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ODDS AND ENDS 



FROM EVERYWHERE 



Alstromeria Outdoors 



IT WAS with considerable interest that I read in 

 the October number of The Garden Magazine 

 Mr. Behr's lament about his inability to grow alstro- 

 meria. Alstromeria aurantiaca has flourished in 

 my garden, in a clay soil and full sunny exposure, 

 for some years, until it disappeared because of being 

 hoed up by a workman by mistake. Alstromeria 

 chilensis is still growing well in the shade of some 

 maple trees where lilies and rhododendrons thrive. 

 A. aurantiaca is, I believe, considered the more 

 hardy of the two, but, while this variety used to 

 wear a good coat of manure every winter in common 

 with the rest of the garden, my chilensis has of 

 late years received only a thin coating of leaves as 

 they fall from the maples. I should say the plant 

 needs some winter protection, a good soil, moisture, 

 deep planting, and perhaps partial shade. They 

 are indeed very pretty. My aurantiaca is 4 feet 

 tall, and orange color; chilensis is 25 feet tall and 

 in mixed shades of pink and cream color. 

 Cleveland, O. S. Prentiss Baldwin. 



On page 04 of the October Garden Magazine 

 Mr. Behr inquires about alstromerias. I have the 

 plants growing out of doors and they were raised 

 from seed since it has been impossible for me to 

 make the purchased bulbs establish themselves. 



Some fifteen years ago my seed came from Ger- 

 many and it refused to come up with the usual 

 planting in a hotbed, so we sowed the remainder of 

 the package in October, in a bed south of the house 

 that was quite heavily covered for the protection of 

 some tender bulbs. There the plants came up in 

 the spring and bloomed the same year. I sold that 

 place and again planted the seeds in the fall and 

 transplanted the seedlings in June, to a lily bed that 

 is always covered with leaves in winter and is in 

 partial shade. There the plants have been for 

 at least seven years and bloom in July usually — late 

 July — they seem to be rather too much shaded. I 

 have again sowed seeds, but failing to get any 

 plants, I have concluded that the seeds have not 

 been sufficiently protected from frost. 



The only secret seems to be that alstromeria seeds 

 take some months to germinate. They transplant 

 easily and demand a somewhat light soil in partial 

 shade, and must be carefully protected with at least 

 eight inches of leaves in winter. My variety is a 

 handsome orange color, with black lines on the lower 

 petals. The shape of the blossoms is unique and 

 they are persistent when cut, the buds even opening 

 in water. 



Illinois Mrs. F. Norton Biggs. 



"Cushaw," a Good Name Neglected 



IN THE catalogues we sometimes see the word 

 "cymling" applied to summer squash; but we 

 never hear of winter squash being called anything 

 but winter squash. In the South the winter squash is 

 still known by the Indian name, cushaw. The plant 

 was here and known among the Indians by that 

 name when Columbus discovered America. Why 

 not use this good old name? The cushaw usually 

 has a neck. Those without necks are more or less 

 disrespectfully called "potato pumpkins" by the 

 negro cooks. 

 Lexington, Ky. C. N. Lyle. 



Squash on a Trellis 



LAST year my garden was so full of vegetables 

 that I had no room for the Hubbard vines to 

 run, so I set up a 2 x 2 stick about three feet away 

 from a clothes line post, ran two 16-foot, 2x2 

 scantlings from the tops of these uprights to points 

 near the squash hill, and nailed light stuff across 

 to form a rough trellis. Meanwhile, I had covered 

 a few joints of the vine to get ahead of the borer. 



My yield from the trellis was five fine squash 

 weighing in all 285 pounds, while a vine on the 



ground gave only one small one. I would have had 

 even better success if one of the runners had not 

 been blown off the support and so injured as to 

 mature only one fruit. 



I found that the big squash, or stink, bugs gave 

 me no trouble on the elevated vines, remaining near 

 the hill where they could hide in the dirt. The 

 labor of picking them off was thereby considerably 

 lessened. 



Another feature of my garden that attracts at- 

 tention is a catalpa tree which I trimmed back in the 

 spring and of which the main branch has grown, 

 since May 1st. eleven feet and ten inches. 



Stamford, Conn. Walter C. Wood. 



Nasturtium and Phlox Indoors 



FOR several years past I have had nasturtiums 

 among my winter blossoms. The slips may 

 be rooted either in water or in earth, the best slips 

 being small branches taken off at a joint. They 

 may be started at any time after the latter part of 

 August. I keep them in a sunny south window in an 

 attic room that gets heat only from the hall, and 

 have had these new plants in bloom by Christmas 

 Day. I discovered, also, by accident that Drum- 

 mond phlox can be made to bloom all winter. A 

 bit of phlox, taken from the garden in October was 

 put in soil, and it did well from the very beginning. 

 The first new blossoms came the day before Thanks- 

 giving, and from that time until late spring the 

 plant was never wholly out of bloom. As the winter 

 went on the stalks grew slender and the flower was a 

 paler purple, and by spring it was almost like a vine. 

 It was not sickly looking, but was singularly dainty 

 and fairy like, having from five to eight blossoms at 

 a time. 



Massachusetts. M. F. B. 



Tea Roses Outdoors in Michigan 



I HA VE heard it said that it is impossible to winter 

 tea roses out of-doors so far north as Michigan, 

 but 1 have proved that with little care it can be done. 

 After hilling up the earth about the stems two or 

 three inches, and putting over this a layer of man- 

 ure, I spread a thick layer of loose leaves over the 

 bed. I have a number of old sawhorses and after 

 the first heavy snowfall set these over the plants and 

 hang an old canvas awning over them. (Sometimes 

 I use an old Brussels rug, glazed side up, and this 

 sheds moisture perfectly.) The sawhorse and 

 canvas make a tentlike arrangement that allows 

 free circulation of air at the ends. I uncover the 

 plants gradually in the spring. Twice I have su- 

 cessfully wintered, in this, way, tiny six-f or- twenty- 

 five-cent rose slips that were planted in June. 

 Michigan. Mary Rutner. 



Fall Cauliflowers and Peas 



CAULIFLOWER as a fall crop is grown by mar- 

 ket gardeners but the home gardener seems 

 to.be afraid of it. In my garden on the Jersey Coast 

 I had big white cauliflower heads until the first of 

 December, both last year and the year before. 



I plant Autumn Giant in a prepared bed in the 

 garden on June 15th, and transplant on July 20. 

 During the dry weather of August and September 

 I water the roots thoroughly about once a week, 

 and two or three times during September sprinkle 

 nitrate of soda around each plant, six inches from 

 the base of the head. I keep the earth well worked 

 and free from weeds, and the plants grow steadily 

 from the time they are planted until the heads 

 mature. Encouraged by my continued success 

 with fall cauliflower, I decided to try peas again, in 

 spite of continued failure during the past few years. 

 So few peas ripened on the vines that, after the birds 

 were through eating, there was nothing left for me. 

 Last year, however, I had some space that I didn't 

 need for anything else, so I planted them again, as I 

 hated to admit to myself that I couldn't grow them. 

 I planted Stratagem peas on August 10. They 



164 



grew beautifully from the beginning, and I supple- 

 mented the lack of rain by watering them regularly. 

 I dug a trench along each row, two inches fiom the 

 roots, and allowed the water from a hose to run for 

 several hours from one end of the row to the other, 

 until the ground was thoroughly soaked. I did 

 this about once a week. Three-foot wire was 

 stretched between the rows, and the peas trained up. 

 against it. They grew to be two and a half feet 

 high and bore almost as heavily as spring peas. I 

 began picking October 3rd. 



My success may have been due to the exceedingly 

 dry weather, which meant no mildew, or perhaps 

 it was just luck, but I shall certainly try again next 

 year. 



New Jersey. Louise Bijdr. 



Ever-Ready Planting Cards 



I HAVE gardened for a number of years, but some- 

 times find myself at a disadvantage on a fine 

 spring morning when work is crowding, and the 

 man who does the garden work comes demanding 

 seed and instructions. I cannot then take time to 

 read up on varieties, culture, etc., and I sometimes 

 have found afterward that in the hurry of the mo- 

 ment, I have planted a late variety of peas instead 

 of an early, and that a heat-resisting late lettuce has 

 been the first sown. 



The outcome of these troubles has been planting 

 cards, which can be easily consulted and carried 

 around, or hung up in the garden during working 

 hours 



I cut cards of strong white pasteboard (mine are 

 made of old boxes) measuring 8 x 12 in . and in the 

 middle of'the narrow side of these I bore a hole and 

 put a loop of string to hang it up by. The back 

 of each card is left blank, so that garden notes and 

 memoranda may be written there, and on the face 

 of the card I gum the names of the vegetables to be 

 planted and their cultural directions. These I ob- 

 tain from the catalogue of the seedsman from whom 

 I order my seeds, cutting them out neatly and past- 

 ing them on. 



A catalogue of the previous year would answer the 

 purpose in case one was unwilling to mutilate the 

 new issue. For example, with "Corn." I paste 

 first the cultural directions, then under this the 

 names and descriptions of the four varieties I intend 

 planting, in the order of their earliness and lateness. 

 By each variety I make a note in ink of the quantity 

 of seed ordered, and another note "plant every 2 

 weeks till July 15." This is done for each kind of 

 vegetable, and on the right hand side of each card I 

 leave a margin of i| inches on which to note the 

 dates of sowings 



These cards will not take the place of garden note 

 books or systematic garden records, but have the 

 advantage of costing nothing, and of being ever 

 ready 



Maryland. Mrs. P. B. Springer. 



White Pentstemons 



/CONSIDERABLE space is given every year, in 

 VJ the catalogues of several prominent seed firms, 

 to the merits of the white variety of Penlslemon 

 tubiflorus. One description gives it as "the first 

 pure white pentstemon," wherein the writer has 

 overlooked the following: 



Here in the hills of Northwest Arkansas is to be 

 found native, although rather sparingly, a species 

 of beardstongue {Pentstemon tubiflorus) with pure 

 white flowers, usually covered with frost like bloom 

 that sparkles in the sunlight, and adds much to their 

 charm. Botanical descriptions allude to the purple 

 tinge in the blossoms. However that may be, the 

 form of this plant growing on the Boston mountains 

 is, to my knowledge.always with flowers immaculate. 

 The plants attain a height of from two to three 

 feet, and come into flower in late June, continuing 

 through July. The individual flower is of good size 

 and tube-shaped; many crowded on a stalk, which 



