November, 1910 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



179 



(Editor's Note. — We want to know how suc- 

 cessful workers do things — 171 order to put actual 

 experiences before our thousands of readers in all 

 parts of the country. Every reader is invited to con- 

 tribute a short note on some interesting experience. 

 Just state the facts about some ingenious idea that you 

 have actually worked out yourself or have seen.) 



I have discovered a use for paper bags 

 in my garden. When I bought small 

 snapdragon and geranium plants late in 

 June, to fill up the gaps where my seeds 

 had failed, I needed something taller 

 than an ordinary flower pot to cover them 

 for a day or two after transplanting. So 

 I gathered up the bags in which came 

 groceries, and when anchored by a stake 

 stuck upright through one side and pushed 

 well into the ground, they proved a per- 

 fect protection from the sun. — M. F. B. 



Last fall I secured a dozen bulbs of 

 Harrisii lily from our local florist, and after 

 planting five in the garden, I put a few in 

 a box for forcing in the house. Three 

 bulbs remained unplanted, because of a 

 pressure of other matters, and it was not 

 until late in November or December that 

 they were given much-delayed attention. 

 One of them grew for a time, but as the 

 others did not appear, the box was set 

 outdoors in a shady place this spring and 

 left there. In July I noticed two green 

 shoots appearing through the earth, and 

 on examination found my neglected bulbs 

 had decided to grow. By the middle 

 of August the stocks are nearly a foot 

 high, both have buds, and there is every 

 evidence that they will bloom satisfactorily. 

 Aside from a little water once or twice a 

 week, or what moisture they may have had 

 from recent rains, nothing has been done to 

 them. I have tried a number of different 

 lilies, but these have given better returns 

 than any. The five planted in the ground 

 last fall bore fourteen beautiful flowers. Of 

 the first lot, which I attempted to force, 

 one bulb only rewarded me with a flower — 

 all the others blighted.— E. C. B. 



Every gardener hates to see the lemon 

 verbena blacken with the early frosts, 

 and perish with the first cold of winter. 

 Such grief easily can be avoided by follow- 

 ing the good old geranium rule that some 

 country folk still abide by. In other words, 

 dig up the plant in the fall, shake the earth 

 off the roots, and hang it up in the cellar 

 through the winter. Treated in this way 

 the lemon verbena, despite the necessary 



spring pruning, becomes in a few years 

 a good-sized shrub, and therefore a hand- 

 somer garden plant; for the foliage is 

 handsome as well as fragrant. — H. S. A. 



As a matter of interest showing unusual 

 rapidity of growth, I mention the fact 

 that my Teas' weeping mulberry, grafted, 

 about nine feet high, and now having a 

 head some sixteen to eighteen feet high 

 and twelve or more wide, has made nu- 

 merous drooping branches eight to ten feet 

 long, one being now ten feet five inches, 

 and promising to reach nearly if not quite 

 twelve feet. The early frosts injured 

 some of the growth, and the head was cut 

 in some, but not severely. — W. C. E. 



Cats should never be allowed in the 

 garden, unless they are planted three feet 

 underground. If they don't kill the 

 birds, they frighten them away, which 

 is just as bad from the garden economy 

 point of view. One gardener for.jipleas- 

 ute believes that he owes his immunity 

 from insect pests to the fact that- the 

 purple grackles, robins, song sparrows 

 and chipping sparrows have, in the ab- 

 sence of the once honored cat, the free 

 range of the perennial and shrubbery 

 borders. All four birds, as well as the 

 English sparrow, nest year after year 

 within from ten to forty feet of some part 

 of the borders and, now and then, the 

 bluebird, rose-breasted grosbeak, flicker 

 and yellow-throated vireo have set up 

 housekeeping no farther away. — B. G. 



A view of the vegetable gardens in the 

 vicinity of my home has convinced me 

 of the fact that truckers and private 

 gardeners are not particular enough in 

 regard to the destruction of plants or 

 portions of plants that furnish food for 

 insects. This is especially noticeable and 

 pernicious in regard to cabbages. After 

 cutting cabbages, the stalks are left stand- 

 ing and are fruitful breeding-places for the 

 cabbage butterfly; also cabbages that are 

 not likely to mature are left until stalks 

 are cleared away. Some might argue 

 that these furnish a lure to the butterfly, 

 and assist in keeping it away from the 

 good plants. This might be in a measure 

 true, but this slight good is more than bal- 

 anced by the evil that results from the 

 breeding of millions. Let us destroy all we 

 can by correcting this neglect, and at the 

 same time keep vigilantly after the insects 

 that attack the good ones. — H. A. S. 



Amateur gardeners, even after years of 

 experience, often forget whether a certain 

 flower is an annual or a perennial. Some 

 seedsmen print on each packet both the 

 common and botanical names, whether 

 the plant is tender or hardy, and how high 

 it may be expected to grow. Others 

 simply print a name on the packet, with 

 stereotyped directions for planting. If 

 seedsmen were to put seeds of annuals 

 in white packets, perennials in pink, and 

 biennials in blue, how easy to sort them 



without taking the time to read each 

 label! Also, why don't they indicate the 

 tender or hardy nature of the plant, and 

 its season of bloom, by some special tint 

 or printed device? Would it not be 

 feasible to have the following printed on 

 every packet: i. Common and botanical 

 names; 2. Character and degree of hardi- 

 ness; 3. Season of bloom; 4. Color of 

 flower; 5. Height of plant? Such informa- 

 tion is essential at the moment of planting. 

 — G. H. F. 



I wonder why, in ordinary gardens, one 

 never sees the campernelle type of jonquil. It 

 is the cheapest of all the bulbs and is surely 

 one of the best, with its delicate abundant 

 bloom, and delicious fragrance. It is so 

 little known that I have never yet shown 

 it to any one who could tell me what it 

 was. It does well also in the window-garden, 

 though not as secure from failure as the 

 Paper White narcissus. — L. A. S. 



The town where I live is a difficult 

 place in which to get stable manure, un- 

 less I buy it by car-load, which is alto- 

 gether too much for my small garden, 

 as I have no place to store it. Therefore, 

 I manured one-half of my garden last year 

 with pulverized sheep manure. The vege- 

 tables have been quite as fine as those on 

 which horse manure and a little fertilizer 

 had been used, and in addition to that 

 I noticed that there were no cutworms. 

 Wherever I put the horse manure, cut- 

 worms were in abundance. — W. J. Y. 



For the past two autumns I have planted 

 certain annuals and biennials, such as 

 snapdragon, stock, foxglove, and Canter- 

 bury bell, in my coldframe during the 

 early part of October. The coldframe is 

 nailed up to prevent any curious person 

 from opening it. In the spring I find 

 strong, healthy plants. The snapdragon 

 grows to be as tall as plants grown in 

 greenhouses, and the stock, which I have 

 never been successful with when planted 

 in the spring, flowers all summer. Of 

 course the little plants are transplanted 

 outdoors in May. — W. H. H. 



Some of the tulips show a distinct 

 tendency to race suicide, but others are 

 of a very different mind. The beautiful 

 Darwin, Isis, sometimes has as many 

 as four blooms on one stalk; I have seen 

 one large and three small blossoms from 

 one bulb of the cottage tulip, Caledonia; 

 but the most startling productivity is 

 in the case of the early Mrs. Cleveland. 

 On each stalk, from three to five inches 

 above the planted bulb, appears a rapidly 

 developing new bulb, which attains almost 

 the diameter of an inch in a single season; 

 each bulb planted sends up alongside the 

 large blossom several small blooms, and 

 the old bulb breaks into from three to 

 five new ones. The tulip is evidently 

 improperly named; it should be the Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt. These peculiarities held 

 true in all of 250 bulbs. — W. F. H. 



