8 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



SUBURBAN LAWNS. 



A common size for lawns in suburban 

 towns is one, two, or three acres. People 

 of comfortable means are apt to establish 

 themselves near a large town or city, and 

 in the outskirts of a village, and secure 

 enough ornamental ground around their 

 houses to give themselves the sensation of 

 actually living in the country. But how to 

 plan and plant such an ornamental ground 

 puzzles many, and should puzzle more, if 

 we may judge of their knowledge of land- 

 scape gardening from the practical illustra- 

 tions they offer us. 



The first thing to do, on considering the 

 character of your lawn with a view to plant- 

 ing, is to look beyond it — to take in, as it 

 were, the entire little world within sight. 

 One generally notices at once some unsight- 

 ly object— a barn of your own or a neigh- 

 bor's, a house, a board fence, or a too public 

 street. Shut out all such views with tall, 

 rapid-growing, massive Norway Spruces, 

 planted in irregular, natural groups, some 

 eight feet apart, with a Hemlock, White 

 Pine, or Austrian Pine introduced here and 

 there in the foreground, to vary the monot- 

 ony of color. If the object to be shut out 

 is on a side of your house where you want 

 to use deciduous plants, employ such trees 

 as Poplars, and Silver and Ash -leaved 

 Maples, witli large-growing, bushy shrubs 

 on the outskirts to cover all appearance of 

 "legginess" in the trees. Where a screen 

 only six or eight feet high is required, 

 few deciduous plants prove more satisfac- 

 tory than the California Privet (Ligustrnm 

 ovalifolium ). On the inside of the Privet, 

 however, some bushy shrubs should be 

 planted, to cover a "legginess" that is 

 incident to the growth of this hedge-plant, 

 as well as to take away the stiffness that 

 always disfigures the attractions of a hedge 

 as usually constituted. 



While making plantations of this charac- 

 ter, it is often well, in certain bleak posi- 

 tions, to plant wind-breaks on the north and 

 west of the house with the same kinds of 

 trees — Norway Spruces, Hemlocks, and 

 Pines, or Poplars and Maples. 



Having undertaken to shut out disagree- 

 able features and to somewhat seclude 

 yourself, you must see that no attractive 

 views, no beautiful vistas, toward the set- 

 ting sun or over a lake or river, are obliter- 

 ated. By a little contrivance, you can very 

 often accomplish your object in making a 

 barrier and, at the same time, leave open- 

 ings by which your finest views are framed 

 in, as it were, and made particularly effective. 



When the outskirts or boundaries of the 

 lawn are planted with the large trees you 

 may wish to employ, — Maples, Elms, Lin- 

 dens, Poplars, Spraces, Pines, and the like, 

 — you may set in their neighborhood, fifteen, 

 twenty, fifty feet away, or, perhaps, on the 

 borders and curves of more remote paths, 

 fine specimens of moderate-sized trees, such 

 as the Purple, Cut-leaved, and Weeping 

 Beeches, the Silver Linden, the Cut-leaved 

 and Purple Birch, Sehwerdler's Purple Nor- 

 way Maple, the Purple and Golden Sycamore 

 Maples, the Eagle Claw and Wier's Cut- 

 leaved Maples, the Gingko Tree, the Golden, 

 Purple, and Pyramidal Oaks, Weeping Elm, 



Red-flowering Horse-Chestnut, Golden and 

 Dwarf Catalpa, Weeping Japan Cherry, 

 White Fringe and White-flowering Dog- 

 wood, Red-berried Euonymus, Golden- 

 leaved Ash and Summer-flowering Kolreu- 

 teria, Weeping Larch, tree-like kinds of 

 Magnolias and Double-flowering Peaches, 

 Weeping Taxodium and Virgilea lutea. 



Having thus established a suitable frame- 

 work, use, near the house, dwarf trees like 

 the Japanese Maples, many-colored and 

 formed, Weeping Hemlock, and Noble Silver 

 Fir, as well as the slower growing, more 

 exquisite varieties of deciduous shrubs — 

 Dwarf Flowering Almond, Ghent Azaleas, 

 Rhododendrons, Purple Berberry, Sweet- 



GLOXINIA. 



scented Shrub, Japan Quince, Daphnes, 

 Mezereum and Cneorum, Deutzia gracilis, 

 Exoehorda grandiflora, Single White-flow- 

 ering Althea and the Althea with varie- 

 gated leaves, Hydrangeas, — paniculata and 

 quereifolia, — Cut-leaved Sumach, Spireas 

 Thunbergii, prunifolia, Reevesii fl. pi., 

 and callosa alba, Japan Snowball, and 

 Variegated Dwarf Weigelia. Dwarf Ever- 

 greens, low, bushy varieties of Spruces, 

 Hemlocks, Pines, Firs, Arbor Vitass, and 

 Japan Cypresses, may stand also near the 

 house, but should be in colonies by them- 

 selves. 



CYCLAMEN PERSICUM. 



If, after making such a selection and dis- 

 position of ornamental trees and shrubs, 

 with a careful retention of broad, open 

 surfaces of green sward, you show intelli- 

 gence in your method of planting, — digging 

 ample holes, spreading the roots out freely, 

 and firmly treading rich loam, mixed with no 

 fresh manure, in the hole, — I am confident 

 that, five years hence, you will pronounce 

 your work of this year a success, and your 

 lawn one of the most indispensable parts 

 of your establishment. 



AND GREENHOUSE. 



GLOXINIAS. 



The progress of improvement in these 

 plants has been so great during the last ten 

 years as almost to be beyond conception. We 

 look back and remember but a few varieties , 

 these were mostly with drooping flowers and 

 many of them with undecided shades of pur- 

 ple, rose, and red. The varieties of to-day 

 are the most brilliant and decided colors of 

 blue, crimson, purple, deep red, and white, 

 with most variable markings, either blotched 

 margins, spotted or striped ; while the indi- 

 vidual flowers are of great size, either upright 

 or drooping. To obtain these finer varieties, 

 the very best seed must be secured, and if 

 sown at once, fine blooming plants may 

 easily be had by August or September. 



The sowing and subsequent treatment of 

 Gloxinias is similar to that given for Begonias 

 on another page of this issue. The same 

 rules as to soil, watering, and shading apply 

 to both classes of plants, only it must be 

 borne in mind that Gloxinias will not bear 

 bedding out and cannot stand the direct rays 

 of the sun at any time. As the plants grow 

 and the pots get filled with roots, repot from 

 time to time, giving only, at the most, two 

 sizes larger at each remove, and a five-inch 

 pot is the largest size necessary for their 

 blooming successfully the first year. Their 

 period of flowering extends over two months, 

 after which less water should be given, and 

 as the leaves begin to turn yellow discontinue 

 watering altogether. The pots should then be 

 stored in some dry place where the tempera- 

 ture ranges from fifty-five to sixty-five during 

 the winter, and next spring, as they show 

 signs of growing, they should be repotted 

 and started into growth again. 



CYCLAMEN PERSICUM. 



The mystery that once surrounded the 

 successful cultivation of these beautiful 

 plants has been entirely overcome, and they 

 are now amenable to the simplest treatment. 

 It was once believed it would take at least 

 three seasons to flower them anything like 

 successfully, whereas now fine profusely 

 flowering plants can be had, from seed, 

 within twelve months. 



We give the following treatment, and are 

 certain, if followed, the results will be most 

 satisfactory. The seed should be sown at 

 once in well-drained pots or seed-pans, using 

 such soil as Geraniums and Roses grow 

 thriftily in (such as has been described in 

 previous numbers of The American Garden), 

 covering the seed to the depth of one-eighth 

 of an inch, and placing in a temperature of 

 from sixty-five to seventy-five degrees, never 

 allowing the soil to become dry, and, on the 

 other hand, be careful not to get it too wet. 

 In about twenty-five or thirty days the young 

 plants will make their appearance, when 

 they should have a little more exposure to 

 light, and after the first • leaf gets developed 

 they must be pricked out carefully into 

 either very small pots singly, or into five-inch 

 pots, a dozen or more to a pot. In either 

 case, care will be required not to break the 

 very delicate roots. The little bulbs will be 



