The Garden Magazine 



Vol. XIV — No. 5 



Published Monthly 



DECEMBER, 1911 



\ One Dollar Fifty Cents a Year 

 1 Fifteen Cents a Copy 



[For the purpose of reckoning dates, New York is 

 generally taken as a standard. Allow six days' difference 

 for every hundred miles of latitude.] 



When Book-Learning Really 

 Helps 



SOME TIME ago there appeared, in 

 the "personal experience" column 

 of a magazine, a letter from a correspondent 

 who told of her discovery of a new way 

 to grow better-than-the-ordinary sweet 

 peas. Some of her seed, she said, she had 

 planted close to a refuse pile where coal 

 ashes were dumped, and the plants that 

 grew there became far better than any of 

 the others. Therefore, she advised all 

 readers to use — as she was going to — 

 coal ashes as a fertilizer for sweet peas! 



Now it is, of course, impossible to say 

 why those particular sweet peas did so 

 much better than the others, without 

 examining the soil. Possibly the soil was 

 very heavy and the ashes lightened it, 

 improving its texture or physical condition. 

 At any rate it is impossible that the coal 

 ashes enriched the soil, chemically, for 

 they contain nothing in the way of plant 

 food. And yet, perhaps not a few of the 

 readers of that magazine will follow the 

 advice and possibly do their gardens more 

 harm than good. 



The obvious threefold moral is this: 

 First, that no matter how small your 

 garden nor how simple your methods of 

 caring for it, you might just as well — ■ in, 

 fact, might better — do what you can in 

 the right way according to proven, scientific 

 principles; second, the only way to do 

 this is to read books and learn the funda- 

 mental facts; and third, midwinter, when 

 active gardening is at its lowest ebb, when 

 there is plenty of time to spare, is the time 

 of times for reading up on all such subjects. 



Don't let that word "scientific" scare 

 you; the science of agriculture and garden- 

 ing makes mighty good reading if you get 

 the right books. If you don't know just 



Where to begin, write to The Garden 

 Magazine for suggestions as to some of 

 the many good books on these subjects. 



If, by any chance you want to go into 

 it still deeper, remember the short winter 

 courses in agriculture, horticulture, poultry 

 management, etc., offered by the state 

 colleges. Most of these courses begin in 

 December, last ten or twelve weeks, and 

 involve but a very slight expense above 

 that of living. 



Then there is any amount of pleasurable 

 and profitable information to be gained 

 at the expositions, meetings and shows 

 dealing with flowers, agriculture and similar 

 subjects, that are held at various times 

 throughout the cold weather. Watch out 

 for announcements of such things; then, 

 if it is in any way possible, attend them. 



Hints About Winter Plants 



FALL-POTTED bulbs should be brought 

 into the house, to the warmth that 

 will force them into flower, as soon as 

 they show good root development. Bring 

 them into their new conditions gradually. 



If you buy azaleas, begonias, cyclamen, 

 potted roses, and all such flowering plants, 

 early — as soon as you can get them from 

 the florist — you can cause them to bloom 

 gradually and over a comparatively long 

 period. In this way you can arrange to 

 give a friend, for Christmas, a plant that 

 will remain beautiful for weeks instead 

 of one that is at the zenith of its develop- 

 ment when it is delivered, but which in a 

 few days becomes a scraggy mass of bare 

 stems or wilting, yellowing leaves. 



But, after all, the gift plants that last 

 the longest and therefore give the greatest 

 satisfaction are the berry-bearers, such 

 as ardisia, Jerusalem cherry, common 

 red pepper, etc., and the ferns and dwarf 

 evergreen ornamentals, like the araucaria. 



See if there isn't some reward still left 

 from your last season's garden. Get out 

 your notes, records and photographs; 

 perhaps there was a record yield or an es- 

 pecially beautiful effect, or some new 

 wrinkle that you proved the value of. All 

 such things make good material for little 

 articles for The Garden Magazine. 



Attentions in the Greenhouse and 

 Conservatory 



DON'T water the plants after noon, 

 unless the sun is especially bright 

 or the day especially hot, so that the air 

 will be dry before night. 



Give all the ventilation possible without 

 lowering the temperature or causing harm- 

 ful drafts. 



205 



Paint the pipes with a sulphur paste to 

 prevent and cure attacks of fungous 

 diseases. 



Spraying regularly keeps down the red 

 spiders. 



Fumigate the house with hydrocyanic 

 acid gas carefully if the white-fly or the 

 mealy bug or the aphis is very troublesome. 

 Half strength may be used if the plants 

 are tender and the insects only mildly 

 prevalent. 



Keep the roof clear of snow, to avoid 

 the breakage of glass and to let in more 

 light; and, always, don't let the fires go out. 



Speaking of Snow — 



FN shovelling out paths and driveways, 

 A don't carefully carry all the snow out 

 to the middle of the street. Throw it on 

 the lawn, the flower beds, the low shrubs — 

 even on the coldframes. It is Nature's 

 own blanket for protecting her plants in 

 freezing weather. 



On the other hand, shake the snow off 

 the tall bushes, the evergreens and the 

 slender trees and branches. Several inches 

 of snow weighs quite a bit and, in con- 

 junction with a strong winter wind, is 

 entirely capable of breaking down sur- 

 prisingly large limbs. 



Except when cherries are ripening, birds 

 are mighty good friends of the gardener. 

 You can keep some of these winter friends 

 closer and much happier by scattering 

 some grain in a cleared space occasionally 

 or by tying a piece of suet or a meaty bone 

 to a tree. Think of the possibilities of 

 this sort of "first aid" as they are described 

 in Mrs. Porter's "Freckles," and James 

 Lane Allen's "The Kentucky Cardinal!" 



Just as contrast gives us some of our 

 best results in photography and drawing, 

 so it enhances the beauty of our gardens 

 in winter — if they are gardens of the right 

 kind. Study the combinations of snow 

 and evergreens, of evergreens and the 

 brilliantly colored twigs of some of the 

 dogwoods, of green vines and brick walls; 

 then contrast them with the harsher 

 outlines of leafless branches of dull brown, 

 and bare undraped buildings. Make notes 

 of all these things and plan to brighten 

 next winter's landscape with some cedars, 

 pines, arborvitae, spruces, or some other 

 of the many available materials. 



Sometimes brief spells of warm, thawing 

 weather do untold damage by sending 

 floods of water down from the roofs on to 

 the cherished beds or clumps of hardy 

 plants. Watch out for drips from the roof. 

 If they can in time " wear away the hardest 

 stone," think what they can do to a bed 

 of pansies! 



