xiv AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
December, 1909 
Garden Notes 
Conducted by Charles Downing Lay 
WINTER PROTECTION 
Pisiienson plants from the winter’s 
cold is not so important as it might seem, 
for it is seldom the cold that kills them, 
but rather the alternation of heat and cold 
which we get on some of our winter days, 
when the thermometer may be near zero in 
the morning and in the sun, at noon, up to 35 
or 40. 
Rhododendrons and other broad-leaved ever- 
greens should be heavily banked with leaves 
(at least a foot deep, and eighteen inches is 
better), which keep the ground from drying 
out in the high winds. Rhododendron leaves, 
which are evergreen, are evaporating moisture 
all the time and they can not get get this 
moisture fast enough from deeply frozen 
ground. All evergreens and conifers, of 
course, suffer in the same way. A foot or so 
of leaves will usually keep the frost out, and 
many tender things can be safely wintered 
in the ground if they have such protection. 
Small and shallow-rooted plants need pro- 
tection in winter to keep them from heaving. 
Bulbs, too, are often thrown out of ground by 
freezing and thawing. 
A generous coating of strawy manure on 
the lawn is doubtless a help, even if it has no 
fertilizing qualities. 
The protecting material, whether it be 
leaves, or manure, or what not, should be left 
on until the middle or end of March, when it 
can be raked off and put on the compost heap. 
Let all the winter protection be on the ground 
and keep the horrid straw overcoats off. If 
plants must be shaded in winter, use evergreen 
boughs with their ends stuck in the ground so 
that they will stand upright. 
Strawberries need a good covering ot leaves, 
strawy manure or salt hay. This should be put 
en in December and not taken off until spring. 
Tulip beds should be covered with leaves— 
not manure. 
Leaves or manure five or six inches thick 
make a good winter covering for the flower 
garden. 
BULBS IN THE HOUSE 
Hyacinths, Chinese lilies and paper-white 
narcissus can be grown in glasses of water in 
the house. “The hyacinth glass, with its wide 
top, is well known and convenient, but any 
dish or glass which will hold the bulb so that 
its base just touches the water, will do. 
Vases filled with cocoa fiber kept constantly 
moist, on which the bulb is set, are just as 
good as the special glass. “Tulips and narcissi 
could be grown in this way quite effectively. 
After being planted the bulbs should stay in 
a cool, dark closet or cellar, for two or three 
weeks until the root growth is vigorous. After 
that they can be brought to the light and will 
soon flower. 
TREES IN BOXES 
‘Trees in boxes for outdoor decoration in 
winter are much used in cities and are always 
dificult to handle. ‘They are sure to die be- 
cause there is no way to water the frozen soil 
in the pot or box, and without watering they 
soon dry up and turn brown. 
Box trees seem to go the quickest and are 
a melancholy sight after a few weeks. They 
should never be attempted for window-boxes 
or for tubs at the front door. 
The common red cedars are probably the 
best thing to use. They will die, too, but not 
so quickly as the box, and they are not so 
ugly when dead. ‘They are inexpensive and 
can be replaced as many times as one likes. 
It would be easy to have a stock of them 
planted in the backyard (if one has a back- 
yard), where they can be drawn upon as may 
be necessary through the winter. 
Other trees which can be used are the re- 
tinosporas, arbor-vites and hemlocks. Ivy 
is always good for winter decoration if there 
is any reasonable way to train it up, and it is 
as hardy as most things. 
CHRISTMAS TREES 
It is lots more fun if one lives in the 
country to have the Christmas tree growing 
on the place where the children can see it and 
dream through the summer of its splendor 
when Christmas comes. A little tree really 
does as well as a large one, and if it could be 
planted and growing in a pot, it would be all 
the more delightful. 
The typical Christmas tree is the balsam, 
but a white spruce is a good substitute. 
THE BEAUTY OF VINES IN WINTER 
The artistic aspect of vines in winter de- 
serves some consideration, because every place 
should look well even during the six months 
when deciduous plants have no green leaves. 
The bare wistaria casting its shadows on a 
marble house may have as much_ beauty, 
though of a different sort, as the same vine in 
full bloom. We are not outdoors to enjoy 
such a picture so much in winter, but is it 
not important when seen from the windows of 
the house? 
The winter season leads us to the enjoyment 
of the more minute and less luxuriant beauties 
of nature, and the leafless branches are the 
greatest of these beauties. 
The Boston ivy, when young, makes a deli- 
cate lace-like tracery on the building to which 
it clings. It is uninteresting in color and when 
old it has lost all its delicacy and charm. 
The strong twining stems of the trumpet 
vine are like the grape in character, but lack 
the deep red color of the grape branches, being 
instead a sort of pale straw color. The grape 
buds, too, are large and handsome, whereas 
those of the trumpet vine are inconspicuous. 
The clematis is in winter (except the very 
oldest stalks) a disorderly mass of color with 
no charming detail, unless it be studied very 
closely. The feathery white seeds, however, 
are lovely and last well into the winter. 
The honeysuckle, too, is a messy tangle, but 
little helped by its dark berries. 
The orange and yellow fruits of the celas- 
trus are the handsomest of all the winter ber- 
ries, and the vine itself in its convolutions and 
picturesque turnings and twistings is unsur- 
passed. 
The akebia resembles the celastrus in 
character of stem, but it is more delicate, 
though no less intricate. 
The wistaria has many beauties and great 
picturesqueness, particularly when it is old 
and its strong rope-like stems have bent and 
broken the iron fence, perhaps, which its deli- 
cate branches used years ago as a support. 
But the handsomest of all vines, though it 
does not grow on houses, is the common bull 
briar. Its green branches and yellow-tipped 
thorns, its wiry growth and twisting tendrils, 
its beauty in the distance when it seems like a 
delicate green silk scarf thrown over some tree, 
make it the vine of vines for winter beauty. 
WINDBREAKS 
There are few places so fortunately situated 
or so well planted that they do not need some 
thick planting as a protection from the winter 
winds. It may be only a strip of shrubs, 
fifteen to twenty feet wide, growing eight to 
twelve feet high, or it may be wide plantations 
of pines, hemlocks and spruces along the north- 
ern boundary of the place. But, whatever it 
is, it will, if properly arranged, moderate the 
vigor of a northwe$t wind and make life out 
of doors in winter much more comfortable. 
A border of shrubs at the north of the 
. polish. 
flower-garden is not only good as a windbreak, 
but it also makes the snow drift heavily in its 
lee, and snow is the best protection for ordi- 
nary plants that there is. 
On a large place it might be well to plant 
successive windbreaks running east and west, 
some high and some low, taking advantage of 
the lay of the land and planting the high 
places. 
A mixture of pines and oaks and birches is 
the most beautiful windbreak, but probably 
hemlocks alone are the most efficient. When 
starting the plantation, plant the evergreens 
fifteen feet apart and plant between as 
“nurses” many small trees like ‘Tartarian 
maple, striped maple,and mountain maple, dog- 
wood and gray birches. With these, too, could 
be planted such large shrubs as the buckthorn, 
privet, sumac, nine bark, viburnums, etc. Each 
shrub will then be four or five feet from its 
neighbors, whether tree or shrub. ‘These de- 
ciduous things protect evergreens without in- 
terfering with their growth; after six or eight 
years they may be cut out if they have not by 
that time been killed by the shade. 
FERN GLOBES 
The small glass globes filled with moss and 
partridge vine, which are so common in the 
florists’ shops now, are cheerful things to 
have in the house in winter. ‘They are bright 
and pleasant to look at, though they do seem 
quite lifeless—almost like wax. ‘They re- 
quire little care and no sunlight. 
A fish globe of any size may be used, and 
it can be inverted over a glass dish or a round 
glass cover can be made to go on top. It must 
be covered in order to keep the air constantly 
moist inside. 
The globes can be loosely filled with part- 
ridge vine stuck in a little damp moss; or with 
ferns and short pieces of black alder with the 
berries on; or with wintergreen and ground 
pine. “I'wisting sprigs of bittersweet with the 
berries on and with small sprays of box would 
be very effective. One might even dare to 
attempt an arrangement in which the berries 
of the sumac would be the striking feature. 
The idea of these globes is the same as that 
of the old Wardian cases, but it is not so pre- 
tentious, and for that reason it 1s more en- 
durable. 
LARGEST OLIVE RANCH IN THE 
WORLD 
Ware few Eastern people, comparatively, 
know that the largest olive ranch in 
the world is located within 25 miles of 
Los Angeles, Cal. 
This wonderful orchard, situated at Sylmar, 
is ten times larger than the biggest olive ranch 
in Spain. “There are over 120,000 olive-bear- 
ing trees, and they average 50 pounds of olives 
to the tree. [he Sylmar ranch consists of 
12,000 acres, and each acre contains 110 trees, 
which produce 2000 gallons of olives each sea- 
son. This quantity of fruit makes 250 gallons 
of pure olive oil—valued at $2 per gallon— 
thus equaling $500 per acre profit. 
The olive wood is highly prized by cabinet- 
makers, as it is very hard and takes a high 
The Italians consider an olive orchard 
as a perpetual source of wealth, as the older 
it grows the more valuable it becomes. “The 
trees are supposed to live about 4000 years 
under favorable conditions. “Chere are some 
olive trees now on the Mount of Olives, in 
Palestine, which are computed to be not less 
than 3000 years old. 
The olive industry has been growing stead- 
ily in California since its first introduction by 
the early Spanish mission fathers; and the olive 
culture in that State can never be overdone, 
since the olive can be produced on the Ameri- 
can continent with any degree of success only 
in central and southern California, New Mex- 
ico, and Arizona. 
