January, 1916 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



20£ 



bhckened. The ground toward the trellis was 

 torn up in ridges. From these signs we decided 

 that the bolt of lightning had first struck the top 

 of the tree, slipped down the wet leaves of the 

 outer branches to the earth; the main force crossing 

 to the wooden grape trellis and there doing its real 

 damage. We were thankful that the damage was 

 at least reparable and the experience convinced us 

 more than ever that a Beech tree was immune from 

 the effects of lightning, though it still might not be 

 a safe harbor in time of a thunder storm. 



Weeks passed. The tree flourished and gave us 

 delightful shade while we related its narrow escape 

 to wondering friends. Then some one announced 

 that the Beech trunk looked peculiar — moss and 

 various fungus growths appeared and in some places 

 the bark was loose and rattled. It looked serious, 

 but as the leaves seemed health}' and in good condi- 

 tion we hoped that it would in time survive the 

 shock. Slowly however the bark withered, loos- 

 ened, and died, until by mid October it was entirely 

 off for a height of four feet and we finally gave up 

 hope of seeing it another v ear. The photograph 

 was taken at that time. Please notice that the 

 foliage is still in perfect condition. It seemed won- 

 derful that the leaves could stay on and alive with 

 no circulation of sap until they naturally ripened and 

 dropped after frost. Even the new leaf-buds for 

 next year were properly formed. 



Now our theory is this: — a Beech tree can be 

 struck and killed by lightning the same as any other 

 tree but because of its peculiar physical makeup it 

 does not immediately show the effects and its final 

 death will instead be attributed to some blight or 

 disease. The trunk does not split to shreds like an 

 Oak tree, nor like a Tulip or a Chestnut does the foli- 

 age die from top to bottom and hang on all summer 

 brown and withered — a conspicuous object that can 

 be seen for miles across country. 



The weeping Beech is frequently seen as a lawn 

 tree, having many qualities such as slow growth, 

 compactness, and long lived that make it desirable. 

 But as a rule it is crowded into a group of other 

 trees and neglected until it is unshapen and 

 scrubby. To attain its highest beauty it must be 

 planted as a single tiee and be unhampered in its 

 growth. 



The tree photographed was planted in 1883. After 

 30 years the trunk measured 64 inches in circum- 

 ference. Its owner (a nurseryman and a tree lover) 

 gave it individual care and attention and claimed 

 that was the most perfect symmetrical specimen of 

 weeping beech in America — with one exception, and 

 that is the parent tree on Long Island, that was 

 brought from England by William Prince, who was 

 the first to introduce its kind to this country. It is 

 standing now on the lawn of a private house — part 

 of the original Prince nursery at Flushing — and is 

 a monarch in size and appearance. 



Penna. Elinor S. Brixton. 



This fine Beech tree was certainly injured by lightning. 

 Whence comes the legend that Beech is immune? 



Does Platycodon really "Winter Kill?" 



THE Platycodon is a relatively neglected plant 

 in hardy borders outside of a nurseryman's 

 show plots. I have been told by amateur growers 

 that it winter kills. As in my own garden it thrives 

 in a cold spot and endures all sorts of neglect, 

 famine, and pestilence, I have been for some seasons 

 looking for a fact back of this bad reputation. Last 

 year I think I found a reasonable cause for its 

 "failing." 



Structurally, the root is like a poor sort of forked 

 parsnip that gets left in the ground because it is too 

 poor to market; and the successive years' growths 

 spring from the outer rim of the crown just under 

 the ground. The roots are white and conspicuous, 

 but the sprouts come of a most invisible blue- 

 green-brown. They are as brittle as the best as- 

 paragus. Not until they are four inches high does 

 the tip expand into noticeable embryo leaves, and 

 these remain for some days of a dim, lurid tint hard 

 to see when one looks directly down upon the plant 

 in full daylight. Daffodils are gone and Lily-of-the- 

 valley coming into flower before the stems of the 

 Platycodon really declare themselves to the eye of 

 the gardener. 



I do not believe that the Platycodon "winter 

 kills," but that instead it is very generally hoe-and- 

 trowel murdered. The spring weeding cannot go 

 undone in the average border. The clean-up week, 

 admirable for fibrous-rooting herbs and shrubs, 

 spells a general beheading of Platycodons all over 

 the garden; and once the mischief is done, the plants 

 are likely to die unless an undeveloped eye remains 

 to start a secondary sprout from. 



The remedy, if I am right, is lateiweeding, careful 

 weeding; and so far as possible, spring neglect of the 

 Platycodon patch. Wonderful little seedlings will 

 spring up around the parent crowns, too, if the soil 

 is not chopped up; and these hold one big bell on a 

 wiry thread of stem in July, like some sort of an 

 Alpine Harebell, blue, pure white, or crossed to 

 shaded blue on white-. They transplant well at 

 almost any stage of growth, and the prettiest forms 

 can be picked out to keep in a choice bed. Young 

 or old plants are gross feeders, and like nitrate of 

 soda sprinkled thinly on the soil between rows. 

 The white plants give most valuable cut flowers for 

 church decoration or tall formal bouquets, at a sea- 

 son when white flowers are scarce. 



Penna. E. S. Johnson. 



Decorating the Luncheon Table 



WANDERING about among friends this last 

 spring, a beautiful arrangement of white and 

 green upon a luncheon table met my eye, a decora- 

 tive .touch for the month of May. A rather shal- 

 low circular bowl of white Italian paste, supported 

 by half a dozen little pillars, was filled with grace- 

 ful sprays of Spiraea van Houttei; toward the center 

 of the bowl Deutzia Lemoinei showed itself in little 

 spires of white bells; and among these stood grace- 

 fully 7 many leaves of fresh ribbon grass. At the 

 base of the supporting pillars on the lace garniture 

 of the table lay an ordered wreath of fresh green 

 leaves, uniform in size, of Ampelopsis Veitchii. 

 The whole composed an object of beauty to fascin- 

 ate the eye with its spring coolness and freshness. 

 Michigan. Mrs. Frances King 



The Ponderosa Lemon 



THE Ponderosa lemon is, without doubt, a 

 decided novelty to most people. The fruit 

 grows so large, more than four times as large as an 

 ordinary sized lemon, that some discredit the fact 

 of its being a lemon at all. The Ponderosa origin- 

 ated at Hagerstown, Md., and is claimed to be a 

 cross between the common lemon from which it 

 gets acidity, flavor, and shape, and the grapefruit, 

 to which it owes its large size, compact growth, and 

 early fruiting habit. The blossoms are about the 

 size of a tuberose, a waxy white in color, and very 

 sweet scented. The foliage is very glossy. 



I have a plant in my garden that I set out about 

 six or seven years ago. It cost fifty cents and was 

 ten or twelve inches high when purchased. Twice 

 in its youth it was killed to the ground during the 

 winter, but each subsequent spring it would grow 

 out again from the roots. One unusually warm 



Ponderosa Lemon growing in a Georgia garden. It is an 

 interesting cool greenhouse or window plant in the North 



winter it withstood the winter without any pro- 

 tection, and flowered the following March for the: 

 first time. Most of the flowers were blown off, 

 however, and only two fruits matured, each weigh- 

 ing two pounds. In two months it was flowering 

 again, when it produced more than two dozen perfect 

 fruits. In two more months another crop of flowers 

 appeared, setting an unusually large number of 

 fruits. This proves the plant to be an ever-bearing 

 variety, and as such it is catalogued by some nurs- 

 erymen. This plant or bush is four and a half feet 

 high and the same in diameter, is very bushy 7 and. 

 compact. Last winter I made a frame around it, 

 then another frame or wall around the first one, 

 leaving a space between the two of about eight 

 inches. In this I packed plenty 7 of pine needles, 

 which make it very warm on the inside, the top being 

 covered with heavy 7 oil cloth, which can be removed, 

 in the day time 'to admit sunshine. About six 

 months are required from blossoming to ripened 

 fruit; in a greenhouse of course, it would not re- 

 quire so much time. 



The Ponderosa lemon is not only 7 ornamental but 

 also profitable to grow. A plant the size of the 

 one I have will easily produce two and a half boxes 

 of lemons, and in the summer time here lemons, 

 usually sell for eight or ten dollars a box. As I 

 have already stated this variety produces several, 

 crops a year, bearing flowers the year round, there- 

 fore, the amount produced in twelve months would 

 be greater than two and a half boxes. 



For fertilizer I use well rotted horse manure and a 

 commercial fertilizer rich in potash, which tends 

 to make the plant fruit. The rich nitrogenous 

 manure gives size and color to the fruit as well as 

 growth to plant and the phosphoric acid adds 

 flavor. Apply the fertilizer very early in spring 

 and not too close around the plant, especially 

 commercial fertilizer. To get large fruit give 

 plenty of water which, if necessary, may be applied 

 in trenches close to the plants late in the afternoon, 

 the trenches being covered over with dry 7 soil as. 

 soon as the water has soaked in. 



The Ponderosa lemon is not a budded or grafted 

 fruit; therefore, cuttings may be rooted or seed 

 planted. I would prefer growing from cuttings, 

 however, as they come into fruiting much sooner 

 than seedlings, although the seedlings may produce 

 the healthier plants. They 7 might not come as true 

 to type as cuttings. 



Georgia. T. J. Steed. 



AN AVERAGE day's work with a two-horse 

 walking plow is a little less than 1} acres, 

 while an average day's work for a three-horse- 

 sulky plow is between 2 and 2§ acres. 



