42 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



September, 191$ 



plenty of mulching material on hand to use later around the 

 perennials, the shrubs, and along the borders, but don't make any 

 heavy application of this material until cold weather has really 

 arrived. 



Chrysanthemums growing outdoors should be lifted before long 

 and set in benches or pots under glass. There will be a few late 

 plants, also, in which you will have to choose or, as the florists 

 say, "take" the bud, that is to produce the best flower. 



As soon as the dahlias, cannas, gladioli, and elephants' ears have 

 stopped growing, or immediately upon their being touched by frost, 

 cut the tops dig the bulbs, dry them for a day or so, remove the 

 dirt and store them in a cool moist place where the temperature 

 is not likely to go below freezing. Moist sand is one of the best 

 mediums in which to keep dahlia tubers. 



From the other plants still growing, keep the flowers picked 

 and the seed pods removed in order to extend the season as long 

 as possible. 



If there is a dull spot in the border or among the masses of shrub- 

 bery during this month, why not procure some of the shrubs 

 that are noted for the brilliance of their September fruit? Among 

 these we have the mountain ash, with red or yellow berries; the 

 dogwood, in both tree and bush form; Siberian crab, with berries of 

 various colors; sour gum, with blue-black fruit; several varieties 

 of hawthorn; the barberry; the spindle bush; the winterberry; the 

 sea buckthorn; and at least two varieties of privet. The average 

 owner of a privet hedge knows nothing about the beauty of the 

 berries this plant bears, since he clips it before it can blossom. 



Isolated examples, however, can be allowed to grow freely and 

 enrich the scenery for all seasons except winter. 



One of the most attractive blue-berried shrubs, by the way, 

 but a rather rare type, and usually tender, in the latitude of 

 Boston, is Symplocos cratcegoides. 



There are two kinds of indoor work to do: First, start a mush- 

 room bed in any out-of-the-way shed or cellar, or even under 

 the benches of the greenhouse; and secondly, attend to the duties- 

 associated with the greenhouse itself. See that all the glass is in 

 place and whole; that the ventilators and doors fit tightly and 

 stay closed when they should; that the benches are soil tight and 

 their supports firm and unrotted. Get plenty of soil indoors, for 

 future potting work, for you won't enjoy digging it after it has 

 frozen six inches deep. 



In the greenhouse, it is time to put the cuttings from bedding 

 plants into the benches. Azalea plants for winter bloom can be 

 bought now and forced gradually. Seeds of cineraria, cyclamen, 

 and calceolaria can be sown. 



Among things that bother the novice and that he likes 

 to read about are : (a) The amount of flower seeds needed for 

 definite areas — there are plenty of vegetable planting tables, 

 but few for annual flowers; (b) The really best of the season's 

 novelties in flowers and vegetables, (c) The most effective way 

 to fight the squash borer, the rose chafer and the aster beetle. 

 These are merely hints. Every gardener's experience must have 

 supplied some things that are worth telling to readers of 

 The Garden Magazine. 



«T^ 



CHESTNUT BLIGHT 



pERHAPS, after all, we may 

 be able to grow a few chest- 

 nuts under certain conditions and 

 with care. The dread blight or bark 

 disease that has destroyed millions of dol- 

 lars' worth of timber and ornamental trees 

 is capable it seems of some control even in 

 the North Atlantic States. The investiga- 

 tions of the Pennsylvania State Commis- 

 sion seem to show that individual trees and 

 small orchards may be saved. The disease 

 is by no means exterminated; the possi- 

 bilities are simply that trees can be grown 

 in spite of it. 



The disease is caused by a parasitic 

 fungus, and spores are carried by rain, 

 birds, insects, animals or man, and gain 

 entrance to the inner bark through some 

 injury or mutilation. The seat of in- 

 fection becomes an area of sunken dis- 

 colored bark, often girdling the trunk or 

 branch, and covering a disorganized, dis- 

 colored, "punky" lesion of inner tissues. 

 In the case of a girdled branch or stem the 

 part above the girdling cannot be saved. 

 The first result of the investigations pursued 

 by the Federal Department of Agriculture, 

 the Pennsylvania Commission and other 

 agencies, was the knowledge that trees 

 in the first stages of the disease or those 

 superficially affected, could often be saved 

 by cutting out the diseased portions, burn- 

 ing them, and painting the wounds with 

 tar or a creosote preparation, strict anti- 

 septic precautions being observed through- 

 out. 



Now comes the information that bor- 

 deaux mixture sprayed every two weeks 

 during summer has been successfully used 

 in preventing the infection of healthy trees. 

 The Commission states that "it does 



JVeius JVbtes and Comments 



appear true that the chestnut blight can 

 be controlled, more or less, in orchards 

 and in the case of individual trees on lawns 

 where it is practicable to give time and 

 attention to single trees." Furthermore 

 the Northern Nut Growers' Association is 

 "inclined to recommend the setting of 

 good chestnut trees in a very limited way, 

 provided that the owner is prepared to 

 watch them and to attack at once any 

 manifestation of the blight, by cutting 

 out and treating with antiseptics, much as 

 one would treat the pear blight." 



SEEDLINGS WILTING 



POSSIBLY the condition described in 

 the following letter is a familiar one 

 to many gardeners, who, also, are not aware 

 of its cause: 



"Having no hotbed, I started my tomato 

 seeds in a flat 2 inches deep, transplanting 

 them to another box 4 inches deep, placing 

 them 4 inches apart. They are now six 

 to eight inches high and in the last few days 

 have commenced to lose their lower leaves 

 which droop, turn yellow and drop off at a 

 light touch. Some of the leaves have a 

 parchment-like spot and others a drop of 

 water (?) on the under side, when there has 

 been no water near them. What is the 

 trouble and how can I cure it? " 



The yellowing and falling of the lower 

 leaves is not uncommon and, where not 

 merely the shedding of useless, immature 

 tissue, may result from several causes. 

 Undue crowding of the plants, scarcity of 

 sunlight except from directly above, exces- 

 sive or insufficient moisture in the soil, and 



insufficient depth or quality of soil' 

 may all effect it. 



The appearance of "parchment- 

 like spots" and drops of water on 

 healthy leaves suggests a further 

 physiological condition due to augmented 

 root pressure. It is noted by botanists that 

 when the air surrounding plants is heavily 

 charged with moisture and is cooled rather 

 rapidly while the soil about the roots re- 

 mains warm, sap may be forced through the 

 cell walls to collect in the form of drops on 

 the leaf surface. This is especially likely to 

 occur on the succulent leaves of tomatoes, 

 since the fine hairs which coat them tend to 

 collect and hold the moisture. The tem- 

 perature conditions involved are exactly 

 those that develop in the evening — 

 whether indoors or in the hotbed — when 

 the air becomes cool and the soil, being 

 more retentive of heat, becomes warmer. 

 The parchment-like spot might then be 

 either the result of sun burning through 

 the collected moisture, or a localized attack 

 by some fungus enemy stimulated into activ- 

 ity by highly congenial conditions, viz., the 

 drop of moisture and the warming of the air, 

 with the coming of the next morning. 



There need be no alarm felt, therefore, 

 and no especial "cure" attempted save, 

 perhaps, a little more generous ventilation. 

 Plant physiology when applied to com- 

 mon garden and greenhouse activities is 

 far from the dry and useless subject it may 

 seem. For a dull rainy day or a piping hot 

 one, whenever you are satisfied to stay 

 indoors pick up Soraurer's "Physiology of 

 Plants," or the bulky "Natural History of 

 Plants" of F. W. Oliver, or any of the stan- 

 dard and more modern text books. You 

 will come across, in the lives of humble 

 plants, many an " almost human " attribute 

 of which you never had a conception. 



