fe NEW AND OLD PLANTS AND METHODS 



TESTED ON THE EDITORS GROUNDS. 



'HE Perennial Gaillardias. — 

 Special attention has been paid 

 to the perennial gaillardias for 

 onl}' a short time. Their ready 

 tendency toward improvement 

 has lately been noticed by hybrid- 

 izers who have succeeded in pro- 

 ducing some remarkably fine ad- 

 ditions to our collection of herbaceous perennials. When 

 once increased attention is given to any class of plants, 

 new possibilities for beauty in them are almost certain to 

 be revealed. Now that such interest in hardy perennials 

 is at its height, we may expect to see remarkable improve- 

 ments in many species of hardy flowers. 



A most noteworthy quality of GaiUardia cristata 

 Templcajia is that it comes nearer to being a perpetual- 

 blooming hardy perennial than any other on our grounds. 

 We have an abundance of perpetual-blooming tender 

 perennials, such as geraniums, heliotropes, lantanas, 

 cupheas, etc., but similar bloomers among hardy flowers 

 are decidedly rare. The above-named variety is probably 

 a hybrid. It begins to bloom in our grounds about 

 July I, and continues to produce its remarkably hand- 

 some flowers unhurt until October. A flower, barren 

 seed-head, and a branch with a young bud upon it, are 

 shown in the engraving on page 347, slightly reduced 

 below natural size. The flower is perhaps the most bril- 

 liant one among all our perennials. The prevailing color 

 is bright red, changing to yellow and orange near the 

 outer edge of the petals, and shading to rings of color. 

 The center of the flower is a deep maroon-red, in marked 

 contrast with the yellow in the petals. 



Some other perennial gaillardias are named below, 

 which we have not yet tested but in which we would 

 have much confidence, because of the excellence of the 

 one just described. 



iMaxima. — The finest variety yet produced. Flowers 

 of immense size : color intense crimson, margined with 

 yellow . 



Admiration . — Flowers very symmetrical ; color rich 

 golden yellow, with zone of bright vermilion around disk. 



Perfeclion. — Dwarf ; flowers brilliant scarlet, mar- 

 gined with yellow. 



Splendida. — Flowers of great substance; color rich 

 crimson, margined with orange. 



Lutea. — A large yellow flower with brownish disk. 



Thomas S. Ware, of Tottenham, England, is one 

 the leading growers and improvers of these fine flowers. 



Gaillardias thrive in good garden soil of a friable 

 nature, but they do not take kindly to one that is either 

 cold and stiff, or one that is too light and dry. Best 

 effects are produced by planting them in bold masses. 



Planting Large Groups. — A visitor recently asked us 

 the best method of carrying out a plan for forming at 

 planting-time a group of trees and shrubs. This is a sub- 

 ject of considerable interest with all home-improvers, 

 hence we will describe the method practiced here with 

 very satisfactory results. Let us take for illustration a 

 ■supposed group consisting of three trees and 25 shrubs, 

 the latter in five kinds. 



The first thing done was to get out a lot of rough 

 stakes of five different kinds of material , viz. , old weather- 

 colored pine laths, new laths, rough-sawed boards, planed 

 boards and split barrel-staves. When we have needed 

 more than five kinds, sometimes stakes made of split 

 shingles, or of branches of trees, etc., have been used. 

 In planting, each kind of stake was made to represent a 

 distinct kind of shrub — say in the group we are suppos- 

 ing, those of old lath stand for weigelias, the new lath 

 for forsythias, the rough board for cydonias, etc. Then 

 the stakes were set about the place to be occupied by the 

 group, following the plan we thought of as to the place and 

 distance apart of each. After the right number of stakes, 

 place, a corresponding to the shrubs and trees, were in 

 careful look was taken over the ground and such slight ad- 

 justments of the stakes were made as would insure their 

 being quite evenly distributed over the place, allowing for 

 differences in the habit of growth of different shrubs. 



In the process of planting that followed, holes were 

 dug beside each stake and the stakes set back into the 

 holes to show which kind of shrub was to be planted 

 there. Now as the five old lath stakes represented 

 weigelias in this instance, so five weigelias were brought 

 from the heeling-in place, distributed in the five holes 

 marked by old lath, and planted at once. Next, five 

 forsythias were in turn planted in the holes marked by 

 new lath stakes — other kinds in similar manner. As each 

 shrub or tree was planted, the stake was laid aside for 

 use in planting other groups. In the case of some large 

 groups requiring many kinds of shrubs, we have begun 

 the planting at one end and proceeded regularly to the 

 other, using the same stakes over and over again. 



Copper Mixtures Once More. — Carbonate of copper 

 in suspension has been frequently tried and mentioned 

 as a fungicide. We do not believe that it is of the least 

 value for such a purpose. The substance is insoluble in 

 water, and entirely neutral and inert. To show the 

 fallacy of the claim that copper can poison the soil, we 

 mixed the carbonate with ordinary soil in various pro- 

 portions, so freely, indeed, in one case, that to prepare an 

 acre of soil nine inches in depth in the same way would 

 require about 6,000 pounds of copper carbonate. Yet 

 various seeds (sunflower, radish, etc.) planted in such 

 soil sprouted promptly ; the young plants grew thriftily 



