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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



October, 1909 



Gophers and Irrigation 



ONE of the excitements of irrigated gardening 

 is gophers. You open the headgate, get the 

 water running nicely in the drills and then go into 

 the house for a while, leaving the water to soak in. 

 When you return, the stream is running feebly, or 

 not at all, while down in your melon patch water 

 is bubbling up from a mysterious spring, causing a 

 small flood. The water has run out of your little 

 lateral through one of the network of underground 

 runways which the gophers have tunneled out. 

 If you could find the hole at once, the annoyance 

 would not be so great, but sometimes it is a matter 

 of an hour before you can run down the leak. 



On one occasion, when a geyser broke through the 

 ground in the neighborhood of my spinach, I 

 turned off the water and hunted each little trench 

 for the hole with no success at all. Eventually 

 I discovered that the water came underground 

 through a gopher runway from the property of 

 my neighbor who, was irrigating at the same time. 



The method of procedure on discovering a 

 gopher hole is to spade up a good -sized sod, put it 

 in the hole, grass side down, and plaster it well 

 over with mud. Sometimes when the cavity 

 beneath the surface is very large, the water breaks 

 through again and again, and it is necessary to 

 change the course of the ditch to procure a flow of 

 water. The gopher pest can be fought to some 

 extent with poison. Some ranchers offer a bounty of 

 ten cents a gopher, and the small boys make pocket 

 money trapping them. An excellent method of 

 destroying them was given in the July, 1907, Gar- 

 den Magazine. 



Washington. Lucy M. Ellis. 



Larkspur Blight and Other Things 



THE ammoniacal carbonate of copper solution 

 for spraying hollyhocks, recommended in 

 the May, 1909, number of The Garden Magazine, 

 is also very efficacious in eradicating the black 

 blight which attacks delphiniums and also the 

 diseases peculiar to the burning bush. 



As a great lover of the Oriental poppy, I wish to 

 give to any others who may have a similar pleasure 

 with it, and who may have had the sorrow of seeing 

 the buds blast and those nearly ready to open turn 

 black and rot, the remedy I have succeeded with. 

 I use florists' tinfoil cut into two and a half or 

 three inch squares, which I place over the buds and 

 slightly pinch in and around the stem. This 

 method keeps out the rain, which causes all the 

 trouble with me, and the foil can be removed 

 easily and used again. It will not interfere with 

 the opening of the poppies in the early morning, 

 because it is ductile enough to allow the buds to 

 expand and push off the foil. I have a sport which 

 is a most beautiful heliotrope in color; it has 

 blossomed two years and is an early one. I think 

 I will try to propagate it now that I am assured 

 it is true. 



I want to express my thanks for the spray calendar 

 for amateurs in' the May number of The Garden 

 Magazine. 



Saratoga Springs, N. Y. Amos C. Rich. 



Growing Roman Hyacinths in 

 Water 



IN THE October, 1908, number of The Garden 

 Magazlne there appeared an article which stated 

 that Roman hyacinths should be grown in soil only 

 and that the bulbs would rot if grown in water. 

 I have had such a pleasing result with a Roman 

 hyacinth grown in water that I wish to recommend 

 the experiment to others. 



One bulb, placed in a small vase on October 9th, 

 was brought into light November 25th and blos- 

 somed from December nth to January 1st. There 

 were two flower spikes bearing sixteen small but 

 very fragrant blossoms. 



Massachusetts. Robert D. Bardwell. 



Re-potting Old House Plants 



LAST fall I had three old plants which received 

 unusual treatment. The results have been 

 so satisfactory that I think others may be interested. 



For a number of years, seven at least, the rubber 

 plant had been growing in the same twelve-inch pot. 

 But when a century plant was given me last Sep- 

 tember, and I had no other pot large enough for it, 

 I removed the rubber plant; the roots of which I 

 found tightly packed in a dry ball of clayey soil. 

 An eight-inch pot was the only thing I had to 

 put it in. I poured water on the roots, loosening 

 the soil at the same time with my hands, until the 

 plant could easily be put into the smaller sized pot. 

 Two leaves were later dropped from each branch, 

 and it did not begin growing until January, but is 

 now as vigorous as could be desired. 



The Camellia Japonica was treated similarly, 

 but the roots were too fibrous and too closely matted 



House plants will grow amazingly if shifted to 

 different pots before being brought indoors 



to permit of the ball being greatly reduced in size. 

 On replacing it in the same pot, however, it was pos- 

 sible to add a fair quantity of fresh earth. It 

 immediately put out eleven flower buds. The 

 first blossom, seen in the picture, opened in March. 



The third plant to be experimented with was 

 the jasmine at the right. This had not blossomed 

 for several years and stood so high in the pot that 

 it was difficult to water, but after washing more 

 than half the earth from the roots it was placed 

 enough lower in the pot to admit of pouring on a 

 pint and a half of water, and the soil was practi- 

 cally renewed. It blossomed abundantly during 

 October and November. 



Connecticut. C. 



Dahlia Flowers for Cutting 



A HINT about cutting and keeping dahlias 

 will undoubtedly interest many lovers of the 

 flower. Blossoms are best cut early in the mor- 

 ning, while the dew is still on them; place immedi- 

 ately in cold water and keep in a cool place for at 

 least two hours. Dahlias thus treated will last 

 for two or three days in perfect condition. 



If you send flowers to friends some dis- 

 tance away and they should arrive at their destina- 

 tion in a wilted condition, the stems should be 

 placed immediately in boiling water. The dahlias 

 will quickly revive, and be as fresh as when picked. 



Massachusetts. M. F. 



Hardy Plants in South Dakota 



THE hardiness of trees and shrubs in different 

 parts of the country is a subject that we 

 believe appeals to all our readers. The plants that 

 are perfectly hardy and vigorous in one section 

 very often prove miserable failures in others, and 

 it has been with a great deal of interest and pleasure 

 that we have published, from time to time, notes 

 on this subject. Mr. Horatio Tragitt, of Milbank, 

 S. D., writes as follows: 



"A Viburnum Lantana, which I purchased from 

 a reliable Eastern nurservman a year ago, came 

 through the winter perfectly, leafing out up to the 

 tips of the branches. It had no winter protection 

 beyond an inch or so of stable manure around its 

 roots, and, as last winter in this section was one of 

 extreme cold following an exceptionally hot and dry 

 summer (during which the plant received no water), 

 I believe that this viburnum would be perfectly 

 hardy throughout the greater part of this state. 



" The other shrubs that I obtained at the same 

 time — Viburnum Opulus (both the snowball and 

 cranberry forms), Spiraea Van Houttei, Deutzia 

 Lemoinei, Philadelphus coronarius,Clethra alnifolia 

 — were perfectly hardy. Euonymus Europceus and 

 Cydonia Japonica killed back a few inches; 

 Prunus Amygdalus was killed back to a greater ex- 

 tent, but still made a satisfactory blossoming; and 

 Cornus florida, Cercis Canadensis, Halesia tetrap- 

 tera, Chionanthus Virginica, Rhus Cotinus and 

 Forsythia viridissima were killed to the ground, 

 but came up vigorously during the summer. If I 

 had been able to procure northern-grown stock 

 more plants, probably, would have lived." 



From a Tulip Enthusiast 



LAST fall I neglected to order my bulbs until 

 very late and was very much disappointed 

 to find that the kinds I wanted could not be had from 

 my seedsman. I was prevailed upon by him to 

 substitute for my early flowering bulbs some 

 "wonderfully beautiful, tall-growing, late-flowering 

 kinds that he knew would more than delight me." 

 As a check to his enthusiastic superlatives I agreed 

 to take these, suspecting at the same time that it 

 was a business dodge to work off some superfluous 

 stock. Since then I have time and time again felt 

 a great remorse of conscience for the suspicion. 



The stock he offered me were Darwin tulips. 

 I had read a good deal about them in The Garden 

 Magazine, and figured on trying them some day. 

 Now that we have become acquainted I feel like 

 planting nothing but Darwin tulips in my garden. 



My enthusiasm is apt to carry me too far in 

 describing them, but in the most matter of fact 

 manner I want to say that nothing has ever given 

 me so much real delight as my Darwin tulip beds. 

 They are not expensive and remembering what I 

 have read I am going to plant them about my shrub- 

 bery next year and leave them there to propagate. 



I am also regularly growing a stock of tulips from 

 "offsets," having commenced this work after read- 

 ing an article relative to it in The Garden Maga- 

 zine some three years ago. While my supply is 

 very limited I have conclusively proved that the work 

 is very easy of accomplishment and expect in the 

 course of a few years to grow all the bulbs I need for 

 my garden. 



Massachusetts. A. Duffy. 



Darwin tulips are not expensive and are a source 

 of constant delight to the tulip lover 



