ODDS AND ENDS 



FROM EVERYWHERE 



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An Everblooming Blackberry 



SEVERAL years ago a friend brought us a small 

 vine of what he called an "everblooming 

 blackberry." We rather laughed at the idea of 

 planting a single vine of a particular variety, but 

 were told that two such vines, when mature, would 

 supply an ordinary family with berries for the table. 



We were skeptical of such abundant yield from 

 any berry, but planted our vine carefully and 

 awaited results. Now we are complete converts to 

 the use and beauty of the "everblooming black- 

 berry," as we picked ten quarts of berries from the 

 one vine last year. 



These blackberries are particularly large and fine 

 and are uniform in size. They are very sweet and 

 have the advantage of ripening after all other small 

 fruit is gone. The foliage is very ornamental and 

 could be used for an arbor or for shade on a porch. 

 The stems are similar to those of a rose, and are of a 

 rich reddish green. The leaf is very cleft, is symetri- 

 cal in shape and looks more like that of a flowering 

 ornamental vine than a fruit vine. 



The fruit ripens for a month or six weeks in August 

 and early September. The berries are tenacious and 

 do not drop when ripe as most all fruit does. In 

 fact for an all around satisfactory berry the "ever- 

 blooming" is well worth having. 



Perhaps some of The Garden Magazine readers 

 can tell its botanical name. 



Catonsville, Md. Emily H. Hayden. 



[The everblooming blackberry is a very old plant — 

 Rubus laciniatus. The fruit, while luscious, is soft 

 and is not very highly esteemed. — Editors.] 



More about Plums in Pennsylvania 



ON PAGE 244 of the June, 1015, issue there is an 

 answer to an inquirer regarding Japanese and 

 Domestica plums, advising him as to varieties of 

 Japanese plums adapted to western Pennsylvania. 

 There are none. The Japanese plums are a failure 

 in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania. They 

 bloom so early that they get caught by the late 

 frosts; and besides they get the yellows. 



My own observation during three years of travel 

 in Washington, Allegheny and Greene counties, has 

 been that they are an utter failure. In 1912-13-14 

 they never even bloomed, the flower buds being 

 killed during the winter. The buds start so easily 

 that a short period of warm weather during the 

 winter months — to which this section of the state 

 seems to be subject — causes them to swell suffi- 

 ciently to make them tender, and so they are killed 

 by severe weather later on. 



As to the Domestica plums, it depends upon what 

 they are to be used for. If the correspondent 

 desires to grow plums for sale in the Pittsburgh 

 markets, or in the mining or manufacturing towns in 

 western Pennsylvania, Bradshaw, Gueii (or Blue 

 Magnum), Grand Duke, German Prune, Monarch, 

 and Shropshire Damson will prove most satisfactory. 

 All these are blue plums, which is what the mar- 

 kets demand. The reds and yellows do not bring 

 nearly so good a price. Bradshaw is not as good as 

 the others mentioned but it is earlier. The German 

 Prune will stand more freezing than most of the 

 plums. I have seen the petals frozen stiff, and still 

 they bore a crop, while other varieties right along 

 side of them were killed by the freeze. Shropshire 

 Damson is to be preferred to the old-fashioned 

 Damson mentioned in the published note because it 

 is larger and, therefore, more easily picked. It has 

 all the good qualities of the old-fashioned Damson 

 and makes just as good plum butter. 



For home use Reine Claude (or Green Gage), 

 Washington, Jefferson and General Hand are, in the 

 opinion of Prof. Hedrick about the best plums that 

 grow. These are all very similar in appearance, 

 being greenish-yellow, or yellowish-green, in color, 

 with the exception of General Hand which is yellow. 



Jefferson has been one of the best dessert plums for 

 many years, but is losing its popularity simply be- 

 cause it lacks qualities which could make it a good 

 market plum. General Hand is a shy, uncertain 

 bearer, but even with these drawbacks it has main- 

 tained its popularity for more than a century. 

 Both Jefferson and General Hand have long ripening 

 periods. For preserves no plum is better than the 

 Reine Claude. 

 Penna. P. T. Barnes. 



Deep Spading 



LAND may be said to be rich in proportion to the 

 extent and richness of the sources from which 

 vegetable life can draw its growth and sustenance. 

 The desirable requisites are water and plant-foods, 

 both of which are readily available. In the farming 

 of large areas, this principle is becoming recognized. 

 We hear of attachments being used on plows to 

 break up the subsoil or "plow-pan," which is the 

 packed strata of soil lying immediately beneath that 



One vine of Rubus laciniatus, the everblooming blackberry, 

 will furnish ten quarts of berries in a season 



which ordinary cultivation can reach and pulverize. 

 The use of powder and dynamite to blast holes for 

 young trees is an application of the same principle. 

 The farther down the soil is made friable, the more 

 water and food will be available for the plant. 



This truth has been too little recognized in the 

 home garden. Underlying the well-worked top-soil 

 of practically all gardens is the tough, unbroken 

 plow-pan, whose nature is favorable to checking the 

 rise of moisture from deep earth-sources, or of 

 yielding it but grudgingly. In times of drought, the 

 garden is sure to suffer, for it has practically nothing 

 but the surface from which to draw its water. Often, 

 sprinkling the surface with a hose does but doubtful 

 good. What is really needed is deeper spading in the 

 spring, or whenever the land is prepared. 



Practically all shovels for garden spading are 12 

 inches long in the blade; consequently, year after 

 year, the garden gets spaded to a depth of a foot or 

 less. Shovels with 16 or 18-inch blades are to be 

 had; and during the first season of their use they 

 will make up many times for the extra price paid for 

 them. If garden-soil is prepared to a depth of a 

 foot and a half, it will successfully weather a severe 

 drought, proving that the necessary humus is 



118 



present. Crops which would utterly fail on shallow 

 soil will grow luxuriantly and bear abundantly on 

 soil which has been deeply spaded. The depth to 

 which the roots of a plant will plunge will depend on 

 the texture of the soil through which they have to 

 force their way. They will go deep if the soil 

 permits it. They know what they need and want, 

 and but await the opportunity to get it. If any 

 plant once gets rooted as alfalfa roots, it is reason- 

 ably insured against the ill-effects of severe spells 

 of dry weather. 



Pennsylvania. Archibald Rutledge. 



Growing Calimeris for Cut Flowers 



I WONDER if many of the readers of The 

 Garden Magazine know and use Calimeris 

 incisa? The small, starry, white flowers borne in 

 endless profusion above fine, dark green foliage not 

 only make it a good edging plant but are indispens- 

 able to use for cut flowers, belonging to that rare cut- 

 and-come-again type which is as balm to the soul in 

 July and August, when the shears must be used with 

 discriminating judgment. To achieve a delicate 

 cloudy effect I should class it with Gypsophila and 

 Statice, although its flowers, like a miniature daisy, 

 are much larger than the flowerets of either the 

 baby's breath or the sea lavender. 



Use it in a low table basket with annual blue corn- 

 flowers and pale lavender Stokesia, and you have an 

 arrangement which is so delicate and cool in its blue 

 and lavender and white beauty that you feel re- 

 freshed at once. In August, use it again with 

 Zinnias in flesh and faded pink colors — the bisque 

 shades — and you have a vision of delight. 



Another suggestion which I wish to make is the 

 use of grape vines on pergolas. Here we have, I 

 believe, the ideal vine for the purpose. The slender 

 brown trunk lies flat against the pillar, beautifully 

 unlike the hideous bunched effects given by climbing 

 roses, Clematis paniculata, and many others. 

 Overhead a real shade is made by the leaf, exquisite 

 in shape and classic in association, and later where 

 the fruit hangs in purple, pink and pale green clusters 

 you have an arbor of great beauty — and even utility! 

 • Penna. Helen M. Sharpe. 



Narcissus in Water 



ONE of the articles in The Garden Magazine 

 suggested growing Narcissus in water. A well 

 known seedsman in New York definitely assured me 

 that it could not be done. It may interest your 

 readers to know that, believing what The Garden 

 Magazine said, I insisted on buying one double Van 

 Sion bulb. I kept it in the dark in a hyacinth glass 

 until the roots reached the bottom of the glass, and 

 was rewarded by two very large flowers from the 

 same bulb. Has any one else ever tried this experi- 

 ment? 



Pelham Manor, N. Y. W. C. 



Dracaena for Indoors 



ONE Christmas I had given to me a dracaena 

 which, at the time, had leaves nearly to the 

 base of the stem. In the pot and close to the stem of 

 the dracaena was a tiny fern (Lygodium japonicum) 

 and the donor laughingly asserted that I was being 

 presented with two plants. 



The following winter, for some unknown cause, 

 the dracaena lost two or three series of its lower 

 leaves; the fern, meantime, had remained stationary 

 or nearly so. But in the spring the fern put forth 

 one fairly hearty frond, which was followed by an- 

 other and another. They twined around the bare 

 stem of the dracaena and hid its unsightly appear- 

 ance so effectively that I did not so keenly regret 

 the lost dracaena leaves. 



When a dracaena needs repotting, its roots should 

 be disturbed as little as possible. A Dracaena 

 fragrans, when given a thorough repotting (the old 



