Part 78 (2/2)
In looking over the list of apples we grow this far north, we all know that the hardiest and the most productive kind are seedlings, either from Minnesota, Iowa or Wisconsin. Minnesota has the Wealthy, the banner apple; for early and late fall apple it has no equal. Wisconsin has the Northwestern Greening and the Wolf River, which are very large, showy and good market apples. We all know what Mr. Patten has done along in this line of growing seedlings.
At the state horticultural meeting in Des Moines, December last, was exhibited one hundred varieties of seedlings and a large number of those, to my judgment, were good keepers and fine looking apples.
Hundreds and hundreds of varieties of apples have been imported from Russia, and I for one have tested fifty or sixty of those Russian varieties, but at the state meeting, where I exhibited seventy-seven varieties, I was able to show only three Russian varieties, Longfield, Antinovka and Volga Cross. I think I have reason to ask what would we have for apples today if there had not been any seedlings raised? Why does the State of Minnesota offer one thousand dollars for a seedling apple tree that is as hardy as the d.u.c.h.ess with fruit as good as the Wealthy and that keeps as well as the Malinda? Because to get such a variety it must come from seed.
Planting for Color Effects in the Garden.
MRS. H. B. TILLOTSON, MINNEAPOLIS.
The most attractive flower bed in my garden this year has been the one planted for a blue and white effect. From earliest spring, soon after the snow had gone, until now, October 4th, there has been something interesting and beautiful blooming there.
In the middle of the summer it was one tangled ma.s.s of lilies, delphinium, phlox and gypsophila, their perfume filling the whole garden. As the lilies faded and the delphinium grew old and went to seed, the old stalks were cut away. The phlox and delphinium bloomed again in a little while, and in September the candidum lilies began to come through the ground, getting ready for next year.
The bed is three feet wide by thirty long, and was covered last winter with loose straw and leaves, with a few cornstalks to hold them in place. Early in April this was raked off and the edges of the bed made straight, for the gra.s.s always grows in a little each year. The warm suns.h.i.+ne soon brought out the scilla and crocus, almost carpeting the whole bed. One would not think of the other things hiding under their leaves.
The forget-me-nots began to look green along the edge, and up through the fading crocus and scilla came a few straggling grape hyacinths, blue and white, and one lonely plant of the Virginia cowslip (Mertensia)--more could have been used with good effect, for they too disappear after awhile.
The Virginia cowslip staid in bloom until the forget-me-nots were a ma.s.s of blossoms, and the blue Darwin tulips (pink, really, with a blue spot in the bottom of the cup, just back of them) were in all their glory. In the middle of the bed the Madonna lilies, and belladona delphinium had covered the ground with green. In spots the wild violets were in blossom--they had crept in some way from the dirt--I think it had been taken from the woods near by.
Watching each day, for the friends I knew would soon be coming, I found the first shoots of the hardy phlox, which I knew to be G. Von Losburg and Miss Lingard. Double blue bachelor b.u.t.tons, self sown, were there, some transplanted to fill in the bare spots, and poppies; I didn't know what color they would be, for the wind and the birds had sown the seed; but the leaves were a beautiful grey-green, and I let them grow. I had almost given up the double baby breath (gypsophila paniculata, fl. pl.), but finally it came all the way down the bed, about every five or six feet, between the delphinium and the phlox. There were perhaps a dozen plants of phlox, a dozen of belladona delphinium and six baby breath through the middle of the bed, and on each side a row of the intense blue Chinese delphinium.
Just outside these, and next to the forget-me-nots and tulips, are the bachelor b.u.t.tons, and, coming through it all, a hundred candidum lilies, their waxy white blossoms glistening in the suns.h.i.+ne, and the perfume so heavy you knew they were there long before you could see them. The poppies, too, were there; they were double, like a peony, rose-pink with a white edge. I was glad I let them grow, for I don't think I ever saw a more beautiful sight.
I let it all grow and bloom as long as it would, hating to touch it for fear of spoiling all. Finally I was obliged to clear away the old stalks, and it looked rather bare for a time. But I brought some white asters from the reserve garden. The Baron Hulot gladoli were soon in bloom. The phlox sent up tiny shoots for new bloom from the base of each leaf, and the second crop of bachelor b.u.t.tons came along. White schizanthus along the edge, covered up the old forget-me-nots, and funkia lilies (subcordata) threw up their buds. The delphinium all began to bloom again, the grey-green leaves of the baby breath was still there, and soon my bed was all abloom again and staid so the rest of the summer.
But never did it equal the glory of those first ten days of July.
The Fall-Bearing Strawberries.
CHARLES F. GARDNER, NURSERYMAN, OSAGE, IA.
(SO. MINN. HORT. SOCIETY.)
There are now such excellent varieties of fall bearing strawberries on the market that a person can have no good excuse for not planting some in his garden. Select the ground for the bed where you will get the whole benefit from the rays of the sun. I want no trees, bushes, or tall growing plants of any kind near the bed. The farther away, the better.
The earth should be made quite rich with well rotted compost. I like the plan of preparing the bed a long time before you get ready to set your plants. You can then work the soil over, time after time, and every time kill a crop of weeds. More plants are set in the spring than any other time, but they will grow and do well if set in midsummer or any time after that up to the middle of October. Get through setting in September if you can. If you set later, in October, cover the plants with a slight covering of straw as soon as planted. Then afterwards, when you make a business of covering put on a little more, cover them nicely--but you are liable to kill them if you put on too much. Two inches deep I find to be about the right depth to go through our ordinary winters. I mean two inches after the straw has settled. I think many persons spoil their plants, or at least injure them severely, by putting on too heavy a coat of covering. I will also tell you to beware of using horse-manure as a covering for strawberries. Clean straw or hay is the best of covering.
(Fall planting of strawberries not advisable in Minnesota.--Secy.)
Most people do not trim the plants enough before they are set. All fruit stems should be cut off, if there are any, and the most of the old leaves removed, two or three of the youngest leaves on the plant is all that should be left. These will start right off into a vigorous growth, and you will soon have strong, healthy plants. I think it pays to put a small handful of tobacco dust on and around each hill. You can generally get it at your nearest greenhouse--or you can find out there where to send for it. Get enough to put it on two or three times during the early and latter part of summer.
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