CLEMATIS CULTURE. 



EW CLEMATISES, with all 

 their varied colors and free- 

 dom of growth, are seen in 

 cultivation, where thousands 

 should be. The price need 

 not be any drawback now, as 

 within the last few years it has 

 been greatly reduced. A good two-year old plant 

 which used to cost from two to three dollars can 

 now be bought for fifty to seventy-five cents. 

 Trained up the pillars of the veranda, over an 

 outbuilding or any unsightly object, these plants 

 are very decorative, but in the flower garden a bed 

 of the different varieties makes an object which 

 need only to be seen to be admired. Prepare a 

 bed as if for roses, using plenty of such lasting 

 materials as rotten cow manure and turfy loam, as 

 the longer a healthy clematis is planted the more 

 vigorously will it grow and the more abundant will 

 be its flowers, and being gross feeders, clematises 

 require an abundance of food within reach of their 

 roots. In the beds spring-flowering and summer- 

 flowering varieties should be associated, for just as 

 the former are getting past their blooming periods 

 the latter are beginning to flower, and inflorescence 

 is thus kept up during a long season. The only 

 drawback in growing the two kinds together is that 

 they should be pruned at different times. The 

 spring-flowering kinds flower on the old wood ; 

 while the sumjner-flowering varieties produce their 

 flowers on the young growths ; therefore while the 

 latter are much benefited by being well pruned 

 back in the spring, the former should be left un- 

 touched and pruned back if necessary after flower 

 ing. Still if the two kinds are not planted too 



closely together, the work can be easier done at 

 the proper seasons. Associated with the clema- 

 tises, nothing looks much prettier than a few plants 

 of gladioluses or lilies which raise their flowers above 

 the foliage of their neighbors, forming a beautiful 

 bed, and if the late-blooming kinds of lilies are 

 used, they help to prolong the flowering season. 



Liquid manure is often of great benefit for this class 

 of plants, and as soon as the bed in which they are 

 growing becomes exhausted, the liquid should be 

 applied, as well as a good mulching of rotten man- 

 ure in the fall. 



Some of the best spring-flowering kinds are : 

 Lord Londesboro, deep mauve ; Lady Londesboro, 

 silver-gray with pale bars ; Gem, deep lavender ; 

 Miss Bateman, pure white; Standishii, deep lilac; 

 Victor Lemoin, violet, tinted with blue. Among the 

 best summer- blooming kinds are the good old Jack- 

 manni, from which have been produced some excel- 

 lent seedlings, but none superior to the parent ; also, 

 Viticella rubra grandiflora, brick-red, fine variety ; 

 Tunbridgensis, bluish-mauve ; lanuginosa vivina, 

 pure white ; Star of India, reddish-plum, with red 

 bars ; Otto Frcebel, greyish-white ; Magnifica, red- 

 dish-purple, and Lady Bovill, grayish-blue. 



In Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois, I observed 

 several very attractive beds planted with dwarf 

 cockscombs and Ce?ifaterea gymnocm-pa in alternate 

 rows. The silvery-white of the centaurea con- 

 trasted well with the dark red flowers of the cocks- 

 comb. The beds were all oblong, but a circular 

 bed of the same kind of plants would be more at- 

 tractive. The cockscomb did not grow over seven 

 inches high. Mansfield Milton. 



Ohio. 



GLADIOLUS PROPAGATION. 



" Do gladioluses run out ? " we are asked. No, we 

 think not. But, says one: "Mine were formerly 

 nearly all white : now they are mostl)' dark, and do 

 not produce as large flowers as formerly : why is 

 this?" Simply because the light-colored ones are 

 not so hardy as the dark ones. They do not increase 

 so fast, and have less vitality. But few are repro- 

 duced for any great number of years by division ; 

 those nearest the European species are very much 

 longer lived than the white or light-colored from 



Natal. The consequence is, that the species are 

 perpetuated by the division of the more hardy ones, 

 while the light ones die out. The (juestion then pre- 

 sents itself: "How is the supply kept up for the 

 trade ?" This is timely and pertinent. It is done 

 by planting the little bulblets that form at the base 

 of the new bulbs, and above the old. These are 

 planted in drills in the field, just as peas are sown, 

 only more thickly — about 200 to a foot of drill. As 

 a rule, they come up quickly, but all depends upon 



