The Garden Magazine, September, 1919 



67 



thing in one of the paintings and at once despatched a col- 

 lector to hunt for something quite unknown. This plant 

 was later named Nepenthes Northiana. 



it was that same horticulturist who at a later date sent 

 Ernest H. Wilson travelling through central Asia for other 

 new things for the garden merely on the strength of a memo- 

 randum note of a botanical collector. Yes, indeed, there is a 

 good deal of human interest behind much that we accept as 

 common-place; and it is something of this that Mr. Wilson will 

 himself tell in the forthcoming series'of articles that it is ex- 

 pected will begin with the October issue of The Garden 

 Magazine. 



IN HER article on "Texture in Landscape Planting" which 

 is to appear in the October Garden Magazine Miss 

 Theodora Kimball, Librarian of the Harvard School of 

 Landscape Architecture, uncovers an almost unsuspected 



attribute of. landscape beauty and shows further how im- 

 portant a factor it is. Studies of this character are the sort 

 of thing that will bring into American gardens that degree 

 of finished artistry that triumphs by concealing itself. Such 

 studies also furnish a working basis for the establishment of a 

 standard by which one may examine and correct and improve 

 existing plantings. 



Bulbs and Bulb Planting will be covered in practical fashion 

 with a brief traverse of the growing and importing problems 

 that, since the war, have made them one of the precarious 

 elements of horticulture. 



I n November something of greenhouse design, construction, 

 and use in association with the house will be sympathetically 

 treated, with illustrations of the finest examples that have 

 ever been built, as well as of the small, unpretentious but none 

 the less efficient buildings. 



THE OPE^C°^i UMN 



Readers' Interchange of Experience and Comment 



More About 

 Dahlias 



I READ with great interest your article 



on Dahlias on page 65 of the March 

 Garden Magazine but with still greater 

 interest the note by John W. Chamberlin 



on page 156 of the May issue — "Dahlias but no flowers. Win'" 



His experience seems so like my 



own. For several years now I 



have planted despairingly. Last 



year I thought I had an ideal place 



— the very centre of a splendid 



potato patch, where they got good 



cultivation, the soil was deep, mel- 

 low, fertile and loamy. We raised 



splendid potatoes, large Dahlia 



plants and tubers galore — but no 



blossoms. Possibly three or four 



got out enough so I could see the 



color. Most of the buds blighted 



or dropped off just before it was 



time for them to open. I sprayed 



with Pyrox, arsenate of lead, 



sprinkled them with air slaked 



lime; but of no avail. They were 



covered with a small, hard shelled 



bug that was extremely lively, 



having a pair of wings. I think it 



must be the tarnished plant bug 



or the chinch bug. Are they the 



same? What can I do to get 



ahead of it, or drive it away? It 



was on my Gladiolus also but did 



not seem to damage them. Can any- 

 one tell me what to do for them? — 



Ruth G. Kelley, Union, N. H. 



— Not a description of the tar- 

 nished plant or rose bug which 



seems to be an inevitable con- 

 comitant of garden flowers, es- 

 pecially on light, dry soils. 



Neither is it the chinch bug. — Ed. 



A PLEASING VISTA IN A PENNSYLVANIA GARDEN 

 On the right a clipped Barberry hedge is used as a background for 

 annuals. Kelway seedling Delphiniums and early Phlox, Miss Lingard, 

 are in bloom on the left. Lombardy Poplars enclose this long border 

 where stepping stones lead down a grass walk to a much-frequented bird 

 bath. — Garden of Mrs. Walter King Sharpe, Chambersburg, Pa. 



Does Cutting TN THE June number of The Garden 



Back Injure Lark- ' Magazine I noticed the question as to 

 Spur? whether cutting back injures Larkspur. 



My experience has been that it should al- 

 ways be cut back as soon as the stalks begin to get unsightly. My 



Delphiniums are well established 

 plants four or five years old and 

 to-day the stalks measure from six 

 and one-half to seven and one- 

 half feet high and are fine and 

 vigorous. I have always cut them 

 back, when they fade, as far down 

 as possible in order not to let any- 

 thing interfere with the develop- 

 ment of the new growth. The 

 ground is cultivated and enriched 

 with liquid manure and wood 

 ashes. The second growth attains 

 a height ranging from four to five 

 feet.— Mrs. M., Bedford Hills, 

 N. Y. 



— In my perennial garden, started 

 twelve years ago, the Larkspurs 

 have always been cut back for a 

 second blooming, with no apparent 

 injury to the plants. We are 

 1,500 feet above sea level, and 

 many plants listed as "hardy" 

 will not survive our severe win- 

 ters, but I have never lost a 

 Larkspur. Last summer, for the 

 first time, a leaf disease attacked 

 the plants but the newer ones 

 were affected as well as the ones 

 originally set out. The second 

 blooming of the plants was fee- 

 ble, but this year they are com- 

 ing up as vigorous as ever. — 

 Elizabeth L. Cabot, N. H. 



