The Garden Magazine 



Vol. IX— No. 4 



Published Monthly 



MAY, 1909 



j One Dollar a Year 



/ Fifteen Cents a Copy 



nitrate of soda. It shows results in three 

 to five days after a rain. But don't use 

 it on a lawn after the grass has started 

 to grow well, except in solution. 



them for greens, or else use a weed killer 

 that will kill all the large-leaved weeds 

 without hurting the grass. 



[For the purpose of reckoning dates, New York is 

 generally taken as a standard. Allow six days' difference 

 for every hundred miles of latitude.] 



Act Before May ist 



THE best time to plant hardy deciduous 

 trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, 

 fruit trees, and berry bushes is while the 

 plants are dormant. If they have already 

 started to grow in your locality, you can 

 still plant safely by ordering from nursery- 

 men in the northern tier of states, or by 

 getting pot-grown plants. 



The best time to plant evergreens is 

 during the short period when the frost 

 gets out of the ground and before buds 

 begin to open. 



If nursery stock arrives before you can 

 plant it, put it in the coolest place you 

 have. The later you plant, the more you 

 should prune. 



Plant half-hardy bulbs. The most impor- 

 tant are gladioli, torch lily, cinnamon vine, 

 Madeira vine, and summer hyacinths. 

 Less common, but altogether lovely, are 

 the Mexican star flower (Milla biflora), 

 coral drops (Bessera elegans), rain lily, and 

 evening star (Cooperia pedunculata and 

 Drummondii), the zephyr flowers (Zephyr- 

 anthes, especially Z. Atamasco), and the 

 Peruvian lilies or alstromerias. Mont- 

 bretias are also interesting. 



Don't let your flower beds look like mud 

 pies until May 15th. It is not safe to put 

 out tender plants before that, but you can 

 buy pansies, English daisies, and forget- 

 me-nots on April 15th from your local 

 florist, and have a month of bloom before 

 most people plant cannas. 



Beginners who have to start a garden 

 after the fifteenth of April will find the 

 double, spring-planting April number of 

 The Garden Magazine a good guide. 



Divide the perennials in your hardy 

 border, and share the increase with neigh- 

 bors and friends. 



If plants of any kind are backward use 



May ist to May 15th 



May 15th to 31st 



B 



>EFORE all danger of frost in your 

 locality is past it will be safe to do 

 these things: 



Sow outdoors seeds of tender vegetables, 

 but do not set out any plants. The ten- 

 der vegetables are beans, corn, tomatoes, 

 eggplants, peppers, cucumbers, pumpkin, 

 squash, okra, sweet potato, and martynia. 



Be prepared for the frost that is almost 

 sure to ' come the second week in May, 

 after the thousands of too-eager persons 

 have set out tomato plants. Get boxes 

 and newspapers all ready to cover plants. 



If plants are frosted, shade them from 

 the sun, and if possible spray them with 

 the coldest water so that they will thaw out 

 very slowly. 



"Harden off" tender vegetables and 

 flowers by moving them from hotbeds to 

 coldframes. 



Finish the first thinning and trans- 

 planting of all the hardy vegetables and 

 flowers in your garden. 



Cultivate strawberries for the last time, 

 and just before they bloom mulch them 

 so as to keep sand and grit out of the fruit. 



You ought to have home-grown aspara- 

 gus practically every day in May until 

 peas are ready to eat. Have you surplus 

 asparagus to can? Don't plant two-year- 

 old roots. One-year-old will do better 

 and cost less. 



Need any bean poles, tomato stakes, vine 

 or peony supporters? Chicken wire? 

 Bamboo stakes? Iron rods? 



Sow outdoors seeds of half hardy flowers, 

 but not tender ones. For example, sow 

 flowering tobacco, salpiglossis, schizanthus, 

 Swan River daisy, crimson flax, sweet wood- 

 ruff, datura, and night-scented stock; but 

 not nasturtiums or rose moss. 



Sow some of the best half-hardy vines. 

 For the porch choose canary-bird vine or 

 convolvulus. Eet the children plant near 

 the back fence balloon vine, squirting 

 cucumber, balsam apple, balsam pear, and 

 the following gourds — dishcloth, hedgehog, 

 gooseberry, and snake cucumber. 



Buy bedding plants from the local florist 

 so as to be sure to get just the right color 

 of geranium, petunia, verbena, or phlox. 

 Bring them home or let him hold them 

 until it is safe to set them out. Otherwise 

 you may get only riffraff. 



Plant tea roses from pots. 



Dig dandelions out of the lawn and use 



A 



FTER all danger of frost in your 

 locality is past, set out tender plants. 



Transplant to the open ground all ten- 

 der vegetables and flowers in coldframes 

 or flats. 



Buy vegetable plants from seedsmen 

 of national reputation one or two days 

 distant by mail. Don't buy nameless 

 tomato plants from the corner grocery. 



Finish second thinning of vegetables 

 and annuals. The more room you give 

 plants, the larger and better will be the 

 product. 



Plant tender bulbs and roots. The most 

 important are cannas, dahlias, the caladium, 

 and the tuberose. The peacock flower, or 

 tigridia, has a great range of color. Crin- 

 iums are gorgeous lily-like plants. Spider 

 lilies and the sea daffodil are charming, 

 and so is the exquisite white flower which 

 gardeners call Ismene. Two summer- 

 blooming species of oxalis are said to make 

 very dainty edgings. 



Sow tender annuals, give them extra food, 

 water, and care, and you may beat neigh- 

 bors who started them early indoors. Among 

 the tenderest are sensitive plant, celosia, 

 cotton, touch-me-not, everlastings, ice 

 plant, and other mesembryanthemums, wish- 

 bone flower, or torenia, and the musk plant. 



Sow seeds of tender vines, especially 

 nasturtiums, Japanese hop, moonvine, and 

 all gourds. Let the children grow the 

 egg, apple, pear, bottle, dipper, mock 

 orange, and sugar trough gourds, also the 

 wax cucumber. 



Prune only shrubs that have finished 

 blooming, e.g., golden bells, or forsythia. 

 Don't trim to balls, but cut out the old- 

 est branches right down to the ground, 

 so as to have new wood always coming 

 on. Shrubs produce most of their flowers 

 on young wood. 



Give roses liquid manure once a week 

 from the time the flower buds can be seen 

 until the color shows — then stop. 



The only way to keep ahead of weeds in 

 the critical month of May is to have the 

 best tools. Send for an illustrated tool 

 catalogue. 



Window boxes cost more and do less 

 than vines. If your house or office lacks 

 vines, provide for them first. Every impor- 

 tant kind of vine can now be planted from 

 pots any month right through the summer. 

 If you cannot get them locally, ask the 

 Readers' Service Department. 



