Gardening for Little Girls Part 7

Excelsa, an improvement on the formerly popular crimson rambler; crimson.

Hiawatha, most brilliant of all, between 40 and 50 roses to the spray; carmine.

Tausendschoen, roses 3 in. across, graceful in form, and 10 or 15 to the truss; pink.

White Dorothy, like satisfactory Dorothy Perkins, except for color; white.

Yellow Rambler, new variety called "Aviator Bleriot," the first hardy yellow; yellow.

=Briar, Austrian and Hybrids.= (Loved by our grandmothers, and some known here in this country as far back as 1596. They must not be crowded.)

Austrian Copper, beautiful single reddish-copper and one of the oldest; copper.

Austrian Yellow, lovely single flowers (introduced late in 1500); deep yellow.

English Sweet Briar, or Eglantine, loved for its fragrance, also single; pink.

Anne of Gerstein, very graceful; dark crimson.

Brenda, very dainty; peach.

Refulgence, fragrant foliage,--deepens in color on developing; scarlet to crimson.

AMERICAN GROWN ROSES

The American grown rose, however, I find is considered by many people to be by far the best. While its slender brown stems are not as attractive to the ignorant gardener as the thick, green of the imported, it is much more adapted to our soil and climatic conditions. It is cheaper, too, and splendid varieties, in 2-in. and 3-in. pots, can be bought as low as $5.00 or $6.00 a hundred from expert growers, by the person willing to start a rose garden and then wait a year for really fine results.

In lots of fifteen, however, many of these fine varieties of one-year-old plants can be bought for $1.00, with the growers' guarantee that "they will bloom the first and each succeeding year, from early spring until severe frost." The plants are small, of course, but who could ask for more at that price!

The (probably) best informed man in the Eastern United States recommends the following list of Teas and Hybrid Teas,--and it has been adopted by a number of firms as suggestions for planting. Don't go looking for these plants at the 5- and 10-cent stores, for they never carry such specialties. They are cheap, though, and well known throughout this section, but they should be procured from people WHO MAKE A BUSINESS OF GROWING ROSES!

A SPECIALIST'S LIST OF TEAS AND HYBRID TEAS

White

Grossherzogin Alexandra Kaiserin Augusta Victoria Marie Guillot White Bougere

Yellow

Blumenschmidt Etoile de Lyon Lady Hillingdon Sunburst

Light Pink

Col. R. S. Williamson Helen Good Mrs. Foley Hobbs Souvenir du President Carnot Wm. R. Smith Yvonne Vacherot

Dark Pink

Aurora F. R. Patger Jonkheer J. L. Mock Lady Alice Stanley Maman Cochet Mme. Jules Grolez Mrs. George Shawyer Radiance

Red

Crimson Queen Etoile de France Mme. Eugene Marlitt General McArthur Helen Gould Laurent Carle Rhea Reid

CHAPTER VIII

Vines, Tender and Hardy

They shall sit every man under his vine and under his figtree.

--_Micah_ iv, 4.

EVERYBODY likes a pretty vine, and there is sure to be some place where you will want to plant at least one. Where? Why, at one corner of the porch where you like to play; round the pillar at the front door, where you read, or by the window where you sit to sew; in the backyard to cover the clothespoles, hide the chicken fence, or screen some old, ugly building.

The common annual vines you probably know pretty well,--the climbing nasturtium, morning glory, moonflower, cypress vine, scarlet runner, hyacinth bean, wild cuc.u.mber, gourds and hops. They are treated very much alike, grow with little care if they only have something to climb on, and spread rapidly.

The hardy vines are not so easily disposed of. For instance, the clematis (with accent on the _clem_,) numbers throughout the world about one hundred and fifty species,--generally climbers,--in white, blue, purple, red and yellow, and ranges from the 2-ft. shrubby kind to the 25-ft. vine. While our common mountain clematis (Montana grandiflora) flowers as early as April, the Jackmani in mid-summer, and the Paniculata often as late as September, the Henryi is seen even in November. And while some can be grown from seed, the rest have to be propagated by cutting or grafting.

WARNING

Right here let me again urge you to make sure of the particular kind of flower, plant or vine that you get, so that you will know how to treat it, and not count on flowers in June from a variety that blossoms in September, or expect purple posies from the white sort. The gentleman printing this book will not let me take s.p.a.ce enough to go into details about every thing I mention (he says paper is too dear!) so the only way out of the difficulty is for me to make the lists include all the colors, all the heights, all the months of bloom, and then impress on YOU the necessity of ascertaining the particular kind you want to grow.

BOOKS THAT WILL HELP

As the people you would ask might make a mistake about these things, get in the habit of looking them up for yourself. Go to the Public Library and just see the fascinating books that have been written about plants and flowers,--many for children and in the form of stories. For real facts, though, given in few words and easily found from a complete index in the back, ask for "The American Flower Garden," by Neltje Blanchan, or "The Garden Month by Month," by Mabel Cabot Sedgwick. This latter gives a little description of all the _hardy_ plants and flowers, and is filled with beautiful pictures. And some of the big seed dealers and nurserymen get out fine catalogues that are really garden books in themselves, chock full of information accompanied by colored ill.u.s.trations, which can be had for the asking!

VINES THAT MUST BE RENEWED EVERY YEAR

THE ANNUAL CLIMBERS

=============================================================================== NAME COLOR HEIGHT SOW SOW GOOD FOR PLACE BLOOMING INDOORS OUTDOORS SEASON -----------------+--------+------+-------+--------+-------------+-----+-------- Balloon Vine White 10 to May 1st Rapid Sun (_Cardiospermum Seeds in 15 ft. 6 in. growing halicacab.u.m_) tiny apart balloons Balsam Apple Has 10 ft. May Trellis or Sun (_Momordica_) curious 6 in. rock-work fruit apart Cardinal Climber Cardinal 15 to March May Rapid Sun June (new) (_Ipomoea 20 ft. growing quamoc.l.i.t hybrid_) Cypress Vine Red 10 to March May Dense ma.s.s Sun June (_Ipomoea White 20 ft. April quamoc.l.i.t_) Fire Bean, see Scarlet Runner Gourds, Odd 15 to May Over arbor or Sun Ornamental shapes 30 ft. summer-house Hop, j.a.panese Green 20 to May Rapid growing Sun (annual) 30 ft. Arbors and (_Humulus_) screens Hyacinth Bean Purple 10 to May Arbors and Sun July (_Dolichos_) White 20 ft. trellises Moon Flower White 15 to Feb. or May Rapid Sun July (_Ipomoea 30 ft. March growing to frost bona-nox_) Morning Glory White 10 to May Rapid Sun July, (_Ipomoea Pink 20 ft. growing Aug.

purpurea_) Purple Blue Nasturtium, Tall Yellows 6 to May Screens and Sun July (_Tropaeolum to reds 12 ft. trellises to Oct.

majus_) Scarlet Runner Scarlet 10 to April Screens Sun July (_Phaseolus 12 ft. May to frost multiflorus_) Sweet Pea All 3 to March Train on Sun July (_Lathyrus colors 6 ft. brush o to Sept.

odoratus_) Wild Cuc.u.mber White 12 to May 1st Screens or Sun July, (_Echinocystis_) 15 ft. coverings Aug.

VINES THAT LIVE ON FROM YEAR TO YEAR

THE HARDY CLIMBERS