PARK AMD CEMETERY 
138 
Thinning Young ‘Plantations and Shrub- 
bery Borders. 
Bulletin No. 36 of the American Asso- 
ciation of Park Superintendents devoted 
to a discussion of thinning young plan- 
tations and shrubbery borders showed a 
wide variance of opinion as to the proper 
time for doing this important work. Rob- 
ert Cameron says now is the time, just 
after the leaves have fallen, to study 
plantations to determine which trees or 
shrubs shall be removed. It is easy now 
to see the individual trees or shrubs in 
a group which are interfering with one 
another, or in other words, to see if the 
struggle for supremacy has begun. J. B. 
Shea holds to the opinion that “better 
results can be obtained, the individuals 
better studied for health, symmetry, etc., 
and the groupings more clearly defined 
before the foliage has disappeared.’’ He 
advises doing all marking before the 
middle of November and the cutting and 
thinning when convenient. J. A. Petti- 
grew favors the summer season as the 
best time to select and mark the mate- 
rial to be thinned out. “At this time,” he 
says, “the condition of the trees and their 
relation to each other can be more easily 
determined and pleasing combinations 
arranged or retained.” 
“The best time to determine the general 
plan of action is the early summer,” says 
Edward P. Adams. “At that time make 
notes and sketches for future use. How 
best in detail to produce the results can 
well be left until winter.” J. H. Hem- 
ingway favors thinning out when it is 
needed. “In the first place, plant what 
you intend shall be permanent, when 
matured (keep a plan), fill in as many 
or as few as you wish and take out when 
they crowd your original plan.” Sec- 
retary John W. Duncan sums up the dis- 
cussion by asserting that “You cannot 
tell in summer what the winter effects 
will look like, or vice versa, the mark- 
ing must be done at all seasons. All will 
agree, however, with Prof. Cowell and 
Mr. Cameron in that it takes a lot of 
nerve and “courage and determination" 
to use the axe at the right time. 
‘ Bulbs in the Mixed Border. 
Bulbs have of late years become so 
popular for bedding purposes and for 
planting in grass swards that their value 
as border plants is in some danger of 
being overlooked. 
When used judiciously bulbs are a 
great acquisition to the ordinary mixed 
border. It must be admitted, however, 
that the free use of bulbs in such bord- 
ers has its drawbacks, but, taking every- 
thing into consideration, the advantages 
undoubtedly far outweigh the disadvan- 
tages incurred. 
The beauty of a flower border where 
bulbs — I employ the term in its broad- 
est sense — are freely used is maintained 
for a much longer period and the bril- 
liancy and variety of color at command 
are far greater than when only the so- 
called herbaceous and florist’s plants are 
planted. The two greatest drawbacks 
with such a border are, first, the diffi- 
culty of digging and manuring it ; and, 
secondly, the impossibility of rearrang- 
ing it to any great extent without dis- 
turbing the border at a season — in Au- 
gust or early September — when many of 
the ordinary flowering plants are at their 
best. Such a radical overhaul is, how- 
ever, only needed at rare intervals, and 
even then can be carried out without 
necessarily spoiling the whole appearance 
of the border. For several years past 
two of the most attractive borders in the 
gardens here have been those in which 
all kinds of bulbs have been freely 
planted among the commoner perennial, 
biennial, and annual flowering plants, 
and the result has in every way been 
highly satisfactory. 
In planting such a border it is essen- 
tial that the bulbs and other plants flow- 
ering at the same period, should be dis- 
tributed and arranged more or less 
equally throughout the border, so that 
one portion shall not be bright and 
another part dull and unattractive. 
Irregular and light, but not exten- 
sive, grouping of bulbs is advisable, 
as best color effects are thus ob- 
tained. Crown Imperials, Polyanthus, 
Narcissi, florist’s Tulips, Muscari and 
Chionodoxas, mixed in with Au- 
brietias, Double Arabis, Polyanthus, 
Primroses and Daisies, and here and 
there a few wall flowers, are the earliest 
flowering plants in such a border, most 
of them commencing to make a show by 
the end of March. Following these come 
the May Tulips, Scillas, Fritillarias and 
Ornithogalums. By the time the other 
non-bulbous spring-flowering plants are 
waning, Violas, Pinks, various species 
of Campanulas and Erigerons are begin- 
ning to take their places. Spanish and 
English Iris, the Colvillei type of Gladi- 
olus and the Camassias keep up a suc- 
cession of bloom well into July and Au- 
gust, when the beauty is upheld by 
Montbretias, Lilies, Galtonias and the 
late flowering Gladioli, and carried on 
by them until frost puts an end to out- 
side flowers. 
During the early summer and autumn 
herbaceous plants, such as Dephiniums, 
Sunflowers, Phloxes and Anemones, bi- 
ennials, such as the Chimney Campanula 
and Foxgloves, hardy and half-hardy an- 
nuals, such as Poppies, Godetias, Chiz- 
anthus, Nemesias, Alonsoas, Stocks, As- 
ters and such like all help to make the 
mixed border interesting and attractive. 
The annuals are planted in such places 
as where the early bulbs have died down, 
and where spring-flowering plants like 
the Arabis, Polyanthus, Primroses, and 
Aubrietias have been removed to their 
summer quarters in the nursery ground. 
These latter, with the Gladioli and Iris, 
are the only perennials which are inter- 
fered with. All the other plants, bulbous 
or otherwise, are not disturbed from 
year to year, except when they show 
signs of overcrowding or the need of bet- 
ter soil. W. W. Pettigrew, 
Supt. of Parks, Cardiff. 
From The Garden, London. 
Vitality of Seeds. 
In an interesting article on The Per- 
sistent Vitality of Seeds in the Florist's 
Exchange, Burnet Landreth, the well- 
known seedsman, cites the following ex- 
perience : “A ten-acre field of grass, 
which has been undisturbed for five 
years, when this July plowed under and 
sown in Valentine beans, produced 
among the beans a very excellent crop 
of German kale, almost enough to stand ; 
but it was ten years ago, or in 1894, that 
a crop of German kale was grown upon 
that field. 
“The writer firmly believes that much 
seed condemned as unvital, or of low vi- 
tality, as proved in comparative tests, 
would, nevertheless, sprout under cer- 
tain peculiar and odd circumstances.” 
