54 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[April 



i THE 'SEED, 



That which thou sowest is not quickened, exceptjt 

 die.— 1 Cor., xv: 36. 



Sink, little seed, in the earth's black mould, 

 Sink in your grave so wet and so cold, — 

 There you must lie ; 

 Eartli I throw over you, 

 Darkness must cover you, 

 Light come not nigh. 



What grief you'd tell, if words you could say,— 

 What grief make known for the loss of the day! 

 Sadly you'd speak— 

 " Lie here must I ever ? 

 Will the sunlight never 



My dark grave seek? " 



Have faith, little seed ; sure yet again 

 Thou'lt rise'from the grave, where ,thou art lain; 

 Thou'lt be so fair, 

 With thy green shades so light, 

 And thy flowers so bright, 

 Waving in air. 



So must we sink in the earth's black mould; 

 Sink in the grave so wet and so cold; 

 Here we must stay, 

 Till at last we shall see 

 Time turned to eternity, 

 Darkness to day. 



—From the German. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The commonly accepted supposition that 

 flowers are necessarily expensive luxuries 

 prevents many from attempting to grow flowers 

 whereby they deprive themselves of some of the 

 greatest pleasures of summer if not of the 

 entire year. To the wealthy banker and city 

 merchant who, to comply with the~dictates of 

 fashionable society, have to spend at a single 

 dinner or wedding party, hundreds, and thou- 

 sands sometimes, for choice exotics and floral 

 decorations for the embellishment of their 

 table and parlors, flowers may appear a rather 

 expensive luxury. 



Yet we doubt whether all these artistically 

 arranged designs and costly flowers cut to 

 spend their fragrance and to wither under 

 the mid-night gas-light can equal the pleas- 

 ure often produced by a few packets of flower 

 seeds when sown and tended by solicitous 

 and loving hands. The enjoyment and health 

 which the real lover of flowers derives from 

 his garden can not be equaled by a whole cart- 

 load of bought cut flowers, whatever they may 

 have cost. 



It is a chief aim of The American Garden 

 to induce those who have not cultivated flowers 

 before, to make the trial and convince them- 

 selves how much enjoyment may be had with 

 little expense and labor. It is therefore that 

 we dwell frequently on the subject of flowers 

 which are easily and cheaply obtained. 



The Wild Garden, although a comparatively 

 recently introduced style of gardening, is 

 rapidly becoming popular throughout the land, 

 and to those who cannot devote much time and 

 money for their garden nothing can be more 

 desirable. A package of Wild Garden Seeds, 

 which any subscriber to The American Garden 

 may have as a premium, will produce such a 

 variety and profusion of flowers as could not be 

 obtained as easily in any other way. 



Native Flowers. — In sheltered nooks and on 

 sunny hill-sides many pretty spring plants 

 push forth now their leaves and flowers. Some 

 of these are really as beautiful and attractive as 

 garden plants, and may be as easily cultivated, 

 especially in partly shaded situations, where 

 soil is similar to that in which they grew. 



ANNUALS. 



Preparing Beds for Them, and the Kinds 

 to Grow. 



One of the secrets of success in growing 

 Annuals well, is to have the beds put in proper 

 shape to begin with. 



No amount of attention, given later, will 

 make up for what should be done in the outset. 

 We often hear people complaining about failure 

 with the seeds. " They must have been poor," 

 they say, " They did not come up at all." In 

 nine cases out of ten, the fault was in improp- 

 erly prepared beds, or beds half-prepared. It 

 is useless to sow the minute seeds of plants in 

 beds which are only partially pulverized, and 

 expect many of them to germinate. You can- 

 not make the soil too mellow. In the first 

 place, spade up your garden plat to a depth of 

 at least eighteen inches. Spade it, if possible, 

 on a warm and sunshiny day, and let the 

 blocks of soil feel the effect of air and warmth. 

 The evaporation of unnecessary moisture will 

 be rapid. In a day or two, you can take a hoe 

 and break all these chunks of earth apart, 

 easily. Then use a long-toothed garden-rake 

 to reduce the soil to as fine a condition as 

 possible. It is supposed that whatever manure 

 you have to give your beds, will be spaded in 

 before you are ready to sow your seeds. 



GAILLARDIA PICTA LORENZIANA. 



I never advise the selection of many kinds 

 of flowers. Better grow a few, and grow them 

 well, than attempt growing more than you can 

 do justice to. You will find that the result 

 will be more satisfactoiy, and the trouble will 

 be less, for a wide range of plants necessitates 

 a variety of treatment, as but few are alike in 

 their requirements. Concentrate your time 

 and labor on those from which you can be 

 quite sure of good results under ordinary 

 circumstances. 



If your seeds are sown in the beds, take care 

 not to cover them too deeply. Such seeds as those 

 of the Petunia and Portulaca require but slight 

 covering. I generally take a thin board and 

 press it lightly over the surface of the bed where 

 I am about to sow seed. Then I sprinkle the 

 seed upon the ground, and sift earth over it. 

 After doing this, I use the thin board to press 

 the sifted earth down. In this way I seldom 

 fail of getting about the right amount of 

 covering for the seeds I sow. 



If I desire early flowers, I start the plants 

 in pots or boxes in the window. You will find 

 it a good plan, if you start seeds in the house 

 every spring, to prepare soil to fill these pots 

 and boxes in the fall. Put it in the cellar for 

 use when needed. If you do not do this, you 

 will generally find it difficult to get just what 

 you want as early in the spring as you will 

 need it. 



In starting plants in the house, you must 

 pay attention to three things, water, air, and 

 warmth. You must be careful not to give 

 enough water and warmth to stimulate a too 

 rapid growth. Most living-rooms are very 

 warm, and there is generally too little air, 

 especially fresh air, to enable the plants to 

 grow healthily. There is too much of the 

 hot-house temperature about it. Give just 

 enough water to keep the soil moist, and all 

 the fresh air you can. You cannot give too 

 much. Keep the boxes in a sunny window, as 

 far from the stove as possible. In this way, 

 you can raise healthy, robust plants. If you 

 do not exercise due care about watering, and 

 giving fresh air, you will have spindling seed- 

 lings, and when you come to set them in the 

 ground, they will suffer so that you will not 

 be likely to have any flowers from them any 

 earlier than you would from seeds sown in 

 open ground. Set the pots or boxes out on the 

 veranda during the warm hours of every day, 

 to accustom the plants to the change from 

 indoor to outdoor. Select a damp, cloudy day 

 for transplanting. If the sun comes out, 

 shade your plants from its effects by sticking 

 up a shingle, or by covering with a piece of 

 paper. Plants set out on the morning of a 

 cloudy day will seldom wilt. 



The best Annuals are: Asters, Verbenas, 

 Portulacas, Balsams, Stock, Cockscomb, 

 Phlox, Petunias, Larkspur, Mignonette, Salvias 

 and Zinnias. Of these, it is well to start 

 Balsams, Cockscomb, Salvia and a few Petunias 

 in the house. There is no trouble about grow- 

 ing them well when sown in the beds, but they 

 are very easily managed in the living-room, 

 and if you start them into growth in March, 

 you can have flowers very early in the season. 



The Aster is a late-bloomer. The others 

 will bloom nearly the whole season, and give 

 you a great profusion of flowers. All those I 

 have named are easy of cultivation. The 

 Verbena and Portulaca should have beds in 

 the foreground, being low growers. The 

 Salvia and Zinnia are more robust, and should 

 be used as a background. Petunias and Phlox 

 show to better, advantage when kept in beds by 

 themselves. The Mignonette may be used as a 

 border. Some kinds of Asters are very dwarf, 

 and these make excellent borders. If you 

 want a very rapidly-growing, large plant for 

 the center of a bed, use the Castor Bean, or 

 Ricinus. It has large tropical leaves, and is 

 fine for large beds. 



If the season is dry, use the watering-pot 

 daily, and apply enough water to wet, — not 

 merely moisten, — the soil. Keep down all 

 weeds, and study the habits of your plants. 

 To succeed well with plants, you want to 

 understand them, the same as you do your 

 children. Eben E. Rexford. 



GAILLARDIA PICTA LORENZIANA. 



Double Oaillardia. 



This interesting novelty, although not double, 

 botanically speaking, will probably become 

 popular under the name of Double Gaillardia, 

 which is easier and more expressive than the 

 complicated Latin term. 



The flowers vary in many shades of yellow 

 and red, but as plants have not yet bloomed here, 

 we have to rely on the German introducer, who 

 describes it in the following peculiar English : 

 "lam happy to can offer with this Gaillardia a 

 novelty which, after the judgment of author- 

 ities in gardening, is one of the most splendid 

 plants which are introduced in last time." 



