» 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



February, 1911 



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

 cessful workers do things in 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 stale the facts about some ingenious idea thai you 

 have actually worked out yourself or have seen.) 



A few years ago, in one season, I caught 

 twenty-seven moles in my small garden, 

 and twenty-four of these in one row of peas- 

 less than thirty feet long, the number about 

 evenly divided between noon and night. 

 I used the spring spear trap. — W. H. R. 



A part of the hardy border of our garden 

 is so shaded by an overhanging tree that we 

 had great difficulty in inducing any flowers 

 to bloom. Finally, quantities of ferns, in 

 as great variety as the neighboring woods 

 afforded, were transplanted. Then the 

 impatience (Impatiens Sidlani), which had 

 flowered freely in the house all winter, was 

 "vivisected," and the slips planted along 

 the border of the bed. They all rooted 

 successfully, and made a lovely mass of rose- 

 pink all summer and autumn. Among the 

 ferns several varieties of tuberous-rooted 

 begonias were planted. The cool green of 

 the ferns and the soft coloring of the begonias 

 were most pleasing on hot days. — F. B. C. 



I want to disagree with B. G. who wrote, 

 in the Readers' Experience Club for No- 

 vember, that "cats should never be 

 allowed in a garden unless planted three 

 feet underground." My cat has been 

 for eight years my constant companion 

 in my garden. He is so well fed that he 

 has no desire to catch the birds nor does 

 he appear to frighten them away, as B. 

 G.'s "chipping sparrows, song sparrows 

 and robins" are found in my garden to- 

 gether with orioles, summer yellow birds 

 and others. The only insect pests from 

 which I ever suffer are aphis on young 

 rose shoots, and I do not spend much 

 time in spraying, either. Cats and gar- 

 dens can "go together" comfortably if 

 the cat is well fed and is taught properly. 

 I do not say that a well-fed cat will 

 never catch a bird, for he will. Mine 

 has had three this past season, to which 

 I consider he is as well entitled as I am 

 to an occasional quail, reed-bird or snipe. 

 In travelling about England I have 

 noticed that the garden is exceptional 

 which does not show at least one cat, and 

 in some gardens — not very large — I 

 have seen as many as six! — M. A. H. 



A charming little picture I noted this 

 spring was a clump of scarlet Japan 

 quinces with an underplanting of white 

 dogtooth violets. The almost bare 

 branches of the quince seemed to rise 

 from a mass of the handsome speckled 

 foliage of the bulbs as if they were part 

 of them. Dog-tooth violets are plenti- 

 ful almost everywhere in the spring but 

 securing the bulbs demands a search 

 warrant and an expert miner! They 

 are down at a remarkable depth, consider- 

 ing the size of the plant, and they seem to 

 ramble around and send up their leaves in 

 a manner which disguises the real location 

 of the bulb. — D. 



I have had an annoying experience 

 in trying to secure the Dropmore variety 

 of Anchusa Italica. Various dealers sell 

 various plants under this name. From 

 one I secured a dwarf plant, evidently 

 Anchusa. angustifolia, with a militant 

 Dutch blue color that fought with every- 

 thing within reach. A lot of a dozen 

 bought from another dealer were Anchusa 

 Italica, but there was a very marked 

 difference among these plants. Some 

 had much larger flowers than others, 

 and some were a better blue than others. 

 The foliage, although rather coarse and 

 weedy, is so overshadowed by the wealth 

 of flowers that it is forgotten. None of 

 my plants survived the first year, I am 

 sorry to say. They seemed to bloom 

 themselves to death. It would be in- 

 teresting to know what firm sells the 

 true Dropmore variety. It seems evident 

 that some of them are selling seedlings 

 which do not come true. — S. R. D. 



Wallflowers are hardy in Northern 

 Illinois if kept dry. This statement is 

 made in endorsement of a note from a 

 reader of The Garden Magazine printed 

 some time ago. This reader was from 

 the "Show Me" State and said that 

 wallflowers could be grown in Missouri 



These wallflowers lived over winter in Missouri by 

 being kept dry 



provided they were kept dry in winter. 

 Last year I raised a lot of wallflowers- . 

 and placed them in a coldframe, which 

 was not built with an idea of providing 

 warmth but merely to protect such 

 plants as Canterbury bells and foxgloves, 

 the crowns of which rot so readily if 

 subjected to thawing and freezing while 

 wet. Everything in this frame froze 

 several times, the temperature dropping 

 to ten and twelve below zero repeatedly. 

 Not a wallflower was hurt in the least; 

 snapdragons were killed, while others left 

 in the open ground and covered with a 

 light mulch survived. These wallflowers 

 bloomed in April and were brought 

 through the winter in splendid shape by 

 merely being kept dry. — C. D. J. 



The sweet pea article in the November 

 Garden Magazine interested me exceed- 

 ingly. A friend of mine, a rose grower 

 in New Jersey, puts her sweet peas into 

 the ground in the fall in a sheltered spot 

 and allows them to get a few inches 

 above the ground, contrary to the 

 theory expressed in the article just 

 mentioned. She then covers them light- 

 ly with straw; the vines survive the 

 winter and bloom very early. She also 

 sows the seed in a coldframe in early 

 spring, and has a bountiful supply of 

 peas all summer. — C. J. D. 



Experiments make the garden game 

 worth while, but experience often makes 

 the game better for some one else. So 

 let me pass on my experiment and experi- 

 ence with Nicotiana sylvestris. Do not 

 use it in a small garden. Put it in large 

 groups in the shrubbery, or use it as a 

 bold background where one has room. 

 It is worse than hollyhocks for spread- 

 ing over the ground. A year or so ago 

 The Garden Magazine said this variety 

 was superior to N. alata as its flowers 

 kept open all day instead of wilting in 

 full sun. I grew it for the first time last 

 year placing it during August in bare 

 spots, as I always do the alate, for bloom 

 in September and October. It waxed 

 mighty and strong, and many lower 

 leaves had to be cut off to save young 

 perennials from being smothered. In 

 one border where it had full play, it grew 

 eight to nine feet tall. It is effective, 

 but its flowers do droop in sun, though 

 not quite as badly as those of the older 

 alata for they grow differently, are much 

 smaller individually and hang from a 

 large flower head. What a difference of 

 scent there is in Nicotiana! One of my 

 old plants that self-seeds in the same 

 spot each year has a decided lily perfume; 

 others have scarcely any or, at best, just 

 a faint petunia-like odor. — F. E. Mel. 



Spinach, as everyone knows, is a rank 

 feeder and likes to have its food near the 

 surface of the soil. A plan I have followed 

 every year with great success is to plough 

 the soil, then manure and harrow it, 

 which leaves the manure where the plants- 

 can quickly reach it. — C. J. D. 



