April, 1911 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



173 



(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 state the facts about some ingenious idea that you 

 have actually worked out yourself or have seen.) 



After trying several methods of labelling 

 plants which would be inconspicuous and 

 at the same time sure and always avail- 

 able, I have found that, by putting the 

 label in a small glass phial and inserting 

 this in the earth at the root of the plant, 

 the glass protects the label and at the 

 same time the writing is always legible. 

 By using a tight cork the weather has no 

 effect on the label and also the phials can 

 be used indefinitely and for many pur- 

 poses. — C. G. M. 



Among many suggestions for a second 

 crop in the tulip bed I have never seen the 

 California poppy {Eschscholtzia) mentioned. 

 If given a little room between the tulip 

 rows, it will be ready to flower,by the time 

 the tulips have become unsightly; it will 

 continue to blossom until heavy frost, 

 and will resow itself indefinitely. I also 

 give the ordinary poppies liberty to come 

 up anywhere and everywhere, weeding out 

 what I do not want. They reward me by 

 all sorts of unexpected combinations. This 

 year they grew with the blue cornflower 

 and were enchanting. And the carnation- 

 flowered poppies covered my bed of annun- 

 ciation lilies as soon as the lilies were out 

 of bloom. — L. A. S. 



For two years I have tried to get water- 

 cress started but without success. Once 

 on the margin of a beautiful clear brook, 

 I sowed it at intervals of two weeks from 

 February until late in spring, but not one 

 seed seemed to germinate; so last year I 

 tried another plan in another place. I 

 sowed my seed on damp ground and kept 

 it wet for weeks, and I also put some of 

 the cress seed in a coldframe. The seed 

 in the ground disappeared entirely, and 

 I was so discouraged that I paid no atten- 

 tion to what I had put in the coldframe. 

 Last fall the soil in the frame was hoed 

 up several weeks before it was actually 

 needed and in pulling up the second crop 

 of weeds, I was amazed and delighted to 

 find a sturdy crop of cress. The seeds must 

 have been dormant all summer, survived 

 the working of the ground and came up, 

 in the cool fall weather. — A. G. W. 



I have a better recipe for making bird 

 glue (or lime) than that which appeared 

 on page 296 of the January Garden Maga- 

 zine. Fill an iron pot one-fourth or two- 

 thirds full of raw or boiled linseed oil. 

 Build a fire out in the open, away from 

 buildings, and boil the oil in the centre of 

 the fire. The oil will soon start to boil. 

 Let it boil for eight or ten minutes until 

 about half of the quantity is boiled away. 

 Have an iron cover or a stove lid handy, 

 and cover the pot. When cooled off the oil 

 will be thick like molasses, and may be 

 spread on short branches of birches or 

 other thin sticks and placed where the 

 birds feed. The oil should be pure linseed 

 oil ; if adulterated with mineral oils it will 

 not thicken. — R. J. 



Three years ago I bought a two-year- 

 old fig tree and planted it at the south 

 end of my house. Just to the north of 

 the tree is a porch which breaks the north 

 wind, and the tree gets the full sun against 

 the house and is protected by a stone wall 

 on one side and by a cement sidewalk on 

 the other, with a space of thirty inches 

 between. The roots are rather crowded 

 but have kept healthy. Michigan winters 

 are rather severe. The first two winters 

 I bent the tree to the ground and buried 

 it with earth and litter, but the third it was 

 so large that such treatment was not 

 practical,, so I covered the roots quite 

 heavily with coarse manure, thoroughly 

 wrapped the tree with old carpet and bur- 

 lap, then set corn stalks all around it and 

 securely fastened burlap over all. This 

 treatment seems to be just as satisfactory 

 as burying it. I headed the tree quite 

 low so as to make it spread. It bore 

 quite a number of figs last season and 

 this year I expect a large yield. — W. L. S. 



An experience that I have had here in 

 California which I want to pass on to other 

 amateurs is one with the much catalogued 

 achillea, The Pearl. The universal and 

 everlasting boom given this plant by 

 growers everywhere is easily accounted 

 for. Once a plant is started, they can go 

 right on digging and selling, for the supply 

 will never fail. If the plant gets well 

 started in a home garden, the roots are 

 there to stay and will twine around and 

 choke out everything near them. Even 

 if this achillea had great beauty, this 

 trait would be against it when it is planted 

 among other valuable plants. But the 

 flower is really ugly — a muddy white, 

 instead of a pure color — and in form not 

 even equal to the old-fashioned feverfew, 

 which was a nonentity. The Pearl is 

 ugly in flower, and an undesirable and 

 persistent "stayer" if given room. — 

 E. A. S. (This is only further proof 

 that the East cannot prescribe for the 

 Pacific slope, and vice versa. The Shasta 

 daisy of California is not half so good with 

 us, and despite our correspondent's con- 

 demnation of "The Pearl," it will be 

 considered as a worthy, pure white, hardy 

 perennial by us in the East. — Editor). 



The water arum (Calla palustris) grows 

 wild and in profusion in a large swamp 

 near where I live in western New York. 

 I have found it growing in about 

 eight or ten inches of water in a rather 

 open place where the trees had been pretty 

 well thinned out. In my opinion this 

 calla ranks with Jack-in-the-pulpit, being 

 fully as attractive, with its pure white 

 spathe, contrasting yellow spadix and its 

 glossy green leaves just above or riding 

 on the water. — V. B. 



I grew the vegetable marrow in my gar- 

 den in New Hampshire last year and found 

 it most delicious. We slice, salt and 

 press it; then dip it in egg and flour and 

 fry. We have it for lunch instead of meat, 

 and we think it far superior to the eggplant 

 in delicate quality, while retaining the 

 meatiness that gives it the name of mar- 

 row. The Japanese cucumber, which 

 scrambled over the rustic gate,, was a most 

 artistic feature and furnished us with 

 long, pale green fruits of a delicate flavor 

 and crispness. — N. D. F. 



In preparing bordeaux mixture I make 

 a saturated solution of blue vitriol putting 

 it in a 2-quart bottle, which holds slightly 

 under one pound of bluestone. I slack 

 two or three cans of whitewash lime (which 

 can be bought anywhere) in a stone jar, 

 and keep it covered with water. To 

 fill a 4-gallon spray pump I use about 

 one-third of the contents of my 2-quart 

 bottle, add two gallons of water, then stir 

 up my lime and dip out enough of this 

 so as to make about two gallons more. 

 I pour these together into the spray tank 

 and then test with a solution of ferrocy- 

 anide of potassium. If the mixture does 

 not change the color of the ferrocyanide 

 it is all right to use, but if it does add more 

 lime water. It should be a beautiful blue 

 color. By keeping the vitriol and lime 

 in solution a canful can be made in perhaps 

 three minutes. — E. P. 



Do not be flattered by strong vigorous 

 sprouts from the roots of newly planted 

 tree peonies. They are a delusion and a 

 snare. The writer planted a collection of 

 Japanese tree peonies several seasons ago. 

 A few of them bloomed and they were 

 exceptionally fine. They made a vigorous 

 growth from the roots and the next season 

 failed to bloom. Another year came by 

 and they were getting to be quite sizable 

 plants. A number of fat buds unfolded 

 in April ; and these peonies had done a 

 chameleon stunt of changing color. They 

 were all alike, a dark purplish red. These 

 blossoms were not to be despised and the 

 plants are now fine bushes, but they are 

 not the beautiful colors they were their 

 first season. Since planting them I 

 learned that all suckers from the roots 

 must be suppressed, as these peonies are 

 grafted. And the public prints tell us 

 daily of the pernicious influence of grafting ! 

 The choice varieties had been choked 

 out of existence. — S. R. D. 



