BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



359 



The Fall Shows. — Now is the time to begin train- 

 ing plants for the fall flower-shows, and each plant- 

 grower should take in hand the training of some fine 

 specimen plant. This is a much better plan than to 

 neglect the show-plants now, and during the show season 

 trust to a band of music, instead of fine plants, for en- 

 thusing visitors with interest in horticulture. 



Good Roads and fine gardening necessarily go to- 

 gether. The editors of this magazine solicit the cooper- 

 ation of its readers in the promotion of the movement 

 for the improvement of country roads. To this end we 

 solicit photographs of good and bad roads, road-side 

 scenes, road-side planting, etc. Brief descriptions of the 

 scenes depicted by the photographs are also desired. 



"Save the Hamilton Trees," very sensibly urges the 

 I\'i'iL'- )'ork 7'ribimc. referring to the 13 trees which 

 Alexander Hamilton planted as a memorial of the 13 orig- 

 inal states, near One Hundred and Forty-Second street. 

 New York City. Mayor Grant offers to contribute to a 

 fund for the purchase of the ground where the trees are, 

 and it is hoped that enough public-spirited citizens will 

 join with him to save them. 



Union Square in New York City, has been converted 

 since April, into a flower-market for one hour every 

 morning. The object is to enable private buyers to deal 

 directly with growers of plants and flowers, instead of 

 depending upon peddlers. This arrangement will be con- 

 tinued until some time in July. The idea of thus devoting 

 a busy city square to flower-trading before the regular 

 bustle of the day begins is a Parisian idea, and a good 

 one. It could be adopted advantageously in many cities 

 and towns of America. 



An Error Noted. — In the April issue of American 

 Gardening (page 251), under the heading "Garden 

 Craft," the illustrations of clipped yews at Elvaston 

 Castle and Levens are wrongly named. The upper illus- 

 tration should be Levens instead of Elvaston Castle as 

 named, and the lower one is taken from Elvaston. Be- 

 sides the various forms of yew and box illustrated, there 

 are at Levens two hedges of beech that are perhaps the 

 finest in the world. — J. J. Wilson, Lorain Co., Ohio. 



A Fine Double-Flowering Plum Tree. — The .i?ncri- 

 can Florist recently illustrated a remarkable specimen of 

 the double-flowering plum {Prumis triloba) that grows 

 on the grounds of J. L. Temple, Davenport, Iowa. The 

 tree has been planted twelve years, has a diameter of 

 fifteen feet and is eight or ten feet high. Mr. Temple 

 writes that the tree is very hardy and free from disease. 

 He believes that thorough drainage of the ground is a 

 sure preventtive of the blight that effects this tree in 

 some places. 



The Japanese are skillful, without doubt, in the intro- 

 duction of effective groups in their landscape gardens ; 

 but if we may judge from an authentic drawing of an 

 elaborate Japanese garden, in a recent issue of Garden 

 and Forest , we must conclude that the gardeners of the 

 sunrise land lack appreciation of two most delightful 

 qualities in landscape — breadth and repose. We would 

 rather go to England or France, than to Japan, for ex- 



amples of effective landscape-gardening if the illustra- 

 tions we see of gardens of the latter land are to be relied 

 upon, as undoubtedly they are. 



Heating Greenhouses with Hot Water. — Should 

 greenhouses be piped overhead or beneath the benches ? 

 Trials made to discover the advantages or disadvantages 

 of these different systems have thus far given meager re- 

 sults The Ohio Station reports that the snow melts 

 more quickly on the house where overhead heating is 

 practiced, and the plants in this house are rather taller 

 than in the other, but so far as lettuce is concerned, the 

 average weight per plant is about the same in the two 

 houses. At present it would seem to be largely a matter 

 of convenience as to which method should be adopted. 



Window Plants for Exhibition. — A writer in 

 .Imalcur Gardening calls attention to the trouble that 

 often arises between exhibitors of window plants, because 

 it is not stated in the schedule how long a plant requires 

 to be actually grown in a window to come under the win- 

 dow class. "That a rule of this kind is absolutely neces- 

 sary to guard against such a contingency, all will, I 

 think admit, as it is unfair to the bona-fide cottager who 

 does not own a glass house, when another competitor 

 places on the exhibition table plants which, until a few 

 days previous to the date of the show, were located in 

 some greenhouse." 



II. THRIFTY SAPLINGS. 

 The Progressive Tomato. — Sixty years ago the 

 tomato was not recognized as possessing culinary value. 

 So eager is the Englishman of to-day to have the tomato 

 on his table that, according to a reliable authority, more 

 than one million square feet of glass is devoted exclu- 

 sively to its cultivation, for market purposes, in the 

 British Isles. The season there is unsuitable to the 

 general cultivation of the succulent m the open air, so it 

 is grown under glass. While this is a disadvantage in 

 several ways, it is a gain in the one respect, that there is 

 no great difficulty in prolonging the fruiting season until 

 mid-winter. The price of the crop varies all the way 

 from eight cents to fifty cents per pound, What would 

 our grandfathers think of such a development in the 

 ' ■ love apple " of their day ? 



Perennial Phloxes. — We now have them in brilliant 

 shades, fine form, and immense panicles of bloom. It is 

 pleasing to note that these deserving plants are growing 

 in popularity. The lists of hardy flowering-plants in the 

 catalogues are increasing in length from year to year, and 

 this is a step in the right direction. The new mammoth 

 varieties of perennial phloxes are quite desirable, and one 

 can point with pride to a collection of the named sorts. 

 Their culture is simple, as they do well in almost any 

 place, but I have noticed them to be much finer when 

 given a little shade and a moist soil. I think the best 

 time to reset old clumps is in the fall, for they begin to 

 push early in spring and should not be disturbed after 

 they have grown three inches in height. Get new varie- 

 ties early in spring, thus giving them a chance to estab- 

 lish themselves. — J. Basting Diemer, 



