BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



615 



grounds for a long time consisted of the large rose- 

 flowered candytuft, offered as a novelty last spring. It 

 grows off readily if the seed is sown where it is to bloom; 

 the only way, in fact, to grow candytuft in the garden. 



Choice Perennials. — The next time you order hardy 

 herbaceous perennials, if you will include the following 

 August bloomers in your list, we can assure you most 

 gratifying results : Veronica subsessilis, Chrysanthe- 

 mum lacustre, Rudbeckia Xezcmatiu, Gaillardia 

 crisiala, and G. Templeatia. They should be in every 

 garden in America. 



Cleome, or Spider-Plant. — This odd and interesting 

 plant, which is easily grown from seed, and produces 

 clusters of flowers on the ends of all its branches, can be 

 kept over for another season's bloom if it is potted in the 

 fall. I have only tried it the second season, and it is finer 

 than it was the first. I kept it in my conservatory with 

 other plants. — Miriam Parker, Minn. 



Try Lophospermum scandens, if you want a handsome 

 strong-growing vine for outdoors in summer, or indoors 

 in winter. Roots can be kept in the cellar in earth, if not 

 wanted in the conservatory or living room through the 

 winter. Planted out again in rich soil in a warm place, 

 this lophospermum gives an abundance of beautiful pink 

 flowers. It is grown from seed or cuttings. — Miriam 

 Parker, Minn. 



II. THRIFTY SAPLINGS 



Perennial Calliopsis. — The plants come up here in 

 the fall, and are pretty all winter when some parts of the 

 garden are brown and bare. Early in March they begin 

 to bloom, and from that time till frost are loaded with 

 gay-colored yellow flowers on Inng, smooth stems. A 

 dozen of them, with three or four Marechal Neil roses 

 and a spray of Asparagus tenuissimus, is a pretty filling 

 for a tall slim vase. This calliopsis, like the perennial 

 gaillardia, must be kept free of seed-pods. Old stems, 

 when they become unsightly, can be broken out, and 

 new shoots will soon begin to bloom. The flowers are 

 fine for corsage bouquets, as they last a long while, and 

 are richer-looking for evening wear than most roses. 

 Plants of perennial calliopsis form large clumps, and 

 grow three or more feet high. The flowers stand high 

 above the foliage. We have two forms of perennial cal- 

 liopsis, one more dwarfish and not so deep in color, nor 

 so fine after early spring as the one described. Which 

 of these is called Golden Wave ? — Margaret Campbell, 

 Louisia na. 



Petting Flowers. — One of my neighbors looks over 

 the fence and asks : How do you make your plants 

 bloom ? They just keep agoing as if they liked to. Tell 

 us your secret. It's no secret, I reply; a "stir" does 

 it. Did you ever notice after a rain, how stiff the 

 soil is ? Then but little air can get down around the 

 roots, and plants suffer. I take my hand-shaped weeder 

 and gently push it around, pulling the earth toward the 

 plant, so that none of the rootlets will be uncovered. 

 Plants like coddling as much as babies, and need it, too. 

 Working over these dear little garden pets is good for 



any one in trouble. I know a widow that, not long after 

 her husband's death, buried her baby. For a while we 

 thought her mind would give way. She told me she 

 missed the petting and care that she used to give her 

 little one. Then I carried a lot of seedlings in, and 

 asked, Would she please care for them. To oblige me, 

 she began, and every day worked out in the blessed, 

 soothing sunshine. It was wonderful how the color 

 came back to her face, and how she began to take a 

 quiet happiness in life. She said she found that stirring 

 the soil was one secret in making plants grow. She 

 believed, too, that there might be a "dirt cure" for 

 sick minds and bodies, and that using the hoe was a 

 better anodyne than could be bought at the drug store. — 

 Sister Gracious. 



Japanese Gardens. — Americans who have traveled 

 in England look upon the English people as far surpass- 

 ing our own people in their love for gardening and suc- 

 cess in managing home-gardens. But the English, it 

 seems, are ready to grant that the Japanese are ahead of 

 them. In a recent issue of the London Garden, a 

 writer remarks that in Japan every man, however poor he 

 may be, or how small may be his home, strives to reserve 

 some space, which in England would be relegated to the 

 uses of a back yard, dust-bin and rubbish-heap, for lay- 

 ing out the traditional garden. In it will be found a 

 miniature stream, flowing between rocks, crossed by one 

 or more tiny stone bridges, and bordered by low pine 

 and other trees, which are trained to bend and reach at 

 abnormal angles over the shallow stream. Blossoming 

 trees and shrubs fill up the space at intervals. The ex- 

 tensive gardens of the Mikado's palace at Tokio, together 

 with some of the great parks, testify that the Japanese 

 can also conceive and carry out grand gardening schemes. 



An Evergreen Nook. — Some years ago the children 

 brought home some little spruce and hemlock trees, 

 and wanted them planted ; so I helped set them out in a 

 circle, spruce outside, hemlock within. They were set 

 quite close together, and the inner circle was kept 

 trimmed closely to force the hemlocks to branch thickly 

 and close to the ground. The spruces were allowed to 

 grow, and all the trees were kept well manured. Now 

 they are quite large, and we find that we can grow inside 

 this circle flowers that we could do nothing with in open 

 ground exposed to the fury of our Canadian winds. 

 Half-hardy lilies, roses, chrysanthemums, etc., bloom 

 and thrive nicely here, the chrysanthemums being 

 covered with blossoms until the ground is frozen. The 

 snow drifts through the trees and piles up in a great 

 mound within the circle, even when there is but little 

 anywhere else. It does not melt until spring is well ad- 

 vanced, and thus affords protection to roots of plants. 

 Next year we mean to plant here a root or two of grapes 

 too tender to bear in the open ground. These we will 

 put on the north side, facing the south, and we think 

 they will ripen their fruit. Other roots and vines will be 

 added by way of experiment, and good care given in order 

 to find out what tender plants can be risked outdoors in 

 our climate. — Florence H., Canada. 



