360 



BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



Petunias for Pails and Tubs. — Ir you want a pretty- 

 lawn ornament, paint a tabacco-pail a delicate lavender- 

 gray, bore several holes in the bottom, put in two quarts 

 of coarse charcoal, over this a layer of moss, and fill the 

 pail with very light rich earth. In the middle, plant a 

 thrifty young double-fringed petunia, preferably pink, 

 set the pail in a sunny situation, give the plant plenty of 

 water every day and you will be richly rewarded with 

 beautiful blossoms. A large candy-pail similarly treated, 

 holding three plants, is prettier ; and an old tub or half- 

 barrel, containing five, is prettiest. The plants may be all 

 alike, or each one different ; suit your own fancy about 

 this, you will be pleased in any case. — Elder's Wife. 



Success with Tender Roses.— We have tried grow- 

 ing tender roses on the south side of a wall for several 

 years, and bushes that we set out six years ago are doing 

 well, though they have had no protection during the past 

 winter. They are in an ornamental bed close to the 

 house, sheltered by the front wall, ha\e never been 



to the shipment of trees and plants ? Railroads, in order 

 to protect themselves from becoming innocently liable 

 for heavy damages, would have no alternative but to 

 refuse any and all shipments of nursery-stock. Trees 

 that even experts pronounce perfectly sound and healthy, 

 might carry disease-spores by the million. Who will be 

 bold enough to guarantee a tree to be free from them ? 

 The bill should be killed, and that thoroughly and for- 

 ever. The Nurserymen's Association, which is taking 

 active steps to prevent the passage of the bill, has our 

 hearty sympathy, and should have the support of every 

 horticulturist. Write your protest on a postal and for- 

 ward it to your Congressman at once. 



Large Trees Planted on the World's Fair Grounds. 

 — Six trees were recently planted on the grounds near the 

 World's Fair horticultural building, as a permanent ex- 

 hibit, and as a practical illustration of the successful meth- 

 ods of transplanting large ornamental trees. They are 

 an elm, 50 feet high and 2 feet in diameter, commemora- 



Rose-Beds on the L.wvn. (Photograptied in a Subscriber's GarJen.) 



moved, grow vigorously and bloom freely. We have 

 Safrano, La France, Etoile de Lyon, Catherine Mer- 

 met. Beauty of Stapleford, Mad. Lambard and other 

 varieties in this bed. One dark-red, semi-double, large- 

 flowering sort blooms in clusters all through the summer 

 and fall, beginning early in the spring ; I have lost its 

 name. Last spring the wood was alive to the very tips 

 of the branches on all these bushes ; we cut them back 

 about half. March was a hard month for roses ; the 

 bushes were killed half way to the ground, but there's 

 plenty of wood left for an abundance of bloom. — Mrs. 

 Wade Burden. Mo. 



Danger Threatening to the Nursery Trade. — Not 

 only absurd in the extreme, but absolutely vicious, is a 

 bill introduced into Congress, which lays heavy penalties 

 on the shipment of trees and plants infested with any 

 injurious diseases. Was the wise law-maker w h o 

 fathered it aware that, should this bill be passed, its 

 stringent provisions would strike a serious blow to the 

 very life of the nursery trade, and practically put a stop 



five of General Sherman, brought from the woods in 1876, 

 when 50 years old, and planted on the nursery-grounds 

 at Rose Hill ; a hackberry, 40 feet high and 2 feet in 

 diameter, commemorative of General Grant, also trans- 

 planted from the woods in 1876 ; a linden, 40 feet high, 

 with 18-inch bole ; a willow, 30 feet high, having 30 feet 

 of spread ; a sugar-maple, 40 feet high, with lo-foot stem, 

 and an ash, 35 feet high, with 14-foot stem. It required a 

 force of 22 men and 12 horses to transplant the trees, and 

 the cost of the work was about $700. 



City Street Tree-Pruners. — Tree-pruners are not 

 always tree-butchers, although many of them are no less 

 than this. Evidently the woman in Washington, D. C, of 

 whom a correspondent in the Florists' Exc?ia)2g-c speaks, 

 does not discriminate between tree-butchers and the 

 intelligent pruner. The writer says that, while the park 

 commissioners of that city always succeeded in convinc- 

 ing Senators and other influential men of the necessity of 

 pruning, they have met their match in an old Irish lady 

 referred to, who objects to having the trees in front of 



