QUESTIONS ASKED AND ANSWERED. 



703 



3089. Asparagus Chicory — Give tiie same soil and 

 cultivation that you do to dandelion or chicory. Whether 

 this plant has any value as a vegetable, however, we do 

 not know. Some of our readers may be able to give the 

 information. 



3090. Growing Cannas from Seed.— Carefully file or 

 cut a corner o£E each seed before planting, and all will 

 germinate more promptly. 



3091. Managing Palms. — Palms do well in a soil of 

 joam. Give good drainage, and use deep rather than 

 wide pots. Palms can be transplanted at any time, but 

 allow the roots to fill old pots before transplanting. 



3092. Chinese Sacred Lily. — This is not hardy with 

 us in Wisconsin. 



3093. Cinnamon-Vine. — Tubers of Cinnamon-vine 

 can be kept in the cellar over winter. 



3094. About Pinks. — Assuming that the carnations 

 are to remain in the house the entire season. I would 

 plant them a foot apart. I do not think it pays to keep 

 them in the house over summer, as other flowers are in 

 greater demand. Would throw them out, and set young 

 plants in fall. The pink should have all the light they 

 can get. Fill up the benches with cuttings of all kinds 

 of bedding plants. 



3097. Moss on Lawn. — The cause of the trouble, 

 probably, is lack of fertility. The soil used in grading 

 may have been in part subsoil, and the manure applica- 

 tions to these spots insufficient to start a healthy growth 

 of grass. Put a heavy dressing of rotted compost on the 

 mossy spots, and re-seed them. 



3098. Hardy Hydrangeas from Cuttings.— Make the 

 cuttings in the fall, and treat them like currant cuttings. 



3099. Aphis on Chrysanthemums. — Try the kero- 

 sene emulsion. 



3100. Amaryllis and Crinum.— They require a tem- 

 perature of from 55 fo 60 degrees. A. aiitica with me, 

 blooms under the same treatment as given to A . Johi:- 

 sonii. and others of that class. I do not think it requires 

 any special treatment. All amaryllises must be given 

 alternate periods of rest and growth, in order to produce 

 satisfactory flowers. If auHca is resting in winter, 

 keep it in a moderately warm place, and nearly dry. — E. 

 E. Rexford. 



3101. Diseased Roses. — The dropping of the leaves, 

 and the iron-rust-like appearance on their lower side 

 would indicate the work of red-spider. The preventive 

 and cure of this ailment is profuse moisture about the 

 bushes. This should be provided by syringing the plants 

 repeatedly each day, aiming to throw a stream of spray 

 so light that it will thoroughly wet all parts of the foliage, 

 without causing streams of water to run to the roots, 

 soaking the soil to excess. 



3102. Hyacinths and Tender Bulbs in the Carolinas. 



—There is no necessity for lifting cannas from the open 

 ground in winter anywhere in eastern North Carolina. 

 When frost kills the tops, cut them off at the ground and 

 lay them over the bed and they will give all the protec- 



tion needed. If the bed is an old one it may be Dest to 

 take up the roots, thoroughly dig and manure the soil, 

 reset the best roots, and cover them with coarse manure 

 for the winter. The roots can be put into the cellar, and 

 set in new arrangement in the spring, if desired, but we 

 find fall planting much the best here. Canna Ehemauni 

 is hard to keep over dry, but winters well here outdoors. 

 If you plant your Amaryllis /oknsom'i outdoors, set the 

 neck of the bulb well under ground, and not as they are 

 usually grown in pots, partly out of the ground. The 

 amaryllises are all hardy here in Raleigh. How about hya- 

 cinths ? Well, here comes the rub. Roman hyacinths usu- 

 ally begin to bloom here in the open ground about Christ- 

 mas. Now and then a frost makes the blooms droop, and 

 if you want them in fine order all the time, you had better 

 plant them in a frame, so that you can slip a sash over 

 them when the temperature happens to drop below the 

 freezing point. Of Dutch hyacinths, select only the latest 

 blooming sorts, and plant them about December i, in a 

 bed on the north side of a building or fence. In this 

 way they will be satisfactory. The early blooming sorts 

 ?nay do well, and they may, and generally are, caught 

 by returning cold, after warm January weather has 

 brought them into bloom. — Wm. F. Massey, jV. C. 



3103. Dwarf Cannas. — M'lle Crillon grows less than 

 three feet high. The leaves are of a medium green color; 

 that is, neither light nor dark. They are long but rather 

 narrow. The petals are of lemon color, shading toward 

 the base to light purple. It is a distinct strain, and 

 beautifully odd. Alphonse Bonnier grows from three to 

 four feet tall. The flowers are large, the petals broad 

 and of a brilliant scarlet. — E. S. Carman. 



3104. Wintering Oleanders and Other Shrubs Out- 

 doors. — Oleanders may be kept in dwellings when there 

 is room for them, in fireless out-houses with sunny win- 

 dows, and one lady here winters hers on an open portico 

 on the south side of the dwelling, but they are sometimes 

 hurt by the sun striking them on frosty mornings. An- 

 other lady, whose place I pass daily in winter, pushes 

 hers in under an evergreen tree in the yard. Only three 

 doors from her place is an oleander growing in the open 

 ground, in a position where the morning sun is shut off 

 from it by the dwelling ; it comes through the winter 

 nicely, and as I write is a mass of bloom. Near my 

 house is a large mass of oleander growing near where a 

 dwelling was burned two years ago and never rebuilt. 

 This is in an open field, and these clumps came through 

 last winter, a more severe one than usual, with only a 

 scorching of the outer leaves. On my own lawn I have 

 four oleanders planted where the morning sun is shut off 

 by the dwelling. These are fine varieties, and I expect 

 to protect them by sticking pine boughs thickly around 

 them. The cape jasmine, Gardenia Jlorida , had best 

 be kept in its pot all winter, and planted out where you 

 wish it to remain in the spring. Take care to plant all 

 these tender, broad-leaved evergreens where they will 

 not have the early morning sun on them, as they are in- 

 jured more frequently by sun when frozen than by the 

 actual cold. Cape jasmines stand our ordinary winter 



