38 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[March, 



A LEAF FROM THE CALENDAR, 



BT WILLIAM M. BRIGGS. 



Where Wood-Violets love to grow 

 Thickly lies the winter snow ; 

 Where the streamlet sung and danced, 

 And the summer sunbeam glanced 

 Thro' the meadow, down the dale, 

 All is hushed, and chill, and pale ! 



Where the Crow-foot's tender green 

 Earliest in the spring is seen ; 

 Where the Checkerberries hide 

 By the pale Arbutus' side, 

 And the Cowslips, tipped with gold. 

 Over hill and dale unfold ; 



Where the ferret, soft and brown, 

 Stores his nest with pilfered down ; 

 And the field-mouse in the heather 

 Sleeps for days and weeks together ; 

 And the squirrel, wise and dumb, 

 Waits for better days to come ; 



Lies the winter — bitter, strong — 

 Heaped thro' freezing nights and long ; 

 While the tempest comes and goes, 

 Sliding swift o'er drifted snows ; 

 Clouds above and gloom below ; 

 Tell me— when will winter go ? 



When the buds begin to swell ; 

 When the streams leap thro' the dell ; 

 When the swallows dip and fly, 

 Wheeling, circling, thro' the sky ; 

 When the Violet bids the Rose 

 Waken from its long repose ; 



When the gnats in sunshine dance ; 



When the long, bright hours advance ; 



When the robin by the door 



sings as ne'er he sang before ; 



Then, when heart, and flower, and wing 



Leap and laugh— then comes the spring ! 



— Scribner' 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Soil. — It is hopeless to expect success with 

 flowers without suitable soil. Most of our cul- 

 tivated flowering plants have very fine roots 

 which cannot draw sufficient nourishment from 

 coarse, raw ground, and even the choicest va- 

 rieties and the best of seeds cannot come to 

 perfection without the nutriment upon which 

 their lives depend. 



When the soil is dry, light and mellow, 

 spading under of a good coat of decomposed 

 manure annually is all that is necessary, 

 but when the surface soil is thin and the sub- 

 soil heavy and retentive, it is best to remove the 

 heavy soil altogether to a depth of two feet and 

 replace with a compost of leaf mould, decayed 

 manure and sand. This should be done as 

 early as possible and the bed worked over sev- 

 eral times before setting out the plants or sow- 

 ing the seeds. 



Lilies should be planted as soon as the 

 ground can be worked. The bulbs start so 

 early that, if planting is delayed, the develop- 

 ment of the roots cannot keep pace with the 

 growth of the leaves and stem, and these nec- 

 essarily draw their nourishment from the sub- 

 stance of the bulb itself, thus enfeebling and 

 often starving it altogether. All Lilies except 

 the White Lily, Lilium candidum, should be 

 planted not less than six inches deep. Shallow 

 planting is the most frequent cause of failure 

 with Lilies. 



Flowering Bulbs, Gladiolus, Cannas, Colo- 

 easias etc., stored in the house or cellar should 

 be examined frequently and all decaying mat- 

 ter removed, else the moisture and heat pro- 

 duced by fermentation will start them into 

 premature growth, to the detriment of their 

 future development. 



SUCCESS WITH PANSIES. 



When I received my premium New German 

 Pansy seed a year ago last September, and 

 looked at the beautiful colored plate in The 

 American Garden, I had my doubts about its 

 coming up to the picture ; having had consider- 

 able experience in growing the English varie- 

 ties I know what good Pansies are. But now 

 truth compels me to say that the painting is 

 not exaggerated in the least and that I could 

 show plenty of flowers that were larger and 

 finer than any on the plate. They were without 

 exception the best Fancy Pansies I have ever 

 seen, and they were admired by all who saw 

 them. 



My mode of treatment consisted in placing 

 an old hot-bed frame in a shady place. Then 

 I mixed well one part of old cow manure and one 

 part of common sand (the washings of the road- 

 side) with two parts of good loam, and filled 

 in the frame, levelling the surface with a layer 

 of the same sifted compost. The seed was then 

 sown thinly, covered about one-third of an inch 

 deep, and pressed down firmly with a board. 

 It sprouted quickly and made a fine growth. 



PANSY, LORD BEACONSFIELD. 



As soon as the plants were large enough for 

 handling I pricked them out in another frame 

 filled with the same compost. Here they were 

 left during the winter. They wintered well and 

 in spring I planted them out in rows in a bed 

 which was composed of the same mixture 

 used in the frames. The proper composition 

 of the soil is of great importance, and is, I 

 think, the main point in growing Pansies. 



About the middle of July I cut the tops off 

 and shaded them a little for a few weeks, and 

 all through autumn they were magnificent. 

 Afterwards I took them up and planted them 

 in a hot water pit close to the glass, giving not 

 more heat than was necessary to keep frost out. 

 These I used for making cuttings, and with not 

 more than ordinary care and attention I have 

 not lost one in ten. 



When it is desired to propagate a certain 

 exceptionally fine strain of Pansies, the only 

 way to accomplish this is by the use of cuttings 

 as seed cannot always be relied upon to produce 

 flowers exactly like the plant that bore it. 



P. E. Cope. 



A NEW DEVICE FOR PLANT SUPPORTS. 



Little improvement has been thus far made 

 in the way of plant supports, and still a neat 

 support is in many cases very desirable to show 

 a plant off to advantage. Common, shapeless 

 sticks, daubed over with a dash of cheap green, 

 are certainly not pleasant to the eye, and ^ 

 often spoil the appearance of the pret- 

 tiest specimens of plants, whether grown 

 in pots or in the open air. So of late 

 we find such sticks nicely planed or 

 turned, with a neatly finished top, 

 painted white, red, or even gilded, as 

 we have seen them sometimes in Belgium 

 and Holland. But all these look as 

 stiff and pretentious as the former look 

 coarse and common, and to both we pre- 

 fer decidedly a natural twig from the 

 forest, or some ordinary reed or cane. 

 But these again harmonize badly with 

 the green of certain plants, such as 

 Gladiolus for instance; and persons 

 anxious to give their flower beds a neat 

 appearance object to the rude contrast 

 of this kind of supports with plants of< 

 graceful habit. To supply this want a\ 

 neat and simple device, which proved to 

 be well adapted for the purpose, sug- 

 gested itself. It consists, as shown 

 the accompanying illustration, of a stout 

 galvanized wire, terminated with a small 

 ring at one end, passing the other through an 

 inverted wooden cone, along the outside of 

 which it is then turned up and bent, so as to 

 twist around the upright wire, in order to pre- 

 vent its slipping. The wire is painted green or 

 brown or not at all, and can be made of any 

 size, for a Dahlia as well as for a little pot 

 plant. For Gladiolus, for which we used this 

 support last summer, the cone was two inches 

 by six, and thirty inches of wire above ground. 

 When the blades were high enough up to re- 

 quire support for the flower stem, the cone was 

 easily inserted by a gentle pressure of either 

 hand or foot, without any danger of injury to 

 the bulb, and as easily removed, without 

 disturbing the soil, after the plant had 

 bloomed. If to this we add that the wire may 

 be bent to suit circumstances, it seems that this 

 device, simple as it is, may be looked upon as a 

 decided improvement and likely to find its way 

 among those who pride themselves on the neat 

 appearance of their grounds. J. Roemer, LL.D. 



TUBEROUS ROOTED BEGONIAS, 



These beautiful plants should be more grown 

 in the garden beds and not only as pot plants 

 as they are now almost exclusively cultivated. 

 They may be as easily managed as Geraniums 

 and other bedding plants, and are certainly not 

 less ornamental. For forming groups in partly 

 shaded situations where they can be watered 

 occasionally, nothing is more effective and pro- 

 fusely blooming. In the fall, before frost, they 

 should be taken up and planted in pots or 

 placed close together in boxes. They should 

 then be kept under a sheltered stoop, dried off 

 gradually and, when there is danger of severe 

 frost, brought to the cellar. But little water 

 need be given during winter, and in spring as 

 soon as they show signs of growth they should 

 be removed to a lighter and warmer place. 



Cuttings made in the fall, or in fact at al- 

 most any time, grow readily by placing them 

 in moist sand in a warm room. 



For summer blooming, plants kept moder- 

 ately dry in a cellar become hardier and are 

 preferable to those wintered in a greenhouse 

 or warm room. 



