204 
T H E G A R D E N M A G A Z I N E 
May, 1915 
peonies you want while they are in flower. This is far more satis- 
factory than buying from a catalogue. 
Don’t forget to cut the achillea to the ground as soon as it finishes 
flowering so as to get a second crop late in the summer. 
Morning glories, nasturtiums and other annual vines can be sown 
at this time. Cover all your bare fences; a vine can be found for 
every known purpose. 
Keep your delphinium cut clean and feed with liquid manure so 
as to have flowers all summer. 
Don’t let iris suffer for water; remember that it is a bog plant and 
wants an abundance of water when growing. 
Although making it hard to cultivate the plants a few pansies set 
out now between the roses will add no little charm to the rose garden 
during summer. It is also a good thing to remember that the pro- 
per time to cut flowers is in the early morning or late evening, before 
the sun is strong. If flowers after cutting are placed in a large vessel 
of water in a cool place for several hours before they are brought 
into the house they will keep much better. 
Apply a good heavy mulch to the sweet peas and liquid food can 
be supplied by pouring it through the mulch. Sweet peas must be 
well fertilized and kept supplied with water at the roots, and the 
roots must be kept cool with a mulch in order to insure success. 
How about a few of the hardy ferns for some of the low damp 
places under trees? They will convert a mosquito breeding pool 
into a very attractive feature; on a larger scale the hardy bamboos 
are excellent for this purpose. 
The latter part of the month cut down to the ground some of the 
golden glow which will cause the ones cut to flower a few weeks 
later than the others and thereby considerably lengthen the season. 
Bulbs for 
May Planting 
T HERE is a host of glorious flowers you can have this summer 
by planting out roots or bulbs now. The gladiolus is easily 
the most popular of all these and perhaps the most worth while, but 
of others there are not a few. 
Amaryllis and phaedranassa enrich the dull 
days of August with a variety of rich colors. 
Crinums are equally effective though some- 
what more delicate in color. 
Callas and the tuberous-rooted begonias are perhaps better known 
as house plants, but are equally useful in the summer garden, 
especially in the shady bed. Arums are less beautiful than unique 
but often fill a desire for something striking. 
Cooperia Drummondi offers a touch of pure white during the sea- 
son when its coolness is most appreciated. 
The glorious tall summer hyacinth, or more properly Galtonia 
candicans, with its white bell-shaped flowers, gloxinia, Bessera 
elegans, eucharis, montbretia, ismene, oxalis, incarvillea, spider 
lily, tuberose, tigridia, tritoma and zephranthus, are all of this group 
of summer bulbs, with which color effects may be had season after 
season with the least possible trouble. 
Then there are the bulbous foliage plants almost indispensable 
for bedding work and formal effects. Of these canna, elephants’ 
ear, and phrynium are the most reliable; and remember too that the 
modern canna is a beautiful flowering plant for bold effects. 
Then there are, of course, the summer blooming lilies which form 
a group by themselves. Hemerocallis and funkia (the day lilies) 
may be included with the true lilies — auratum, tigrinum, speciosum, 
and the rest. All these you can buy and plant now. And dahlias 
need hardly a “reminder.” 
Greenhouse 
Flowers 
N OW is the time to begin thinking about your flowers for next 
winter. Carnation plants should be set out in the field at 
once, and kept pinched and well cultivated. Upon this care de- 
pends in a measure next year’s flowers. It is well also to spray the 
plants during the summer with bordeaux mixture. 
All hard-wooded plants, such as acacia, genista, 
etc., should now be placed in a protected place 
outside so that the wood will ripen. 
Begonias, gloxinias and other flowering plants, being grown in 
the greenhouse during summer, should be fed freely. Cyclamen 
and primula should be placed in a coldframe and slightly shaded. 
The rose house should be thoroughly cleaned out and the benches 
painted with hot whitewash, give the house a thorough renovating 
before putting in the new soil. And don’t forget that a great deal 
depends upon the quality of this soil. 
A few bf the inside cucumbers of the English frame type can be 
grown inside during the summer. 
Keep chrysanthemums potted as required. A chrysanthemum 
once pot bound will never produce the best flowers. 
All left-over bedding plants, such as geraniums, coleus, ornamen- 
tal grasses, with a few vines, can be made up into some very pretty 
hanging baskets. 
If you intend forcing strawberries next winter, you should attend 
to the same at once. Plunge the pots in the ground so that the 
runners will start in the pots. 
Melons for summer forcing in the greenhouse should be started 
at once; these are best raised in pots and planted in hills about 
eighteen inches apart. 
Try a few of the better type of annuals, for cutting, in the green- 
house this summer. Fancy-leaved caladiums are fine decorative 
subjects. Also start some gardenias for flowers next winter. 
Grounds 
and Lawns 
D ON ’T wait too long before you cut your grass, and any patch- 
ing in the lawn should be attended to at once. If you have 
any extensive lawn making to do it is better to leave it until late 
summer as late spring sowing is very apt to bring forth a weedy 
lawn. Evergreens that are being kept shaped up 
should be gone over with shears and clipped just as 
the growth starts. 
Prune maples just as they leaf so as to avoid bleeding. Late this 
month spray the elms with arsenate of lead, for the elm leaf beetle. 
Destroy all caterpillar nests before the trees leaf out by means of a 
torch made of cotton waste dipped in kerosene. After the cater- 
pillars have hatched they must be killed with poison sprays. It is 
not too late to do any transplanting that is necessary, but do it as 
early as possible. A good mulch is very beneficial. You can move 
evergreens until such time as they have actually started in growth. 
Prune early flowering shrubs immediately after they have finished 
flowering. Keep watering hydrangeas with alum water if you want 
good blue flowers. As soon as the buds appear on the roses spray 
with arsenate of lead for the rose bug. 
A good heavy mulch of manure applied now to the rose bed will 
give better quality flowers. Licjuid feeding where only a few plants 
are grown is very good; also bone meal worked into the soil, or even 
applied before a mulch is excellent. 
I F YOU haven’t already done so sow some cover crops, such as 
clover, vetch or rye, which can be plowed under when you get 
a good stand. If you don’t intend to sow cover crops and your 
orchard is confined to a few trees, apply a good mulch of some kind. 
Orchard Keep a sharp lookout for all kinds of caterpillars; poison 
sprays will keep them under control. If you want good 
quality fruit you must make up your mind to spray, about a week 
before the buds open, with a mixture of arsenate of lead and 
bordeaux mixture. Use the same mixture just as the petals fall 
and then at periods of several weeks apart use bordeaux mixture. 
This will keep under control 90 per cent, of all insects and worms 
that attack fruit trees. 
To keep the currant worm under control, spray the currants and 
gooseberries with arsenate of lead; also have some potassium sul- 
phide on hand for mildew, to which gooseberries are very susceptible. 
A LL root crops such as mangels, turnips, rutabagas and carrots 
can be sown at this time. A fairly good soil and frequent cul- 
tivation are the best means toward success with these crops. These 
are usually sown in drills about 3 feet apart so they can be worked 
Farm ^ orse cultivator. Sow the seed plentifully in the drills 
„ as it is much easier to thin out than it is to fill in blanks. 
Field corn can be sown any time this month. Don’t 
make the mistake of getting the hills tooclose together; fourfeet each 
way allows plenty of room to cultivate the crop. Fodder corn for 
feeding green can be started at this time. The best plan is to make 
several sowings so that you always have a supply of young green 
stalks rather than sowing all at one time in which case some of the 
corn gets old and dry before you can feed it. Of course for ensilage 
it should all be sown at one time. 
