The flowers of the Yellow-wood tree may be likened to a white 

 Laburnum or Wisteria 



The Yellowwood Tree. — If you are so fortunate 

 as to have a Yellowwood, or Virgilia tree, in your 

 garden, do not look for flowers on it this year. 

 It is a peculiar fact that this tree seldom blooms 

 two years in succession, and that practically 

 every tree in the North blooms the same season. 

 Last year they flowered freely, so that they are 

 not likely to have any blossoms this spring. Even 

 when not in flower though the Yellowwood is an 

 exceedingly attractive tree, and one wonders why 

 it is not planted more commonly. Years ago it 

 was often seen in Eastern States, especially in 

 public parks, but for some reason seems to have 

 gone out of fashion. Yet it is an easy tree to 

 grow, and has the best of habits, and always at- 

 tracts much attention when in bloom. It is a 

 native American and was found growing naturally 

 in some of the Southern States, being most abund- 

 ant in Tennessee. It sometimes grows sixty or 

 seventy feet high, and its pale, smooth bark re- 

 sembles that of the American Beech tree. It 

 has proved perfectly hardy in Massachusetts, 

 where, according to Professor Sargent, it was 

 first planted at least eighty years ago. Professor 

 Sargent calls it one of the handsomest trees that 

 can be used for the decoration of parks and gar- 

 dens. It seems to have been appreciated across 

 the water to a greater extent than in America. 

 Certainly it has been in cultivation in France for 

 more than a century. It flowers well there, but 

 seldom produces flowers in Great Britain, where 

 the sun is not hot enough to properly ripen the 

 flowering wood. The pure white flowers of the 

 Virgilia, or as botanists now call it, Cladrastis 

 lutea, are borne in long drooping racemes, like a 

 white Laburnum indeed. — E. F. 

 — An excellent illustration of a tree growing near 

 Chicago is given in The Garden Magazine for 

 April, 1918— Ed. 



Rose Trellis for Cold Climates. — In some sec- 

 tions of the country it is impossible to raise many 

 of the finest varieties of climbing Roses unless the 

 plants are laid down when cold weather comes. 

 The work of laying down the plants is made very 

 simple by means of an iron trellis, devised by 

 Mr. J. M. Underwood, of Minnesota. The trel- 

 lis is made of ordinary iron pipe, either one-half 

 or three-quarter inch size. It can be made as 

 long as needed, and as high as required. Mr. 

 Underwood has one trellis seven feet high and 

 fifty feet long, devoted to Dorothy Perkins Roses. 

 In making the trellis, short pieces of pipe are 

 driven into the ground, eight feet apart. Lengths 

 of pipe as many feet long as the proposed height 



M'COIOMM^ 



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Readers Interchanges ^Experiences „ 

 *& *<» "^ ar >d Ideas \y» \s,«gJs&0 



of the trellis are then coupled to these sunken 

 sections of pipe. Elbows are secured to the top 

 of the end pipes, and T's to the top of the inter- 

 mediate pipes. Sections of pipe are then secured 

 to these elbows and T's to form the top of the 

 trellis. Finally, lengths of galvanized wire are 

 run from post to post. When winter comes, a 

 bed of straw or leaves is made on the ground. 

 Then the trellis is uncoupled at the bottom and 

 laid down. After the nights begin to get cold, 

 the prostrate plants are covered with straw, over 

 which lengths of tar paper are fastened, being 

 held down with heavy twine or wires fastened 

 across them at intervals, and attached to the 

 pipes driven into the ground. The work of un- 

 coupling and laying down the trellis, and of setting 

 it up again in the spring, takes but a little time, 

 and the Roses go through even the severest win- 

 ters without damage. It is always better to 

 grow climbing Roses on a trellis in an open situa- 

 tion than to train them on the sides of a building. 

 — E. I. F. 



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The trellis is made of iron pipe, and has couplings (A) to perma- 

 nent ground pieces. When winter comes the frame is easily 

 disconnected and laid down 



A Plant for the Mud.— Here is a picture of 

 Sagittaria latifolia, our native Arrow-head or 

 Arrow-leaf as it is variously called. It is growing in 

 a drainage ditch where the water scarcely moves 

 and its roots seem to find the stiff yellow clay that 

 was filled in here only a year ago very congenial. 

 Its seeds must have been brought in by the over- 

 flow of a near-by river. Unprotected and uncared 

 for it was exposed to the full glare of the sun. It 

 throve exceedingly. From the time that the 

 seeds started growth in late spring till the frosts 

 of autumn cut it down this patch as well as sev- 



The native Arrow-head will solve the problem of how to decorate 

 that mud comer 



eral others along the same ditch were very inter- 

 esting and tidy in appearance. Its bloom lasted 

 about three weeks. The water in the ditch was 

 not always at the same level, in fact this level 

 varied frequently, though the clay about the roots 

 was always wet. This would indicate the plant 

 to be well adapted to a water logged soil that has 



111 





Sweet Scabious in a rich variety of colors is an annual that 

 endures into early winter 



little if any drainage. It is another plant to add 

 to the list of plants available for the difficult 

 places where the difficulties of the location are 

 congenial to its needs. The plant being a per- 

 ennial it becomes an easy matter to gather the 

 wild or native forms, while from some of the spe- 

 cialists in aquatic plants several horticultural var- 

 ieties of Arrow-leaf can be had. — C. L. Meller, 

 Fargo, N. D. 



An Early Winter Flower. — A pretty late- 

 blooming flower is the Scabiosa. It does not 

 stand quite so much frost as the Calendula, the 

 Stock, and the Verbena, but, with us, blooms 

 until late in October. And it'is such a beautiful 

 flower! If I had but one annual to grow, that 

 annual would be the Sweet Scabious. It is easily 

 handled, comes in a great variety of colors, is so. 

 airy and graceful, and no flower is better for cut- 

 ting. Another good late-flowering annual is the 

 Rudbeckia, Speciosa bicolor, the plant is very 

 coarse but the flower striking, especially when 

 massed. — A. D., Mitchell, Ontario. 



Good Shrub for Fall Effects. — Now that more 

 attention is being paid to fall gardens plants like 

 the native Viburnum cassinoides, which produce 

 great numbers of highly colored fruit are becom- 

 ing increasingly popular. This particular Vi- 

 burnum is one of the handsomest shrubs of East- 

 ern North America, and deserves to be more 

 widely used both in the planting of public parks 

 and in private gardens. The Arnold Arboretum, 

 near Boston, is one of the few places where it has 

 been planted as generously as its merits warrant, 

 . and here it makes a splendid display, especially 

 in the fall. Some shrubs may be more brilliant 

 at that season, but few are more interesting or 

 produce so dainty an effect. The fruit is yellow- 

 ish green at first. When full grown it gradually 

 changes to pink, and finally it turns dark blue, or 

 nearly black, and is covered with pale bloom. 

 It often happens that all three colors are found 

 together on the same plant, and perhaps in the 

 same cluster. The effect is exceedingly pleasing. 

 The flowers are slightly tinged with yellow, and 

 are borne in wide clusters. The plant is attrac- 

 tive when in flower, but is recommended especi- 

 ally for its fall beauty. As a shrub it has good 

 habits, and grows from four to six feet high, with 

 a round top. The leaves are thick and lustrous, 

 but differ greatly in size and shape. Altogether 

 this Viburnum is a plant of peculiar merits, so 

 why not plant it freely? — E. F. 



