The Garden Magazine, August, 1919 



31 



ecki illustrated by photographs which he has specially made. 

 This is rich in suggestion, inspiration, and revelation, bringing 

 to the gardening possibilities of America a fresh interpreta- 

 tion, blazing a new trail, of much interest and beauty. 



Also in the September issue the subject of the Herbaceous 

 Border will be very amply treated — but from the artistic and 

 practical viewpoints, giving in word and picture suggestions 

 for planting this fall for the harvest of flowers next year. 



Coming Back 

 to the 

 Present 



TN THE gardener's calendar the 

 * month of August may be considered 

 the end of things. Nothing more 

 can be started and brought to com- 

 pletion thisyear — except of courseafew short season vegetable 

 crops, and even then there is a decided risk of failure. On 

 the other hand, while enjoying contemplatively and materially 

 the harvest of the year's efforts we are brought face to face 

 with the fact that now is the time to gain an advance move- 

 ment on next year. Seeds of perennials sown now will make 

 good plants for sure results next summer; all construction 

 work started as the summer wanes will be finished before 

 winter arrives; disturbed earth will be solidly settled by the 

 winter weather; unoccupied ground sown to a cover crop 

 now will be as a manured spot next spring. 



With the exception of evergreens there is little planting 

 to be done now, and according to Mr. Albert D. Taylor, in a 

 recent issue of Landscape Architecture, even those plants are 

 successfully moved now only because they are "balled and 

 bagged." Doubtlessanyotherplantssimilarly handled could 

 be similarly transplanted with success. That summer 

 transplanting is possible, even with large deciduous trees is 

 shown by the experience of Mr. Hicks as has been noted 

 before in these pages. After all, as this testimony goes to 

 show, transplanting is successful in degree as the plant does 

 not know it has been moved. All of which is another way of 

 saying that when a plant is not dormant it must not be liter- 

 ally dug up and transplanted; it must be moved in situ, or, 

 as the gardener expresses it, "with a ball." 



According to Prof. Sargent however the proper botanical 

 name of this is V. tomentosum dilatum. 



Lovelier still is the Chinese Snowball, Viburnum macro- 

 cephalum, sometimes listed as V. Fortunei. The pure white 

 sterile flowers of this form larger heads than any other — as 

 the name indicates — and the plant in bloom is an object of 

 rare beauty. It is hardy and free flowering, but unfortun- 

 ately is not long lived in this country; though it is well worth 

 using, for all of this, where striking effects are desired. Along- 

 side the fine specimen shown on page 8 this month is a second 

 specimen almost as fine though smaller. 



Of the great Viburnum family the Asiatic species are the 

 finest, though only a few of these are as yet in common culti- 

 vation. Viburnum tomentosum — the type of which the Japan- 

 ese Snowball is an artificial variety — grows to the size of a 

 small tree in Japan, but here it is only a large shrub. The 

 flowers appear in broad clusters surrounded by rings of purest 

 white ray flowers, and a specimen in the Arnold Arboretum 

 has attracted no little attention the past season. This par- 

 ticular plant differs slightly from the type, having narrower 

 leaves; it is distinguished as variety lanceolatum. — E. I. F. 



THE OPE^C 0j (i UMN 



Readers' Interchange of Experience and Comment 



The Fall 

 Flowering of Iris 

 Lurida 



I FEEL very much as if I were trying to 

 secure the woman's proverbial last word 

 when 1 reply to Mr. Sturtcvant's note in 

 last month's magazine concerning Iris 

 lurida, that the accident of favorable position has little to do with 

 the fall flowering of my plants. The garden offers many types of 

 soil and aspect and the Irises, owing to their sturdy spreading, have 

 been transplanted about until they have tested most of them. That 

 I have plants of an unusual habit, however, I am beginning to sus- 

 pect. Mr. Dykes said my plants were probably Iris lurida Re- 

 doutcana. Does any one know the difference between this and the 

 type? I hope those who try Iris lurida for the first time this year 

 will report upon its autumn behavior in their gardens — Louise B. 

 Wilder, hi. Y. 



ALL KINDS OF SNOWBALLS 



£^*jjf NOWBALLS in midsummer were common in every 

 '^W 5 * old garden once upon a time; but by reason of the 

 ^s£S4 popularity which they eventually achieved with the 

 ^aiTts aphids they became most unpopular, until very few 

 of the old original (which is Viburnum Opulus sterile) now 

 remain. This once loved old Guelder-rose by the way, would 

 not harbor these loathsome little monsters to such an extent 

 if it were not planted in places that are dry and unsuitable 

 for it; but the knowledge of this comes too late to restore it 

 to favor, since we have acquired finer kinds to use in its place. 

 One of these is a variety of what is perhaps the finest of all 

 the snowballs, the Asiatic V. plicatum or tomentosum — all 

 Snowballs are Viburnums though not all Viburnums are 

 "snowballs" — which is found wild in both Japan and China. 

 The snowball form is usually accredited to Japan however, 

 being the "Japanese Snowball" of common parlance gen- 

 erally found in gardens and catalogued as Viburnum plicatum. 



_ . . CEVERAL years ago I planted some 

 Growing tropical 3 grape fruit seeds> nursing them with 



Plants from great care> separat i n g them as the little 



&e plants grew larger and repotting them 



from time to time. Now my prize one is seven years old, with real 

 bark on the trunk and almost two feet tall with thick foliage and 

 glossy dark leaves. My success with these plants led me to try 

 some orange, lemon, cumquot and tangerine seeds. All germinated 

 without any difficulty and some have become very handsome plants. 

 On first trying to grow from these seeds one may be tempted to be 

 discouraged at their slowness. They should be planted twice the 

 depth of their own size, to make good root growth, and the first 

 year will only put out leaves from the top of the stem. The next 

 year little side branches will appear and the third year, if they have 

 been grafted, they should at least bear blossoms. Some experi- 

 ments with straggly plants, that seemed determined to make all 

 their growth from the ends of their branches have been very inter- 

 esting. I bound absorbent cotton on the limb where there seemed 

 to be the suggestion of a leaf bud, moistening some with a thick ap- 

 plication of vaseline and others with a daily soaking of warm water, 

 and after three or four weeks the leaf developed and strong, healthy 



