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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 
OF AMERICA 
Devoted to the Science of Floriculture and Horticulture 
i Vol. XXI. 
JULY, 1917 
No. 7 ■ 
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Things and Thoughts of the Garden 
By the Onlooker 
E\'1'^N the patient and virile Privet comes to an end 
if ill-treatment is carried too far or is persisted 
in too long. Hard, close pruning; will eventually 
kill it, yet some folks seem to think that iPrivet ought 
to be sheared in wdienever a quarter of an inch of 
growth appears. \"ery many seem to delight also in 
cutting the edge away back to old hard wood in the 
early summer when growth should be well under way. 
Privet will Ijreak even then Ijut the proper time to 
prune in that way is April at the latest. Beech can 
also be pruned into the stumps and will furnish itself 
before the summer is over. 
Considering how beautiful and much in keeping with 
the best of gardening the Bo.x is, one wonders that 
more use is not made of this bright evergreen. \\'hen 
it becomes established it grows reasonaljly fast — I 
refer to the Japanese Box. It will grow eight to 
twelve inches in a year. I am also very fond of hedges 
of roses with a grass path between. The latter should 
be six to eight feet wide all the way. The best roses 
are Japanese rugosa, English Sweet Briar, Wichu- 
rainas, Crimson Ramblers, polyantha (species), the 
newer liugonis, Austrian Briar, and, indeed, any strong 
growing, hardy rose. Such hedges are a great delight 
in any garden, most fitting, of course, in large places. 
* * * 
Can an Aspidistra l)c killed? Oh, yes. A restau- 
rant keeper paid a dollar a root (about three or four 
leaves per plant) and had the plants put into boxes like 
window boxes. These were then placed along the top 
of a divisional screen in the center of the dining room. 
It was seen that they were sometimes dry, sometimes 
very wet, while big fans overhead kept the leaves in a 
perpetual swaying motion. All the while they were 
under artificial light. There was little to wonder at, 
then, that in a few weeks the edges of the leaves of 
some of the plants were of a golden j'ellow. One 
wonders how long these poor, sulifering Aspidistras 
will bear up under these artificial and injurious condi- 
tions. Many householders, too, try to repot their 
plants and do so too loosely, as well as burying the 
crowns well below the soil. Alternate drying anil 
drowning will further assist in the killing off process. 
Yet, withal. Aspidistra lurida is a cast iron plant and 
if this won't grow or at least hold on, nothing in the 
plant world will. The new white variegated form is 
really a handsome plant and is not so often seen in 
prime conditions, even in florists' establishments. Old 
mortar rubble — the spent mortar from l)etween the 
stones of old wells — is recommended to he used freely 
in the potting soil, as this, it is believed, assists in the 
devekipment of the variegation. 
% * * 
Early flowering Sweet Peas liax-e been fine this year 
— I mean the early strains of Blance Ferry. This type 
has now lieen bred in the Spencer form and in nearly 
all colors. The plants are vigorous. By sowing out- 
doors late in October and by placing boards of a depth 
of six inches along the sides of the row, eight to nine 
inches apart, and covering the top with glass or even 
with branches, the plants carry through the winter 
better and more safely than when only straw is placed 
alone. Plants raised under glass in January and 
grown in a cool house, later in a cool frame, and put 
Milt in the ground in April, can be had in flower in 
June in a favorable season, or by the end of the month 
even in a backward year in the latitude of New York 
city. The early flowering peas have been proved to be 
more favorable for the warm South than the later 
l)looming summer varieties. They develop rapidly 
and bloom before the \-ery hot weather comes. 
* * * 
Club-root is a bad disease of cruciferous crops — 
cabbages, kohl-rabi, cauliflowers. The disease seem- 
ingly is brought into the soil in manure, for it will 
occur in soil that has never grown a cruciferous crop 
before. The roots become swollen and fleshy, owing 
to the presence of the club-root fungus whose spores 
enter the root hairs and produce slimy masses, called 
Plasmodia. These have a restricted power of motion 
from cell to cell of the plant. The crop usually perishes 
owing to the decay of the roots. Dressing the grotnid 
with fresh lime after the crop has been removed is the 
practice. It is unfortunate that there appears no cure 
for a crop that is attacked and sad gaps are tnade in 
many lines. No similar crop should be planted on the 
same ground for a few years. 
* * * 
One of the m<ist interesting pastimes during one's 
vacation is to make botanizing trips for wild flowers. 
A good book to read in this connection is Gene Strat- 
tn I'orter's "The Harvester," or, indeed one might 
choose several of her books to get instruction as well 
as mildly exciting pleasure from reading them. "The 
Harvester," however, tells to some extent about medic- 
inal wild plants and their value. Mrs. Porter says 
truly that high school courses in botany tell about 
flowers and leaf formation but never a thing about 
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