January, 1917 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
201 
five specimens the previous year which did 
their very best to please me and my friends, 
one of whom who lives at Wilkes-Barre said 
it is hardy even without protection. How- 
ever, mine had some protection of leaves be- 
cause it was planted among some semi-hardy 
plants. But, not one sprout appeared in the 
spring. For this reason I’d like to give it a 
black eye or at least knock it out of the hardy 
list. Therefore, I sound my note of warning 
so other enthusiasts may beware of leaving it 
in the ground over winter. The only safe 
way is to give it the ignominious treatment 
given to cannas and dahlias — take up the 
bulbs and dry them off in warm quarters. — • 
JVell Nigh Disgusted, Pennsylvania. 
(Don’t be too hard on just one experience, 
good friend. Here at Garden City the 
Summer Hyacinth is certainly as hardy as 
anything else, and without protection, too. 
But of course our soil is light and well drained, 
while presumably yours was not. Drainage 
is often hardiness. — L. B.\ 
“How Many Others? Let’s Hear!” — 
How many times I’ve been on the point of say- 
ing almost what Lennie Greenlee has said. 
“Ninety Most Valuable American Shade 
Trees” — when we are mighty lucky to have 
one good Norway Maple on the curb and a 
grapevine to cut off the garden from the 
clothes line. “Twenty-five Fine Plants for 
the Alpine Garden,” when our flower garden 
is the border along the fence. We want to 
know how best to use the one load of 
fertilizer that we can procure whether to 
broadcast it, or drill it into the rows; 
how to make the Maple leaves from the 
tree on the curb do the work of protecting 
our celery till Christmas instead of “ boughten 
straw”; how to carry over our little lettuce 
plants in a frame; and how to — but stop! 
You have told us all these things already! I 
can almost hear you say it! Tell them all 
over again! Tell us not to skimp on the fer- 
tilizer; to buy three loads instead of one; and 
keep on telling us to use more fertilizer. 
Therein is the true foundation of any garden. 
A few years ago, before you and I became 
acquainted, my garden was a grass plot of no 
particular beauty or use. This year and for 
several years past it has been a joy and con- 
stant source of happiness (and hard work), 
to say nothing of a supply of the finest vege- 
tables and flowers that can be grown. We 
have more varieties than we could possibly af- 
ford to buy, and have them fresh, too. About 
the only things we don’t try are potatoes and 
watermelons. From April till Christmas 
there can always be found something good to 
eat there, and for much longer than that if 
you count the things that are kept over or 
done up. 
Wherefore all this long dissertation? Why! 
The Garden Magazine of course, combined 
with a love of the things that grow in gardens. 
Your magazine has given me more information 
and solid enjoyment than anything I ever 
bought. I love it! And I hope you will keep 
right on about the fertilizer and all that should 
go into the 40 x 60. Too much “Landscape” 
might spoil the good work you have already 
done. — F. F. Richardson, Staten Island, N. Y. 
[The shock of the blow was alleviated by a 
subscription renewal for two years! Now, 
good friend, we hope your affairs may prosper 
so that your 40 x 60 will grow to much larger 
dimensions, and by the way, are you satisfied 
that the Norway Maple is the ideal tree for 
the curb anyhow? Perhaps among the 
“Ninety American Shade Trees” there were 
six really better — think it over! And why 
deprive other people who like alpines, because 
you prefer poppies? Have you tried the 
alpines which will bloom earlier in spring than 
anything else you can grow and so extend the 
season of your garden? A score of plants can 
be accommodated in a square yard ! Plenty of 
room in that “border along the fence.” — Ed.] 
How Many on this Side? Let’s Hear.— 
If The Garden Mag.azine men fill its num- 
bers with the sort of thing suggested by your 
correspondent from Old Fort, N. C., in the 
December issue it would have little value 
to those who are seriously interested in 
gardening, who do not care so much to be 
amused as to learn how to care for plants 
properly. I should think a fashion magazine 
would better suit the mental pabulum of 
your correspondent. — M. S. T., JVatertown, 
N. Y. 
[Between such diversity of opinion is it 
any wonder that Editors generally acquire 
gray hair.^ — E d.] 
“So I Like The Garden Magazine.” — 
My idea of a garden magazine is one devoted 
to the growing of vegetable and flower seed. 
including perennial seed, dividing perennials, 
planting and care of all shrubs, trees, vines, 
etc., color harmony of flowers, foundation 
planting, boundary and division planting. 
Many people ask me what to plant near the 
dividing line where there is not much room for 
the usual boundary lists. I do not object 
to an article for my Southern neighbor on 
tender Rhododendrons, etc. We must all be 
served. I especially like the January, April, 
August and September numbers; and the 
July issue that Lennie Greenlee so dislikes 
looks good to me. Keep up the good work. 
Why should it be necessary for a man to secure 
the help of a landscape gardener, when he 
only wants to plant a few shrubs around his 
house for best effect? — E. F. Gilman, Mendota, 
III. 
[This is getting interesting: In each of the 
numbers cited above there will be found 
plenty of “planting table” material, so much 
depised by some other commentators. — Ed.] 
Sutton’s Discovery Pea was the best 
of nine varieties I grew last spring. Among 
those it surpassed on my heavy clay Pennsyl- 
vania soil were Thomas Laxton, which M. B. 
Keeney the veteran pea shark, says is the one 
best pea. With me it was distinctly inferior 
both last spring and the previous year. I 
grew also Little Marvel which is the hardest 
to pull and to shell of all peas I have ever 
grown. These two varieties were disappoint- 
ments, especially as they were ushered in 
with a brilliant flourish of trumpets — one of 
the trumpeters being Adolph Kruhm. Sutton’s 
Discovery was easy to grow, easy to pick and 
shell, prolific and the most lucious “second 
big help” variety grown. — M. G. Kains. 
Special request. For the greatest benefit of 
all concerned it is earnestly requested that any 
communications, concerning any of the notes 
published in these pages, be .addressed to the 
Editor of The Garden Magazine, Garden City, 
N. Y., and not directly to the correspondents 
themselves. 
An index to Volume XXIV of Tuts. Garden 
Magazine, which concludes with this number, 
has been prepared and will be sent free to any 
reader, on request. Beginning with the February, 
1917, issue the subscription price of The Garden 
Magazine is $2.00 a year, single copies twenty- 
jive cents. 
THE MONTH’S REMINDER 
USE A PENCIL AND PAPER TO MAKE NOTES OF THE ITEMS THAT AFFECT YOUR OWN GARDEN 
T he gardener who is addicted 
to the resolution-making habit is 
likely to resolve to have “a better 
garden” for the coming year. That 
is just the kind of a resolution that means 
nothing at all: it is indefinite and put off to 
some future time. If you must make a 
resolution, determine to plan your gardens 
definitely before the end of the month; before 
you order a packet of seed, or a plant, or a 
shrub. 
The purpose of this month’s Garden 
Magazine is to help you plan definitely and 
plan well. Use it to the limit. Don’t put 
it aside until you have been over every 
suggestion it contains, and have really ab- 
sorbed those bearing on your own problems. 
But you must have your own general plan to 
tie these suggestions up to: it will do you little 
good to look through any gardening magazine 
or book and trust to memory to make use 
of the information given. Get busy now; 
and above all make definite plans. 
HEREs’ A friendly TIP 
CEND for your catalogues early this year. 
^ The price of paper is so high that editions 
will be figured much closer than usual; and 
late comers will in some cases find themselves 
in receipt of nothing but a card of “regrets.” 
A great deal of thought and study, as well as 
a great deal of money, is put into the best 
catalogues, and they are invaluable to the 
progressive gardener. Look through the ad- 
vertising pages of this issue; go direct to the 
specialists in the various lines, and get the lat- 
est information about methods, varieties, and 
appliances. 
get your planning done early 
T 3 EMEMBER that the first real step that 
you can take toward making this year’s 
garden successful is to get your plans made. 
Everything else must wait on that, so get at 
it and get it done with, to leave your time 
and energies free for constructive work. 
Here are data on a number of points to be 
considered in making up your plans. 
1 he number of plantings; dates of planiing: and number of rows 
(25 ft.) of vegetables required to supply a small family: Bean, 
dwarf. May ist, i or 2 rows; May 15, 2 r., June, 1, 2 r., Aug. i, 
2 r. — Bean, pole, May i, 5 to ! r.; — -Beans, pole limas. May 15, 
5 to I r. — Beets, Apr. i, i r. plants, 2 r. from seed; May i, 2 r.; 
June 10, 4 to 10 rows, for fall and winter. — Cabbage, Apr. 1st. 
12 extra early, 12 summer; May 15, 12 summer, 12 winter; 
July I. 25 to 100 winter varieties, for fall and winter. — Carrot, 
