June, 1907 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



293 



leaving the handle standing up perfectly 

 straight. 



Take the bottom of the flower pot in your 

 right hand and place your left hand over 

 the top, letting the tips of your fingers rest on 

 the soil, with the stems of the plant resting 

 between the index and middle fingers. 



Then turn the plant and pot upside down 

 and give the edge of the pot a few gentle 

 taps on the spade handle. The plant and 

 ball of earth will slide out with very little 

 trouble and be secure in your left hand; the 

 empty pot in the right. 



AN INGENIOUS HOME-MADE COMPASS 



After two or three lines have been set, it 

 will be impossible to use the centre stake as 

 a guide. The line would break the plants 

 already set. For marking off the lines near- 

 est the edge, a rough form of compass is 

 very useful. This may be made of three 

 pieces of lath, sharpening two of the ends for 

 points. Drive a nail through the other two 

 ends, so that the points can be moved to any 

 distance you wish. Nail the other lath in 

 the middle of either one of the others. This 

 is the guide. 



Stretch the points then as far as you want 

 them and join the other end of the guide to 

 the second leg of the compass. Place one 

 point at the edge of the bed, stretching the 

 other point into the bed in the place where 

 you want to make the line. Then move 

 around the bed pulling the compass after 

 you. This will make a circle at an equal 

 distance from the edge of the bed all the way 

 around. Mark off the distance between the 

 plants as before for the next line. Reduce 

 the width of the compass to whatever distance 

 is desired and so on until the bed is finished. 



This compass is the handiest means of 

 drawing irregular lines in such a bed. It 

 is also very useful in drawing geometrical 

 designs, if such planting is to be done. 



MAKING THE HOLES 



If the bed has been thoroughly prepared, 

 it will be an easy matter to make the holes 

 for each plant, as the ground is quite loose. 

 Hold the handle of the trowel in your right 

 hand with the blade pointing downwards as 

 you would a dagger. Drive this into the 

 ground directly on the top of the line with one 

 stroke. At the same time, hold your plant 

 in your left hand. Pull the trowel and soil 

 toward you and before the loose soil has time 

 to fall back into the hole thus made, put the 

 plant into it. It is the work of a second. 

 One stroke of the trowel should make a hole 

 sufficiently large to hold the ball of earth out 

 of a 4-inch pot. When planting, set the top 

 of the ball from one to two inches below the 

 surface of the ground. With the back of 

 the trowel, push the soil back and then firm 

 it down with both hands, but don't make it 

 too firm as you are liable to injure the plant. 

 All that is needed is to have the earth well 

 packed around the ball. A good watering 

 after planting will settle the soil sufficiently. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR ARRANGING THE PLANTS 



A good combination for sub-tropical effect 

 is tall-growing cannas, with a few castor oil 



plants in the middle, edged with elephants' 

 ear (Colocasia antiquorum, var. esculentum, 

 usually spoken of by the florists as Caladium 

 esculentum). Set the castor-oil plants about 

 three feet apart each way; the tall cannas 

 (e. g. Austria, Burbank, Florence Vaughan, 

 Beaute Poitevine or Queen Charlotte), two 

 and one-half feet apart each way; and 

 elephants' ears one and a half feet apart. 



The dwarf cannas, such as Tarry town, 

 Express, Mont Blanc, Buttercup and Charles 

 Henderson, may be planted from one and 

 one-half to two feet apart each way. 



For yellow effects, the tall-growing cannas, 

 Austria, Queen Charlotte or Premier are 

 best. For scarlet, Sam Trelease and Flor- 

 ence Vaughan are best. 



Of the more dwarf varieties, Buttercup 

 is by far the best yellow. It grows only from 

 one and one-half to two feet high and makes 

 a beautiful edging plant. 



The best dwarf scarlets are Tarrytown, 

 Express and Charles Henderson in the order 

 named. 



In planting a canna bed, it is best to stick 

 to one, or at least, two colors, as mixed colors 

 do not show to good advantage. However, 

 the centre may be all of scarlet with Butter- 

 cup for an edging; or the centre may be com- 

 posed of any of the tall-growing yellows with 

 Black Beauty or King Humbert (dark- 

 leaved varieties) for an edging. Another 

 good edging for a canna bed is fine-leaved 

 grasses — Pennisetum villosum, (known in the 

 trade as P. longistylam), or purple fountain 

 grass (P. Rueppelii). These may be planted 

 a foot apart. 



A very brilliant effect can be had by making 

 a solid bed of scarlet sage (Salvia splendens). 

 This does not come into flower until rather 

 late and gives the vividest red we have. It 

 is also very useful as a cut flower. This bed 



Rose moss or porlulaca goes lo sleep in the after- 

 noon, but will grow in the poorest sandy soil and has 

 many brilliant colors 



can be edged with dusty miller (Centaurea 

 gymnocarpa). 



Rubber plants (Fiats elastica), make a 

 good base for a sub-tropical bed, using 

 grasses or any of the highly colored 

 acalyphas for an edging. 



A very pretty bed can be made of various 

 cacti, century plants and sedums with eche- 

 verias for edging, but the edging must be 

 planted after a geometrical design to give 

 the best effect. 



Among flowering plants for summer bed- 

 ding, geraniums have few equals, and if 

 planted in poor soil will flower the whole 

 summer through. The best varieties for this 

 purpose are S. A. Nutt (double scarlet), 

 General Grant (double red), Beaute Poitevine 

 (double salmon) and Jean Viaud (double 

 pink). The silver-leaved, dwarf-growing vari- 

 ety Madame Salleroi makes the most suitable 

 edging for a geranium bed, but can only be 

 used with red and scarlet varieties. Sweet 

 alyssum also makes a pretty bed with these 

 same colored geraniums. Dwarf blue ager- 

 atum may be used with white geraniums. 

 Dwarf scarlet nasturtiums may be used with 

 white and also pink varieties. 



Cacti are essentially curiosities and ought, therefore, to be secluded. Their lines do not harmonize wiih those 

 of architecture and soften them as cannas do. Put them in the garden 



