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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



April, 1912 



(Editor's Note. — We want to know how suc- 

 cessful workers do things in order to put actual 

 experiences before our thousands of readers in all 

 parts of the country. Every reader is invited to con- 

 tribute a short note on some interesting experience. 

 Just state the facts about some ingenious idea that you 

 have actually worked out yourself or have seen.) 



Lemon verbena 



The lemon verbena (Aloysia citriodora) 

 is not only one of the most fragrant plants 

 of the garden when in its growing state, 

 but the leaves and stems when dried 

 preserve their odor for years. Indeed, 

 no other leaves I have ever tried make 

 such permanently fragrant sachet bags. 

 All through the summer we pick the 

 yellowing leaves and save them for the 

 purpose, and in the winter the plant, 

 which is not hardy, is pruned before being 

 committed to winter quarters in a frost- 

 proof cellar and all leaves and twigs dried. 

 When the lemon verbena is grown indoors 

 in the window garden, it seems usually to 

 be of a deciduous habit and reduces itself to 

 leafless stems. — A. H. B., Pennsylvania. 



Centrosema or butterfly pea 



For several years I have been experi- 

 menting to find the right vine to cover one 

 of those 5-foot solid board fences which 

 enclose and disfigure a city yard. My 

 latest acquisition is one that is little 

 known; in fact, I had never seen Centro- 

 sema till I planted the tiny beans in my own 

 garden. It is a perennial, but the seeds 

 germinate with the gratifying readiness 

 of an annual. If sown very early it may 

 bloom the first year. Mine did not begin 

 to bloom until the middle of August; the 

 flowers are large, an inverted pea-flower, 

 held well out from the foliage. There 

 are said to be at least three shades — 

 reddish violet, white, and the lavender 

 which I possess. The vine is a slender 

 grower so that the plants may be set 

 quite close together. Do not sow it where 

 a bushy growth is required, but for a 

 delicate tracery on a board or wall and a 

 background to a flower-bed it certainly 

 is very pleasing. Mixed with mine is the 

 white-flowered cypress vine, whose ex- 

 quisite filmy foliage helps out any de- 

 ficency of the Centrosemg,. — N. S. T., 

 Pensylvania. 



The hollyhock disease 



Answering the inquiry of M. H., Penna., 

 in the January, 191 2 number of The 

 Garden Magazine, as to how to save 

 hollyhocks from the deadly disease of that 



plant, use the following mixture. Put 

 3 oz. copper carbonate in one quart 

 of ammonia, agitate till dissolved, spray 

 with ordinary bucket sprinkler, diluting 

 in proportion of one quart of mixture to 

 thirty-five gallons of water. It will keep 

 indefinitely. I raise hundreds of plants 

 every year from seed planted as soon as 

 ripe, shading from the August and Septem- 

 ber suns with double black mosquito 

 netting, and get good plants the same fall. 

 I use the same fungicide on roses and 

 grape vines. — J. E. T., Indiana. 



The summer hyacinth 



The summer hyacinth (Galtonia candi- 

 cans) is so little known and grown in Amer- 

 ica, although a favorite in England, that I 

 venture to call its merits to the attention 

 of your readers. It is hardy in our climate 

 provided that in the autumn the old flower 

 stalk is removed and the hole left in the top 

 of the bulb corked up. The flowers con- 

 sist of tall, graceful racemes of white, 

 drooping bells, which harmonize perfectly 

 with delphiniums and gladiolus. The 

 summer hyacinth makes an abundance of 

 seeds, and I am now growing a colony of 

 small bulbs from them; but, like all things 

 in the garden, they require patience and 

 time, as they take three years to bloom 

 from seed. The bulbs may be had, ready 

 to bloom luxuriantly, for about eight cents 

 each. — H. W. F., Connecticut. 



Earth worms and onions 



Every spring I have trouble with earth 

 worms which pull out my onion sets. I 

 plant the sets just below the surface; and 

 for two or three days after a rain, if the 

 sets have not taken root, large earth 

 worms (night crawlers, the fishermen call 

 them) may be seen with one end of their 

 bodies against the sets pulling them along 

 over the ground and into their holes. They 

 do not get the larger ones under ground, 

 but I have to go over my onion sets sev- 

 eral times to reset. I have often seen 

 hundreds of the large worms stretched out 

 over the ground pulling onion sets. I did 

 not believe at first that the mischief was 

 done by worms, but have seen them so 

 many times since that I have now no 

 doubt about it. Can anyone suggest a 

 remedy? — A. C. B., Illinois. 



Poppies for cut flowers 



My poppy bed last summer was most 

 satisfactory. The bed had been prepared 

 and seed sown the previous autumn, but 

 it did not germinate. (I have tried autumn 

 sowing several times with the same result.) 

 A second sowing w r as made on June 5 th, 

 the seed being mixed with sand to prevent 

 crowding. In spite of this precaution 

 the young plants were very close together, 

 but I did not thin them. They commenced 

 to bloom the first week in August. The 

 seed sown was the Improved Shirley. The 

 colors were wonderfully beautiful, ranging 

 from delicate shades of rose and salmon 

 pink to brilliant scarlet and vermilion. 

 The blossoms were very large and many 

 of them were fluted. Late each afternoon 



I cut all the blossoms and in the morning 

 the bed was again a mass of bloom. This 

 continued till the first week in October, 

 when the weather became suddenly cold, 

 arresting the development of the remaining 

 buds. On October 7th, I cut a quantity 

 of the largest buds, plunged the stems in 

 boiling w r ater, and WTapped them in 

 paraffine paper. It w T as thirty-six hours later 

 that they were,placed in cold water, and ev- 

 ery bud, but one, opened. — R. V. S., Maine. 



Egg shells for seed planting 



Egg shells make excellent miniature 

 flower pots in which to plant seeds of tender 

 plants. Open the eggs at one end instead 

 of in the middle and trim the edges as 

 smoothly as you can; fill with potting 

 soil well mixed with sand, and place in 

 shallow boxes of earth. Then place one or 

 two seeds in each shell. When the shell is 

 filled with roots, lift it and crush the bottom 

 of the shell or cut an opening with a sharp 

 knife and place it in the pot or bed in 

 which you wish it to remain. The roots 

 will grow through the openings in the 

 bottom and the plant will never know it 

 has been moved. — C. L. S., Virginia. 



Attaching vines to walls 



Surgeon's adhesive plaster is useful to 

 attach vines such as ampelopsis to foun- 

 dation walls, but has any one called atten- 

 tion to the use of court plaster in training 

 vines indoors? It is not as strong as the 

 adhesive but coming in different colors 

 it can be chosen to harmonize with paper 

 or woodwork. Young stems of English 

 ivy or Madeira vine can be held neatly 

 in place about mantels or window casings 

 with its assistance. It is much less con- 

 spicuous than merely twining vines on 

 string. — P. P., New Jersey. 



A lure for rose bugs 



Last June, in looking over a patch of 

 1,500 American Pillar roses, I noticed that 

 they were entirely clear of June bugs (or 

 rose chafers) although there were thou- 

 sands of blossoms for them to feed on. 

 This was a surprise, as nearby beds of 

 climbing roses were badly troubled. I 

 then discovered that cannas planted near 

 the American Pillar roses were covered with 

 the rose bugs. The idea came to me that 

 perhaps as long as the June bug has a 

 canna flower to feed on it will not trouble 

 the roses. They adhered to the canna 

 flowers as if they were glued there. If, 

 by planting a few cannas near your rose 

 beds you can, by the loss of the otherwise 

 worthless first blossoms of the cannas, 

 save your beautiful June roses, would 

 you not think it worth while? The June 

 flowers of the cannas seldom amount to 

 anything, and after July 8th or 10th the 

 season for June bugs is over for the year. 

 Then the cannas bloom again, and from 

 July to frost you will have exquisite blos- 

 soms. This, of course, is not a cure for 

 the June bugs, but simply a lure; the canna 

 blossoms seem to stupify the insects so that 

 they can easily be picked. 



A. W., Pennsylvania. 



