January, 1911 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



279 



Another Trial with the Butterfly 

 Weed 



I HAVE read with much interest several notes 

 about the hutter&y weed (A sclepias tuberosa) 

 in the recent numbers of The Garden Magazine. 

 I have found it a mean plant to grow, not from 

 any cultural difficulty but from its intense cater- 

 pillary attraction. 



I have a full quorum of asclepias which bloom 

 only once in a while. There is a particularly crafty 

 and ill-favored caterpillar that beats me to them! 

 Usually on the watch for this voracious marauder 

 (who can strip an asclepias of its foliage in less 

 than no time) it has a habit of appearing from no- 

 where in particular, and before I know it my 

 patch of scarlet is only a mass of stems. 



These caterpillars are villainous looking objects 

 at best and crafty beyond their race. At the 

 first touch to the plant they "play possum," 

 roll up and drop to the ground, disappearing like 

 a lot of shot poured on a level surface. As soon 

 as they deem it safe they are back on the job. 

 The trouble with them is that I never can judge 

 the time to catch them with a nice meal of Paris 

 green. My scheme for beating them is to have 

 various groups of plants so that all may not be 

 attacked at once. 



The asclepias somehow doesn't look natural to 

 me in groups of any size. In its native haunts 

 it does not grow in colonies and the reason is plain. 

 The plant is afflicted with wanderlust. When 

 the pods dehisce — botanists' code for get ripe 

 and open — each seed starts out on an aeroplane 

 expedition for parts unknown, and they do not 

 alight in groups but singly; hence this fine plant, 

 while common enough, is rather sporadic in its 

 appearance. It is naturally a dot plant and it 

 does well for me when used sparingly with yellow 

 rudbeckias, much as it grows in its habitat. It 

 likes a rather dry situation and should not be moved 

 before it has become dormant — that is, when 

 the leaves turn yellow and drop. The native 

 plants in my section are scarlet — flagrantly red 

 in fact. I purchased a dozen plants a few seasons 

 ago; they were yellowish, orange and orange- 

 scarlet — quite a diversity of color — but none 

 had the vivid color of the native plants I had 

 dug myself. 



Ohio. R. D. Sherman. 



More About Japanese Yew 



REFERRING to the article on Japanese yew 

 in The Garden Magazine for November, 

 1910, it might be added that Taxus cuspidata is 

 really a tree, growing sometimes in the forests of 

 Northern Japan to a height of forty or fifty feet. 

 Its tall trunks are covered with beautiful bright 

 red bark. Some of our plants in the Arboretum 

 are beginning to assume this tree habit, and 

 all that is necessary to make trees of this yew is 

 to set the plants close together. Naturally it 

 grows in dense woods of deciduous trees. There is 

 a promising young hedge of this yew at the Thayer 

 place in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and another 

 is to be planted near Glen Cove. There is no 

 reason why in a hundred years from now there 

 should not be large Japanese yews in our church- 

 yards and avenues. All that is necessary to pro- 

 duce them is to plant the seeds and wait. 



C. S. Sargent, 

 Director of the Arnold Arboretum, 

 Jamaica Plain, Mass. 



Garden Gossip 



IT IS a pity that so exquisite a flower as Cam- 

 panula alliaruejolia should be so weedy when 

 out of bloom. It needs staking, too. But it has 

 a lovely white flower two inches long and, strangely 

 enough, no blue or purple variety is known. The 

 flower owes much of its distinction to singular 

 tooth-like excrescences at the base of each sinus, 

 which are conspicuous in the bud. It is not as 

 bell-shaped as others. The bloom is all gone by 

 July igth. What a fine thing it would be if some 

 hybridizer could connect this admirable flower 

 with a noble habit like that of the peach-leaved 

 bellflower! 



One of the most glorious plants for hall decora- 

 tion is a big chimney bellflower in a large pot. It 

 means three years and an English gardener, or else 

 a lot of patience and skill. But it's worth all the 

 trouble! 



English gardeners set great store by the milky 

 blue bellflower {Campanula lactifiora). They 

 take great pains to get just the right shade, for 

 there are a lot of muddy blues and poor lavenders in 

 the nurseries. Few people are enraptured with it 

 at first, for it is not of the most refined habit; but 

 the peculiar color soon becomes fascinating, and if 

 you give a plant extra food and water it will make a 

 great bush five or six feet high, covered with hun- 

 dreds of flowers about an inch across. It is in its 

 glory about July ist at Philadelphia, and by the 

 19th the flowers are half gone. 



If you want armfuls of yellow flowers for cutting 

 any time from June till frost, put a dozen 

 plants of Anthemis tinctoria in your vegetable 

 garden. The border is the place for garden 

 effect. 



One day last July we were astonished to see a red 

 columbine covered with flowers two months after 

 the wild columbine had gone. The Mexican 

 columbine {Aquilegia Skinneri of Philadelphia 

 seedsmen) will grow in an ordinary border, whereas 

 the wild columbine requires rocks and good drain- 

 age. There are doubtless several different kinds 

 offered under the name of A. Skinneri, for one 

 dealer calls it yellow, another scarlet, and a third 

 crimson. It seems to be hardy as far north as 

 New York, and we suspect that it can be made to 

 flower the first year from seed by starting it in July. 

 We measured some flowers 2 J inches long. Imagine 

 a plant four feet high covered with such flowers all 

 the month of July! About 80 per cent, are said to 

 come true from seed. 



Great interest is expressed by every one who has 

 grown the Dropmore Anchusa, which many people 

 consider the most striking blue flower for the hardy 

 border, not even excepting the larkspur. It has a 

 more refined color than other anchusas. Other 

 kinds open blue, and are a dirty color as they fade. 

 The Dropmore variety reverses this, being a poor 

 color at first, but afterward a vivid gentian blue. 

 It grows four feet high and blooms before the lark- 

 spurs in June or July. The basal rosette of leaves 

 is also very lusty and striking. w. M. 



A New Idea in Potting 



I DO not think it is generally known among 

 flower lovers that the most successful potting 

 of plants for winter bloom is done during the long, 

 hot, dry weather in July and August. 



I had been taught to pot house plants during a 

 rain if possible; and many a drenching have I 

 joyfully submitted to for the sake of getting a nice 

 lot of plants well started. 



And indeed, during the rains, not a leaf would 

 turn; but when the sun came out each and every 

 plant looked too sick to live; and in most instances 

 a few days proved it true of them. 



My theory is this, that during our yearly dry time 

 in the early summer, the roots shrink and shrivel 

 somewhat, and draw near the surface for the super- 

 ficial watering given daily, so that when lifted dry 

 into pots, and thereafter kept well watered, they 

 are all ready to respond to treatment, and go right 

 ahead with growth and bloom. 



Therefore, on August 20, last year, I had potted 

 enough petunias, geraniums, heliotropes, snapdrag- 

 ons, etc., to fill my conservatory, and with few 

 exceptions all have done well. 



Massachusetts. Elizabeth T. Perkins. 



Domesticating Bulbous Irises 



HAVING dug and pondered, and then dug and 

 pondered some more, both in the ground 

 and in horticultural publications and magazines, 

 on the question of how to domesticate the bul- 

 bous irises — Spanish and English — I arrive at 

 the celebrated conclusion of the famous German 

 philosopher concerning the essence of the soul, 

 "I do not know, I cannot know, and it is doubtful 

 if it would do me any good if I did know." 



I prize these irises as highly as I do tulips and 

 almost as highly as I do daffodils, but they are 

 transients. After looking through files of maga- 

 zines and a number of books, I find that these 

 irises require a light, sandy, well-manured soil 

 and that they must have full sunlight. This I 

 have given them but they grow for two seasons 

 very well, after which time they seem to starve. 

 Such growth as they make is healthy, but the 

 bulbs are small and do not bloom. Different 

 depths of planting do not seem to make any material 

 difference. 



One English work recommends annual digging 

 and replanting. Another work of equal authority 

 says to leave them undisturbed and when, through 



Irises give a magnificent show (luring June and 

 July. Plant them and see for yourself 



impoverishment of the soil, they must be dug, 

 that they should not be left out of the ground 

 for any length of time. 



I use these irises in a strip some thirty feet long 

 and two feet wide, the ground being carpeted with 

 Iberis Gibraltarica and sweet alyssum. They 

 give a magnificent show in June and July. As 

 the nature of my soil is not favorable to Japanese 

 iris, the English iris, much the same in size, shape 

 and color, makes a very good substitute but I 

 cannot induce it to domesticate itself. Reason- 

 ing by the process of elimination, I think there 

 must be some food element lacking in the soil. 

 Irises seem to appreciate a top dressing of potash 

 salt but it does not prolong their existence. 



At least one reader of this magazine would be 

 much interested in the experience of any one who 

 has naturalized, or even induced these irises to 

 grow for any length of time. 



lUinois. S. R. Dotfy. 



A Lawn Enemy 



GRASS is often killed by white grubs which eat 

 off the roots. Every effort should be made 

 to kill the grubs. Kerosene emulsion poured into the 

 ground where the evidence of work is seen is an 

 old-time remedy, and pouring in a tablespoonful of 

 carbon bisulphide would be effective. 



Maryland. B. H. C 



