240 
The Readers’ Service will give you : 
ir ee about moior boats T 18l E G A R D E N M A G A Z if N E 
RS For a continuous 
display of flowers 
= no hardy or ten- 
LILIES der plant excels 
Water-Lilies and 
Aquatics. With few exceptions all vari- 
eties can be grown in open air without 
artificial heat. 
At the St. Louis Exposition we were awarded the 
Grand Prize for our display of Water-Lilies and Aqua- 
tics, which was acknowledged by the Judges who 
made the award, as well as by all visitors, to be the 
finest feature in the Horticulture Department. 
The services of our expert in devising plans for 
ponds and proper selection of varieties, etc., are offered 
free of charge to all our patrons. 
Send for free leaflet on the ‘‘ Care and Culture of Water-Lilies 
and Aquatics.’ Instructions also for growing them from seed. 
HENRY A. DREER, 2S 
Growing Tomatoes for Quality, 
Quantity and Earliness 
is the name of the best booklet ever issued on the subject of tomato culture. It 
contains 30 pages and illustrations fully describing the Potter method of raising 
tomatoes. By this method you can have bigger and better fruit and weeks earlier 
than otherwise. It teaches the secret and science of tomato culture; forcing the 
fruit by systematic cultivation and pruning. This book is invaluable to every 
gardener, whether hevrows one dozen or one thousand vines. The subjects cover- 
edare; History of the Tomato; ItsNature and Habit; Tomato Culture in General; 
The Potter Method; Plants and Planting; Home-Grown Plants; Preparing the 
Ground; Setting the Plants; Cultivation; Pruning and Staking the Vines; Picking 
the Fruit; Ripe Tomatoes at Christmas; 40 Tomato Recipes; Best Tomato Seeds, 
The information is condensed and to the point—just what every grower wants. 
The cut herewith shows one of a large number of vines in my garden this 
season. Notice that each stalk is loaded with large, perfect fruit from top to 
bottom. This isthe result of my method. It is easy to raise this kind of fruit 
when you know how. Just send for my book—price s5oc., postage or money 
order. Your money back if not satisfactory. 
FREE SEED.—To everyone ordering my booklet within the next 30 days I 
willsend FREE with each book one package each of the best varieties of early and 
late tomatoes. I make this offerso that you will get ready now for your spring 
gardening. Don’t wait until the last minute when the rushis on. Send for mybook- 
Tet to-day and I know you will bethankful that you made such a wise investment. 
DEPT. C T. F. POTTER, Tomato Specialist, DOWNERS GROYE, Ill. 
For Abundant Crops 
feed the crop with a generous supply of Potash in the 
fertilizer at the 
Crops cannot thrive in the most carefully prepared 
soil, even with the most skilful planting, unless supplied 
with necessary plant-food. 
POTASH 
is absolutely necessary to plant growth. 
‘*Plant Food’’ is the title of a book which we publish and mail 
free to farmers. Itis not an advertising pamphlet, but a book 
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GERMAN KALI WORKS | 
New York—93 Nassau Street Chicago—Monadnock Building 
Atlanta, Ga.—1224 Candler Building 
The Oldest Flowers in Cultivation 
II. The Wallflower 
@ Rae accompanying photograph shows 
the extraordinary contrast that ex- 
isted between’ ordinary and very good 
wallflowers as early as 1613, and presses 
home the fact that we shall never be able 
to get as fine flowers in America as people 
raise in the Old World until we are willing 
to pay more than five or ten cents a packet 
for first-class seed. The seedmen themselves 
have to pay $28 a pound for seed of the 
double dwarf branching wallflowers, whereas 
the common single kinds can be had for 
about sixty cents a pound. 
The pictures here shown are reduced 
from an elephant folio in which all the 
flowers are depicted in their natural size. 
The one at the right is about an inch and 
a half across, whereas the one at the left 
measures about two and one-quarter inches. 
I have before me a German catalogue 
which offers fourty-four varieties of wall- 
flower, yet we really see only two or three 
kinds in an American catalogue. About 
half of these varieties are named single 
varieties with very large flowers; all the others 
are double and are divided into four 
classes — the tall tree, the dwarf tree, the 
tall branching and the dwarf branching — 
and each one of these is offered in from four 
to six colors, namely cream, white, canary, 
golden, dark brown, black-brown, and 
“blue,”? which of course means only violet. 
The reason why the seed of the double 
varieties is so costly is that it is produced 
so scantily, and much rigorous selection is 
necessary to maintain the “strain.” The 
wallflower is not valued primarily for its form 
of blossom but rather for its fragrance, but 
it also gives us some of the best browns 
among flowers, and the velvety texture of 
these brown wallflowers is also admirable. 
Just why the wallflower should be so pop- 
ular in Europe and unknown in America is 
hard to explain. Apparently it does well in 
this country only in New England ard the 
colder regions. The best account of wall- 
flowers that I know of is that in Robinson’s 
“English Flower Garden,” which divides 
them into three classes — single biennials, 
double biennials, and double perennials — 
but none of these forms will stand an 
American winter without the protection of a 
coldframe. : 
The commonest and perhaps the best 
way of handling wallflowers in America 
is to sow the seeds in August, winter the. 
plants in a frame and use them for spring 
May, 1908 - 
