48 



The Garden Magazine, March, 1922 



is my intention to train these plants to form pyramidal trees, 5-6 feet 

 high, by pruning and training leaders. 



The Fuchsia does not receive the recognition that is due it, perhaps 

 because it is so common and grows so luxuriantly where conditions are 

 favorable. It lends itself very readily to hybridization, new varieties 

 exhibiting every possible gradation in color of flowers and variations 

 in color, texture, venation, and forms of leaves. 1 have seen Fuchsias 

 climbing into trees for a distance of twenty feet and more. I hope that 

 my innovation will tend to foster a greater interest in the Fuchsia, and 

 serve to raise it again to the pedestal it once occupied. 



The plant favors almost a fully shaded location, rich, well-drained 

 soil, with plenty of leaf-mold, plenty of moisture, and a cool atmosphere. 

 It can be grown to advantage in the greenhouse under conditions ap- 

 proximating as closely as # possible those I have described. It will not 

 stand wind. The superintendent of the Monterey Tree Company, at 

 Monterey, California, is doing considerable hybridizing with Fuchsias, 

 and claims to have the largest collection of new varieties in the country. 

 I have been threatening to do a little hybridizing myself, but my place 

 is hardly large enough, and I never seem to find the time, because of 

 other duties. — A. M. Woodman, Berkeley, Cal. 



What Plants Really Grow Well Indoors? 



To the Editor o/The Garden Magazine: 



THE purpose of this letter is to commend the article, "When the 

 Gardener Builds His Home," by Estelle H. Ries, as an extremely 

 practical and inspiring group of suggestions. Now, can someone fol- 

 low up with names and results of plants suitable for the modern home? 

 We all know that the home to-day, with dry heated air, is not fitted 

 for the growth of window plants which grew well for our grandmothers 

 in the days of open wood fires. I object to the Lilies in the picture on 

 page 243 (January issue) as they were flowered in a greenhouse and 

 brought in to be photographed. I want plants that grow well, flower 

 well, and look well in the living-room windows near the radiators, the 

 winter through. This is a subject for real investigation. — Stephen 

 F. Hamblin, Lexington, Mass. 



Growing Exhibition Chrysanthemums Outdoors 



To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 



PERHAPS some of your readers would like to know how exhibition 

 Chrysanthemums can be grown outdoors with very little trouble 

 and without the aid of a greenhouse. 



Like everyone else, I once believed that the small Hardy and Pompon 

 varieties were the only really satisfactory outdoor kind, but I longed 

 for the big fellows. None of the garden books told how to do it, so I 

 started to experiment about five years ago to see just how large they 

 would grow. Two years later, I grew one seven inches across with a 

 five-foot stem. This took the prize at New Rochelle and all my trouble 

 was paid for when the judge, a well-known commercial grower, at first 

 refused to give the award for it because he believed it could not have 

 been grown outdoors. Last year in one day I picked four dozen six- 

 inch flowers with stems over four feet long. 



Why not order a few plants for your garden this year? If planted 

 during the first three weeks of May, they wil bloom during October 

 and on until November 1 5th or thereabouts. When they arrive, 

 place them eighteen inches apart each way in a well-manured bed. If 

 you have it, sprinkle about a tablespoonful of bonemeal inside the hole 

 before planting. Firm the soil around the plant with foot, then water 

 to fill up all air spaces, Place one-inch sticks six feet long at side of 

 plant immediately, as setting later injures the roots. The fall winds 

 exert heavy pressure against full-grown plants, so tie the string tightly 

 to stick and loosely around plant every foot of growth. 



Practically no growth will show for four weeks. As soon as plants are 

 nine inches high pinch off tip. This will make about six side shoots 

 grow. Keep pinching off all side growth on these six branches, and do 

 riot let any buds develop before September 10th. If a bud develops at 

 the end of these branches before that date, pinch it off and let one 

 side shoot just below grow. After September 10th let the first bud 

 that comes at the end of these branches grow, removing all others. 



Once each week until root growth is far advanced, cultivate the sur- 

 face of the ground to kill weeds and produce a dust mulch that will 

 conserve moisture. After cultivating, pour about a cupful of liquid 

 manure at the base of each plant. Make liquid manure as follows: 

 place one cupful of pulverized sheep manure or fresh chicken manure in 

 a four-gallon watering can from which the sprinkler has been removed, 

 allow water to run in slowly while vigorously stirring. After Septem- 

 ber 10th, apply this twice each week. 



On October 1st erect a light wooden framework so that a cloth can 

 be tacked or thrown on the top. This is called a frost screen. As 

 frost never moves sideways but settles straight down, the cloth above 

 the Chrysanthemums will protect them and they will live until it 

 actually freezes. It is well to brace the framework with guy ropes, so 

 that the fall winds will not blow it over. 



Varieties that have given me big blooms are Unaka, Chieftain, 

 Nerissa, Calumet, Ramapo, Jos. Foley, Pres. John Everitt, Elberon, 

 Nakota, Chrysolora, Goldsmith, Dick Witterstaetter. 



The above method is really not so difficult to practice as it reads. 

 Many of my friends have tried it with success and are now confirmed 

 Chrysanthemum chasers. I wish everyone could have the pleasure 

 these flowers have given me! — William Currie, New York. 



Anent Delphinium Nudicaule 



To the Editor of Garden Magazine: 



THAT Delphinium nudicaule is not common in England, Julian 

 Hinckley is right in assuming. It is possible to grow it there even 

 in a border, but I never found a plant survive the winter outdoors. It 

 certainly is not dormant in the summer, for seedlings carried over in a 

 frame flower the following summer but, as stated, that is the end of 

 them. How it behaves on a rockery I have no knowledge. It is 

 shown on rockery exhibits at the shows but, in such cases, the plants are 

 pot-grown. 



And as to D. Zalil — times out of number I tried to raise this in 

 England without result. Further, I have no recollection of ever seeing 

 it exhibited, and I have attended hundreds of shows. Like Mr. Hinck- 

 ley, I look upon D. Zalil as a myth. D. nudicaule is more or less a 

 freak; compared with Blue Butterfly it is a poor weed. — T. A. W., N. Y. 



A Neighbor Who Wants to Know 



To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 



I AM greatly indebted for the two letters on Grapes in The Open 

 Column. I find this column year in and year out to have the great- 

 est amount of human interest, to me, at least. May I ask Mr. Seymour 

 if cow manure makes only leaves on a Grapevine? We have some as 

 big as a pie plate. 



Why do Larkspurs — perennial ones with big white bees,in three lovely 

 shades of blue — show distorted petals with a yellowish gum under- 

 neath and blackened flowerstalks? I've tried lime and flowers of sul- 

 phur but no improvement resulted. [Nobody knows how to handle 

 the "Blacks" disease. — Ed.] 



Why do Dahlias fertilized with bone-meal show leaves mottled 

 with light green? Can I use Bordeaux mixture to advantage? I've 

 found no insects, and have over a hundred plants. I lost three beauties 

 over winter: Conquest; Homer, a chocolate red, incurved, very deep- 

 quilled; and Gwendolyn Tucker, pale pink with flat golden centre, 

 quilled petals, 7 inches across, and little pink florets curled around 

 the golden heart. Does anyone know where I can purchase these varie- 

 ties? 



I find the mottling of lighter green and tendency to turn yellow more 

 pronounced on my new California Dahlias, of which I received sixteen 

 from a friend; American and Copper have already bloomed for me. 



In Roses, I had Wm. R. Smith, Souv. de Gustave Prat, Kaiserin 

 Augusta Victoria and Willowmere in bloom about May 15th last year, 

 and I am trying good old Catherine Mermet and Isabella Sprunt this 

 year to see if, though ungrafted, they can hold their own. 



The yellowest Rose I have actually seen (and, Mr. McFarland, I 

 dislike a whopper as much as you do!) is Golden Emblem; I wonder 

 why yellow Roses, and yellow Chrysanthemums are apt to winter- 

 kill? Duchess of Wellington is particularly likely to do so, it seems. 

 — C. A. G., New York. 



Midsummer Perennials in Abundance 



To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 



IN THE September issue Mrs. Caraway inquires about midsummer 

 bloomers. It is certainly a problem to extend the glorious spring and 

 early summer show of flowers into the later months without using 

 annuals, and I have found July and August more difficult to fill than 

 September and October. You give a long list of late bloomers with 

 most of whom I have a garden acquaintance, and perhaps some notes 

 of my experiences with them may prove helpful. 



Last summer (1921) my best July show was given by perennials not 

 mentioned. In early July nothing, in my opinion, makes a more im- 

 pressive appearance than the Yucca. I have it bordering a drive where 



