Garden Correspondence 
Conducted by W. C. EGAN 
LABELING ROSES AND OTHER PLANTS 
ENDEAVOR to keep my hybrid perpetual 
roses labeled plainly so I and my friends may 
know their names. I use large cypress labels, 
but sometimes my men are careless when removing 
the winter’s covering, and either carry them away 
or get them mixed up. Is there any method of 
procedure by which this may be remedied ? 
E. B. C. 
The best plan to pursue is to take a thin sheet of 
lead and cut it into pieces about two inches long, a 
quarter of an inch wide at one end and tapering to a 
point at the other. Stamp letters or numbers in the 
broad end (a set of dies costs but little) and wrap the 
pliable pieces around the stems close to the ground. 
Take a stiff piece of cardboard, hack of a letter pad, 
or cover of a pasteboard box, and enter number and 
name as you proceed. Take up the wooden labels, 
tie them in a bundle, and put them under cover for 
the winter, fastening the card with them, but in the 
meantime copy numbers and names in your garden 
book, so that in case of accident to one list, you have 
the other in reserve. 
I use the same method with dahlias, hut punch 
a hole in the lead, in which I put a thin, but 
strong wire. I run this wire through the tuber 
and also wrap it around the bunch, copying num¬ 
bers and names. I also apply the same principle 
in describing color, size of flower and habit of 
plant of seedling delphiniums; but in this case I 
fasten the lead tags to stiff telegraph wire, a foot 
long, inserting the wire in the ground its full 
length. By growing a batch of hybrid delphin¬ 
iums each year for a few seasons, culling out 
the small flowered, and weak colored ones by 
up-rooting them as soon as judgment is passed 
upon them and describing and tagging those that 
remain, and entering the descriptions in your 
garden book, you may, any spring, transplant 
intelligently, grouping your light blues and dark 
blues as you desire. 
V 
HARDINESS AND MERITS OF SHRUBS 
On the south side of my house, in full sun, I have 
a place of honor for the best all around shrub. It 
will be at the junction of the main and the service 
walks. Will you kindly name, in the order of their 
merit, the six best shrubs for individual planting in 
full sun and suitable for this climate. 
What can you tell me as to the hardiness and merits 
of the Scotch laburnum, Xanthoceras sorhijolia, Budd- 
leia variabilis, and Hedysarum multijugum. The 
last two are recommended by Bobbink & Atkins of 
Rutherford, N. J. A. C. Z., Eincoln, Neb. 
In selecting a shrub for a choice position, where its 
environments play no part as to its form or character, 
and one has narrowed down the list to those of un¬ 
doubted hardiness, and of symmetrical form, indi¬ 
vidual tastes step in and cause dissension. Some 
soils suit one species better than another, and as a 
consequence it grows to perfection and assumes an 
ideal form, while the “other one” in conditions 
suited to it, may equal or even excel the first. An¬ 
other feature to be taken into consideration is 
whether a shrub is chosen for its flowers or foliage. 
Unless a shrub is desired, whose flowers form a com¬ 
panion for those of an adjoining one, its flowering 
qualifications should be of secondary consideration, 
and the foliage and habit become the first desidera¬ 
tum. The flowers are fleeting, but the foliage re¬ 
mains all the season. The crimson rambler is 
gorgeous in its season of bloom, but in most situ¬ 
ations it is in disgrace the balance of the season 
on account of its poor foliage. I am going to place 
Forsythia intermedia first, on account of its rich, 
dark green foliage, right up to severe frosts. Often 
a very hard winter injures some of its bloom buds, 
and we may miss the golden fountain it personates 
when uninjured, when its leafless, long, arching 
branches are completely clothed with drooping 
yellow bells. 
Prunus triloba, the Chinese double flowering 
plum, comes next, and although chosen on account 
of its flowers (they are of a pleasing color, attractive 
in form, and generous in quality) its foliage, when 
well grown, is good. This shrub, also, is apt to 
have some of its flower buds winter-killed, but 
when in perfection outrivals any shrub I know of 
hardy enough for this section. The flowers are like 
miniature pink, double roses, and often encircle a 
branch for a distance of a foot or more, as the ker¬ 
nels of corn encircle the cob. 
Syringa villosa, a late blooming lilac, is next in 
the list, and while a magnificent sight when in 
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