Annual "Round-up" of Gardening Achievements 



A CHRISTMAS SYMPOSIUM OF EXPERIENCE BY READERS OF "THE GARDEN MAGAZINE" WHO HAVE GOTTEN BIGGER 

 OR EARLIER FRUIT, VEGETABLES OR FLOWERS, OR SOLVED PECULIAR PROBLEMS IN SOME CHEAPER OR BETTER WAY 



Fifteen Feet of 



Climbing 



Roses 



By Samuel H. Creigh- 

 ton, Jr., Long Island 



''"THE accompany- 

 * ing photograph 

 shows a Dorothy- 

 Perkins climbing 

 rose the second 

 year from planting. 

 This rose bush cost 

 the small sum of 

 twenty-frv e cents 

 and was about two 

 and a half feet high 

 when planted. As 

 the soil near the 

 house was nothing but sand and gravel, a 

 large hole was made and decayed vegetable 

 matter was placed in it and the hole was 

 filled with good garden soil. The main 

 stems grew to a height of fifteen feet, and 

 at the time of pruning, the laterals were 

 cut back to one or two eyes. The sub- 

 sequent luxuriant growth, both of foliage 

 and flowers from the ground up, was 

 attributed to the treatment the bush 

 received. 



Corn in Seventy-Five Days 



By Thomas Baird, Illinois 



THIS is a picture of a corn patch on the 

 back of a lot in Oak Park, a Chicago 

 suburb. The crop was grown in a summer 

 of unusual drought in this region, and on 

 soil that is mostly stiff clay — a dump 

 heap from the dirt taken out of a city 

 street. 



The soil has been worked over as much 

 as possible in the last three years, with a 

 liberal quantity of horse manure worked 

 in each season. When possible I have put 

 the manure on in the fall and turned it 

 under, allowing the frost and rain of winter 

 and early spring to do their pulverizing 

 work. Then in the spring I have loosened 

 the soil with a fork, without turning it 

 over. 



This is Evergreen corn, planted June 

 14th. For over two months it did not get 

 a shower and I did not water it over three 

 times. I kept the ground loose on top with 

 the hoe and the fork. The corn was ready 

 for the table the last week in August, 

 within seventy-five days from plant- 

 ing. Many of the ears, when cleaned 

 ready for the pot, weighed over a 

 pound. 



I attribute the result to two things — 

 liberal manuring the previous fall and 

 frequent use of the hoe in preference to 

 the hose during dry weather. 



A Christmas Tree for the Birds 



By E. F., New Jersey 



OUR children, having grown old enough 

 to try their own hands at being 

 Santa Claus, We all determined last year 

 to have half of our fun out-of-doors, and 

 to arrange a small Christmas tree for our 

 friends, the birds. The little garden was 

 fast asleep under its light cover of marsh 

 hay, and the bright color of the small 

 evergreen tree which we set up brought 



This Evergreen corn did wonders in a city backyard: 

 matured in seventy-five days 



an unwonted gayety to the corner by the 

 wall where, a few weeks later, we would 

 welcome the earliest snowdrops. We hung 

 the branches of the tree with strings 

 of popcorn which we had popped 

 over our hearth fire on Christmas Eve 

 after the stockings had been hung in place. 

 Pieces of red apple were tied firmly to the 

 twigs of the tree, and cranberries, too, 

 offered a feast to the birds who we knew 

 were silently watching us from safe hiding 

 places. Around the tree we scattered 

 bread crumbs, and placed bird-seed in 

 little baskets hung on the branches. Need- 

 less to say, our efforts were most enthusi 

 astically received by our feathered friends. 



Blueberries by the Bushel 



By M. S. B., Connecticut 

 /^\NE plants shade and nut trees for 

 ^^ one's children and grandchildren; why 

 not berries? The berry to plant for 

 posterity is the common tall blueberry 



213 



(V actinium corymbosum). That it is 

 worth while to do so is well enough illus- 

 trated by the fact that a bush, moved from 

 the wild to a dooryard years ago, now 

 normally yields two bushels of blueberries 

 a year. This bush has the maximum 

 height of about ten feet. Although 

 the bushes are slow growers I get 

 around this difficulty by planting a con- 

 siderable number. Nine 3-foot bushes 

 moved last year had enough blossoms 

 the following spring to warrant the assump- 

 tion that, under cultivation, they will be 

 good bearers in the immediate future. 

 These blossoms, creamy white and bell- 

 shaped, would alone make the tall blueberry 

 worth considering as a contribution to 

 the home shrubbery border. 



Another Giant Hollyhock 



By Mrs. J. L. Williams, California 



TN THE "round-up" of gardening 

 *■ achievements in the December, 1910, 

 Garden Magazine, I noticed the picture 

 of a hollyhock twelve feet high. We 

 happened to have one just going out of 

 bloom. The stalk was fourteen and a 

 half feet high, the flower dark.r,ed and 

 double. The plant is growing in sandy- 

 soil and there are four shoots from the 

 same stalk which are five feet tall and full 

 of bloom. Can any one beat this? 



*v 



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Something like a hollyhock! Nearly fifteen feet nigh 



