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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



Febeuaey, 19 10 



Go by This Book 



in your Spring planting. Describes and prices 

 over 1200 varieties of flower seeds; over 600 

 varieties of vegetables; and more than 2000 

 kinds of plants, besides hardy shrubs, climb- 

 ers, small fruits, aquatics, etc., etc. 



256 large pages of gardening information 

 and special cultural notes, based on an ex- 

 perience of 72 years. Illustrated with upwards 

 of a thousand photo - engravings, including 

 beautiful color and duotone plates. 



Cultural Notes 



on how to grow flowers from seeds — both annual and per- 

 ennial. How to grow Asters, Sweet Peas, Dahlias, Gladioli, 

 Palms, Ferns, Roses, etc. 



On how to raise fine vegetables. 



On how to grow plants in the house. 



In short, the latest and most dependable information for 

 both amateur and professional gardeners is to be found in 

 Dreer's Garden Book for 1910. 



Mailed to our patrons without application. If you 

 haven't received it, we will send a copy free on 

 mention of this magazine. 



HENRY A. DREER VAS^k 



daffodils. Last spring a kind-hearted nursery- 

 man dropped a white Stokesia into an order, and 

 this was a welcome guest, indeed. 



These various tramps, waifs, intruders and up- 

 starts that will happen along in the best regulated 

 gardens, from one reason or another, add zest 

 to gardening and sometimes accidentally disclose 

 some exceptionally fine effects. Bluebells (Mer- 

 tensia) and white tulips are as pretty a combina- 

 tion as could be desired, and I never should have 

 known it had not the bluebells accidentally found 

 a lodgment among the tulips. Probably a chance 

 wind blew seed from a clump near by. 



But if you once let a bluebell settle down, it will 

 raise an enormous family if not speedily suppressed; 

 and one wood violet can distribute its species more 

 numerously and tenaciously than any innocent- 

 looking little wildling I know of. Violets which 

 were welcome the first spring, have become a posi- 

 tive nuisance in my garden. Pull out one root, 

 and a dozen seem to appear to take its place. 

 These violets came up in some woods earth and 

 were a flourishing colony before discovered. 



The unexpected reappearance of plants often 

 gives interesting data as to the length of time seed 

 may lie dormant in the soil. I have found Nico- 

 tiana affinis all over one long border, and there 

 is no way of accounting for its presence except that 

 it grew there three years ago. These "nicks" 

 were the puzzle of the season. The}' did not appear 

 until late in July and did not show buds until Sep- 

 tember. They were welcome, but a thick growth 

 of young wild lettuce was not so welcome. Where 

 this stuff came from is another puzzle, but it was 

 present in force. 



One spring a pretty little plant came to me in a 

 paper of ten weeks' stock seed — Virginia stock. 



I had never seen it before, but it looked like a 

 miniature of the larger and showier ten weeks' 

 variety. This charming little rose-colored visitor 

 produced seed in abundance and it makes a fine 

 low border for a few weeks. Planted with sweet 

 alyssum, it can be pulled up as soon as its flowering 

 season is over, and the alyssum will speedily cover 

 the bare spots. One little plant will make a gay 

 display. It was a garden waif, but I was glad to get 

 acquainted with it and let it have a place to grow. 



A pretty autumn flower wandered in from the 

 woods or fields and took up a residence in a shadv 

 corner of my border, where it has earned the right 

 to stay. This is the thorough wort (Eupatorium 

 ageratoides). With a cluster of white blossoms 

 exactly like the ageratum in shape, it makes a very 

 pretty clump in late August and early September, 

 when flowers are scarce. It associated nicely with 

 some of the earlier perennial asters. 



I have a little fine-leaved, pale blue aster tliat 

 appeared at the foot of a tangle of grape vines in 

 a vacant lot near ours that is as pretty and neat as 

 any of its more highly cultivated relatives. The 

 foliage is so fine that the blue blossoms hide it 

 entirely, and as it is a low grower, it is excellent to 

 use in front of the tall-growing New England 

 varieties. There isn't another colony of this little 

 aster anywhere around that I can discover, and I 

 can't tell where my plant came from. 



Illinois. Sherman R. Duffy. 



Ten Weeks' Stock 



IN the November, 1909, Garden Magazine 

 "Veronica" gives a list of long blooming annuals, 

 but she does not mention the old-fashioned — 

 now new-fashioned — stock. To my mind nothing 

 gives such satisfaction. 



I have four bulb beds, each five by fifty feet. 

 Each year I try at least one new annual to succeed 

 the bulbs — verbenas, nasturtiums, tuberous 

 begonias and asters — but the bed of stock and 

 the pansy bed have never found successors. No 

 other flower in my garden, save pansies, gives so 

 long and so continuous bloom — from the first 

 of July up to the second week in November. There 

 was no cessation of bloom last year and I cut 

 many bushels of flowers. No other plant has so 

 successfully withstood the drought that tried all 

 gardener's souls that summer, and no annual I 

 know of is so free from all insect pests. 



The pansies have the advantage in the spring 

 but not in the fall. Ice has frozen them several 

 times, but the stock is not hurt. Until this year, I 

 only put in white, pink and lavender, but Canary- 



