OCTOBE R, 1918 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



75 



"Whence Comes the Aster Louse?" asks one of 

 the "Neighbors" in August, page 30. The name 

 is wrong. It is ground or blue aphis, very 

 troublesome in continuing dry weather and tend- 

 ed to and carried by ants. Whenever you notice 

 ants working around a plant be sure that they 

 prepare the nest for their milch cows "the aphis." 

 Watering with a medium strength of nicotin 

 solution — say two tablespoons to one gallon of 

 water — will stop the ants from further work. Des- 

 troy all ant nests in your garden with the same 

 treatment. My experience is this: I. Never 

 use fresh stable manure for flower beds; take well 

 rotted two or three year old cow manure or com- 

 mercial fertilizer; 2. Treat the whole bed (espec- 

 ially Asters) with flowers of sulphur, rake it in 

 after spading, or else make a hole with a small 

 tool, put in a liberal dose of sulphur so that it 

 covers all the walls of the hole, set your Aster, 

 and, when you have finished, water. This treat- 

 ment is also good for vegetable plants which are 

 likely to contract the same trouble — cabbage, 

 rutabaga, etc. When seeding onions, radishes, 

 turnips, etc., in drills, put in first the flowers of 

 sulphur, then the seed. No insect will go near 

 it. Flowers of sulphur is cheap, will not affect 

 the growth, nor will it spoil the taste. — George 

 Wendt, Holland, Mich. 



— I have something to offer and have tried it 

 several years and have the finest of flowers. 

 When sowing the seed work hydrated lime into 

 the soil, and again when you transplant them in 

 the bed. I have never had any more trouble 

 with the louse since using the lime which is the 

 fine lime (powdered) that plasterers use for finish- 

 ing walls. I get it at the hardware stores. — 

 Mrs. G. G. Hartley, Ohio. 



Buddleia Asiatica as a Decorative Plant.— 

 Buddleia variabilis and its various forms are 

 well known as summer-blooming shrubs out- 

 doors. B. asiatica, while equally hardy, is of 

 no value in the open as its racemes appear too 

 late. However, as a greenhouse plant it is one 

 of the finest we have for midwinter flowering. 

 Two years ago our plants did not often see flowers 

 until January. Last year the earliest batch 

 were at their best for Christmas, while this year 

 I had a number in perfect flower for Thanksgiv- 

 ing, although the plants had not had any higher 

 temperature than 50 degrees at night. The 

 delicious fragrance of the pure white racemes of 

 flowers, which are borne in great profusion, and 

 the fact that it has good keeping qualities in both 

 the house and the ordinary greenhouse, make it 

 a plant of peculiar value to the small grower. 

 It is of the easiest propagation and culture, suc- 

 ceeding best when planted outdoors from June 

 until October. It can be grown in either bush or 

 standard form, and big handsome plants can be 

 grown in ten months from cuttings. Buddleia 

 Farquhari with light pink racemes, wider than 

 those of B. asiatica, makes a fine companion to 

 the latter. Any one possessing a small green- 

 house or good sunny bay window can succeed 

 with either of these charming winter-flowering 

 Lilacs, as they are commonly termed. — W. N. C., 

 Mais. 



China Needs Chinese Plants! — We read The 

 Garden Magazine with great profit as garden- 

 ing is our hobby and recreation aside from supply- 

 ing our table with food the year around, and pro- 

 ducing flowers for the sick as well as ourselves. 

 We continually see mention of Wilson's "finds" 

 m China and wish we might profit by the infor- 

 mation gained by his and others' scientific efforts 

 here. Is there a report of the desirable things 

 with the location in China and any information 

 as to where we ourselves can get these things here? 

 If he has the Chinese names for these things it 

 would be of help to us in securing them. I see 

 a Chinese "Hugonis" Rose advertised widely. 

 Do you know where this can be secured in China? 

 We have had great disappointments in getting 



stock from America. Some things can be se- 

 cured from Japan and of course some things 

 locally. We are only a few hours from Shanghai, 

 in a fine climate in a district of great fertility — - 

 cotton, and beans in the summer, wheat in the 

 winter for main crops. We have scores of Deu- 

 tzia from slips of a local variety which is wild in 

 the mountains of Kiang-Si. What can we graft 

 onto it? We have D. scabra, Sieboldiana, Lem- 

 oinii, secured from Japan last year. I suppose 

 they can all be grafted on to it, but what else? — 

 G. L. Hagman, Nan Tung Chow, China. 

 — Unfortunately, so far as we know, there is no 

 such thing as a Chinese nurseryman. Mr. Wil- 

 son's plants are listed in "Plantae Wilsoniana," 

 published by the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard 

 University, Boston Mass., it is purely technical. 

 The Chinese names are not generally given. It 

 is doubtful whether the plants have universal 

 Chinese names, as they came chiefly from the 

 interior regions of western China. Why graft 

 Deutzias at all? They strike so easily from cut- 

 tings and "own root" plants are far preferable 

 to any grafted plants. — Ed. 



The Vigor of the Bleeding-Heart.— The Bleed- 

 ing-heart is a plant that apparently conquers 

 by yielding. I have known it to pass through 

 winter after winter when the temperature drop- 



Bleeding-Heart (Dicentra) for all its fragile looks stands 30 

 degrees below zero 



ped as low as thirty below zero for weeks at a 

 time and this with no covering other than the 

 snow. A late and exceedingly heavy frost 

 catches it in May when ready to bloom and 

 though the herbage wilts down to the ground the 

 courageous plant is up again in less than three 

 weeks. Then the first day of July, a hail storm, 

 such as only the prairies know, pounds it down 

 flat to the ground and toward the end of July 



And will grow in full sunshine as well as in partial shade 



the herbage is well along in its growth again. 

 The Bleeding-heart will grow in full sun and in 

 places where any direct sunlight reaches it only 

 for an hour or two each day. The one drawback, 

 its tendency to ripen its foliage soon after its 

 blossoming period and become untidy in appear- 

 ance, is no great drawback when the gardening 

 season is so short any way; besides, cutting down 

 the herbage or planting it where shrubs or later 

 growth will hide it, overcomes this defect very 

 nicely. If you don't know what else to plant, plant 

 a Bleeding-heart. — C. L. Meller, North Dakota. 



Azalea in New England — Are you not too 

 pessimistic in your statements that Azalea vis- 

 cosa is the only hardy Azalea in New England? 

 At Wellesley Azaleas arborescens, calendulacea, 

 nudiflora, and viscosa are perfectly hardy. The 

 Ghent Azaleas are practically hardy, and the 

 finest of all. Azalea Vaseyi never suffers, a 

 plant of this in moist soil 15 feet high is a sight. 

 Azalea Kaempferi does not suffer, and at the 

 Arnold Arboretum there are probably many 

 more varieties. I think it is a pity to discourage 

 people from trying different varieties of shrubs 

 and especially in this case. Azalea Vaseyi seems 

 to me to be one of the best shrubs we have; it 

 seems to like moisture and nothing could be more 

 beautiful than a mass of Azalea Vaseyi in bloom 

 with a foreground of. Darwin Tulips. — H. S. H. 



Wanted, the Universal Soil. — I would like to 

 ask the experts if there is anything extant in the 

 nature of a universal soil, such as practically all 

 sorts of plants will grow freely in? I used to 

 suppose that any deep, rich soil was fit for all 

 the ordinary flowering plants and vegetables, 

 but recent experience does not confirm the idea, 

 For instance Asters, Cannas, Dahlias and some 

 other plants do not like a soil that is so light that 

 it dries out quickly. Even a good deal of water- 

 ing fails to put them at their best. A heavier 

 soil suits them so much better that I shall try to 

 provide it for them hereafter. Then I am told 

 by an experienced Rose grower that it is useless 

 to plant Roses in light soil. They want heavy 

 clay. My potatoes, cucumbers, onions and other 

 shallow-rooted vegetables refuse to produce 

 crops in light soil, but corn does remarkably well 

 and all root crops thrive in it. What would 

 happen if I should adopt a clay soil and put every- 

 thing into that? Would certain other things 

 suffer then? Again is this a matter of the fer- 

 tility of the soil, or a mere lack of adaptability 

 to the mere physical condition of it? I am in- 

 clined to believe that it is the latter. Then 

 there is the shade proposition. Some plants do 

 not like it, while others die in the heat of a sunny 

 season. With us the amount of sun provided in 

 one season, differs widely from another. My 

 Godetias will not blossom till they can get into 

 the shade for at least a part of the day, and may- 

 be die if it is not afforded. Even Portulacas 

 suffer. So far as I am informed, and I read all 

 the books I can find, the authorities are pretty 

 silent on this subject. Then there is the treat- 

 ment for insects, such as will kill them outright. 

 There ought to be something of that sort. I can 

 deal with slugs, cabbage worms, potato beetles 

 and aphis, but can do nothing with the tarnished 

 plant bug, which makes it impossible to flower 

 Dahlias here and severely injures Calendulas 

 and Asters. — John W. Chamberlin. 

 [ — It is hardly to be expected that all the con- 

 ditions governing the life of all plants can be re- 

 duced to one common denominator. The surface 

 of the earth varies and different regions develop 

 different floras in nature. We try to combine all 

 in our gardens which are after all very artificial. * 

 A general average of soil with fertility in reserve is 

 the best we can do. Physical condition of the 

 soil is recognized as a great factor in estimating 

 its value for plants, because air and water must 

 circulate through it. Nor do we think it probable 

 that a general insecticide will be discovered that 

 will surely kill the pests instantaneously without 

 also destroying the plants, for both are livingthings 

 and have certain factors in common. — Ed. 



Our Polyglot Garden. — Has anybody no- 

 ticed that gardens were more than usually poly- 

 glot this year? It may be traceable, like every- 

 thing truly modern, to the war. I shall never 

 get to planting "all the beans of the Allies," as 

 one friend enthusiastically proposed to do; I 

 had one mouthful of the English broad beans at 

 a Chester hotel one July years ago that convinced 

 me I should never agree with the English taste 



