The Practical Garden-Book Part 10

A deep, mellow, rich soil, naturally moist, will suit the requirements of Clematis. In dry times apply water freely, particularly for the large-flowered kinds. Also provide trellis or other support as soon as they begin to run. Clematis usually blooms on the wood of the season: therefore prune in winter or early spring, in order to secure strong new flowering shoots. The large-flowered kinds should be cut back to the ground each year; and other kinds may be similarly treated unless they are wanted for permanent bowers.

The Clematis root disease is the depredation of a nematode or eel-worm.

It is seldom troublesome in ground which thoroughly freezes.

CLIMBERS. Treated under _Vines_.

COBaeA. This is most commonly seen in the greenhouse, although it is one of the best of tender climbers for porches. Seed sown in February or March, and grown in gentle heat, will make suitable plants for setting out by June. It may also be grown from cuttings of the young wood, taken in February and rooted in brisk heat. The flowers of _C. scandens_ are shaped very much like those of the Campanulas, but are larger. They open a greenish white and deepen to a dark purple in the course of a few days. The vines in full bloom have a gradation of colors as the flowers are in different stages of development. The variegated form of _C.

scandens_ should be propagated by cuttings to hold the variegation.

Grows 10-15 ft. Tender. Climbs by means of tendrils.

c.o.c.ks...o...b.. _Celosia cristata_ is the well known c.o.c.ks...o...b.. having combs or heads of scarlet, crimson, rose and yellow. The combs are often saved for winter bouquets by cutting them off before thoroughly ripe and drying them. The feathered section comprises tall-growing plants with plumes of various colors which, with the colored leaves of some varieties, make a striking feature in a border. The Celosias, being tender, should be started in a hotbed or frame, potted off when out of the seed-leaf, and planted out in well enriched soil after danger of frost is past, 1-2 ft. high.

COLDFRAME. A Coldframe is a simple, low structure, covered with gla.s.s or oiled paper or cloth, in which plants are grown without artificial heat.

It differs from the hotbed in the fact that it has no bottom heat. The atmosphere in the Coldframe is warmer than that outside, because it is protected from the winds and because there is more or less of the sun's heat stored up in the earth. For the details of construction of the Coldframe, see _Hotbed_.

A Coldframe is ordinarily used for later work than the hotbed: that is, seeds may be sown in a Coldframe from two to three and sometimes four weeks in advance of their sowing in the open; whereas in a hotbed the seeds may be started from one to three months earlier than they may be out of doors. Coldframes are sometimes used for the wintering over of hardy plants which are started in the fall. For example, cabbage seed may be sown in September in a Coldframe and the young plants may be protected therein during the winter. If they are properly grown and hardened off, they will not be injured by the winter, even though they freeze. Lettuce and sometimes cauliflowers are carried over in the same way. Coldframes are also used to receive plants which have outgrown the hotbed and must be transplanted. Plants which need hardening off may also be transplanted from the hotbed into the Coldframe. The Coldframe in these cases is an intermediate stage between the hotbed and the open field.

COLEUS. A well known foliage plant for pot culture or bedding. It was used very extensively at one time in ornamental bedding and ribbon borders, but owing to its being tender has lost in favor, and its place is largely taken by other plants. Cuttings root very readily. It may also be grown from seed, although the types have not become fixed, and a large number of differently marked plants may be had from the same packet. This would not be a drawback in the window-garden, unless a uniform effect is wished. Sow the seed in gentle heat in March. Make new plants from cuttings each year, and throw the old ones away.

COLLARDS. This is a name given to a kind of kale, used when young as greens; also to young cabbages used in the same way. The seed of any early cabbage may be sown thickly in rows 18 inches apart, from early spring to late fall. The plants are cut off when 6 or 8 inches high and boiled as are other greens. The kale Collards is grown in the South, where cabbages fail to head. It grows to the height of 2 to 6 feet, furnishing a large quant.i.ty of leaves.

COLLINSIA. A hardy annual that should be sown in the fall, where wanted, if early flowers are desired. The flowers of all the varieties are showy, either in ma.s.ses or planted in a border. Give them a position near the front, as the plants rarely exceed 18 inches in height.

COLUMBINE. See _Aquilegia_.

COMPOST. See _Manure_.

CONVOLVULUS. See _Morning-Glory_.

COREOPSIS, or CALLIOPSIS. Very showy hardy annuals, growing from 1 to 3 feet high, and covered throughout the season with a profusion of bloom.

The colors range from lemon-yellow to dark velvety brown. Excellent for cutting, and very effective in mixed borders. They thrive in any garden soil if they have full sunlight. Sow where they are to grow, letting the plants stand 6-12 in. apart for ma.s.s effects.

CORN SALAD. This is one of the earliest spring salad vegetables, coming into condition to use with spinach, and needing the same culture. Sown in the fall, and covered with straw or hay when cold weather sets in, it will start into rapid growth when the covering is removed in March or April. Or the seed may be sown in early spring, and plants will be fit to use in six or eight weeks. One packet of seed will suffice for a small family.

CORN, SWEET, is not so generally used as it should be. Usually when planted at all, only one planting of one kind is made. The ears come to edible maturity almost simultaneously, and a short season of Sweet Corn is the result. The first planting should be made from May 1 to 10, planting early, intermediate and late varieties at the same time, then at intervals of two weeks until the middle of July, when the late varieties should be planted, thus having a succession from the first crop until October. The soil for Corn should be rich in plant-food, and the coa.r.s.er manure left from the preparation of the ground for small crops may be used to good advantage. Corn for the garden is better planted in drills, the drills 3 feet apart, dropping the seed from 10 to 12 inches apart in the drills. One quart of seed will plant 200 hills.

For extra early, Marblehead, Adams, Vermont, Minnesota and Early Cory are favorites. For later crop, Crosby, Hickox, Shoe Peg and Stowell Evergreen are now popular.

COSMOS. The Cosmos grown in a locality free from early fall frosts is certainly a beautiful thing, but there are probably few flowers that have caused so much disappointment to the flower lover in the North. The seed germinates very freely. The plants grow with great vigor, and if the season permits, an abundance of bloom may be had in September. An early-flowering strain of dwarf Cosmos has been offered by the trade for several years; and each year there seems to be an improvement in the size and colors, so the time may shortly come when this will equal the late-flowering varieties, making the culture of Cosmos more satisfactory. Cosmos flowers are borne on long stems, and the colors are in white and fine shades of red. The foliage is also fine. Seed should be sown in gentle heat, in the greenhouse, hotbed or window in early April, and the young plants transplanted when 2 inches high, setting the plants well down in the soil and giving at least 3 inches between the plants, as they are very likely to spindle up, with weak stems, if crowded. When danger of frost is over, set them out in a warm, well sheltered position, 3 feet apart. After the plants start into growth, pinch out the top to induce a bushy growth. If situated where the wind can whip them, they should have a stake driven close to the stem, and be tied to it for support. Flowers of Cosmos are on the order of single Dahlias.

CRANBERRY. The growing of Cranberries in artificial bogs is an American industry. The common large Cranberry of markets is also a peculiarly American fruit, since it is unknown in other countries except as the fruit is shipped there. Cranberries are grown in bogs, which may be flooded. The whole area is kept under water during the winter time, largely to prevent the plants from winter injury by the heaving and freezing and thawing of the bogs. Flooding is also employed at intervals for the purpose of drowning out insects, mitigating drought, and protecting against frost and fires. Every good Cranberry bog should have facilities for flooding. The ordinary practice is to choose a bog which has a creek running through it, or through which some creek or ditch may be diverted. At the lower side of the bog flood gates are provided, so that when the gates are shut the water backs up and floods the area. It is best that the bog be comparatively flat, so that the water will be of approximately equal depth over the whole area. At the shallowest places the water should stand about a foot above the plants. The water is usually let on the bog early in December and kept on until April or early May. No flooding is done during the rest of the year unless there is some particular occasion therefor.

All the wild and turfy growth should be taken off the bog before the vines are set. This is done either by digging it off and removing it bodily, or by drowning it out by means of a year's flooding. The former method is generally considered to be the better. After the turfy growth is removed, the bog is smoothed and covered 2 or 3 in. deep with clean sand. The vines are now set, the lower ends of them being shoved through the sand into the richer earth. In order to prevent a too rapid and tangled growth of vine, it is customary to resand the bog every three or four years to a depth of one-fourth or one-half inch. When sanding is not practicable, the vines may be mown off when they become too luxuriant.

The plants for setting are merely cuttings or branches of the vines.

These cuttings may be from 5 to 10 in. long. They are inserted into the ground in a hole made by a crowbar or stick. They are usually planted at distances of 12 to 18 in. each way, and the vines are allowed to cover the entire ground as with a mat. In three years a good crop should be secured, if the weeds and wild growth are kept down. A crop ranges between 50 to 100 barrels per acre.

CRESS. The Upland Cress, or the true PEPPER GRa.s.s, may be grown on any garden soil. Sow early in the spring. It makes a rapid growth and can be cut from four to five weeks. Succession of sowings must be made, as it runs quickly to seed. The curled variety is the one usually grown, as the leaves may be used for garnishing as well as for salads. One packet of seed will be sufficient for each sowing. Any good soil will do. Sow thickly in drills 12-18 in. apart. In summer it runs to seed quickly, so that it is usually grown in spring and fall.

The Water Cress is more exacting in its culture, and can only be successfully grown in moist places, such as edges of shallow, slow-running creeks, open drains, or beds excavated near such streams. A few plants for private use may be grown in a frame, provided a retentive soil is used and attention given to watering the bed often. Water Cress may be propagated from pieces of the stem, used as cuttings. If one is fond of Water Cress, it is well to colonize it in some clean creek or pool. It will take care of itself year by year. Seeds may also be used for propagating it.

CROCUS. A hardy bulb, easily grown and giving good satisfaction either in the border or scattered through the lawn. They are also forced for winter (see _Bulbs_). They are so cheap and lasting that they may be used in quant.i.ty. A border of them along the edges of walks, little clumps of them in the lawn, or ma.s.ses in a bed, give the first touch of color as the spring opens. They may be forced with ease planted in pots or shallow boxes, put away in a cool place and brought into the house at any time through the winter. A low temperature will bring them into bloom in perfection in about four weeks from the time they are brought in. They can be had in the window-garden in this way.

A sandy soil suits the Crocus admirably. Plant in the fall, in the open, setting them 3 to 4 inches deep. When they show signs of failing, take up the bulbs and reset them. They tend to rise out of the ground, because the new bulb or corm forms on the top of the old one. If best results are desired, it is well to renew the bed occasionally by buying new bulbs. Crocus beds may be filled later in the season with quick-growing annuals.

CROTON. Under this name many varieties and so-called species of Codiaeum are grown for conservatory decoration, and latterly for foliage bedding in the open. The colors and shapes of the leaves are very various and attractive. The Crotons make good window-garden subjects, although they are very liable to the attack of the mealy bug. They are propagated readily by cuttings of half-ripened wood any time during winter or spring. The plants should be given an abundance of light in order to bring out their fine colors; but it is usually advisable to screen them from the direct rays of the sun when they are grown under gla.s.s. If the red spider or the mealy bug attack them, they may be syringed with tobacco water. Plants which are propagated indoors during the winter may be ma.s.sed in beds out of doors during the summer, where they make very striking effects. Give them rich, deep soil, and be sure that they are syringed frequently enough on the under side of the leaves to keep down the red spider. If the plants have been gradually subjected to strong light before they are taken out of doors, they will stand the full sunlight and will develop their rich colors to perfection. In the fall they may be taken up, cut back and used for window-garden or conservatory subjects. Crotons are shrubs or small trees, and they may be transferred into large pots or tubs and grown on into large tree-like specimens.

CUc.u.mBER. For early use, the Cuc.u.mber is usually started in a hotbed or coldframe by sowing the seed on pieces of sod 4 to 6 inches square, turned gra.s.s side down. Three or four seeds are placed on or pushed into each piece of sod and covered with 1 to 2 inches of fine soil. The soil should be well watered and the gla.s.s or cloth placed over the frame. The roots will run through the sod. When the plants are large enough to set out, a flat trowel or a shingle may be slipped under the sod and the plants moved to the hill without check. In place of sod, old quart berry boxes are good; after setting in the hill the roots may force their way through the cracks in the baskets. The baskets also decay rapidly.

Flower pots may be used. These plants from the frames may be set out when danger of frost is over, usually by the 10th of May, and should make a very rapid growth, yielding good-sized fruits in two months. The hills should be made rich by forking in a quant.i.ty of well rotted manure, and given a slight elevation above the garden--not high enough to allow the wind to dry the soil, but slightly raised so that water will not stand around the roots. One ounce of seed will plant fifty hills. The hills may be 4-5 ft. apart each way.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cuc.u.mbers]

The White Spine is the leading general-purpose variety. For very early or pickling sorts, the Chicago, Russian, and other picklings are good.

The striped beetle is an inveterate pest on Cuc.u.mbers and squashes.

Following is the latest advice (Hall and Sirrine, New York State Experiment Station): "Poisons can be used with success against these beetles for only a short time in the spring, when they begin to feed; and again, in the fall, against beetles of the new brood. This fall poisoning will succeed only where there is not an abundance of wild fall flowers; for the beetles will desert any poisoned crop for the unpoisoned flowers and will feed upon the flowers to a considerable extent, anyhow, if they are to be found. Green a.r.s.enite, dry, gave best results. It was found a waste of the poisons to apply them in Bordeaux mixture, as the mixture so repelled the insects that they would not eat the sprayed vines to secure the poison. These poisons, applied in water, are liable to burn or stunt the plants. It is necessary, then, if we wish to poison the beetles, to use a trap crop to attract the insects and to apply the poison to this crop instead of to the plants we design to protect. On small areas it may be advisable to shut in the small plants of the growing crop by the well known cloth-topped boxes; by the tent-like cloth covers spread over arched hoops or wires; by boxes made from a rectangular piece of cloth and two short 6-inch boards with cleats attached to insert in the soil and hold the boards upright; or even 6-inch wire plate-covers. Covers, however, are too expensive on large areas, and they have the disadvantage of frequently making the plants weak, so that winds will snap them off or twist and ruin them when the covers have to be removed. If covers are used alone, their removal leaves the unprotected vines not only for feeding places but for breeding places for the beetles.

"Bordeaux mixture, if thoroughly and frequently applied, makes as efficient a protection as the covers, is much cheaper, and at the same time protects the plants from diseases. This mixture (1-to-11 formula) should be sprayed upon the Cuc.u.mbers when they are just well up, again when they show the third leaf, and the third time just before the plants commence to form runners. The early application can probably best be made with a knapsack sprayer, and later ones by any good pump sprayer.

The three applications should not cost over $2 per acre. The Bordeaux mixture is a much better repellant, according to station tests, than kerosene, turpentine, tobacco dust, cow manure, burdock infusion, slug shot, bug death, or any other known compound. Indeed, all materials of this cla.s.s, supposed to drive away the beetles by their distasteful odor, proved failures when used alone. Air-slaked lime, dusted over the vines, will make them unpalatable to the beetles, but the lime is liable to stunt the plants. It may be used, with care, by those whose crop is not large enough to warrant purchase of a spraying outfit.

"All of these appliances or applications, covers, Bordeaux mixture or lime, merely protect the young plants until they are strong enough to stand the injury from the beetles; they do not kill the insects. To do this, trap crops are needed. As the squash is the beetle's favorite food plant, this vegetable should be planted--in single rows along the margins of small patches, in several rows around large fields--about four days before the Cuc.u.mbers or melon seeds are sown. When these trap plants are up and the beetles appear about them, dust about half the plants with green a.r.s.enite, reserving the other half for use if rain or heavy dew makes the poison soluble and kills the vines first treated.

The beetles, attracted by their favorite tidbit, will feed upon the squash vines and be poisoned by the a.r.s.enite. When the Cuc.u.mbers or melons are up, unless they are protected by covers, spray with Bordeaux, and poison more of the squash vines. When the beetles commence to pair, the squashes may be cultivated up, leaving only a few vines for the beetles to feed upon at flowering time, as the insects prefer the squash flowers and will not molest the others. Beans may be used with some success as a fall catch crop, where wild flowers are not too plentiful.

They should be planted on the Cuc.u.mber or melon fields; and when the beetles leave the old vines to feed upon the fresh bean plants, they should be treated to liberal doses of poison as well."

The mildew on the vines can be prevented by Bordeaux mixture spray.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Currants]