180 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



April, 190* 



AN HOUR OR SO 

 A DAY IN YOUR 

 GREENHOUSE 



Who loves a garden, 



Loves a greenhouse too. — Cowper. 



^•p'O those who would list to nature's 

 ii teaching the whole year through, 

 ^•L^ the greenhouse with its never- 

 ending bloom, its never-ceasing 

 interest, adds much to the pleasures of 

 life. The fragrance of the blue-eyed 

 violet, the spiciness of the carnation— 

 not in occasional numbers from the flor- 

 ists — but in continuous bloom from Octo- 

 ber to April and from April to October, 

 if you but will. 



To have nurtured them, cared for them, 

 watched them grow yourself, spending 

 perchance an hour or so a day among 

 your flower friends — to these the green- 

 house is indispensable. To those who 

 have not yet tasted the joys, appeals the 



U-BAR Greenhouses, 



The Best Greenhouses Built. 



The best, because of their extreme 

 lightness, durability and adaptability. 

 No type of greenhouse construction so 

 perfectly meets all horticultural and ar- 

 chitectural requirements. In their light- 

 ness and lines of beauty they are veritable 

 bubbles of glass. Look into the U-Bar 

 construction. Either correspond or let 

 us confer in person. 



Picrson U-BAI^ Company 



Designers and Builders of 



U-BAR GREENHOUSES 



METROPOLITAN BUILDING 

 4th Avenue and 23d Street, NEW YORK 



Cardinal Flowers as Annuals 



I HAVE been very successful in growing the 

 cardinal flower Lobelia cardinalis from 

 seed, which may be sown any time before 

 April first. 



The seeds which I collected from plants 

 growing in a neighboring swamp in the fall 

 of 1903 were sown on the following Feb 15th 

 in a shallow box of soil. The boxes, or flats, 

 I use are easily made, by ripping empty 

 canned-goods boxes — obtained at the near- 

 est grocery for a few cents— into shallow flats, 

 two and one-half or three inches in depth. 

 Several of these I place together on the floor 

 of my potting room, and partly fill them 

 with soil from the compost heap, which has 

 been passed through a half-inch sieve. 

 This soil is composed of three parts thor- 

 oughly rotted sods to one of barnyard manure. 

 The surface of each box is finished off with 

 soil sifted through a quarter-inch mesh sieve, 

 smoothed with a piece of board or a trowel, 

 and the seeds sown, a wooden pot-label being 

 previously written for each box. Small 

 seeds, like the lobelias, are simply sprinkled 

 on the surface of the soil, lightly pressed in 

 with a piece of smooth board, and watered 

 by partly submerging the box in a half barrel 

 or tub of water. 



I placed the flat containing the cardinal- 

 flower seeds in common with other boxes, on 

 a bench in a warm greenhouse, where there 

 was a night temperature of about 65 degrees. 



The coarser seeds may be watered with 

 a fine-rose watering pot, but with lobelias 

 and other fine seeds, I always partly sub- 

 merge the boxes, as the falling water from a 

 watering can, no matter how fine the spray, 

 is apt to dislodge the minute seeds. 



The lobelias were very slow to germinate, 

 not showing signs of life for five or six weeks. 

 In a short time after they started, the box 

 was green with hundreds of minute seedlings. 

 No especial care was given them after this 

 during the busy spring season, other than 

 watering, and they were quite frequently 

 given a good soaking, direct from the hose. 



About the beginning of June, or fully 

 three months from sowing, I transplanted 

 enough of them to fill a bed forty feet long 

 by four feet wide, setting the plants about 

 six inches apart. Our soil is that of an old 

 truck patch, transformed into a flower gar- 

 den. It is not very deep, but thoroughly 

 prepared by deep digging. 



This phrase, "deep digging," or rather 

 the old English term, "bastard trenching," 

 indicates a much different way of digging 

 from that of the ordinary one-spit -deep pro- 

 cess. It is briefly as follows: 



Beginning at one end of the bed or border, 

 remove all the soil for the space of about a 

 yard wide, and one spade deep, either piling 

 it aside, or wheeling it to the other end of the 

 border. Shovel out all the loose soil, and if 

 your top soil is not very deep, remove a little, 

 but not too much, of the subsoil. The bot- 

 tom of the hole is then turned over with a 

 spade, or loosened up, if hard, as it often is, 

 with a pick. On this loosened subsoil dump 

 a barrow load of manure, litter, leaves, or 

 any trash you have that will rot and make 

 humus. The topsoil from the next space of 



Running Water in 



Your Country Home 



can be had simply by installing' the 



Rife Hydraulic Engine 



Operated Automatically 



by the power furnished by any brook or stream, 

 however small, producing a constant flow in yoi r 

 house at any distance or any height. As it o, cr- 

 ates automatically there is abso- 

 lutely no cost of maintenance and 

 it requires no attention. We make 

 a specialty of equipping" coun- 

 try places with a complete water- 

 works system, extendingto stable, 

 garden, greenhouses, etc. 4,500 

 in successful operation. Cat- 

 alogue and estimates on request. _ . 



RIFE HYDRAULIC ENGINE CO: 



2109 TRINITY KLDG. NEW YORK CITY. 



atDp for 2EHD jFas&ioneO 

 Plant* jFIotoer eatDetw 



including Phloxes, Bell Flowers, Larkspurs, Poppies, Pasonies, 

 Iris, Garden Pinks, Day Lilies, etc. Also fine collection of 

 novelties. Catalogue on application. 



FREDERIC J. REA Norwood, Mass. 



Baby Rambler Rose 



The Everblooming Dwarf Crimson Rambler 



BLOOMS daily the entire year if under glass; if 

 out doors it will bloom every day from June 

 until frost. It is the Crimson Rambler in Dwarf 

 Form and with improved color. It seldom grows 

 higher than two feet. It is a tremendous bloomer, 

 120 individual flowers having been counted on a 

 single panicle. Order some now. You will want 

 more later, 



Our Free Nursery Guide Book describes 

 over 500 varieties of Roses, Shrubs, Fruit Trees, 

 etc., and tells how to plant and care for them. 



In order that we may become better acquainted 

 with the readers of The Garden Magazine, we 

 will send you the above book free and on the Baby 

 Rambler Rose we will make you the following 

 SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICES : 



Very nice, Well-Rooted Small Plants, 15 cents each, 

 Si. 50 per dozen. Splendid Two year, Field Grown 

 Plants, 40 cents each, 3 for $1 00. Extra choice Three- 

 year, Field Grown Plants, 60 cents each, 3 for $1.50. 

 Send your order for Roses and Free Book to-day. Representatives 

 wanted to handle our eomplete line of Nursery Stock. 



PltimnnG ^ Cl\ Wholesale Nurserymen, 

 IZJIUIlUUd pt V^tJ., 7 Union St., Newark, N.Y. 



