DECEMBER 1906 
“Clematis, plants 
such as we send out 
in the spring of the 
year are field- 
grown plants which 
we import from 
Holland. These 
plants, early in 
spring, before they 
start into active 
growth, we usually 
pot up into 5- or 
6-inch pots, leaving 
about three feet of 
the old wood on the 
plants, in whichcon- 
dition they are sold 
to the retail trade 
during the spring 
months. — Usually 
our sales for this 
class of stock con- 
tinue until the latter 
part of June, and 
until a few years 
ago we simply carried what stock was left over 
in pots throughout the summer, allowing the 
old tops to remain on the plants. Handled in 
this manner we lost anywhere from so per cent. 
to 75 per cent. of the plants. In speaking to 
Mr. Koster about this serious loss at one time, 
he suggested that when our selling season 
was over we should take the plants, cut the 
tops off level with the ground and bury the 
pots in a well-drained piece of ground, so 
that they would be covered with an inch of 
soil, assuring me that the greater part of the 
plants would start into new growth /rom the 
root. 
This I have done for the last three or four 
years with most wonderful results. I now 
save from 75 per cent. to go per cent. of 
the plants, losing only from ro per cent. to 25 
per cent. The treatment seemed so harsh 
—to take the plants in this growing condition 
and cut down so severely—that I felt sure 
after the job was completed the first time, 
that it would be an entire loss, and the result 
surprised me. Mr. Koster recommends 
that clematis, when planted in the open 
ground, be treated in the same manner, 
and from what I have seen of the pot-grown 
stock here I believe that he is correct.” 
Clematis as it is usually 
planted. Note the ruptured 
bark close to the roots 
Celery on a City Lot 
Fitora Warner, Michigan 
ee. year I had a celery bed which was 
partly between the barn and corn 
crib, and partly south of them, and was pro- 
tected on the north side by a tight board 
fence. The north part is low and always 
moist; the south part is higher and dry. 
The area of the bed was about four and three- 
quarters square rods, or about one fortieth 
of an acre. 
On May 25th two 1-horse loads of well- 
rotted manure were spread evenly over the 
surface, and spaded into the soil. The 
ground was left rough until the plants were 
set out when it was raked until the surface 
was smooth and fine, commercial fertilizer 
being raked in at the same time. 
THE: GARDEN 
The seed of white plume celery was sowed 
March 11th and grown in a cool greenhouse, 
until the weather was warm enough for the 
flat of young plants to be set outdoors, after 
which, the plants were so neglected that stunt- 
ed stock for transplanting resulted. Most of 
the plants were set out, after a shower, on 
June 15th. They were set five inches apart, 
in rows that were ten inches apart, the rows 
being in groups of four and five, with paths 
between the groups twenty inches wide. 
There were about 1,800 plants. By stretch- 
ing a line the whole length of a row, distribu- 
ting the plants along it, and then setting them 
with a dibble, only a short time was required 
to fill the bed. The plants being stunted 
when set out, took quite a while to start 
growing but not more than three dozen died. 
The bed was weeded, soil loosened with a 
hand weeder, and paths hoed and raked, 
three times during the season. By the first of 
September the bed was one sheet of dark 
green and creamy white. The paths were 
hardly distinguishable. To bleach the celery 
boards six inches wide were shoved down 
the paths under the leaves, carefully turned _ 
on edge against the rows of plants on each 
side of each path, and held in place by stakes. 
By the middle of the month we began 
using the celery. Out of every roo plants, 
about ten were culls; so that 200 plants out 
of the 1,800 grown were useless. The 1,600 
plants were worth twenty cents a dozen, so 
the crop was worth $26.66. 
What did I do with all my celery? Our 
family is large, and we like celery, so we had 
it on the table at least once a day, usually 
twice. A neighboring grocer, bought six 
dozen a week and my neighbors and friends 
bought considerable of it. Im October, be- 
fore severe frosts, we dug up several dozen 
of the strongest plants, and after pulling off 
the tough, imperfect stalks, set the roots in 
about three inches of earth on the cellar floor, 
packing them as close as possible, and yet 
These sweet peas were in flower at Montclair, N. J., on May 17th. 
MAGAZINE 
Cut off the top of the clematis, even sacrificing a few 
roots like this. New strong growth will develop from 
the bud, clearly seen below the upper whorl of roots 
having soil around each. They were then 
moistened (without wetting the foliage and 
stalks) and we were using crisp, white celery 
until February 1st. 
Sweet Peas on May 17th 
Frank H. Pressy, New Jersey 
4 [ae middle of February I planted fifty 
pots of sweet peas, using 6-inch pots, 
and putting six seeds to a pot. They were 
placed in a sunny corner in my pit, which 
was described in the September GARDEN 
MAGAZINE, page 61. 
The seeds were a long time germinating, 
but the plants were three to four inches high, 
and the pots full of roots by March 17th, 
the time when I usually sow my sweet pea 
seed outdoors. 
Seeds were started in pots in February, 
and transplanted March 17th, the usual date for sowing outdoors 
