This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V25", by Thomas Meehan. See also: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.
It is not unusual for correspondents to apologize for "troubling the editor." The editor cannot write private letters to inquiries, except as a matter of personal business or to personal friends; but when the answers may benefit other readers as well as the one who inquires, it is a pleasure to respond. Questions, therefore, suitable for reply through the columns of the magazine, are always welcome.
Many perennial plants are better for being occasionally transplanted, but there are others where the rule will not apply. At a recent meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, C. M. Hovey said that "the Fraxi-nella should be grown from seed where it is wanted; it makes strong woody roots, with no fibres, and is very difficult to transplant. The same is the case with the Asclepias tuberosa, which he esteems the most beautiful of all our native plants."
A Germantown correspondent last year asked us about the failure of some old beds to make good flowers. At a recent meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Mrs. H. L. T. Wolcott said that "her narcissus buds failed so that she gave up in despair, but she took them up and reset them, and every bud gave a flower."
The maiden hair tree is found to be quite hardy at Montreal.
It has often been noted in these columns that evergreens often die when under other trees, not so much from shade as from the drouth and poverty brought about by the numerous roots of the larger trees. A heavy manuring will often give vitality enough to keep such hedge plants in good heart, when it is particularly desirable to have them in such situations. Of success under these circumstances with arborvitaes a correspondent of the American Garden gives a good example.
The French Journal des Roses remarks that rose growers derive no little satisfaction from the contemplation of fine, vigorous foliage, as well as from fine flowers. In this respect it praises especially this fine old Hybrid Perpetual, Madame Boll. This was raised in 1856 by Mons. J. Boyan, of Angers, from seed of a rose-colored hybrid perpetual crossed by Bell Fanert. It was named after Mrs. Boll, the wife of a well known florist of New York city.
In Mr. Henderson's Handbook of Plants, mention is made of a fine tree on the grounds of Mrs. Manice, of Queens, Long Island. It is not near as old or as large as many in the country, the one at Woodlands, for instance, being one hundred years old, but it is a very fine tree of its age. It is over 35 feet in height and 3 feet 2 inches in circumference, one foot above the ground, and has been planted about thirty-seven years, though no one knows its exact age.
 
Continue to: