November, 1912 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
3 H 
is possible only from the fact that this 
same stock is easily propagated. In a 
small way the methods of the professional 
can be applied by the amateur to suit his 
wants and his dozens can be propagated 
proportionately as cheap as the thousands. 
For instance take the hardy hydrangeas. 
In the market a two years old plant will 
cost you from thirty-five to fifty cents, but 
you can grow the same plant for five cents 
if you care to and have the room. To 
get a stock of hydrangeas take your sup¬ 
ply in the fall, after the leaves are off the 
old plants. Cut off pieces about twelve to 
eighteen inches long and put them in bun¬ 
dles of twenty-five each, tying only tight 
enough to keep them intact. Before the 
ground freezes these should be put in. 
Dig a hole so that it will allow the tips of 
the bundles to protrude a couple of inches. 
Then cover over with litter and allow to 
remain undisturbed until the following 
spring. When taken out it will be found 
that fully eighty per cent, of the cuttings 
put in have a callous place on the end, and 
it is from this callous place that roots are 
sure to start. 
This same treatment will apply to about 
all the hardwooded stock. Privet will re¬ 
spond so successfully that but a very small 
percentage will fail and for a person that 
has a way to use privet by the thousands 
these suggestions should be given serious 
consideration. 
Another matter that is often neglected 
is saving the stock of hardy plants that 
you already have in the garden. Winter 
killing is the bane of these spots, but it is 
sometimes due to carelessness in the win¬ 
ter care they receive. Hardy plants need 
care to carry them through the winter and 
that care consists in properly covering 
them. If you pile leaves on them so as 
to bury them you will defeat the object 
you strive for and have a large number 
of plants supposedly winter killed but real¬ 
ly victims of your own thoughtlessness. 
When Nature covers up in the fall she 
does it lightly, filtering down the leaves 
and whirling them into place about the 
plants so as not to smother them, but suf¬ 
ficiently to afford the needed protection. 
Make your hardy cuttings from a foot to 
eighteen inches long 
young newly set tree should 
Just try it once, covering lightly if you 
have been losing plants, and see how it 
works out. 
Arranging for the Trees 
W ITH decorative trees you must nut 
forget to take into consideration 
the size which they will obtain when full 
grown. Be careful in selecting sites for 
trees that no desirable view will be shut 
off, no present arrangement of things in¬ 
terfered with when their tops reach sky¬ 
ward and their branches spread to their 
destinations. I would also caution against 
planting too near the house, on account 
of the exclusion of sunlight. This, how¬ 
ever, is a matter of taste. For my part I 
like all there is to be had of it for nearly 
ten months out of the twelve. 
The holes in which trees are to be 
planted, if the soil is at all hard, cannot 
be dug up too far. If you know of any¬ 
one familiar with the use of agricultural 
dynamite, get him to blast up the holes. 
The charges cost but a few cents apiece, 
and no amount of back-breaking, spading 
and picking can so loosen up a refractory 
soil and subsoil. Old manure or bone 
meal, mixed thoroughly with the earth in 
the bottom of the hole, may be used to 
assure rapid, healthy growth. Don't feel 
that you must go without trees if the 
nurserymen’s prices (remember that most 
trees are several years old before they can 
sell them) seem beyond your reach. One 
or two good trees a year will soon give 
you a fine showing, and if there is no other 
way to get them, go out to the woods and 
try your luck. In all probability a neat 
little clump of birches, a seedling oak or 
pine or fir. may be found to be had for 
the digging, and while its success will not 
be so certain as with nursery stuff, which 
has been pre-transplanted and root- 
pruned, nevertheless there is much pleas¬ 
ure and little expense in trying some of 
Nature’s stock. 
And have you yet looked into that mat¬ 
ter of a real rose garden all your own? 
Now is the time to prepare it, before the 
ground freezes. The plants may be set 
this fall, too, but it is safer to wait until 
spring. The actual planting, if you get 
the bed ready now so that it can settle 
and mellow by the winter freezings and 
thawings, will take but a few moments of 
the precious spring hours. 
Besides all these new things to be done 
about the ground, there are a few routine 
tasks to be finished up. Get your mulch¬ 
ing material ready, old leaves, bog hay, 
rough dry manure, or whatever it may be. 
Don’t be in a hurry to get your mulches 
on before the ground freezes, but don’t 
put the matter off until it is overlooked al¬ 
together. Leaves will do finely for the 
roses and any small tender-hardy shrubs 
such as azaleas; also for hardy lilies, 
which should be cut off a few inches above 
the ground. For strawberries use clean 
straw or bog hay, as it should be left on 
in the spring, between the rows, to keep 
the berries clean. For pansies and other 
plants requiring simply shade to prevent 
thawing, pine boughs are good. 
Do Not Neglect These Things 
O NE of the things which you should 
be careful not to overlook is the 
taking up of your summer blooming, non¬ 
hardy bulbs, such as gladioli, cannas, 
dahlias, caladiums and tuberous rooted 
begonias. The caladiums are the tender- 
est of these, also the hardest to keep. If 
in pots they should be gradually “dried 
off,” and then stored in clean dry sand. 
If in the soil, take them up before frosts 
and let them ripen off in some protected 
sunny spot. The others may be cut off, 
after frost has damaged the foliage, sev¬ 
eral inches above ground, and left for a 
while where they are to ripen; but be 
sure to get them up before hard freezing. 
Put them where they can dry off thor¬ 
oughly before packing in their winter 
quarters, which should be dry and cool 
enough to prevent premature sprouting, 
but frost-proof. 
See to it also that any fruit or vegeta¬ 
bles which may have been stored tempo¬ 
rarily in some outbuilding, are put into 
winter storage in time. Squashes are eas¬ 
ily injured by light freezing, and potatoes 
(Continued on page 326) 
Put the cuttings in the trench, cover and leave 
until spring 
