants in cultivation. It is worth 

 growing as a foliage plant because of its 

 magnificent wooly leaves. The large blue 

 flower-heads are pictured on page 237. 



Sow the seeds outdoors in April or May 

 and when the plants are large enough set 

 them in rows two by four feet apart. Give 

 them a deep, rich, light soil and by the fall 

 they will make big plants with leaves three 

 feet long. When cold weather comes you 

 must bank up the plants right to the top, 

 or cut off some of the leaves and tie up the 

 rest so that they will require less room. 



The second year they will throw up flower 

 stalks, but you must not let them blossom. 

 It is the bud that is eaten. 



I have seen people pay fifteen or twenty 

 cents apiece for artichokes in midwinter. 

 Why not raise your own? 



First Class Slipperworts 



L. R. C, Pennsylvania 



CALCEOLARIAS or slipperworts are 

 as charming as orchids and it is a 

 good deal of a feat to grow first class speci- 

 mens of them. The ideal place in which to 

 flower them requires a night temperature of 

 40°and a day temperature of 50 to 55 . 



I get more fun out of raising these plants 

 than anything else because it requires some 

 skill to produce anything fit to show. I like 

 all these minute-seeded flowers — calceolaria, 

 cineraria, and primrose — which cost so 



frightfully by the ounce and require so 

 much fussing in the early stages. I like 

 something that scares out the "hoi polloi." 

 You can't raise calceolarias like the ones 

 pictured on page 235 unless you pay the 

 highest price for seed and inquire about 

 until you are sure you have the best. 



The best time to sow the seed is June or 

 July, so as to have the flowers by Christmas. 

 You must start with perfectly clean pans, 

 provide thorough drainage and use a com- 

 post of sand, leaf-mold and rotted sod. Sift 

 this material through your finest sieve. Fill 

 the pans, water thoroughly and drain well 

 before sowing. Don't cover the seeds — just 

 press them down and then put a pane of 

 glass over the pan so as to make a tight fit. 

 This must stay on until the seedlings are 

 nicely started and then be gradually removed. 



You must not water the soil in the ordinary 

 manner or you will wash all the seeds away. 

 Immerse the pots, but don't let them stand 

 in saucers of water. 



Just as soon as the plants are large enough 

 to be pricked out with the aid of a tooth-pick, 

 set them an inch apart in pans and later pot 

 them in thumb pots. You must shift them 

 three or four times to larger sizes, ending with 

 seven-inch pots. 



Shading is very important at all stages, but 

 too much will make the plants spindly. And 

 another secret of success is to keep them as 

 cool as possible during hot weather. Cal- 

 ceolarias have weedy foliage but it is very 

 liable to damp off. When watering, try not 

 to wet the leaves. 



Things get exciting when the flower 

 stems begin to show. Then is the time to 

 use liquid manure — frequently but very 

 weak. 



Go through all this once and you will be 

 rewarded by magnificent blooms of a unique 

 flower that everybody is sure to admire for 

 it is one of the most beautiful plants in the 

 vegetable kingdom. 



A Hundred Roses from One Bush 



James R. Howe, Wisconsin 



AROSE bush grown in sand, in the 

 uncongenial climate of the Lake 

 Superior region, giving, while in bloom, over 

 a hundred magnificent roses, some of which 

 measured 4^ to 6 inches in diameter, is the 

 record made by a Paul Neyron of climbing 

 habit at Rhinelander, Wis., in the summer 

 of 1906. (See illustration on page 235.) 



Rhinelander is in the heart of what once 

 was the great white pine forests of Wisconsin. 

 The soil is a sandy loam and with the excep- 

 tion of the infrequently found hardwood lands 

 there is no clay, which authorities tell us is 

 necessary to rose culture. 



This rose was planted three years ago as 

 a yearling and has received little attention. 

 j t has been free from insects and disease. In 

 the fall the old canes are cut out. Through 

 the long and severe winters, the thermometer 

 often falling to 40 degrees below zero, the 

 rose has passed safely in a straw coat supple- 

 mented with a gunny sack protection around 

 the base, which is not removed until May 1st. 

 In the spring a mulching of rotted stable 



manure and leaf mold is given. The bush is 

 a continuous mass of bloom from the middle 

 of June until the first of August. 



Flower Buds Outdoors All 

 Winter 



R. H. J., Massachusetts 



THE most surprising shrub I know is the 

 one known to nurserymen as Andro- 

 meda floribunda, for it is covered with flower 

 buds all winter. Of course, they do not open, 

 but they look as if they were going to during 

 the next spell of open weather. The buds 

 are small but very numerous, and line the 

 flower-stems with admirable regularity. 



Moreover, this plant is probably the hardi- 

 est broad-leaved evergreen shrub there is and 

 in the latitude of Boston would be worth 

 growing merely for the winter effect of its 

 foliage. It attains six feet, but a fair average 

 height is two or three feet. (See page 235). 



The correct name of this desirable plant is 

 Pieris -floribunda. The common name in- 

 vented for it is mountain fetter bush, but 

 no nurseryman would know it by that name. 



Forcing Roses on a Chimney 



H. A. Tate, North Carolina 



FROM the first of May until the middle 

 of June I have great clusters of pink 

 roses on the chimney herewith pictured. (See 

 page 235.) A big wood fire burns night and 

 day in this chimney all winter. When the 

 killing frost comes, the leaves do not all drop 

 off, but turn yellow, with tints of red or 

 bronze and some stay on until the new growth 

 starts in the spring. The chimney faces the 

 South. 



I have tried several varieties on this chim- 

 ney but the best is General Washington, a 

 climbing, pink, clustered rose. The individ- 

 ual flowers are twice as large as those of 

 Crimson Rambler and full to the centre. I 

 have counted twelve to fifteen roses in a 

 cluster, but they do not all show at one time 

 for some wither and drop while others are still 

 buds. It has only one season of bloom, 

 but gives such a wealth of flowers that I con- 

 sider it the hardiest and most reliable of all 

 my roses. Neither blight nor mildew has 

 ever troubled it. A little gray scale appeared 

 on the oldest wood but several sprayings of 

 kerosene emulsion have about done away 

 with them. 



Early Flowering Cosmos 



M. Brown. Penna. 



I HAVE sown seeds of cosmos in a hot 

 bed about March 10th, pinching the tops 

 off when the plants were about ten inches 

 high, and when I had room in the bed trans- 

 planting them therein from the seed rows. As 

 soon as the frosts were over, they were trans- 

 planted three or four feet apart and would 

 begin blooming freely until July 25th say, 

 when they attained a height of from three 

 to four feet and were well-covered with 

 flowers. At this time, I sheared them off 

 ruthlessly to the height of eighteen inches, 

 cutting them back once again about the 20th 

 of August. 



