December, 1914 



THE GARDEN M A G A Z I N E 



165 



bears a superficial resemblance to the tuberose. 

 Specimen clumps transplanted into my garden have 

 flourished, even suffering to grow in damp situa- 

 tions, generally so fatal to members of this group. 

 It also stands drought well. As to the amount of 

 cold it will endure, I cannot state, but in its habitat 

 the temperature often goes under zero; sometimes 

 when there is no snow blanket to protect the plants. 

 Arkansas. A. P. S. 



A Unique Double Crop 



IT GENERALLY happens that during any sum- 

 mer either the early or the late potato season is 

 good; but it is seldom that both are found to be 

 favorable. 



A gardener whose early potato crop had suffered 

 badly on account of long drought decided to try late 

 potatoes. But he had only one space, an old straw- 

 berry bed in his garden unplanted, and he wanted to 

 put that in late corn. He decided to turn under the 

 bed and to plant both late corn and late potatoes, 

 setting the potatoes in the same rows with the corn. 



The soil was prepared and the seed planted on 

 July 4. The corn used was Country Gentleman, and 

 the potatoes, Bliss's Early Triumph. They came 

 ■out of the ground together and grew well in their 

 close companionship. The potato roots did not 

 seem to interfere with the development of the corn, 

 and the shade of the corn-blades appeared to keep 

 the potato tops from suffering from intense heat and 

 from sun-scald after showers. The potato tops 

 began to die about September 20, and when the 

 stalks were lifted, the gardener found that he had 

 a much better crop than his earlies had yielded. 

 The corn attained its full growth and development, 

 some of the stalks having three good ears. This 

 was ready to use by the time the potatoes were 

 taken out. 



In tins successful experiment the rows were 

 three feet apart, and the hills of corn were thirty 

 inches apart in the row. One potato seedpiece was 

 dropped midway between the hills of corn. Pro- 

 bably it would always be better, when planting as 

 late as Jul} - , to use the seed of a variety that matures 

 quickly. 



Pennsylvania. Archibald Rutledge. 



Growing Flowers in the Middle Southwest 



IT IS universally supposed that flowers cannot be 

 successfully grown in the blistering sun and severe 

 winds of Oklahama. I have had in my garden, how- 

 ever, many varieties of flowers and have grown them 

 well, too. 



Coming from the East, where the climate is mild, 

 we believed that all we had to do was to plant, cul- 

 tivate, and reap results. My first failure was from 

 planting seeds in the open ground and not protecting 

 them. When the soil was well prepared and the 

 seeds carefully sown, I supposed I had only to 

 await the proper length of time for their appearance 

 above ground, but my hopes were not to be realized; 

 when the gentle breezes of spring had spent their 

 furies for about three days there was nothing left 

 but deep holes in the earth where my precious flowers 

 had been planted. The soil had blown out as 

 deeply as it had been spaded up. 



New beds were dug and more seeds planted. 

 With the idea that by keeping the soil moist it would 

 not blow away in case we had another sand storm. 

 I watered the beds copiously each morning and 

 evening, with the result that the soil was soon baked 

 hard. Then I tried planting in boxes of soil, but 

 it seemed impossible to keep them from drying out, 

 though later I removed the boxes to a bench by the 

 kitchen window and was really successful in starting 

 tender plants in them by keeping them covered with 

 panes of glass. 



However, each failure in the garden only made 

 me more determined. I refilled the old beds which 

 had blown out and prepared some new ones with 

 equal parts of the natural soil, rich soil from the cow 

 lot and sand. 



Then, when the beds were well watered and the 

 seeds planted, they were all edged with boulders 

 from the creek and covered with gunny sacks nailed 

 to boards laid over the entire beds, rocks, and all, 

 and weighted down with more rocks. I had wielded 

 the mattock and dent shovel and rolled the wheel- 

 barrow at intervals for two weeks, and in a short 

 time I was rewarded with hundreds of plants of 



sweet alyssum, asters, balsams, cosmos, dianthus, 

 poppies, mignonettes, nasturtiums, pansies, petun- 

 ias, phlox, sweet peas and verbenas. 



The canna bed instead of being raised to drain the 

 water was banked up around the rock border so as 

 to catch and hold the water. For the roses, chry- 

 santhemums and carnations I drove holes in tin 

 , cans and buried one on either side of each plant, 

 and each evening they were filled with water. The 

 water was thus applied to the roots of the plants and 

 caused the fibrous roots to grow downward into the 

 cool moist earth and nourish the plants, instead of 

 coming to the surface to be dried by the winds and 

 parched by the hot sun. 



Later on I resorted to this method for watering 

 all my plants and found it most satisfactory. I 

 have since learned that September and October are 

 the best months to plant roses and shrubs of all 

 sorts, also hardy perennials, even chrysanthemums, 

 as well as some of the annuals. 



Altus, Oklahoma. Virginia B. Mead. 



What's the Matter With the Dahlias? 



WILL some one please tell me why I did not have 

 success with my dahlias this year? About 

 May tenth I planted fifty bulbs in a bed deeply dug 

 .and very finely broken up. The bulbs were planted 

 a foot apart in a rich heavy loam that had never 

 been used before for flowers. The shoots came up 

 and I thinned them out to one or two. When they 

 were about two feet high I pinched off the tops of 

 the plants. I had about half a dozen blooms. The 

 bed is situated in a very sunny location and the 

 plants have luxuriant foliage. Can you tell me if 

 there is any way by which I might insure success 

 next year, as I have some very fine varieties? 



Lansdowne, Pa. E. W, Davis. 



[Editor's Note: — We shall specially welcome 

 letters in reply as this complaint is but typical of 

 several received.] 



Rockery Pests 



IF THE readers of The Garden Magazine have 

 cherished rockeries in their gardens and desire to 

 extermine pests therein, a search under the stones in 

 spring will reveal all kinds of insects. Our small 

 rockery was made a year ago and as the stones were 

 placed too closely, it was decided to remove some 

 and change the position of others. The first ex- 

 traction revealed coils of a yellowish wire worm, 

 sluggish still but with every promise of a future evil 

 life! The next stone hid the same worm with slugs 

 as companions and so on to the end, the finds closing 

 with a black beetle armed with strong nippers. 

 Boiling water was effectual and a coating of soot 

 followed. Though some stones remain unturned, 

 our alpines (some gathered from rock}' hill tops of 

 British Columbia) now have a fighting chance for 

 summer blooming. 



Vancouver, B. C. Alice Fane. 



The Old Black Gilliflower Apple 



THE old Black Gilliflower is an apple which has 

 always been valued chiefly for dessert use. 

 It has come down to us from colonial times and is 

 one of the apples which was grown by Israel Put- 

 nam of Revolutionary fame in his orchard at Pom- 

 fret, Conn., along with other varieties many of 

 which are no longer propagated. It may be of 

 interest to some readers to know that cions of the 

 Black Gilliflower and a number of other varieties 

 were taken from this Israel Putnam orchard and 

 sent to the first white settlement in Ohio, at Mari- 

 etta, as early as 1796. These varieties were grown 

 in the Putnam nursery at that place, and from there 

 disseminated to the early settlers of that region. 



Black Gilliflower is now obsolete, or fast becoming 

 so, in most regions of the country. One great 

 reason for this, doubtless, is that it is not so good 

 an all around market apple as are such varieties as 

 Baldwin and Northern Spy, being less brilliant in 

 color and with less sprightly acidity in flavor. 



In some few localities it is still planted in com- 

 mercial orchards because it is profitable to grow 

 it to a limited extent for some local markets, and 

 there is some demand for it for Southern trade. 

 On good soils, and even on poorer soils which 

 are given liberal dressings of stable manure and 

 provided with thorough underdrainage, it is a good 

 grcwer and a reliable cropper, yielding fruit of re- 

 markably uniform grade, fair, smooth, symmetri- 

 cal, with but a very small percentage of culls. 



This apple is very distinct in color, form, and 

 flavor. The greenish undercolor becomes yellow- 

 ish as the ripening processes progress. It is more 

 or less overspread with a characteristic red, or in 

 highly colored specimens somewhat of a dull pur- 

 plish color of a very dark tone, which has been 

 duly recognized in giving it the name Black GUI- 

 flower. 



The flesh is often rather dry and at its best is 

 but moderately juicy, but it has a characteristic 

 and pronounced flavor or aroma which is pleasing 

 to many. It is so mildly sub-acid that it is not 

 much valued for culinary uses except possibly for 

 baking. It is not in demand at evaporators or 

 canneries. 



The Black Gilliflower varies from medium to 

 large, but is seldom very large. It is somewhat 

 ribbed and the axis is sometimes rather oblique. 

 The cavity is usually deep, acuminate and with 

 red russet or greenish outspreading rays. The 

 basin is generally rather shallow, furrowed and 

 much wrinkled. The skin is thick, tough, striped 

 or covered with red and streaked with a bluish 

 gray scarfskin toward the cavity. The core is large. 

 The flesh is whitish or with slight yellowish tinge, 

 firm, rather coarse, tender, only moderately juicy 

 at best, but it has a rich aromatic flavor and good 

 dessert quality. 

 Ames, Iowa S. A. Beach 



Black Gilliflower, a good quality, moderately juicy, sub-acid apple that is fast becoming obsolete 



