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THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[May, 



TRAILING ARBUTUS. 



Deep in the lonely forest, 



High on the mountain-side, 

 Long is the dreary winter, 



Short is the summer-tide; 

 Just in the breath between them, 



Pregnant with sun and showers. 

 Starts from the earth primeval 



Fairest of northern flowers. 



All through the sunny summer 



Lavish with wealth of bloom, 

 She, too, hath shared life's fullnesi 



Hid in her forest gloom ; 

 Nurtured with dews and sunlight 



Richly her buds are fed, 

 Fresh while the summer fadeth, 



Fresh when its flowers are dead. 



Then, when the rude winds seek li 

 Threaten her buds to blast. 



Fiercely assailed by winter, 

 Fearless she holds them fast; 



Fast, till the spring draws nearer, 



Woke by the murmuring breezes. 



Kissed by the shining sun. 

 Up in a burst of transport 



Starteth the prisoned one ! 

 Blushing iu fairy clusters, 



Pressing a mossy bed, 

 Leaves of autumn russet 



Over her soft couch shed. 



Close to the damp earth clinging, 



Tender, and pink;, and shy. 

 Lifting her waxen blossoms 



Up to the changeful sky ;— 

 Welcome! our spring-time darling, 



Fresh In thy virgin-hue, 

 Long as the oaks stand round thee. 



Yearly thy charms renew ! 



Elaine G-ooijale. 



SEASONABLE HINTS, 



Summer Flowering Bulbs, as now culti- 

 vated in our gardens, are something very 

 different from what was known under this 

 term a few decades ago, for in hardly any 

 other branch of floriculture have the skill 

 and perseverance of hybridizers been so rich- 

 ly rewarded, and especially in 



Gladiolus. These brilliant flowers, although 

 grown in large quantities in many gardens, 

 are still unknown to many lovers of flowers, 

 and have not yet taken a foot-hold in many a 

 neighborhood. Mixtures of choice varieties 

 may now be obtained so cheaply, and their 

 cultivation is so easy, and success so sure, 

 that it seems almost incredible that there 

 should still be a flower garden without a 

 Gladiolus bed. They may be grown in any 

 soil fit for a garden, and require not more 

 care than Potatoes, not as much, in fact, as 

 they are not troubled with Potato-bugs. The 

 bulbs — or conns properly — are nearly hardy, 

 and may be planted as early as the ground 

 can be worked. If a continuous bloom is 

 desired, additional plantings should be made 

 every two weeks, up to July, which latter 

 planting will produce flowers late in autumn 

 until killed by hard frosts. Gladiolus bulbs 

 should be planted four inches deep, in ordi- 

 nary garden soil, and not less than six inch- 

 es in light, sandy ground. Deep planting 

 enables them to withstand drought and keeps 

 their stalks erect without the use of stakes. 



CITY YARD-GARDENING. 



Dwellers in cities would like to grow a few 

 flowers in their little back yards, and fre- 

 quently try. Quite often they fail — not so 

 much for want of space and sunlight, as for 

 lack of knowledge of what can be made to 

 grow in a small, shaded place. Given a plot 

 of ground from sixteen to twenty-four feet 

 in width, and twenty to forty in depth, with 

 a six-feet board fence on three sides, and a 

 tall house on the other, and the problem to 

 be solved does not seem to be easy. The 

 citizen, in such a situation, much as he may 

 wish flowers, is apt to make no attempt to 

 decorate his back yard. The principal orna- 

 ments are stray boots that have traveled 

 from neighboring windows in search of mu- 

 sical cats, or the tomato-cans which Bridget 

 lias forgotten to place in the ash-box. See- 

 ing the barren space in spring, he sometimes 

 rushes to the florist's and brings two or three 

 pots of plants home in his arms and enough 

 seeds in his pockets for a half-acre, and is 

 rewarded in due time with leafless plants, 

 and a crop of weeds that smother his seed- 

 lings. 



Yet it is possible to have flowers, and even 

 shrubbery there, and it need not cost much 

 money, nor too much attention. There is 

 generally one sunny side, and against the 

 fence there climbing vines do well, and 

 there are flowers suitable for a narrow bor- 

 der ; while, on the shady side, there are 

 plants that prefer shade to an excess of sun- 

 light. A barrowful of manure from the 

 nearest stable, and another of street dirt, 

 may be dug in during autumn, and the 

 ground, if re-dug in spring, will be in good 

 order. For the matter of that, there are 

 plants — the Dwarf Nasturtium and the Jo- 

 seph's Coat, for instance — that do better in 

 poor soil, and sulk if they be pampered. 



A little wire fastened to nails on the sunny 

 side of the fence will hold a Clematis ( < '. 

 Jaekmanii is the best) that will give you a 

 fine show of bloom. With strings you can 

 have the airy, fiery-blossomed Quamoclit 

 digitata, which the catalogues, to strike 

 terror into the soul, parade under the sonor- 

 ous title of Ipomcea Quamoclit coccinea hed- 

 erwfolia ; or you can regale your eyes and 

 nose with mixed Sweet Peas, that, by 

 removing the blossoms for the house, will 

 bloom nearly the whole season. In the bor- 

 der at their base you may have a bed of 

 Scarlet Phlox, or Phlox Drtvmmondn, or one 

 of Pansies, easy of culture and profuse in 

 bloom. If you use Pansies here, though, the 

 ground must be rich, otherwise they must go 

 on the shady side. Amid these you may 

 have a few Gladioluses — not Gladioli, if you 

 please, for the word is Anglicized as much as 

 omnibus. 



If you prefer ribbon-gardening on a small 

 scale, use the bright blue Emperor William 

 Pansy on the inside, and border with Sanoi- 

 taUa procumbens; or, if the ground be poor, 

 use red Nasturtiums, and border with white 

 Candy Tuft, Or you may have a nice bed 

 of honest Pinks — Dianthus Meddewiggii — 

 that are trustworthy, and will bloom a long 

 while if not allowed to go to seed. Or a row 

 of Delphinium formosum next to the fence, and 

 Verbenas outside, will please you. Or you 

 may get from the florist's, if your ground be 

 in good order, enough Tea-roses, small two- 

 and-a-half pot-plants, to make a gay bed. 

 They will not begin to flower before July, 

 probably, but they will keep at it till frost 



stops them. But, whatever you do, do not 

 belittle your border by too many kinds. 

 Choose not more than two or three sorts, 

 and have plenty of those "in their little 

 beds." 



The shady side can have its flowers, too. 

 There is the perennial Phlox. The old sorts 

 had but two colors — one white, and the 

 other a dinghy lilac pink. Nowadays they 

 run from white to fiery scarlet, through all 

 intermediate shades, and have great trusses 

 of bloom. Then there is the Alkanet (An- 

 chusa Italica ), which does not dislike shade, 

 and has fine blue blossoms, but it does not 

 flower long. The old Japanese Spiraea (8. 

 palmata ) flourishes best in shade. The 

 green and cheerful Periwinkle does well 

 there, and will take possession of the ground 

 if you permit. So will the Tradescantias ; 

 while the Lily of the Valley does not care 

 much for sunbeams. The old-fashioned 

 Rocket will grow there ; in fact, it will live 

 and bloom anywhere, and in any soil, from 

 that of a manure-heap to an ash-pile. If 

 you can afford it, you may have hardy- 

 Azaleas and Rhododendrons on that side. 

 Choosing them, you must prepare the soil 

 first. 



Get your milkman — if you have a milk- 

 man from rural parts, and not a partner of 

 the town-pump — to bring you, some fine 

 morning, a bag or basket of leaf-mold, and 

 on another, the same amount of peat from a 

 swamp. Dig your border two feet deep, and 

 mix the leaf-mold and peat well with the 

 soil before you set out your plants. If your 

 purse do not protest, you can have on that 

 shady side a row of Fuchsias and another of 

 fancy Caladiums, that will excite the envy 

 of your bachelor neighbor looking down 

 from his second-story back. 



Up close to the house, by removing two 

 square feet of the paving, digging out and 

 Ailing deep with good soil, you may have a 

 climbing Rose — that is, if the back faces to 

 the south or east. Or, if you prefer, a 

 Japanese or Belgian Honeysuckle may go 

 there. 



Where the center of the yard can be 

 spared from laundry operations, and gets the 

 sun all day, a bed four feet square will hold a 

 tall Dahlia, supported by a stout stake, or a 

 Canna Marechal Vaillant, or Nigricans, sur- 

 rounded by Coleuses ( C. VerschaffeldUi is 

 best) and bordered with Golden Pyreth- 

 rum, or the old-fashioned Dusty Miller ( Cen- 

 taurea, gymnocarpa). 



If you wish for something very fine, dig a 

 hole eighteen inches square and two feet deep 

 in the center, fill in with stable manure, and 

 tramp down to one foot, then cover with 

 soil. In the middle of May plant in this an 

 Abyssinian Banana ( Afusa Ensete),woA around 

 it, on the edge of the bed, variegated Co- 

 leuses. When you get the plant, you will 

 think the florist has sent you a poor Canna. 

 Do not despair. Give it a pail of water 

 (weak manure-water preferable) every night 

 — and a big pail at that. Before the close 

 of summer it will throw out its huge leaves 

 four feet in length, and grow to eight or ten 

 feet high, while you will bring your friends 

 to gaze at it, and wonder at your skill. 



All the preliminary knowledge you want 

 you will probably find in your florist's cata- 

 logue, or on the packets of flower-seeds ; and 

 as your horticultural knowledge increases, 

 you can further improve your little territory. 



T. D. E. 



