November, Ig911 
And we are proud of our hedges. As 
the winter winds will be biting and the 
winter sun at noontimes full of ill will, 
we will protect the hedgerow by boards 
along the north and west sides, that the 
grateful boughs may send forth an abun- 
dance of verdant foliage in the spring in 
gratitude for all our pains. The garden 
pests, insect and fungous nuisances that 
may have threatened to devastate our few 
little fruit trees, can now meet some meas- 
ure of our revenge, for we shall investigate 
all probable breeding places and destroy 
the things that have threatened our garden 
by spraying and otherwise. 
There may be some of us who would 
like to try our hand at mushrooms. 
November is just the sort of a month to 
begin a mushroom bed. Of course, Amer- 
ican-grown spawn is the thing for us to 
try out, and if we buy it of reliable nursery- 
men and honest seedsmen we may hope to 
be able to regale ourselves with palatable 
table morsels throughout the winter. 
Before the month is over we shall be 
putting up all of our garden tools regret- 
fully, but, let us hope, with a sense of 
satisfaction in all the delights a love for 
our gardens has yielded us during the 
season that has just passed. And as the sun goes down and 
dusk finds us turning our tired but happy steps toward the 
house and its cozy fireside, we shall remember that the 
memory of our gardens may still remain with us throughout 
every day of the winter months to come. We may even 
bring within doors a vivid reminder of summer’s fragrant 
season by filling our windows with lovely growing things—- 
Geraniums, Ferns, Ivy, 
Begonias, Smilax, Fuschias, 
and all the delightful prox- 
ies for the summer garden. 
HYACINTH VARIETIES. 
HE following varieties 
of Hyacinths may be 
recommended to the home 
garden-maker who is inter- 
ested in the article on Hya- 
cinths appearing on page 
400 of this issue: WHITE: 
Alba superbissima, Mme. 
Vanderhoop, La Grandesse, 
Prince of Waterloo 
(double), and Baroness 
Van Thuyl; PINK: Fabri- 
ola and Norma; ReEDs: 
Robert Stieger, Gertrude, 
Roi des Belges and Lord 
Wellington (double); 
BiueE: Leonidas, La Pey- 
rouse, King of the Blues, 
Czar Peter, Grand Lilac, Baron Van Thuyl and Charles 
Dickens (double). La Peyrouse is a very light blue, and 
the Baron Van Thuyl very dark. Of the yellow varieties, 
the King of the Yellows and the Ida are among the most 
satisfactory. The Hyacinths known as Roman Hyacinths 
are usually sold by color and not by name at the florists, for 
these Roman Hyacinths are not distinct varieties, but minia- 
ture species of some of the above. The Cape Hyacinth, 
with its bell-shaped flowers an inch long, is also fragrant and 
attractive, and the Grape Hyacinth (Muscari botry-oides), 
blossoming in April, finds its best variety in the Heavenly 
Blue, though it is also to be found in white varieties, as is 
taining a 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
This is a type of thatched pigeon- 
house built in an English cottage 
garden for white fan-tails, and con- 
suggestion for 
contemplating the building of such a 
little bird-house in our own country 
This shows a novel use of bamboo in the construction of a garden fence 
417 
the Wood Hyacinth (Scilla festales), 
which last is excellent for naturalizing and 
closely resembles the more prominent 
Hyacinth of the bulb beds, though its 
spikes are more loose and have not so 
many flowers. 
HOUSES FOR THE BIRDS. 
READER of AMERICAN HoMEs AND 
GARDENS has written the editor of this 
department a letter from which the fol- 
lowing interesting paragraph is quoted, in 
the belief that it will furnish a suggestion 
worth while to anyone interested in mak- 
ing the garden and grounds of his home 
more attractive. “I have found by experi- 
ence,’ writes this correspondent, “‘that 
November is an excellent month for setting 
up bird-houses. The birds, I find, seem 
to take to a winter-weathered house when 
they return in the springtime far more 
readily than they do to a house newly built 
for them. As I have acres of garden and 
lawn and am very fond of birds, I cele- 
brate the arrival of November every year 
by building a little bird-house with which 
to surprise my feathered friends when 
they return the following season. When I 
place these little bird dwellings high upon 
their poles I do not forget the proclivities 
of Miss Pussy-Cat, and so I drive sharpened spikes into the 
pole all around at a height of eight feet from the ground. 
She can climb that high if she wishes to, but one look at the 
spikes will convince her wise self of the futility of a raid. 
A BAMBOO FENCE 
NOTHER of our readers sends us an interesting note 
about an unusually ingenious and inexpensive bamboo 
fence. ‘I have made excel- 
lent and attractive fences 
for my garden of pieces of 
bamboo fishpole, cut to a 
uniform length and thonged 
in place by means of tarred 
cord, which holds the bam- 
boo ‘pickets’ in slight 
notches which I cut in the 
horizontal poles that run 
from post to post as a skele- 
ton. frame for the bamboo 
lattice. The idea is one I 
obtained from seeing a sim- 
ilar fence in a very attrac- 
tive Japanese garden in the 
vicinity of Rochester, N. Y., 
and I adapted the scheme 
there carried out to suit my 
more slender resources and 
my having to do all the 
work for myself. Perhaps 
some of your readers would 
like to try similar fences for their own gardens. They make 
admirable backgrounds and supports for sweet peas, etc.”’ 
USES FOR DEAD TREES. 
HEN one finds a tree gone beyond recovery, leaving 
a bare trunk or leafless branches amidst the foliage 
of summertime, the first thought is naturally the one of 
getting it out of the way, of considering its utility at an end 
with its life. However, if it happens to be properly situated 
in the home landscape nothing can be lovelier than an old 
dead tree around which Rambler Roses have been planted 
and over which they have been allowed to grow much of 
their own will and undirected by pruning. 
anyone 
