Evening star., 1939-08-05
Leaves From
TheGarden
Notebook
Mark Any Seedpods
Now That You Are
Planning to Save

Look over your garden carefully
and do bit Of face-lifting by re-
moving spent flowers and dead
leaves. At the same time mark the
seedpods that you wish to save by
tying a bit Of bright colored string
to them. If you intend to plant the
seeds better gather them before the
pods open.
The prolonged cool cloudy weather
was a treat for most Washingtoni-
ans, but it surely upset the garden
calendar. My azaleamum chrysan-
themums and dahlias started into
flower full tilt last week. It hap
pened last year, too. If this keeps
up I am going to ask the horticul-
turists to reclassify them as sum-
mer- r-flowering instead Of fall-hower-
ing perennials.
X + X 4
Feeding and mulching of many OF
the fall-fowering plants is consid-
cred good garden practice-it insures
large flowers. More important, how
ever, is to keep them growing stead
ily A plant stunted during its
growth period seldom produces as
fine a show of bloom as one that is
we'll cared for.
Some of us like to ease up q bit
about this time of the year in the
fight with diseases and bugs and
tend to let our spraying slide. That
sounds like Rube Martin or some
other crossroads philosopher. The
picture we should keep in mind,
however, is that the aphids are now
laying their eggs for next season's s
crop and any that we kill now means
that many less egg masses to hatch
in the spring
I tried to grow the Leopardbane
Doronicum) with rather Indifferent
success until I noted that it likes q
we'll enriched soil in light shade.
The Leopardine is co1mant in mid
summer and is best transplanted at
that time. It is fine as q cutfiower
and should be used more generally.
While 1t is still early to seed the
new lawn or to reseed the old one,
it is high time that the necessary
preparations were made for these all
important jobs. One most important
phase is to have the ground dug or
plowed and then to give it time to
become thoroughly settled before
seeding, otherwise 1t is nearly i'm
possible to keep hills and hollows
out of 1t. BY turning the soil now
many weed seeds will sprout. They
can be killed by frequent hoeing.
It is far easier to kill weeds now
than after the grass has started.
X X X \
An old rock garden friend Of mine
is causing me a lot Of grief. I knew
it as Plumbago and the catalogues
listed it as Plumbago larpentae with
the common name of Leadwort.
The name Leadwort had no signifl-
cance and Plumbago was not too
hard to remember. But now the
botantists have rechristened 1t as
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides. That
name would ruin any plant 80 far
as amateurs were concerned even
though 1t is a splendid, low-growing,
sun-loving subject. It makes q fine
ground cover over bulb beds since 1t
is quite slow in starting In the
spring.
Some gardeners upon learning
that a plant is lime-loving or re-
quires q sweet soil, apply hydrated
lime at planting time. That Is not
always safe since the hydrated lime
is quick acting and will burn the
roots of many plants. It is far safer
to apply the lime q week or more in
advance Of planting or else to use
ground limestone.
Many gardens lack suitable foliage
or flowers to mix in with cutnowers.
Florists keep . supply Of ferns or
similar material. The home gar
dener can overcome this deficiency
by growing Artemisia, Baby's
Breathe (Gypsophila) and Sea-
lavender Nimonium), formerly list
ed as Statice latifolia. The Ar
temisia, Silver King is excellent for
this purpose, although . bit course.
It also is good as dried winter
bouquet. The Baby's Breathe Is 50
widely used as . filler that 1t needs
no comment. The Sea-lavender is
even daintier and begins to flower
about the time the BabyS Breathe