RARE PLANTS 
UGLY DUCKLING 
You've seen the scene in movieland 
Malaya: pan in on a jungle clearing 
bounded by tall reeds, deserted until sud- 
denly the eye picks up the stealthy shadow 
of a tawny tiger behind the living screen. 
Well, we've got it! That is, the grass! 
Thysanolaenus maxima, a botanical 
mouthful known to intimates as ''Tiger 
Grass'' for obvious reasons, is a home gar- 
dener's dream. But not for the first years 
of its life. It's ultimate beauty and utility, 
both real and great, are achieved only 
after it passes through an awkward adoles- 
cence when it resembles nothing so much 
as vitamin enriched crab grass! Once re- 
leased from this repressed youth, however, 
it leafs forth into a handsome bamboo-like 
clump of six foot or more stems bearing 
knuckled lanceolate leaves of glossy green 
nearly two feet long and four inches wide. 
It stays that way, and herein lies its 
utility. Unlike the burgeoning. bamboos 
which often grow to towering heights, 
Tiger Grass maintains a human proportion 
suiting it to the low one-story conception 
of contemporary architecture, and, once 
achieving a tight clump of attractive pro- 
portions, it retains that area, without 
sending up still another, taller culm into 
the lawn or nearby brick terrace as you 
may have seen the magnificent bamboos 
do. Plants in one gallon containers, requir- 
ing a tolerance of the plant's youthful va- 
garies, are $1, while two-year plants ready 
for the adult transformation are $4.75. 
TO THE 
Root of the Trouble 
Rain came, then wind, not a hurricane, 
just a good stitf breeze. This combination 
took its usual, and often unnecessary, toll 
in fallen trees. 
The root structure of trees is as varied 
as are their branches, foliage, or fruits: 
some admittedly not naturally strong root- 
ing, others famous for the tenacity with 
which they cling to mother earth. How- 
ever, any or all may be assisted in per- 
forming their natural function of taking up 
the necessary food from the soil and of 
providing anchorage. 
A normal, healthy tree must have a good 
root spread. At the time of planting an 
irrigation trench around the tree three or 
four feet in diameter was perhaps suffi- 
cient but do not continue to water and 
feed in this area only as the tree develops. 
Instead gradually widen this area so that 
the roots keep reaching out. Slant the 
grade away from the tree so that the 
moisture reaches out, too. 
In addition to attaining a good root 
spread also try to get the roots down by 
deep watering. Various situations will call 
for various methods such as the subject be- 
ing located in a lawn. Here the obvious 
problem is to get water and food down 
beyond the turf. For just this purpose there 
are several good watering devices obtain- 
able, or an iron bar of about one inch 
diameter can be used to punch holes as 
indicated by the spread and height of the 
tree. Via these holes apply water and, as 
needed, fertilizer. 
Roots will go out after water. Put water 
where you would have roots. It is not al- 
ways as simple, as in the case of a tree in 
the lawn, but usually it can be worked out. 
Care along these lines may save you a 
tree when the rains come and the wind 
blows. 
IT’S TIME FOR... 
(Continued from opposite page) 
Chlordane) Chrysanthemums. Plant Carna- 
tions, 45 cents each. Prune spring-flowering 
shrubs while in bloom or just after they've 
finished. Cut back leggy Fuchsias and fer- 
tilize with cottonseed meal and liquid fer- 
tilizer. Feed lawns Grorite (Bowsoilyfe if 
new lawn), Citrus the same, except when in 
bloom set fruit with Sulphate of Ammonia 
applied in holes at the drip line. Start pest 
control. Feed Gardenias Sulphate of Am- 
monia and Irontone. 
