The Garden Magazine 



Regarding " Peonies That Fit," in the Sep- 

 tember issue of The Garden Magazine, I 

 agree with A. P. S. as to the first, Solfatare. But 

 for a red, strongly urge Eugene Bigot in pre- 

 ference to any mentioned. 1 do not think 

 Adolph Rosseau as fine a color as Eugene 

 Bigot and neither has it the fullness of bloom. 

 For the third I suggest Madame Calot; or 

 better yet, add a dollar to the price and try 

 Marie Crousse and you will always thank the 

 writer for a dollar well spent. — W. McClelland, 

 Saginaw, Mich. 



Habenarias This Season.— There has 

 been a wonderful display of Habenaria here 

 this season. I have found psycodes, fim- 

 brata, rotundifolia, blephariglottis, ciliaris, 

 and all the greenish ones, but Hookeri. My 

 most remarkable discovery was a cluster of 

 some fifty plants of ciliaris and blephari- 

 glottis, growing together in a high mountain 

 bog (sphagnum) and among them several 

 undoubted hybrids. I am enclosing individ- 

 ual blossoms from two of these hybrids, in the 

 hope that they will keep their dainty coloring 

 until you see them. All the Habenarias do 

 well under cultivation, provided they are sup- 

 plied with sphagnum, or leaf mold and suffi- 

 cient moisture. There are few garden 

 flowers that surpass thei : in beauty. — Herbert 

 Durand, Ulster Co., New York. 



A Battlefield of a Year Ago.— The fol- 

 lowing is a letter from a British gardener- 

 soldier at the front to the English Garden: 

 "I have just traveled up the line again for the 

 second time. I am not so very far away from 

 the spot where I was last time, but the change 

 that has happened since I left the line toward 

 the end of last year has impressed me very 

 much. I have crossed the old battlefield of a 

 year ago — the ground that we were fighting for 

 so hard — and it is unrecognizable from what it 

 was as I saw it last. Nature has exerted her 

 very utmost to cover up all the terrible havoc 

 that has been done, and it is now a most 

 beautiful garden. It is absolutely covered 

 with flowers as far as the eye can reach, and 

 the effect is most pleasing. The banks of the 

 old trenches are covered with white Dog 

 Daisies, and the vivid red of great patches of 

 Poppies has a splendid effect. There are 

 thousands of beautiful mauve Sweet Scabious 

 and pink and mauve double Poppies. The 

 loveliest flower to be seen, however, is the 



Cornflower. It is such a rkh, intense blue; 

 there are whole fields of it, and the sight is 

 most glorious. There are some tall yellow 

 flowers, very much like Mustard, and the 

 reddish brown seed of the Dock plant adds to 

 the effect. Here and there are large pools of 

 water, caused by the shell holes. The trees, 

 too, that were blown to bits have thrown out 

 shoots to cover up the ugly stumps. The un- 

 level nature of the ground adds a great deal to 

 the beauty of the scene; truly a most lovely 

 wild garden. Last year it was a horrible 

 infer"?; this year a veritable paradise. It 



1-feuy it with thought 

 2 -cook if with care 

 3 • Serve just enough 

 4- Save what will keep 

 £ « eat what would spoil 

 6-home-^rown is best 



don't waste it 



The "Neighbors" stand in positions of national responsi- 

 bility at this time. They are both producers and con- 

 sumers. (Reproduction of poster by the U. S. Food Ad- 

 ministration.) 



proves what the Great Gardener can do. — 



23004, Private A. Speck, British Expeditionary 

 Force." 



European Grapes for America. — That many 

 splendid varieties of the European grape 

 may be grown in the open air in the grape 

 regions of New York is the experience of 

 the State Experiment Station. Protection 



79 



against winter injury is easily secured. The 

 superb quality, length of keeping after picking 

 and usefulness for many purposes commend 

 many of these. American grape varieties, 

 though less susceptible to winter injury than 

 the European species, occasionally suffer 

 severely. In Bulletin 433 of the Station, 

 observations made at Fredonia and other 

 places in the Chautauqua Grape Belt during 

 three years of crop shortage from winter in- 

 jury are discussed. 



Lack of maturity of the wood of the vines is 

 given as the most common cause of severe in- 

 jur}'; and attention to drainage, discontinuance 

 of summer cultivation as weather conditions 

 indicate, the judicious use of cover crops and 

 avoidance of slow-acting forms of nitrogen, are 

 some of the methods advocated for lessening 

 winter injury. 



I Have Read Mr. Rockwell's article in the 

 Garden Magazine for August with a great 

 deal of pleasure and profit. This sort of article 

 is of great service in furthering the food con- 

 servation campaign. You will be interested to 

 know that this Commission, having inspired 

 the planting of some two million more food gar- 

 dens this year than ever before, has for some 

 time been energetically campaigning for the 

 canning and drying of the surplus production 

 of the summer for winter use and we now esti- 

 mate that this year individuals and canning 

 clubs will put up some 460,000,000 cans of 

 vegetables and fruits, an amount very greatly 

 in excess of what has ever been previously 

 canned in any one year. — P. S. Ridsdale, 

 Secretary National Emergency Food Garden 

 Commission. 



Two Fruiting Shrubs for the Home Garden. 

 ■ — There is a great need for fruit-bearing 

 shrubs for the small home garden, shrubs long 

 lived and free-fruiting as currants, occupying 

 as little room. Here are two worth trying in 

 northern gardens. 



The Chinese Bush Cherry (Prunus tomen- 

 tosa) is not a new plant as seed were planted in 

 the Arnold Arboretum more than 30 years ago. 

 It is now offered by several nurserymen and 

 the Bureau of Plant Introductions of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture. According to Bai- 

 ley's Cyclopedia, it is a small tree planted 

 solely for ornament, and it truly is ornamental, 

 a bush about 6 feet high and as wide, smoth- 

 ered in late April with a cloud of small pink 



