The Garden Magazine, March, 1922 



47 



vacancies. We filled a large triangular bed also, but soon discovered 

 that they were not for bedding, but looked well in borders and as 

 single plants, or in small groups. 



When they bloomed the colors, in many instances, were inharmonious 

 as the plants had been set out in a hit-and-miss fashion. Then it was 

 that we found out their wonderfully accommodating nature, for we 

 literally pulled them up like weeds and put them to rights, plants full 

 grown and in full bloom. We rearranged them to please our sense of 

 color, choosing a rainy afternoon for the somewhat ruthless performance. 

 They never even wilted, but went right on growing and blooming! 



Now we are enthusiastic about Balsam, and for so many reasons. It 

 is a trim and tidy plant, foliage graceful and of good quality, it displays 

 a long range of colors, from daintiest shell pink to the brilliant "pink" 

 of an English hunting coat; from palest lilac to deepest royal purple; 

 white and also mottled. The flowers are two inches across, often larger 

 in specially grown and cultivated plants, and fragrant; the period of 

 bloom is longer than with most annuals, lasting from four to five weeks. 



We put a row across the foot of our Ever-bearing Strawberry patch — 

 fifty feet — using only seventeen plants, most of which grew from two 

 to two and a half feet tall. 



When potted, a single plant of double Balsam in full bloom is as 

 lovely as any Azalea from the florist, and all who see it exclaim at its 

 beauty. — Emma L. Morris, Madison, Tenn. 



A Topsy-Turvy Calendar 



To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 



WITH interest I have noted different articles you have had on occa- 

 sion in the magazine relative to unusual flowering times of plants. 



We have a camp in Colorado at an altitude of 9500 feet. Darwin 

 Tulips bloom there approximately August first, German Iris from the 

 first to the middle of August, and common meadow Daisies the last 

 of August and the first of September. The colors of the Iris and Tulip 

 blossoms are deeper than in this part of the country (i. e., Kansas City, 

 Mo.) The Daisies grow over three feet tall and are fully as large as 

 Shasta Daisies that grow here, though, as I said above, they are only the 

 ordinary field variety. 



In Colorado we have also Pansy plants — some of them seven years 

 old — that produce a profusion of blooms of immense size. One gets 

 tired of gathering blossoms from even a half dozen plants. Last 

 summer my wife and I picked three hundred and twenty-five fully 

 opened flowers from six plants at one time and the next day there were 

 apparently almost that many more — C. H. Benton, Kansas City, Mo. 



A Tool that I Find Useful 



To the Editor o/The Garden Magazine: 



OTHER readers may be interested in a new tool that was first 

 brought to my attention last fall. The New Porcupine Cultivator 

 produces a fine dust mulch with the least effort; generally two strokes 

 forward and two pulls back are sufficient to put the roughest soil in the 



"A Barrel of Rhubarb" 



To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 



OFTEN I have noted my neighbors using half barrels to force their 

 Rhubarb, so having an empty flour barrel last spring, I knocked the 

 bottom out and placed it over a clump of Rhubarb with the result here 



THE NEW PORCUPINE CULTIVATOR IN ACTION 



best of shape. Every push puts a score of teeth into the soil, and 

 the tool itself is heavy enough to assure the sinking into the soil of the 

 teeth or spikes, so that all the muscular power can be devoted to 

 the back and forward movement. — A. Vinton, New York. 



A SIMPLE AND EFFICACIOUS FORCING 

 These stalks of Rhubarb measure two feet and over 



shown. The longest stalks measured twenty-six inches and the ma- 

 jority were twenty-four inches long. The barrel was placed over the 

 plant April 1st and removed May 8th, and at the time of placing I dug 

 in a small quantity of poultry manure. — George Oakes Stoddard, 



N ewtonville , Mass. 



Sweet-peas Can be Transplanted! 



To the Editor o/The Garden Magazine: 



HAVE you ever transplanted Sweet-peas? Perhaps you have 

 wished you could but, on mentioning the undertaking, have been 

 discouraged by over-wise friends! 



On a certain April 1st, a sudden upheaval landed me in a different 

 section of the city, and my Peas with their running start of a month 

 and a half — in Seattle, Sweet-peas are planted either in the fall or in 

 February — must they, indeed, be left behind? Turning a deaf ear to 

 the chorus of "Oh, no, you can't transplant them, they won't grow" 

 — "Once the roots are disturbed, the plants die" — "Never heard of 

 anybody's doing it, and there's not a chance," I carefully inserted 

 a spade under a small portion of the row at a time, taking par- 

 ticular pains to go deep enough and not break the roots, which burrow 

 to a most amazing depth — lifted earth and plants together into a large 

 shallow box, then repeated the performance until I had all on board. 

 The box was carried to the new home and here the plants were at once 

 set in prepared ground, care being taken that the roots were not at any 

 time left exposed. From the very start these Sweet-peas were as 

 happy in the change as their owner; they soon raced for the top of the 

 wire netting, and I saw no others all season more flourishing than 

 mine. — Inez Fraser, Seattle, Wash. 



Fuchsias in California 



To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 



IN THE article of the series of "Talks and Walks at Breeze Hill," 

 which appeared in your September issue reference is made to 

 the Fuchsia and I am pleased to learn of Mr. McFarland's in- 

 terest in this wonderful flower, and have taken the liberty of send- 

 ing some specimens of both single and double flowers produced 

 here at Berkeley. In all, I have about twenty-five varieties which 

 are quite representative of the various forms and colors of leaves and 

 flowers, and special markings and venations of the leaves. 



The Fuchsia is especially adapted to the Bay Region (San Francisco) 

 because of the fairly equable climate and absence of excessive extremes 

 of temperature. It does not do so well in the very hot or cold interior 

 regions. You may be surprised to learn that I am growing twenty-two 

 varieties in a space seventy feet long by less than three feet wide on the 

 north of the residence, and with a Pittosporum hedge on one side. It 



