46 



BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



the cellar through the window. The stem and all parts 

 outside were heavily banked with earth, and the soil in 

 which most of the roots rambled, mulched with coarse 

 manure. Thus tucked away, it spent the winter, and in 

 spring was drawn out and again tied to the trellis. When 

 such a course as this is not possible, the plant may 

 be pruned in the same manner, and coiled upon 

 the ground and the entire top covered with soil, 

 mounded up smoothly so as to shed the water. Few- 

 persons appreciate the value of an earth-covering 

 for half-hardy plants. I once had charge of some 

 immense old masses of Hydrangea hortensis planted on 

 the north side of a large building, where no ray of sun- 

 light struck them in winter, and where the soil seldom 

 thawed for months, and a temperature below zero oc- 

 curred every winter. The blooming of these old plants 

 had been very unsatisfactory, owing to their being con- 

 tinually killed to the ground, although covered with 

 straw or fresh leaves. I adopted a different plan. So 

 soon as the frost had nipped the leaves they were 

 stripped ofi the plants, the latter pruned of old and 

 useless shoots, and then spread flat upon the ground 

 and held in place by bean poles pinned to the ground. 

 Sods were then cut in long rolls just as for ordinary 

 sodding, and the entire plants were sodded over. The 

 green mounds were not only more sightly, on a highly 

 dressed lawn, than heaps of leaves and straw, but the 

 plants were effectually protected, as was evidenced by 

 their massive growth and wonderful profusion of 

 bloom. On these masses thus left in the open ground, 

 the flowers were always blue in color, while pot-grown 

 plants from them were always pink. In the gardens at 

 the same place we grew a fine^'collection of figs. These 



were treated in a similar way. The trees were branch- 

 ed from the ground. In the fall, after the foliage was 

 killed, the branches were gathered into four bundles 

 and bent to the ground at right angles to each other 

 in shape of a cross, and pegged fast. The soil from 

 the open spaces was then heaped high over the collar 

 of the tree, and sloped down in four ridges, covering 

 the branches so that the earthen mounds looked like 

 four-pointed stars. I have had them, thus tucked away, 

 go through a spell of i8° below zero and bring the early 

 crop of fruit through safely. Here in the south many 

 more tender things can be wintered in the same way. 

 Erythrina Crista-galli, cut off above ground and mound- 

 ed over, comes out in fine style. Aloysia citriodora will 

 also rest well under an earthern blanket, and tuberous 

 begonias, with an additional cover to keep frost from 

 the tubers, will come out better than if lifted. Most 

 people in this section leave their tuberose bulbs in the 

 open ground, but this is a mistake, for although the 

 bulbs survive and grow, the flower buds already formed 

 therein are often killed by cold and wet, and people 

 wonder why their tuberoses fail to bloom. In several 

 localities in this state, tuberose bulbs are grown in large 

 fields for foreign shipment, and the men whogr.ow them 

 know the proper way to treat them, but amateur grow- 

 ers expect these things to bloom without care. Even 

 for these the earthen mound would generally be effec- 

 tive, but they are all the better for being lifted, cleared 

 of offsets in spring, and reset. In this latitude figs will 

 be better protected by evergreen boughs stuck thickly 

 around the bushes, than by being buried. The same is 

 true of broad-leaved evergreeens like Camellia Japonica 

 and Gardenia Florida. — W. F. Massey, Wake Co., N. C 



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ready for picking, the other sort go begging. Indi- 

 vidually I think there is as much difference between a 

 pole Lima and a bush Lima as there is between an or- 

 dinary cabbage and a Savoy.- — Theodore Jennings, 

 Westchester Co., N. V. 



Gather the Leaves (page 68i) when they are a little 

 moist, because they then are easier raked, packed and 

 hauled, and lay them on your rhododendron or azalea 

 beds nine or ten inches deep, and keep them there with 

 a few branches, a little thatch or even dirt strewed over 

 them. Gather very dry oak-leaves and pack them 

 around the hollyhock, tritoma, pampas-grass and other 

 plants of precarious hardiness. I don't like them on 

 strawberry-patches or rose-beds, because of their mussi- 

 ness when being removed in spring. Dry leaves held in 

 place with boards, branches or thatch are excellent to 

 pack about and over the walls of an outdoor water-lily 

 pond to keep them from injury by frost. As a heavy 

 bank they are a capital wrap around a slightly built 



The Pole Lima Beans must not go. (Page 68i.) 

 Henderson's Bush Lima fills the bill with us from July 

 20 — about the time wrinkled marrow peas give out — till 

 August 10 to 15, when pole Limascome in. Again from 

 October i, or thereabouts, onward, late-sown bush 

 Limas have their time. They are then full of pods ; 

 and setting a temporary coldframe over them, and also 

 protecting them against frost with straw mats, secures us 

 bush Limas till into December. But both Henderson's 

 and Burpee's dwarf Limas will be largely and exclu- 

 sively grown in many parts of the country where poles 

 are expensive. Here, however, -where we can get plenty 

 of poles, we shall always regard the pole Lima as indis- 

 pensable. 



Must the Pole Lima Go ?— (Page 681.) My experi- 

 ence says, most emphatically. No. I raise both the 

 bush and pole varieties ; when my customers cannot get 

 pole Limas, they will take the bush variety, and appar- 

 ently relish them ; but as soon as the pole Limas are 



