The Practical Garden-Book Part 9

CENTAUREA. Showy annuals and perennials. _C. Cya.n.u.s_ is the CORN FLOWER or BACHELOR b.u.t.tON, familiar to every flower lover, and always seen in old-fashioned gardens. This is a fine plant for borders or mixed beds, and also gives good flowers for bouquets. A bunch of the Corn Flower, with a sprinkling of yellow marigolds or California poppy, makes a rich effect. These Centaureas are easy of culture, seeding themselves after once being planted, and coming up year after year in great profusion.

There are blue, white and rose varieties. Annuals. 2-3 ft. Hardy.

The silver-leaved Centaureas are used only for foliage effects. They are excellent for ribbon beds or border lines. The seed of these should be started in a hotbed or box in March, the young plants being set out where wanted when the ground becomes warm. These species are perennials, and are sometimes grown from cuttings. _C. candidissima_ and _C.

gymnocarpa_ are among the best white-leaved bedders.

CENTRANTHUS. Low-growing hardy annuals in two colors, red and white.

They make very effective covering for low rockwork, and are also suitable for vases or lawn baskets. Sow where the plants are to stand, or start indoors if early bloom is wanted. 1 ft. Thin to 10-12 in.

apart.

CENTURY PLANT, or AGAVE. These are fine ornamental plants for the window-garden or conservatory, requiring but little care and growing slowly, thus needing repotting only at long intervals. When the plants have outgrown their usefulness as house plants, they are still valuable as porch decorations, for plunging in rockwork or about rustic nooks.

The striped-leaved variety is the most desirable, but the common type, with its blue-gray leaves, is highly ornamental.

There are a number of dwarf-growing species of Agave that are not so common, although they may be grown with ease. Such plants add novelty to a collection, and may be used through the summer as noted above or plunged with cactus in a bed of tropical plants. All succeed well in loam and sand in equal parts, adding a little leaf-mold in the case of the small varieties. The more common species are propagated by suckers from around the base of the established plants. A few kinds having no suckers must be grown from seed. As to watering, they demand no special care. Agaves will not stand frost.

CEREUS. Under the name of NIGHT-BLOOMING CEREUSES, several species of Cacti are cultivated. The name is sometimes applied to species of Phyllocactus, the flowers of which, in white and shades of red, sometimes open at nightfall. Phyllocactuses are easy to grow. See _Cactus_. The true Night-blooming Cereuses, however, are species of the genus Cereus. The commonest one is _C. nycticalus_, but _C.

grandiflorus_, _C. triangularis_ and others are occasionally seen. These true Night-blooming Cereuses all have long rod-like stems, which are cylindrical or angular. These stems often reach a height of 10 to 30 ft., and they need support. They should be trained along a pillar or tied to a stake. They are uninteresting leafless things during a large part of the year; but in midsummer, after they are three or more years old, they throw out their great tubular flowers, which open at nightfall and wither and die when the light strikes them next morning. They are very easily grown, either in pots or planted in the natural soil in the conservatory. The only special care they need is good drainage at the roots, so that the soil will not become soggy.

CHERRY. Of Cherries there are two common types, the sweet Cherries and the sour Cherries. The sweet Cherries are larger and taller-growing trees. They comprise the varieties known as the Hearts, Bigarreaus and Dukes. The sour Cherries include the various kinds of Morellos and pie Cherries, and these usually ripen after the sweet Cherries. The sour Cherries make low, round-headed trees. The fruits are extensively used for canning. Cherry trees should be planted when 2 and 3 years old. Too rich soil tends to make growth at the expense of fruit, particularly in the sweet Cherries. For the sweet types, a strong, gravelly loam is best. Sour Cherries thrive well on clay loams.

Trees of the sour Cherry should be planted 18 by 18 ft. apart, in well prepared under-drained soil. The trees may be slightly trimmed back each year, keeping the head low and bushy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sweet Cherry]

The sweet Cherries have proved disappointing in many instances from the rotting of the fruit. This may never be entirely avoided, but good cultivation, soil not too rich in nitrogen, attention to spraying, and picking the fruit when dry, will lessen the loss very much. In years of severe rotting, the fruit should be picked before it becomes fully ripe, placed in a cool, airy room and allowed to color. It will be nearly as well flavored as if left on the tree; and, as the fungus usually attacks only the ripe fruit, a considerable part of the crop may be saved. Set the trees 25 or 30 ft. apart.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Black Tartarian Cherry]

Leaf-blight is readily controlled by timely spraying with Bordeaux mixture. The curculio or fruit worm is best controlled by jarring, as for plums (which see).

Of sweet Cherries, Windsor is the most popular variety. Other good kinds are Napoleon, Governor Wood, Dikeman, Black Tartarian. Of sour Cherries, Ostheim and Early Richmond are very early and productive, but better kinds are Montmorency and English Morello.

CHERVIL. The curled Chervil is a good addition to the list of garnishing vegetables, and adds flavor to dishes when it is used to season. Sow seeds and cultivate the same as parsley.

The tuberous Chervil resembles a short carrot or parsnip. It is much esteemed in France and Germany. The tubers have somewhat the flavor of a sweet potato, perhaps a little sweeter. They are perfectly hardy, and, like the parsnip, the better for frosts. The seed may be sown in September or October, as it does not keep well; or as soon as the ground is fit to work in the spring, it being slow to germinate after the weather becomes hot and dry. One packet of seed will give all the plants necessary.

CHESTNUTS. Of Chestnuts there are three types in cultivation: the European, the j.a.panese, and the American. The American, or native Chestnuts, of which there are several improved varieties, are the hardiest and most reliable, and the nuts are the sweetest, but they are also the smallest. The j.a.panese varieties are usually injured by the winter in central New York. The European varieties are somewhat hardier, and some of the varieties will thrive in the northern states. Chestnuts are very easily grown. They usually bear better when two or more trees are planted near each other. There are few really good Chestnut orchards in North America, but Chestnut planting is now considerably agitated.

Sprouts in old Chestnut clearings are often allowed to remain, and sometimes they are grafted to the improved varieties. The young trees may be grafted in the spring by the whip-graft or cleft-graft method; but the cions should be perfectly dormant, and the operation should be very carefully done. Even with the best workmanship, a considerable percentage of the grafts are likely to fail or to break off after two or three years. The most popular single variety of Chestnut is the Paragon, which bears large and excellent nuts when the tree is very young. When the home ground is large enough, two or three of these trees should be planted near the borders.

CHICORY. The Magdeburg Chicory is the variety usually spoken of, it being the one most extensively grown. The roots of this, after being ground and roasted, are used either as a subst.i.tute or an adulterant of coffee.

The Witloof, a form of Chicory, is used as a salad, or boiled and served in the same manner as Cauliflower. The plants should be thinned to 6 in.

In the latter part of summer they should be banked up like celery, and the leaves used after becoming white and tender. This and the common wild Chicory are often dug in the fall, the leaves cut off, the roots packed in sand in a cellar and watered until a new growth of leaves starts. These leaves grow rapidly and are very tender, making a fine salad vegetable. One packet of seed of the Witloof will furnish plants enough for a large family.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chrysanthemum]

CHRYSANTHEMUMS are both annual and perennial. The annual Chrysanthemums must not be confounded with the well known fall-flowering kinds, as they will prove a disappointment if one expects large flowers of all colors and shapes. The annuals are mostly coa.r.s.e-growing plants, with an abundance of bloom and a rank smell. The flowers are single in most cases, and not very lasting. They are useful for ma.s.sing and also for cut-flowers. They are among the easiest of hardy annuals to grow. The stoniest part of the garden will usually suit them. 1-2 ft. Colors white and shades of yellow, the flowers daisy-like.

Amongst perennial kinds, _Chrysanthemum frutescens_ is the well known Paris Daisy or Marguerite, one of the most popular of the genus. This makes a very fine pot-plant for the window-garden, blooming throughout the winter and spring months. It is usually propagated by cuttings, which, if taken in spring, will give large blooming plants for the next winter. Gradually transfer to larger pots or boxes, until the plants finally stand in 6-inch or 8-inch pots or in small soap boxes. There is a fine yellow-flowered variety.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chrysanthemums in a box]

In variety of form and color, and in size of bloom, the florists'

Chrysanthemum is one of the most wonderful of plants. It is a late autumn flower, and it needs little artificial heat to bring it to perfection. The great blooms of the exhibitions are produced by growing only one flower to a plant and by feeding the plant heavily. It is hardly possible for the amateur to grow such specimen flowers as the professional florist or gardener does; neither is it necessary. A well-grown plant with fourteen to twenty flowers is far more satisfactory as a window plant than a long, stiff stem with only one immense flower at the apex. Their culture is simple, much more so than that of many of the plants commonly grown for house decoration. Although their season of bloom is short, the satisfaction of having a fall display of flowers before the geraniums, begonias and other house plants have recovered from their removal from out of doors, repays all efforts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cutting of Chrysanthemum]

Cuttings taken in March or April, planted out in the border in May, well tended through the summer and lifted before frost in September, will bloom in October or November. The ground in which they are planted should be moderately rich and moist. The plants may be tied to stakes.

When the buds show, all but the center one of each cl.u.s.ter on the leading shoots should be picked off, as also the small lateral branches.

A thrifty bushy plant thus treated will usually have flowers large enough to show the character of the variety, also enough flowers to make a fine display. As to the receptacle into which to put them when lifted from the border, it need not be a flower pot. A pail or soap box, with holes bored for drainage, will suit the plant just as well, and by covering the box with cloth or paper the difference will not be noticed.

If cuttings are not to be had, young plants may be bought of the florists and treated in the manner described. Buy them in midsummer or earlier.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Vase of small Chrysanthemums]

It is best not to attempt to flower the same plant two seasons. After the plant has bloomed, the top may be cut down, and the box set in a cellar and kept moderately dry. In February or March, bring the plant to the sitting-room window and let the shoots start from the root. These shoots are taken for cuttings to grow plants for the fall bloom.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hardy Chrysanthemum]

There is a hardy race of Chrysanthemums, very excellent for the border.

Mulch in winter. The best bloom is usually given the first and second years.

CINERARIA. A tender greenhouse plant. It may be grown as a house plant, although the conditions necessary to the best results are hard to obtain outside of a greenhouse. The conditions for their growing are a cool temperature, frequent repotting and guarding against the attacks of the greenfly. Perhaps the last is the most difficult, and with one having no facilities for fumigating, it will be almost impossible to prevent the difficulty. A living room usually has too dry air for Cinerarias. The seed, which is very minute, should be sown in August or September to have plants in bloom in January or February. Sow the seed on the surface of fine soil and water very lightly to settle the seeds into the soil. A piece of gla.s.s or a damp cloth may be spread over the pot or box in which the seeds are sown, to remain until the seeds are up. Always keep the soil damp, but not wet. When the seedlings are large enough to repot, they should be potted singly in 2- or 3-inch pots. Before the plants have become pot-bound, they should again be repotted into larger pots, until they are in at least a 6-inch pot in which to bloom. In all this time, they should be grown cool and, if not possible to fumigate them with tobacco smoke, the pots should stand on tobacco stems, which should be moist at all times. The general practice, in order to have bushy plants, is to pinch out the center when the flower buds show, causing the lateral branches to start, which they are slow to do if the central stem is allowed to grow. Plants bloom but once.

CIVES. These belong to the onion family, and are propagated by division of the root. They may be planted in a permanent place in the border, and, being hardy, will remain for years. The leaves are the parts used, as the roots are very rank in flavor. The leaves may be cut frequently, as they readily grow again.

CLARKIA. The Clarkias are among the popular hardy edging and vase annuals, bearing rose, white or bordered flowers in great profusion. The double-flowering varieties are the most showy, but the single ones will prove very satisfactory. The seeds may be sown where the plants are wanted, or started in frames for earlier flowers. 6-18 in. high. Thin to 6-12 in. apart. Plant in a warm soil and sunny place.

CLEMATIS. One of the best of woody climbing vines. The common _C.

Flammula_, _Virginiana_, _paniculata_ and others are used frequently to cover division walls or fences, growing year after year without any care and producing quant.i.ties of flowers. _C. paniculata_ is now planted very extensively. The panicles of star-shaped flowers entirely cover the vine and have a pleasant fragrance. One of the best of all fall-flowering vines, and hardy North. Clings well to a chicken-wire trellis.

The large-flowered section, of which Jackmani is perhaps the best known, is very popular for pillar or porch climbers. The flowers of this section are large and showy, running from pure white, through blue, to scarlet. Of this cla.s.s, the most serviceable purple is Jackmani; white, Henryi; blue, Ramona; crimson, Madame E. Andre.

The Flammula cla.s.s may be propagated by division of the roots. The large-flowered kinds are propagated by layers or root-grafting on _C.

Flammula_ and others.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Clematis paniculata]