126 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



October, 1911 



Sowing Seed in Autumn 



IN NORTHERN regions, where the summer is 

 brief enough at best, much may be gained by 

 sowing the seed of both hardy annuals and peren- 

 nials in the late autumn. My Shirley poppies, 

 cornflowers, eschscholzia, and candytuft, sown just 

 before the ground freezes, are in blossom much 

 earlier than the same annuals sown in the spring. 

 Autumn sown 'perennials and biennials are ready 

 for transplanting in early June and delphiniums and 

 hollyhocks, sweet rocket and dianthus, bloom the 

 first season. 



My plan is this: A plot of ground at one side 

 of the sunny kitchen garden, where it need not be 

 disturbed in the spring, is prepared in October. 

 After being liberally manured and sprinkled with 

 wood ashes it is thoroughly spaded and raked to 

 a fine surface. One long strip, about three feet in 

 width, is marked off for Shirley poppies, the seed 

 of which, mixed with sand, is sown broadcast and 

 lightly raked in. The other seeds are sown in 

 drills, just as in the spring, the rows being marked 

 off, spaced and firmed by means of a smooth board 

 to the upper side of which a convenient handle is 

 attached. The seeds are sown as late as possible 

 50 that they will remain dormant until spring. 



After all annuals and perennials are planted 

 in their respective nurseries, each variety with 

 its name written with an indelible pencil on a 

 wooden label, a light covering of clean oat or rye 

 straw is laid over the beds and held in place by 

 a few boards or pine boughs. This late sowing 

 is usually the last piece of work before I leave my 

 garden for the winter. 



My list of autumn-sown seeds lengthens year by 

 year, though I began somewhat skeptically one 

 year when I was going to Europe for the winter. 

 Often among the white narcissus and almond 

 blossoms of Italy I thought of my mountain garden 

 under its snow blanket on the other side of the 

 Atlantic and when I next saw it my eyes were 

 gladdened by the well defined green rows of tiny 

 plants, stretching across my autumn sown beds. 

 The poppies were springing thickly, ready for thin- 

 ning and delphiniums and aquilegias already 

 declared their individuality by their second leaves. 



The beds had been uncovered as soon as the 

 frost was out of the ground and the sturdy little 

 seedlings had grown rapidly. I give below a list 

 of annuals and another of perennials and biennials 

 which may be safely sown in the autumn. Sweet 

 peas I find only moderately successful. 



Annuals — Sunflowers; eschscholzias; poppies 

 (all annual varieties) ; mignonette; candytuft; sweet 

 alyssum; cornflower; Coreopsis; Calendula; annual 

 larkspur; aster; annual pinks; CEnothera; pansy. 



Biennials and Perennials — Foxglove; Can- 

 terbury bell; hollyhock; Aquilegia; Delphinium; 

 sweet rocket; sweet william; Oriental poppy; 

 Iceland poppy; honesty; Arabis albida; Iberis 

 sempervirens; Alyssum saxatile; forget-me-not. 



New York. Marcia E. Hale. 



An Unusual Wall Garden 



ONE of the most unusual bits of wall gardening 

 that I have ever seen is to be found at 

 Steelton, Pa. Steelton is a dirty and smoky 

 borough, made so by the rolling mills which are 

 belching forth smoke from one year's end to 

 another. On one of the streets leading up the 

 hill away from the mills is a dry wall made of 

 limestone, and in the crevices of this wall is an 



abundant crop of the purple cliff brake (Pellaea 

 atro purpurea) . How it ever got there no one seems 

 to know. I questioned people who have lived for 

 years in the immediate vicinity, but they were 

 unable to give me any information. 



The purple cliff brake is one of our native ferns. 

 It can be found growing all the way from Arizona, 

 New Mexico and Texas to Vermont. But al- 

 though its range is so wide, it is not a common fern. 



About the only place where this delicate looking 

 little fern can be found growing is on limestone 

 rocks. As soon as one sees it growing in its native 

 surroundings all thought of its being a delicate 

 plant at once vanishes. I first made its acquain- 

 tance on the limestone cliffs which rise a hundred 

 feet or more above the Meramec River near St. 

 Louis, Missouri. There was a thriving colony on 

 a southern exposure, where the hot sun seemed to 

 be doing its best to dry them up. 



The little plants send their fine roots deep into 

 the crevices of the limestone rocks, so that it is 

 nearly impossible to secure specimens with suffi- 

 cient roots to grow. 



The fronds of the purple cliff brake are not 

 large. They are four to twelve inches long and 

 two to six inches broad according to the botany 

 books, but my own observation has been that 

 as a rule they will usually be found to correspond 

 with the smaller measurements. The fronds 

 are pinnate, once divided, except that sometimes 

 the lower fronds are twice divided. The leaflets 

 {pinna) are from one to two inches long and seldom 

 over a quarter of an inch across, pale green in color 

 and very leathery in texture. Trie stem or midrib 

 of the frond (rhachis) is dark purple and shiny. 



If you can succeed in getting any of these plants 

 with sufficient roots to grow, you will find that it 

 is an admirable fern for cultivation. It will suc- 

 ceed in rockeries or on walls, as the illustration 

 shows, and it is also an admirable fern for indoor 

 culture, for it will forgive neglect as almost no 

 other plant will. If it becomes dried up a few 

 days in a humid atmosphere will start it into 

 growth once more. 



If you cannot get plants of it, secure some of 

 the spores. These are borne on the under side of 

 the leaf on the very edge, making the dark streak. 

 You can sow these in pans or flats in soil in which 

 some old lime rubbish has been mixed, and trans- 

 plant them to any place you wish. One of the essen- 

 tials to success is to leave the plant alone having 

 once planted it. It resents being moved. 



Pennsylvania. P. T. Barnes. 



The purple cliff brake, a native fern, thrives in a 

 lime soil and resents transplanting 



Red Roses in Oregon 



ADJOINING the lawn of our house was an 

 irregularly shaped spot of very heavy clay 

 soil in which neither white clover nor trees would 

 grow without irrigation. Neither of these things, 

 which otherwise do well on the place, were an in- 

 centive to the expense and labor required to master 

 this very refractory spot and the result was an 

 eyesore, a muddy puddle in the wet season and a 

 dry bricked desolation in summer. 



In October, 1909, we bored holes about eighteen 

 inches deep with a carpenters' one-inch auger, 

 about every four feet over the entire spot of heavy 

 clay soil, and in each hole fired a half stick of 

 dynamite. All sandy and gravely stuff from the 

 subsoil blown out, as well as the large lumps of clay, 

 were taken away in a wheelbarrow and the top 

 three inches scraped into holes. 



A trench was dug all around, leaving an irregular, 

 oval-shaped bed. On the lowest side a 3-inch 

 drain tile was sunk in the bottom of the ditch, and 

 provided with an outlet. The remainder of the 

 ditch was filled in with small stones from the orchard 

 and afterward small boulders were used as a curb- 

 ing around the entire bed. 



The ground was well limed, spaded, and allowed 

 to weather in the rain for two weeks. Two inches 

 of hardwood ashes were spread over the surface 

 of the bed and spaded in shallowly. About a 

 month afterward we covered this entire bed with 

 well rotted, black barn manure and turned it under 

 also. 



In the latter part of February I set out a hundred 

 strong, thrifty, two-year old, budded, field-grown 

 rose bushes from California that cost me just fifteen 

 dollars. The roots were pruned back and trampled 

 well into the holes, so that the juncture of bud and 

 stock were two or three inches under the ground. 

 Out of the hundred bushes there was only one 

 sucker to cut off during the entire season. 



The tops were ruthlessly cut back to three stubs 

 about four inches long. They were all of rose red 

 colors, no varieties with vermilion shades being 

 used. Sixty Gruss an Teplitz and Queen's Scarlet 

 bordered the entire bed. The remainder of the 

 bed was filled with groups of five of a kind. The 

 edging roses bloomed perpetually from May to 

 November, making fully six months of bloom. The 

 Jubilee, Emperor du Maroc and American Beauty 

 have bloomed the most frequently and borne 

 the heaviest crop of blooms for me of all the 

 hybrids, excepting the Bengal and Bourbon border 

 hedge. 



In April, 1910, I sowed this bed rather thickly 

 to red clover and the ground was turned in, for a 

 mulch, in a circle around each bush about once a 

 month, leaving enough crowns to grow more shade 

 for the ground. 



Once a week the bed was irrigated with hose and 

 thoroughly wet down, for we had a dry season of 

 seven months with very few showers, and there 

 was danger of the soil becoming caked. 



On the 15 th of last October, I cut a great sheaf of 

 American Beauty roses from this piece of ground 

 with blooms five to seven inches across, and stems 

 up to two feet in length. They were the very 

 perfection of texture, color and fragrance. There 

 has not been a week since the middle of May that 

 this garden has not borne a large basketful of 

 gorgeous red roses, and sometimes the basket has 

 held a bushel ! There has been no months of waiting 

 to get a few scanty blooms. 



Oregon. Estelle M. Rawley. 



