302 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



June, 1909 



Wild Flowers Worth Improving 



IV. Yellow and White Adder's Tongues 



THE yellow adder's tongue or dog's tooth 

 violet {Erythronium Americanum) should 

 be used to carpet any piece of woods from which 

 cows and sheep can be excluded. It has the double 

 beauty of mottled leaves and of yellow flowers in 

 April. Bulbs of flowering size can be had for only 

 $15 a thousand, which is probably cheaper than 

 you can collect them yourself; for the bulbs are 

 remarkably deep and much intermixed with tree 

 roots. 



People make a great mistake in trying to dig the 

 bulbs in spring, because they do not ripen until 

 summer. However, it is best to order them in spring 

 for August delivery. And if you wish to dig any 

 from nearby woods, now is the time to mark the 

 place where they are most plentiful, so that when 

 the leaves have disappeared you will know where to 

 dig. 



In the course of many years' experience with the 

 "fawn lily," as John Burroughs wishes us to call it, 

 I have noticed a very remarkable peculiarity in its 

 manner of growth. The seeds fall upon the ground 

 and soon germinate, forming small, imperfect bulbs 

 just below the surface of the ground. These become 

 dormant in June, but late in August each bulb 

 sends out one to three or more long stolons, which 

 grow deep down into the earth, each forming a new 

 and more nearly perfect bulb. These throw up 

 large and beautifully spotted leaves, but no flowers. 



The leaves die in early summer, and then each 

 bulb in turn sends still more deeply into the earth 



a long, thickish stolon, which forms the perfect 

 and permanent bulb, which annually increases in 

 size, until, it becomes nearly or quite one-inch in 

 diameter. 



These large bulbs are as a rule very deep in the 

 ground — often seven to ten or more inches. As 

 these grow mingled with roots of other plants, includ- 

 ing trees and shrubs, the digging of the large 

 flowering bulbs from their native wilds is a very 

 difficult and expensive process. So if one wishes to 

 establish a colony of this or the next species it is far 

 better and cheaper to buy the smaller bulbs which 

 will bloom in from one to three years after planting, 

 and which will produce far larger and more hand- 

 somely variegated leaves. For $60, one can get 

 10,000 one and two year old bulbs. 



The flowers of the yellow erythronium are 

 not only very handsome, but very interesting. 

 They are remarkably sensitive to the light, 

 opening widely only in the full sunshine, and 

 closing tightly at nightfall. A dark cloud or the 

 slightest shadow passing over the sun will cause 

 them to begin to fold together. In case it begins 

 to rain they close tightly at once. In the full sun- 

 shine the brilliant yellow flowers, with their seg- 

 ments rolled widely back displaying the reddish- 

 brown stamens, are then strikingly handsome. 



The white erythronium {Erythronium albidum) is 

 either an exceedingly variable species, or else several 

 species are confused. Bailey's " Cyclopedia of Ameri- 

 can Horticulture " says its leaves are narrow, not mot- 

 tled, and the flowers white, with a yellow base. 

 Britton says that the "leaves are similar to those of 

 the yellow, but sometimes narrower, while the flowers 

 are white, blue or purple." 



Now our type, found commonly in southeastern 

 Michigan, agrees with neither of these descriptions. 

 The leaves are scarcely, if any, smaller than those of 

 the yellow-flowered species, while the flowers are 

 rose-color outside and pure white within. Our 

 Michigan type flowers nicely for me, and is a 

 pretty sight in my garden. 



Michigan. W. A. Brotherton. 



The yellow adder s tongue concerning which a 

 remarkable story is here told. It takes one to three 

 years for the bulbs to attain flowering size 



Roses in Colorado 



THE dry atmosphere and the sudden changes 

 of temperature present great difficulties 

 for the rose grower here, but for the past two sum- 

 mers I have had beautiful roses in bloom con- 

 tinuously from the first of July through September 

 — fresh and vigorous looking without the drooping 

 air so common to flowers in this region. 



We built our house in the middle of an alfalfa 

 field, and had the tenacious alfalfa roots to contend 

 with. The soil was a rich, heavy clay, fully exposed 

 to the full blaze of the fierce Colorado sunshine, 

 but we had plenty of water for irrigating. We 

 moved in during April and in June I set out a 

 dollar's worth of hardy perpetual roses, Liberty 

 and American Beauties. I purchased them from 

 a florist who sent them fresh from pots with quan- 

 tities of rich soil adhering to the roots. 



I made the bed on the eastern side of the house, 

 in an angle between a porch and a corner of the 

 house. Here the plants got the full morning sun, 

 but were sheltered from the almost unbearable 

 afternoon heat. As our nights are cold even in 

 summer, the plants become chilled if watered too 

 late in the day, so as soon as the sun is off the bed 

 I put the hose, with spray attached, in the middle 

 of it and turn the water on for two hours each 

 day. 



In the early fall I put on a heavy mulch of 

 manure and about the first of November bent down 



the branches, covering them with earth. The 

 following spring the manure was stirred in 

 around each plant and a small amount of bonemeal 

 added. 



With us plants start to life with the first warm 

 days of March and April, only to be killed by a 

 cold snap the end of April or even, sometimes, 

 the first of May. Our greatest difficulty at that 

 time of the year is to hold the plants back, but by 

 protecting the rose bushes at night and watching 

 the weather closely, this difficulty may be met and 

 usually successfully overcome. 



The second spring I added more roses — two 

 dollars' worth — making a total expenditure of 

 three dollars, with an additional fifty cents for 

 bone meal. 



Colorado. R. J. 



A Rose Stunt for June 



SOME years ago, after having only indifferent 

 success with rooting rose slips in sand and 

 then transplanting, I heard of a very simple way — 

 that of embedding glass jars firmly in the earth 

 over the slips, heaping the soil about the mouths 

 of the jars so that they could not be displaced. Never, 

 under any circumstances, were the jars to be re- 

 moved until the really warm days of spring had 

 set in. 



Early in June I set out two slips, one of which 

 had been properly prepared for the ground, the 

 other being merely the stem of a rose which had 

 fallen apart. The end was clipped, some of the 

 leaves removed, and the stalk was then stuck into 

 the ground. The soil was moist from a recent 

 rain, and within a few weeks new leaves were 

 being thrown out. It seemed as if the hot sun of 

 August would burn the foliage through the glass, 

 but the little plants continued to thrive. 



I was also curious to ascertain if any success 

 could be had with slips set in the fall, so in early 

 September I put under glass jars two slips of a 

 beautiful pink climbing rose of which I had always 

 been an enthusiastic admirer. These were not 

 selected with any particular care, but started well, 

 seemed in good condition the following spring, 

 and flourished throughout the summer in spite of 

 iwo months of drought. 



In covering for the winter, I protected the jars 

 quite to the tops with manure and laid straw over 

 all. When uncovering in the spring I took off 

 the jars in the middle of the day at first, replacing 

 them at night, thus gradually hardening off the 

 plants. With the exception of the climbing rose 

 these slips were all planted in the place where 

 they were to grow, so that there would be no neces- 

 sity of transplanting. 



New Jersey. Laura Balch Carpenter. 









r.r**. . ... 



.fSJP^v 



•■-" 



• 



Rooting rose slips can be easily done by embed- 

 ding in the soil a glass jar over each cutting. Do 

 not remove the jars until warm weather sets in 



