138 



The Readers' 1 Service will give you 

 suggestions Jor the care o] live-stock 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



March, 1912 



GLORIOUS GARDENS 



fromENGLAND 



KELWAY'S famous Hardy 

 Herbaceous Perennials — Gail- 

 lardias, Pyrethrums, Paeonies, 

 Delphiniums and others — are from 

 strong, country-grown stocks which 

 flourish under almost all conditions of 

 soil and climate and make it possible 

 to reproduce successfully in this 

 country much of the charm and beauty 

 of the finest old English gardens. 



Choice named collections (specially 

 picked to suit American conditions) 

 of Paeonies from $3.75 to $17.00; 

 Delphiniums from $2.25 to $13.50; 

 Gaillardias from $1.50 to $4.50 ; Pyre- 

 thrums, $1.50, $3.00 and $5.10 a dozen. 



Full particulars and illustrations are given in 

 the Kelway Book (American Edition) mailed 

 free on application to 



KELWAY & SON 



276 Fifth Avenue 

 New York, N.Y. 



! ..■■"■' 



St 



:?£■ -iSK-.; 



** Kelways Perennials 

 a American Gardens 5 



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%£?> 



'-"-^-MS- 



Direct from 



KELWAY&SON 



The Royal Horticulturists 

 LANGPORT ENGLAND 







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£feE*r>33sS» ■ <&: 



<&ss?& mes® 



& 



This is the Kelway 

 Book which every 

 Garden lover should 

 write for today -free. 



watered those cauliflower plants and brought them 

 to heads — some of them — by the middle of July. 

 With pride we offered them for sale. To our amaze- 

 ment, "It was too early for cauliflower," every 

 one said. 



We sold a few for the summer boarders. We 

 bartered with the city people who summer at the 

 top of the hill, taking in exchange some vegetables 

 on which we had failed. We gave a few to our 

 automobile visitors. Our own table was bounti- 

 fully supplied, but to us it did not look like a money- 

 making venture. Meantime some of the plants 

 were passing. 



Suddenly, about the middle of September, we 

 were fairly deluged with orders for cauliflower. 

 The butcher, the grocer, the blacksmith's wife, the 

 laundress, and the farmers' wives all wanted cauli- 

 flower. A few inquiries solved the mystery. Every 

 body for miles around used "one large cauliflower" 

 in, making mixed mustard pickles. 



We could not begin to supply the demand, but 

 we can this year, rain and sunshine permitting. 

 And more, we will plan to have the plants mature 

 first when the thoughts of the thrifty housewives 

 are turning toward the making of pickles. 



£Jew Hampshire. M. W. P. 



Sweet Peas that are Worthwhile 



WE LIVE in a locality where the growing sea- 

 son is so short that many people fail with 

 sweet peas. I prepare a bed for sweet peas during 

 September, all flowers and vegetation being dead by 

 that time. I rarely use the same ground for two 

 successive crops of sweet peas; but if it is nec- 

 essary to do so, I take out as much of the old soil 

 as possible, replacing it with the best soil I can get, 

 mixed with well-rotted cow manure. 



The bed is deeply spaded, highly fertilized (about 

 one half manure) and then leveled down until the 

 top is about one inch lower than the surrounding 

 surface. I buy the best seeds I can get and never 

 plant mixtures. I always buy the colors separate, 

 and thus avoid any possible disagreeable clashes. 

 The colors selected are, of course, a matter of taste. 



On March ist, sometimes even before the snow 

 disappears, I take a shovel and uncover the pre- 

 pared bed. This is done on a comparatively warm 

 day, and by night the bed is soft mud to a depth of 

 three inches. Just before sunset I scrape the mud 

 to one side and put in my seeds — about three to 

 an inch, and in the case of white-seeded varieties, 

 even thicker. Then the mud is piled back on the 

 seeds and the snow shoveled back on to the bed. 

 The whole thing freezes up tight, and remains 

 that way till spring comes in earnest. The snow 

 goes; the peas come up and blossom two weeks 

 earlier than my neighbor's, which are planted in 

 the spring when the soil gets dry enough to work. 



Five-foot poultry netting as a support is put 

 in place as soon as the peas come up, and the plants 

 are trained at once to cling to it. When the plants 

 are about a foot high, I take as much soil as possible 

 from the top of the bed, without exposing the roots 

 of the plants, and bank up the row with well rotted 

 manure. The rain sinks down through this and 

 all the water is applied on top of it, and the peas 

 make a marvelous growth. We often have stems 

 a foot long with four blossoms on them (each blos- 

 som larger than a quarter) while stems with fewer 

 blossoms than three are cut off as failures. 



Daily picking is very important. I practice 

 close picking, and often take quite a length of the 

 plant with the stem. This is a kind of pruning 

 that seems to please and encourage the plant. 



Minnesota. George E. Wolfe. 



The Newest Balsam 



ONE of the latest of the flower novelties of 

 which South Africa appears to have an in- 

 definite supply is a balsam, called Impaticns 

 Oliveri. The plant has the stocky form of the 

 common garden balsam, but the single blossoms 

 are like those of the Sultan's balsam, only larger. 

 The blossoms are shell pink in color. Though, 

 naturally, much less show)' than the red shades 

 of I.Sultani, this new balsam makes a very desir- 

 able pot plant, for either summer or winter bloom- 

 ing. In the garden it will find its chief usefulness, 

 in lending formality to the planting of annuals 

 Connecticut. B. G. 



