60 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
At the meeting of the Pennsylvania Horticultural 
Society, held in February, Mr. Joseph Meehan of Phila- 
delphia, read a paper on Herbaceous Plants, which con- 
tained the following practical information: 
The herbaceous plants of our woods and fields are 
in great variety, and although there are many most beau- 
tiful kinds almost exterminated, speaking of the vicinity 
of this city, there are hundreds of sorts yet to be found, 
the looking for and finding the names of which would 
afford great gratification. 
Referring to these, as well as to the herbaceous 
plants of other countries, there is a deal of satisfaction 
to be derived from their cultivation. While for the sake 
of masse > of color, bedding plants will always be in de- 
mand, they will never occupy the place in the affections 
of the people that herbaceous plants do. The veronicas, 
the hollyhocks, the larkspurs and the columbines which 
grew in the garden of our boyhood, we never forget. 
We got to know them then, to know the spot they occu- 
pied, and we were wont to eagerly watch for their ap- 
pearance as for that of some loved friend. It is this re- 
appearance, after their winter’s absence, that makes them 
so welcome to all. 
It is common to hear persons say, when viewing 
woodland beauty, “How I would like to transplant it to 
my garden.” While it is true that but few succeed in 
getting such plants to flourish in their gardens, it is 
nearly always from lack of knowing how to make them 
feel at home. Let me mention the trailing arbutus, Epi- 
g?ea repens, as an illustration. It is the common be- 
lief that this lovely flower cannot be transplanted, and 
more than once I have corrected writers who have as- 
serted this in public print. I have transplanted it suc- 
cessfully, so have many others. Two summers ago, when 
in England, I saw a nice patch of it in the Bagshot nur- 
series; and many other large nursery firms there offer it 
for sale. It is not a native there, so that it follows that 
at some time or other the plants were safely transported 
from here, seedlings of it being rare. This plant likes 
shade and moisture and to be undisturbed. It would 
not thrive in the open garden, but if small, bushy plants 
with a good ball of earth, be taken and set in a wood- 
land where the required conditions exist they will live 
and flourish. 
With native plants, a little care should be taken to 
provide for them situations as alike as possible to those 
they have been accustomed to. There are shade-loving 
plants, and those that grow in open places. It often hap- 
pens that a partly shady border is at command, where 
those that demand it can be placed. It does,not always 
follow that a wild plant is found growing in the best 
possible place for it. Take for example, the scarlet 
Columbine, found on damp rocks along the Wissahickon. 
I have seen better specimens of it in open places in gar- 
dens than ever I have seen wild, no doubt because the 
garden afforded better food than its native rocks. 
To those who have not tried it, it would be a great 
surprise to find how much better plants grow when the 
ground about them is well mulched. It makes the plants 
feel more nearly at home than anything else that could 
be done, save the giving of shade to some of them. 
Plants in the woods have shade above them and decay- 
ing leaves about them, and those in fields have grass or 
other plants about them, so that in both places the roots 
are cool. This is what mulching of the garden plants 
does, this and the preservation of moisture. Another 
thing rarely thought of is this: The wild plants in the 
woods are so covered with forest leaves that frost does 
not get to their roots. I am sure that all plants, hardy or 
not, are the better for this protection, and I would 
mulch afresh in fall, that the roots may have a winter 
covering. As herbaceous plants will repay good food 
given them, I would mulch with manure in the fall. 
Let it be long manure, the better to protect the plants; 
the strawy portion can be raked off in the spring, the re- 
mainder can be left undisturbed; it will be loose, and of- 
ten it will be sufficient mulching for the summer. 
Next to mulching there is nothing like a constant 
stirring of the soil. Let me say here that I have found 
many workmen in gardens totally unacquainted with the 
principles of hoeing. The hoe is drawn over a surface 
already hard, cutting off the weeds close to the ground. 
Then the weeds are raked off, leaving the ground in 
really worse condition than before, for the weeds shaded 
the surface if they did rob the ground. Hoeing should 
be fully as much to loosen the soil as to destroy weeds. 
Every stroke of the hoe should loosen up an inch or 
more of soil, and this loose soil should not.be raked 
down too fine, or the first heavy rain will beat it down 
very hard. One would hardly believe what a help con- 
stant cultivation of this kind is to herbaceous and all 
other plants. And when rains come, the water is all 
taken up where it falls. Good mulching preserves the 
looseness of the soil in the same way. I am sure that 
very many more of our lovely nativeTowers could be 
successfully grown if mulching or hoeing would be made 
a feature of cultivation. 
The propagation of herbaceous plants is mostly by 
division of the root or by sowing seeds, though when 
greenhouse facilities are at hand many sorts can be in- 
creased by cuttings. A little practice will suggest the 
best mode. Those that can be divided will show it af- 
ter a year or two’s growth, by the clump-like appearance 
displayed. There is no set time for dividing the plants. 
Very early spring is an excellent time; so is early fall. 
If done late in spring, the summer’s heat comes on to 
them too soon, before well rooted, and in late fall frosts 
behave in the same way. The sowing of seeds is an in- 
teresting as well as a successful way; this work should 
be done early in the spring, out of doors, just as soon 
as the season will permit. There are some kinds, such 
as our wild aster, which are the better for being sown in 
in the fall. Just before the ground freezes up will do. 
The seedlings will appear early in the spring, and, what 
is more, they will flower the same season, in the fall. It 
was my intention to name some fifty kinds of herbaceous 
plants, giving the months in which certain ones flower, 
but as the catalogues of nurserymen contain this infor- 
mation it seems hardly an advantage to do it here. I 
will but say that, commencing with April and ending 
with November something can be had for every month 
of the term. 
