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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



Decembeb, 1910 



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

 cessfitl workers do things — iit order to put actual 

 experiences before our thousands of readers m 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.) 



Where I live everybody is fighting quack 

 grass in the lawns. We find that con- 

 stant and frequent cuttings with the lawn 

 mower will kill quack grass. — P. B. M. 



I water my flower beds by letting a 

 tiny stream run on the grass in the same 

 spot for hours. The water seems to go 

 straight down without spreading, and to 

 come up later in an inverted cone. I 

 watered a bed of roses in that way with- 

 out disturbing the dust mulch. Last year I 

 prepared the bed for a month's absence 

 by letting the small stream run on the 

 nearby grass. When I returned the bushes 

 were making thrifty new growth in spite 

 oi" dry weather. — E. R. 



The catalogues assured me that 

 S cilia Sibirica "flowers at the same 

 time as snowdrops" and that they make 

 a "charming combination." I trustingly 

 planted them together, discovering too 

 late that in Western New York snow- 

 drops are gone while scillas are still in 

 bud. But they really do arrive with the 

 crocuses and the white and deep blue 

 are certainly "charming." — L. A. S. 



I have only one evening primrose in 

 my garden. It looks rather bashful and 

 wilty in the daytime, but, at six in the 

 evening, the little green jackets split until 

 a tightly curled yellow bud slips out. 

 From that time on until seven-thirty the 

 buds unfold with a sudden pop and shake 

 and burst into full glory. The flowers 

 are of the palest yellow, three and one- 

 half inches in diameter, and are exceed- 

 ingly beautiful if planted with Delphinium 

 formosum for a background. — L. M. 



For the last eight years or more I have 

 successfully raised the butterfly weed or 

 pleurisy root (Asclepias tuberosa) from 

 seed and have also successfully transplanted 

 the seedlings in the summer as well as 

 older plants in the spring. Two years 

 ago I found a colony of it growing in a 

 trap rock ledge on the banks of the Con- 

 necticut River. On the twenty-seventh of 

 May, 1 910, I pried out the roots of two of 



the smaller plants, set them out and both 

 of them grew. It is one of the most 

 beautiful wild flowers and I consider it 

 one of the easiest to grow. — J. R. 



My experience in raising Primula Japon- 

 ica from seed is that new seed sown imme- 

 diately after it is ripe will start to grow 

 right away, but old seed will have to be 

 in the ground over winter before it ger- 

 minates. — R. 



I saw a very effective arrangement this 

 summer which seemed worthy of tabbing 

 for future reference. A bank of spring 

 blooming shrubs was used as a background 

 to display some groups of the spider flower 

 (Cleome spinosa). The white and the 

 purplish varieties were used in separate 

 groups. This is a tall annual plant that 

 never struck me as particularly good 

 growing by itself, but against the dark 

 background of lilacs, philadelphus and 

 other shrubs it was an entirely different 

 matter. ' It brightened up that shrub 

 border amazingly. — S.R. D. 



As a winter cover for seedlings, or 

 plants which do not need a mxilch of 

 fertUizer, I have found excelsior packing 

 very good; it is heavy enough to protect 

 them from the freezing and thawing 

 process, and open enough to admit of a 

 free circulation cf air, and prevent mould- 

 ing.— M. Y. 



The guinea-hen flower, snakes' head, or 

 checkered Ifly {Fritillaria Meleagris), offers 

 a planting problem. The bulb consists 

 of two half bulbs connected by a h)^hen. 

 When I received my first consignment 

 of these bulbs I was puzzled to know how 

 to put them in the ground. The top 

 looked exactly like the bottom and vice 



The checkered lily (Fritillaria Meleagris) Is also 

 known as tlie guinea-hen flower and snake's head 



versa. After revolving the subject in 

 my mind and in my hand, the only so- 

 lution I could see was to play both ends 

 against the middle, and place the aperture 

 between the two halves in the ground 

 vertically and give leaf and root the choice 

 of picking their route. It worked out all 

 right, for I grew a good crop of these 

 interesting flowers. Every bulb furnished 

 blossoms. The white variety, I think, 

 is the handsomest, but the checkered ones 

 in various purplish and rose shades 

 were the more interesting. — S. R. D. 



When I wish to label a plant, instead 

 of wood or zinc labels fastened to the stem 

 with wire which sometimes cuts into the 

 stem, I use a piece of linen tape, two or 

 three inches long, with the name or color 

 of the plant written on it in indelible 

 waterproof India ink. These labels are 

 tied or pinned around the stem near the 

 ground, so they are inconspicuous. They 

 do not hurt the plants, and the ink does 

 not fade out. — Y. 



Try raising tomatoes from slips. Cut- 

 tings about nine inches long, taken from 

 plants that have fruited during the summer, 

 root readily if placed in clean sand and 

 kept in close frames for a few days, lightly 

 shading from the sun. Cuttings struck 

 in this way can be got into bearing a 

 month sooner than by sowing seed, and, 

 if the strain is a good one, it is a sure 

 way of keeping it true. The best variety 

 with us for winter work is Sutton's Princess 

 of Wales.— E. E. C. 



On April 7, last, I planted poppy seed in 

 rows and by some caprice of fortime only 

 one plant came up in one of the rows; that 

 one, however, surpassed everything in size, 

 lateness of bloom and number of blossoms, 

 often sixty blossoms and buds being counted 

 in one day, and it branched out extensively. 

 Plants in another part of the garden growing 

 six to eight inches apart commenced flower- 

 ing the last of June. They were at their 

 height August ist with five hundred blooms 

 each morning; by August 25th the amount 

 had dwindled to fifty or sixty smaller ones. 

 — A. L. W. 



When you give plants to a friend, it is 

 better, if possible, to wrap each in a square 

 of newspaper, the size depending on the 

 plant. Place the plant, on its side, on the 

 paper, well toward, but a few inches from, 

 the lower left-hand corner. Fold the paper 

 over the roots at a right angle and then, 

 beginning at the left, roll into a package and 

 lay it down with the flap beneath. Pack 

 upright in a basket or box, or flat in the latter 

 case if more convenient to carry. If the 

 plants are to be sent by mail or express, the 

 same kind of wrapping will keep them in 

 good condition all the way across the con- 

 tinent, provided that they are sprinkled with 

 a very little water after being packed. Pack 

 fairly tight, with the earth balls of the larger 

 plants against either end of the box and 

 the smaller plants as fillers-in. — H. S. A. 



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