Manual of Gardening Part 57

_Pink_--Mrs. John Laing.

Paul Neyron.

Queen of Queens.

Magna Charta.

Baroness Rothschild.

_White_--Margaret d.i.c.kson.

Merveille de Lyon.

_Hardy climbing, or pillar roses._--These bloom but once during the season. They come after the June roses, however,--a good season--and at that time are ma.s.ses of flowers. They require only slight pruning.

_White_--Baltimore Belle, Pr.

Washington, N.

Rosa Wichuraiana (trailing).

_Pink_--Queen of the Prairies, Pr.

Tennessee Belle, Pr.

Climbing Jules Margotten, H.P.

_Crimson_--Crimson Rambler, Pol.

_Yellow_--Yellow Rambler, Pol.

_Tender climbing, or pillar roses. For conservatories, and the South as far north as Tennessee._--Those marked with (A)are half-hardy north of the Ohio River, or about as hardy as the hybrid teas. These need no pruning except a slight shortening-in of the shoots and a thinning out of the weak growth.

_Yellow_--Marechal Niel, N. Solfaterre, N. (A)Gloire de Dijon, T. Yellow Banksia (Banksiana).

_White_--(A)Aimee Vibert, N. Bennett's Seedling (Ayrshire).

White Banksia (Banksiana).

_Red_--(A)Reine Marie Henriette, T. James Sprunt, C.

_Roses in winter_ (by C.E. Hunn).

Although the growing of roses under gla.s.s must be left chiefly to florists, advice may be useful to those who have conservatories:--

When growing forcing roses for winter flowers, florists usually provide raised beds, in the best-lighted houses they have. The bottom of the bed or bench is left with cracks between the boards for drainage; the cracks are covered with inverted strips of sod, and the bench is then covered with 4 or 5 inches of fresh, fibrous loam. This is made from rotted sods, with decayed manure incorporated at the rate of about one part in four. Sod from any drained pasture-land makes good soil. The plants are set on the bed in the spring or early summer, from 12 to 18 inches apart, and are grown there all summer.

During the winter they are kept at a temperature of 58 to 60 at night, and from 5 to 10 warmer during the day. The heating pipes are often run under the benches, not because the rose likes bottom heat, but to economize s.p.a.ce and to a.s.sist in drying out the beds in case of their becoming too wet. The greatest care is required in watering, in guarding the temperature, and in ventilation. Draughts result in checks to the growth and in mildewed foliage.

Dryness of the air, especially from fire heat, is followed by the appearance of the minute red spider on the leaves. The aphis, or green plant louse, appears under all conditions, and must be kept down by the use of some of the tobacco preparations (several of which are on the market).

For the red spider, the chief means of control is syringing with either clear or soapy water. If the plants are intelligently ventilated and given, at all times, as much fresh air as possible, the red spider is less likely to appear. For mildew, which is easily recognized by its white, powdery appearance on the foliage, accompanied with more or less distortion of the leaves, the remedy is sulfur in some form or other.

The flowers of sulfur may be dusted thinly over the foliage; enough merely slightly to whiten the foliage is sufficient. It may be dusted on from the hand in a broadcast way, or applied with a powder-bellows, which is a better and less wasteful method. Again, a paint composed of sulfur and linseed oil may be applied to a part of one of the steam or hot-water heating pipes. The fumes arising from this are not agreeable to breathe, but fatal to mildew. Again, a little sulfur may be sprinkled here and there on the cooler parts of the greenhouse flue. Under no circ.u.mstances, however, ignite any sulfur in a greenhouse. The vapor of burning sulfur is death to plants.

_Propagation of house roses._--The writer has known women who could root roses with the greatest ease. They would simply break off a branch of the rose, insert it in the flower-bed, cover it with a bell-jar, and in a few weeks they would have a strong plant. Again they would resort to layering; in which case a branch, notched halfway through on the lower side, was bent to the ground and pegged down so that the notched part was covered with a few inches of soil. The layered spot was watered from time to time. After three or four weeks roots were sent forth from the notch and the branch or buds began to grow, when it was known that the layer had formed roots.

Several years ago a friend took a cheese-box, filled it with sharp sand to the brim, supported it in a tub of water so that the lower half-inch of the box was immersed. The sand was packed down, sprinkled, and single-joint rose cuttings, with a bud and a leaf near the top, were inserted almost their whole length in the sand. This was in July, a hot month, when it is usually difficult to root any kind of cutting; moreover, the box stood on a southern slope, facing the hot sun, without a particle of shade. The only attention given the box was to keep the water high enough in the tub to touch the bottom of the cheese-box. In about three weeks he took out three or four dozen of as nicely rooted cuttings as could have been grown in a greenhouse.

The "saucer system," in which cuttings are inserted in wet sand contained in a saucer an inch or two deep, to be exposed at all times to the full sunshine, is of a similar nature. The essentials are, to give the cuttings the "full sun" and to keep the sand saturated with water.

Whatever method is used, if cuttings are to be transplanted after rooting, it is important to pot them off in small pots as soon as they have a cl.u.s.ter of roots one-half inch or an inch long. Leaving them too long in the sand weakens the cutting.

SMILAX of the florists is closely allied to asparagus (it is _Asparagus medeoloides_ of the botanists). While it cannot be recommended for house culture, the ease with which it may be grown and the uses to which the festoons of leaves may be put ent.i.tle it to a place in the conservatory or greenhouse.

Seed sown in pots or boxes in January or February, the plants shifted as needed until planted on the bench in August, will grow fine strings of green by the holidays. The temperature should be rather high. The plants should be set on low benches, giving as much room as possible overhead.

Green-colored strings should be used for the vines to climb on, the vines frequently syringed to keep down the red spider, which is very destructive to this plant, and liquid manure given as the vines grow.

The soil should contain a good proportion of sand and be enriched with well-rotted manure.

After the first strings are cut, a second growth fully as good as the first may be had by cleaning up the plants and top-dressing the soil with rotted manure. Sometimes the old roots are kept three or four years. Slightly shading the house through August will add to the color of the leaves. The odor from a vine of smilax thickly covered with the small flowers is very agreeable.

STOCKS.--The Ten-weeks and the biennial or Brompton stocks (species of _Matthiola_) are found in nearly all old-fashioned gardens. Most gardens are thought to be incomplete without them, and the use of the biennial flowering species as house-plants is increasing.

The Ten-weeks stock is usually grown from seed sown in hotbeds or boxes in March. The seedlings are transplanted several times previous to being planted out in early May. At each transplanting the soil should be made a little richer. The double flowers will be more numerous when the soil is rich.

The biennial species (or Brompton stocks) should be sown the season previous to that in which flowers are wanted, the plants wintered over in a cool house, and grown in the following spring. They may be planted out through the summer and lifted into pots in August or September for winter flowering. These may be increased by cuttings taken from the side shoots; but the sowing of seed is a surer method, and unless an extra fine variety is to be saved, it would be the best one to pursue. Height, 10 to 15 inches.

SWEET PEA.--A hardy, tendril-climbing annual, universally prized as an outdoor garden plant; also forced to some extent by florists. On any occasion the sweet pea is in place. A bouquet of shaded colors, with a few sprays of galium or the perennial gypsophila, makes one of the choicest of table decorations.

Deep, mellow soil, early planting, and heavy mulching suit them admirably. It is easy to make soils too rich in nitrogen for sweet peas; in such case, they will run to vine at the expense of flowers.

Sow the seeds as soon as the ground is fit to work in the spring, making a drill 5 inches deep. Sow thickly and cover with 2 inches of earth.

When the plants have made 2 or 3 inches' growth above the earth, fill the drill nearly full, leaving a slight depression in which water may be caught. After the soil is thoroughly soaked with water, a good mulch will hold the moisture. To have the ground ready in early spring, it is a good plan to trench the ground in the fall. The top of the soil then dries out very quickly in spring and is left in good physical condition.

In the middle and southern states the seed may be planted in fall, particularly in lighter soils.

Frequent syringing with clear water will keep off the red spider that often destroys the foliage, and attention to picking the seed pods will lengthen the season of bloom. If the finest flowers are wanted, do not let the plants stand less than 8 to 12 inches apart.

A succession of sowings may be made at intervals through May and June, and a fair fall crop secured if care is taken to water and mulch; but the best results will be secured with the very early planting. When the plants are watered, apply enough to soak the soil, and do not water frequently.

SWAINSONA.--This plant has been called the winter sweet pea, but the flowers are not fragrant. It makes a very desirable house plant, blooming through the late winter and early spring months. The blossoms, which resemble those of the pea, are borne in long racemes. The foliage is finely cut, resembling small locust leaves, and adds to the beauty of the plant, the whole effect being exceedingly graceful. Swainsona may be grown from seed or cuttings. Cuttings taken in late winter should make blooming plants in summer; these plants may be used for winter bloom, but it is better to raise new plants. Some gardeners cut back old plants to secure new blooming wood; this is desirable if the plants grow more or less permanently in the greenhouse border, but for pots new plants should be grown.

The common swainsona is white-flowered; but there is a good rose-colored variety.

TUBEROSE (properly _tuber-ose,_ not _tube-rose,_ from its specific name, _Polianthes tuberosa_).--This plant, with its tall spikes of waxen and fragrant white flowers, is well known in the middle lat.i.tudes, but usually requires more heat and a longer season than are commonly present in the most northern states.

The tuberose is a strong feeder, and loves warmth, plenty of water while growing, and a deep, rich, and well-drained soil. The bulbs may be set in the garden or border the last of May or in June, covering them about 1 inch deep. Preparatory to planting, the old dead roots at the base of the bulb should be cut away and the pips or young bulbs about the sides removed. After keeping them till their scars are dried over, these pips may be planted 5 or 6 inches apart in drills, and with good soil and cultivation they will make blooming bulbs for the following year.

Before planting the large bulbs, it may be well to examine the points, to determine whether they are likely to bloom. The tuberose blooms but once. If there is a hard, woody piece of old stem in the midst of the dry scales at the apex of the bulb, it has bloomed, and is of no value except for producing pips. Likewise if, instead of a solid core, there is a brownish, dry cavity extending from the tip down into the middle of the bulb, the heart has rotted or dried up, and the bulb is worthless as far as blooming is concerned.

Bulbs of blooming size set in the border in June flower toward the close of September. They may be made to flower three or four weeks sooner by starting them early in some warm place, where they may be given a temperature of about 60 to 70. Prepare the bulbs as above, and place them with their tips just above the surface in about 3-or 4-inch pots, in light sandy soil. Water them thoroughly, afterwards sparingly, till the leaves have made considerable growth. These plants may be turned out into the open ground the last of May or in June, and will probably flower in early September.

[Ill.u.s.tration: XX. A simple but effective window-box, containing geraniums, petunias, verbenas, heliotrope, and vines.]

In the northern states, if planted in the border they will not start into growth until the ground has become thoroughly warm,--usually after the middle of June,--making the season before frost too short for their perfect growth and flower. If any danger of fall frost is feared, they may be lifted into pots or boxes and taken into the house, when they will bloom without a check. As with other bulbs, a sandy soil will suit.

Just before frost dig up the bulbs, cut off the tops to within 2 inches of the apex of the bulb. They may then be placed in shallow boxes and left out in the sun and air for a week or more, to cure. Each evening, if the nights are cold, they should be removed to some room where the temperature will not fall below 40. When the outer scales have become dry, the remaining soil may be shaken off and the bulbs stored away in shallow boxes for the winter. They keep best in a temperature of 45 to 50. It should never fall below 40.