[July, 



CLIFF ROSES, 



Palo little sister of rich reel Koses, 

 Wild little sister of garden queens, 



Art thou content that thy flower uncloses 

 Here where the land to the ocean leans 1 



They, where the lawns are soft and shaded, 

 Hold their court amid eyes that gaze; 



Thou hy the lone sea liv'st, and faded 

 Fall thy leaves in the salt sea-sprays. 



Smitten of every storm that blusters, 



Crushed hy the mimic avalanche, 

 Bravely still thy delicate clusters 



Laugh from thicket and thorny branch. 



Naught may we lraow of nil thou kuowest, 

 All that the soft wind brings to thee? 



Under the cliff-top where thou growest 

 Sail the ships to the open sea. 



Art not thou and thy flowers clinging 



Ghosts of many a sad farewell, 

 Fluttering home from the ships and bringing 



Tidings for loving hearts to tell '! 



Or art thou, rather, a blithe fore-comer, 

 Blown by winds from the homeward ships— 



A kiss, turned flower in the breath of Summer— 

 A word that has quickened from eager lips ? 



Nay, though sweet as the longed-for hour, " 

 Fair as the face that we yearn to see, 



Nothing thou art but a simple flower, 

 Growing where God hath planted thee. 



—The Spectator. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Little remains to be done in the flower 

 garden except to care for what has already 

 been planted ; yet bedding plants of various 

 kinds may still be set out, and will, in good 

 soil and with proper care, produce a fine effect 

 for two or three months yet. 



Hyacinths and Tulips are generally taken 

 up after flowering, placed closely together in 

 a sunny situation, covered with an inch of 

 fine soil, and left to ripen for two or three 

 weeks. They are then uncovered, exposed 

 to the full sun until dry, and stored away till 

 fall planting. When it is not convenient to 

 take the bulbs up, satisfactory results may be 

 obtained by leaving them in the ground, in 

 which case it is important not to remove any 

 of the leaves until they are dry. Previous to 

 this time Portulaoa seed may be scattered 

 over the bed, which, as it comes up soon and 

 does not root deep, soon produces a fine 

 appearance without injuring the bulbs. Or 

 Verbenas and other shallow-rooting bedding 

 plants may be planted between the bulbs, 

 and thereby an almost continuous bloom 

 be kept up for nearly eight months. 



Roses, especially Hybrid Perpetual varie- 

 ties, should be pruned severely immediately 

 after blooming, to stimulate a vigorous new 

 growth and the formation of new buds and 

 blossoms later in the fall. If the ground is 

 not already very rich, it is best to dig in some 

 fertilizer at the same time, else the Roses will 

 not only not bloom " perpetually," but refuse 

 to do so a second time, which is the best they 

 will do, even under the most favorable con- 

 ditions. Slugs and aphis, which so frequently 

 destroy the leaves of Roses at this season, 

 may be killed by dusting air-slacked lime over 

 the bushes while wet with dew. A decora- 

 tion of tobacco stems is also an excellent 

 insecticide. Mulching with tobacco stems 

 serves an excellent purpose as a preventive 

 against slugs, and increases also the vigor 

 of the plant. 



SUMMER TREATMENT OF FLOWER-BEDS, 



The summer care of flower-beds and flower- 

 borders is a matter too generally neglected. 

 There seems to be a prevalent opinion among 

 a certain class of plant-lovers — especially 

 those just entering upon this delightful pur- 

 suit — thai when the plants are once put in 

 the ground, they need no further care or at- 

 tention ; and the results are anything but en- 

 couraging to farther efforts, or attractive to 

 the eye. This condition of things may find 

 excuse where it is the result of want of 

 knowledge, as it often is ; and the profes- 

 sional man may often and justly plead want 

 of time. Be the cause, however, what it 

 may, the fact still remains a reproach to the 

 garden and the lawn. 



Since it is one of the objects of the 

 American Garden to furnish information to 

 those who need it, I propose to offer to this 

 class of readers a few hints on the care of 

 the flower-bed and flower-border during the 

 summer. To be specific, I will first take a 

 bed of Coleus, which, at this time, has 

 already been planted. The first care must be 

 to keep the bed entirely free from weeds till 

 the plants get large enough to smother them ; 

 and the best way to do this is to never let 

 them grow. This simplifies weeding, reduces 

 the labor to a minimum, and robs it of most 

 its forbiddingness. In fact, weeding in this 

 way may be made a healthy exercise instead 

 of an irksome labor, as it too commonly is. 



COLEUS. 



A bed of Coleus is grown for its color, and 

 not for the individual beauty of the plant ; 

 hence, massiveness and evenness of surface 

 are aimed at, combined with a more or less 

 circular outline or face. A flat face would 

 not certainly be so handsome as one curving 

 gently from the center to the edge. To pro- 

 duce this curved or convex surface a certain 

 amount of "pinching in" is required, espe- 

 cially at the time when the plants begin to 

 make a vigorous growth. The principle is, 

 to pinch back every shoot that shows a ten- 

 dency to grow above the general surface, and 

 pinching shorter as the edge of the bed is 

 approached, so as to give a convex form to 

 the surface. In this way it will be found in 

 practice that nearly every shoot gets pinched 

 by the time the bed becomes solid, after 

 which little or no pinching will be needed. 

 The lateral shoots on the outside plants will 

 continue the curve and connect it with the 

 ground. The labor is light, and the pinching, 

 on the whole, is interesting, and I have 

 known ladies to do it in the most satisfactory 

 manner. 



GERANIUMS. 



Next I will take a bed of Scarlet Pelargo- 

 niums (commonly called Scarlet Geraniums). 

 It is unnecessary to repeat the remarks on 

 weeding. Here the object is to produce a 

 continuous mass of bloom rather than a solid 

 surface of green. If young plants were used 

 to plant the bed, here and there one will be 

 disposed to run up too high with a single 

 shoot. This shoot must be cut back an inch 

 or two to' make it throw out laterals. The 

 object is to get a tolerably even surface of 

 growth before or by the time the plants come 

 into full bloom, after which little or no cut- 

 ting back should be done. To accomplish 

 this, the bed should be looked at fre- 

 quently when the plants are making their 

 first growth, and the pruning should be done 

 to produce the object in view. If old plants 



have been used to make the bed, they should 

 be pruned back evenly, and unnecessary 

 shoots cut out entirely. In other respects the 

 treatment will be the same as above. De- 

 cayed leaves and flower-stalks that have done 

 blooming should be removed as occasion 

 requires. 



VERBENAS. 



In the case of Verbenas, the plants should 

 be pinned down till they have covered the 

 bed. Shoots that run over the edge of the 

 bed should be pinned back or cut in. Neat- 

 ness will require the removal of dead flower- 

 heads during the season ; but in other respects 

 the plants will mostly take care of themselves. 

 It should be remembered that weeds are par- 

 ticularly offensive in a bed of Verbenas. 



GLADIOLUS. 



A bed of Gladiolus, in addition to being 

 kept clean, will need to be staked. For this 

 purpose I have for years used No. 6 or 7 

 galvanized wire, run rather deep into the 

 ground. The wire is neater and better than 

 any wooden stakes I ever used. . The stake 

 should be sufficiently long to give a firm 

 support to the flower-stalk, which, without 

 support of some kind, is sure to go to the 

 ground. 



STAKING. 



It is not possible, within the limits of an 

 article like this, to treat separately the dif- 

 ferent kinds of plants used for bedding. It 

 may be said, in a general way, that plants 

 like the Canna do not require stakes. A plant 

 like the Castor-Oil Bean, however, which is 

 often used as a center-piece to Cannas and 

 Caladiums (C. esculentum), should have a 

 stout stake, as it usually, under such circum- 

 stances, becomes top heavy, and without a 

 stake would blow down. As a rule, a plant 

 should never be staked without some obvious 

 necessity. 



FLOWER-BORDERS. 



In regard to the flower-border, tidiness is 

 of the first necessity, not only that the eye 

 may be pleased, but also for the well-doing 

 of the plants. In a contest between weeds 

 and cultivated plants, the weeds are sure to 

 get the best of it if left to themselves. Just 

 so soon as you can see the head of a weed 

 take it off ; this is the best of all ways to 

 prevent disputes in the flower-border. Stake 

 and tie up such plants as may need it, and 

 remove dead leaves and decaying flower- 

 heads, is advice to be followed during the 

 season. In tying up do not draw the plant 

 together in an indiscriminate mass, but pre- 

 serve its individuality as far as possible. A 

 better growth and finer bloom will well repay 

 a little extra labor in this direction. Vines, 

 of course, should have something to run on 

 from the beginning, and not left to trail on 

 the ground, where half their strength is 

 wasted ; besides, it is slovenly. 



The reader will probably gather from these 

 hints sufficient knowledge to enable him to 

 keep his beds and borders clean, and meet 

 with so much success and satisfaction in the 

 growth of his plants as»will encourage him 

 to make further efforts in the future. It is 

 often the case in plant culture, that the 

 proper performance of one operation sug- 

 gests the why and wherefore for another, 

 and it is therefore important that a right 

 beginning should be made. 



P. B. Mead. 



