American Pocket Library of Useful Knowledge/Horticulture
HORTICULTURE.
BY HENRY A. DREER.
FLOWERS.
General Directions for their Cultivation.
The Flower Garden has always been the object of admiration: its refinement and delicacy have never been questioned, while its proper cultivation and attention are universally considered as evidences of taste and intellect.
Soil.–The first requisite to ensure the healthy growth of flowers, is soil. That most suited to the cultivation of garden flowers, is a rich mellow loam, which should be well manured and pulverized late in the fall, or as early as possible in the spring. When ground is of a hard and clayey nature, the addition of sand will tend to render it less adhesive, and thus enable your tender varieties to strike their roots deep in the earth when they might otherwise perish with drought. The garden should have a regular supply of every fall.
Annual seeds may be sown from the 1st April to the 1st June, with variations of success. Those sown earliest, flower sooner and more profusely. Sow either in small beds or in drills from one-fourth to one inch depth, according to the size of the seed. In a month to six weeks they will be ready to transplant. Be careful to do this during cloudy and rainy weather. Remove your plants carefully; set the larger flowering kinds in the rear, the smaller in front. Above all things, be careful not to crowd them, as one healthy plant is more beautiful in a garden than fifty sickly and attenuated. Tie your taller-growing kinds to painted rods; this gives an air of neatness, indispensable in a garden. If the weather, at the time of transplanting, is dry and warm, water them well for a week, and keep them entirely shaded from the sun. Do not set all out at once, but from time to time, lest a hot season should prematurely arrive. Many tender annuals, that do not vegetate freely in the open ground, and which, after vegetation, a slight chill might destroy, may be brought forward in the following manner:
Cultivators desirous of obtaining an early bloom, may commence by sowing their seed early in March, in pots or boxes of earth in the house, giving them as much sun as possible during the warmth of the day, and protecting them from the influence of a chill during night. This operation must, however, be performed with great care, to scarcely cover the more delicate kinds, while the stronger-growing may be sown a quarter of an inch in depth. A very delicate watering-not, which suffers the water to fall like a shower of dew over the earth without washing away the most delicate seed, should be used. Give only a sufficient quantity of water; the greatest fault with the inexperienced is their propensity to drown every plant, which is equally injurious with depriving the plants entirely of sustenance. Preserve each kind distinctly labelled.
However, the most proper method, and that most generally practised by families having large gardens, is to “throw up” a small hot-bed, in which the pots containing seed may be plunged to their rims, or sown in shallow drills on earth previously placed over the manure, and should then be labelled to prevent mistake. The Cyprus Vine, Scarlet Morning Glory, and other species of the Convelvolaceæ, should be soaked a few hours in warm water before being placed in the ground. They will then vegetate much earlier and more regularly, and will blossom sooner. Many varieties will vegetate much sooner by covering them with a hand-glass, which should be taken off shortly after their appearance above ground, lest they should be rendered weak and sickly by confinement.
Cover the bed up carefully at night, for fear of sudden cold chilling the plants. Give them air by raising the sash on every fine day: this will render them more hardy, and capable of enduring transplanting with less danger.
Lupins delight in a half-shady spot, and should never be transplanted: the seed may be sown early in March, in the open ground, and, when in city culture, kept moist after vegetation. Leaf or peat soil to mix will prove advantageous.
Hardy perennial and biennial seeds may be sown about the same time as the annuals. These do not blossom the first year; they may therefore be thinned out or removed from the beds in which tey have been first planted: when their roots acquire sufficient strength, set out in the places they are to occupy for the succeeding year. They must be kept free from weeds, and the ground occasionally loosened to facilitate their growth. Biennials are generally raised from seed sown every year. Many varieties of hardy annuals flower much larger and finer in the spring, if sown the preceding summer or fall, so as to vegetate previous to frost. Among these, the Dwarf Rocket Larkspur, Branching Larkspur, Strawberry Spinach, Evening Primrose, Coreopsis Tinctores, Sweet Williams, Punks, all kinds of Poppies and Gillias.
There are many kinds that do not endure the frost, but which vegetate much earlier by the seeds passing the winter in the earth. Among these, the Marvel of Peru, Double Balsamine or Lady’s Slipper, Cypress Vine, Euphorbias, Sweet Peas, Convolvolus, &c., stand pre-eminent. These, however, answer nearly as well by planting in March, April, and May; and indeed, we have seen seeds of all the varieties, sown in June, flowering beautifully when the others were nearly ended. As soon as a flower begins to fade, pinch it off, and you will have several more equally as fine, to take its place, besides always having your plant neat. The strength given by the plant, to ripen seed, would then be thrown into the production of fresh flower buds.
Biennials are such as are of two years’ duration; being sown one year, they flower, seed or fruit the next, and soon after decay. Sow the seeds during April, either in spots where they are to remain, or in beds by themselves, distinctly marked; to be transplanted to desired situations early in the Fall. The following are among the most free-blooming and desirable sorts: Rose Campion, Holyhock, Snap Dragon, Canterbury Bells, Wall Flower, Foxglove, Pinks, Dwarf Evening Primrose, and their varieties.
Perennial herbaceous plants are those which die down to the root yearly; the roots of which remain many years. There is no class of plants more deserving general culture in the flower garden than perennials; for when once introduced they require but trifling attention: their increase is also of the most encouraging nature, being, in most varieties, effected by simply dividing or parting the roots in the autumn or spring. Herbaceous plants may be divided into three classes, viz.–Bulbous, as the Tulip, Hyacinth, and most Lilies; Tuberous, as the Dahlia and Pæony; and Fibrous, as the Phlox and Perennial Aster. These may again be divided into hardy and tender. Among the bulbs, Tulips and Hyacinths are hardy; the Jacobean Lily, Tiger Flower (Tigridia), and Gladiolus, are tender. In tuberous roots, the Pæony is hardy and the Dahlia tender; and in fibrous, most kinds are hardy, although in many cases they are killed by the winter and by wet saturating their crowns, on which account it is necessary they should be partially covered in winter to protect them from being injured in this manner.
VINES.
Prune hardy kinds in the Spring, by cutting out all dead or superfluous branches, regulating the remainder at an equal distance apart, when they are nailed with shreds of woollen or leather, or tied up neatly. In summer, prune so that the branches may not be too thickly crowded.
Propagate by taking off joints where they have rooted, and planting in the same manner and soil as the parent, in September. Cover the roots with fine earth, and keep moist. Some varieties, as the Honeysuckle and Clematis, are readily propagated by layers and cuttings. (See Plans.)
PLANTS.
Roses should be pruned in the Spring: if allowed to grow straggling they neither thrive nor flower well. The rose always flowers from the young wood, and by being well trimmed more are thrown out. The rose is easily propagated in a deep rich soil. The Moss Rose will thrive on a clay bottom.
Althea, or Rose of Sharon, Snowballs, Honeysuckles, and most kinds of soft-wooded plants, may be propagated in the Fall or Spring, by sticking cuttings one foot long, hall-way down, ten inches apart, in moist shady ground, well dug and pulverized, with a northern aspect. Press the ground hard round the cutting. To propagate by layers, bend the plant down, making an incision to the under part of the shoot or joint about half an inch; press perpendicularly two or three inches deep, and secure it in the ground, which must be well prepared.
Inoculate by taking well-ripened buds, say in July or August; make an incision in the rind, taking care not to cut through the albumen nor into the wood; cut half an inch below and half an inch above the bud, with about half the wood and bark; press the rind gently back and insert the bud, carefully closing all around and binding with bars or other strings. The plants must be perfectly healthy.
Cold, late in the season, must be guarded against; the tender plants removed to their winter quarters, and those that remain out through the winter. About the middle of November, protect all herbaceous plants by covering them on their crowns and roots with long manure and leaves, tying the branches up neatly, and covering with straw so as to turn off the rain and frost.
Insects may be removed by a strong decoction of tobacco juice, or one made of soft snap, sulphur, and tobacco: sponge or bathe over three or four times. Keep the ground, fences, &c., clean about the flowers, by painting, whitewashing, &c. In rooms, plants should enjoy as much of the light and sun from the window as possible, be often turned, giving them a supply of fresh air in fine, soft weather; divest them of all dead leaves, and water them as nature indicates by the earth drying in the pots. Too much water sours and rots, too little dries up the plant, and breeds insects, &c. Plants in a growing stale require more water.
Seeds should be saved from the plants in the healthiest stale, and those first ripe are the best. Clean the seeds, and preserve only those that are full and plump, throwing out those of a light quality.
Leaves are the principal organs of respiration, synonymous with the lungs of animals. Dead or decaying leaves are apt to breed insects.
Plants of all kinds should be so situated that the sun and air may have free access to any part of the leaves, fruit, and all parts as far as possible.
The Dahlia thrives best in a deep, rich, loamy soil, with the full benefit of sun and air. In winter, the roots should be cleared of decaying parts, dead stalks or tubers, and kept in a temperature a few degrees above freezing. For late flowers, plant late. Sow seed in May, in open grounds; but in a pot of light, rich, sandy soil, as early as first April, and transplant about middle of May. Divide the roots and plant in March as soon as the eyes begin to push out, in pots or green-house, and transplant when the weather is settled warm.
FRUIT TREES.
Fruits, in a ripe and perfect state, are beneficial to health, if not eaten to excess.
Stunted trees never become vigorous, nor when too long crowded in nurseries.
In Grafting, 25 well placed are better than 100 grafts placed at random, and ten placed injudiciously will change the whole lop of a tree in a few years, when 200 grafts may be so scattered as not materially to change the top of the tree or its fruit. Graft only on such as are sound and vigorous.
Huggling off limbs and branches and leaving stumps on the trees, which rot off and let the water into the trunk, soon destroys the tree; therefore always cut or saw off smooth, when the wound will heal and the bark grow over.
Sound vigorous trees, and no other, should be set out, as they take no more trouble or space than the worthless ones.
Budding should only be done with fresh buds, on very small stocks of vigorous growth. Begin after sap starts, until 1st June. Later will do. Make incision like a T; raise the corners and insert the bud with as little of the wood as possible, and bandage, not too tight, for three weeks.
Scions may be cut in February or March, before or at the time the buds begin to swell; or take grafts size of a pipe-stem, from bearing branches, not from side shoots nor the rank growth of the top. Put in earth one third their length, keep from frost, and occasionally sprinkle to prevent shriveling, but not so wet as to sprout them.
Composition.–Rosin 8 oz., beeswax 3 oz.; melt up with lard, and work it like shoemakers’ wax: for wounds made in priming or grafting.
Split the stock, drive in a wedge 6 or 8 inches long, open the split so as to admit the graft freely, sharpen end of graft and insert, matching the wood of graft and wood of the stock; remove the wedge carefully, cover smooth over with composition, tight, to exclude air, and the sap will force its way to the graft.
Seed.–Select from healthy trees, sound, ripe and fair fruit, and place in sand, in a cellar or other cool, damp place, until time to plant. If kept too dry, they seldom vegetate. Let the soil be good, well worked, not too wet; cover up and press the ground moderately over. Plant in Fall, before the ground is frozen, or in Spring soon as the ground can be worked.
Soil.–Low, wet or marshy ground is not suitable. Soil appropriate for crops or grain is also adapted to the cultivation of fruit trees, shrubs or vines. Occasional digging, mellowing the ground, keeping down underbrush and weeds, and manuring, are beneficial.
Cleanliness is essential. Destroy all caterpillars, noxious worms and insects, and prune off all affected parts. Scrape off rough ragged bark and moss, and wash well with soap suds or cover with a coat of lime-wash. Remove all suckers from the roots, side branches and excrescences.
Grubs, which occasion disease, may be prevented by coating the roots and lower trunk, about July 1, with tar, train oil, or whitewash, and sprinkling a little lime, ashes, or soap suds, on the ground around the tree. When seriously affected, dig the earth from the roots near the surface, and search thoroughly in the bark for the grub; cleanse off the gum, &c., wash with ley or soap suds, or rub dry ashes over them, and close up with good fresh earth. Doing this as occasion requires, will ensure health and vigour.