File:American homes and gardens (1911) (18158952701).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar81911newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
This is a type of thatched pigeon- house built in an English cottage garden for white fan-tails, and con- taining a suggestion for anyone contemplating the building of such a little bird-house in our own country the Wood Hyacinth (Scilla fes tales), which last is excellent for naturalizing and closely resembles the more prominent Hyacinth of the bulb beds, though its spikes are more loose and have not so many Bowers. HOUSES FOR THE BIRDS. A READER of American- Homes and GARDENS has written the editor of this department a letter from which the fol- lowing interesting paragraph is quoted, in the belief that it will furnish a suggestion worth while to anyone interested in mak- ing the garden and grounds of his home more attractive. "I have found by experi- ence," writes this correspondent, "that November is an excellent month for setting up bird-houses. The birds, I find, seem to take to a winter-weathered house when they return in the springtime far more readily than they do to a house newly built for them. As I have acres of garden and lawn and am very fond of birds, I cele- brate the arrival of November every year by building a little bird-house with which to surprise my feathered friends when they return the following season. When I place these little bird dwellings high upon their poles I do not forget the proclivities season that has just passed. And as the sun goes down and of Miss Pussy-Cat, and so I drive sharpened spikes into the dusk finds us turning our tired but happy steps toward the pole all around at a height of eight feet from the ground. house and its cozy fireside, we shall remember that the memory of our gardens may still remain with us throughout every day of the winter months to come. We may even bring within doors a vivid reminder of summer's fragrant season by filling our windows with lovely growing things— Geraniums, Ferns, Ivy, Begonias, Smilax, Fuschias, and all the delightful prox- ies for the summer garden. HYACINTH VARIETIES. THE following varieties of Hyacinths may be recommended to the home garden-maker who is inter- ested in the article on Hya- cinths appearing on page 400 of this issue: WHITE: Alba superbissima, Mme. Vanderhoop, La Grandesse, Prince of Waterloo (double), and Baroness Van Thuyl; Pink: Fabri- ola and Norma; Reds: Robert Stieger, Gertrude, Roi des Beiges and Lord Wellington (double); Blue: Leonidas, La Pey- rouse, King of the Blues, Czar Peter, Grand Lilac, Baron Van Thuyl and Charles Dickens (double). La Peyrouse is a very light blue, and the Baron Van Thuyl very dark. Of the yellow varieties, the King of the Yellows and the Ida are among the most satisfactory. The Hyacinths known as Roman Hyacinths are usually sold by color and not by name at the florists, for these Roman Hyacinths are not distinct varieties, but minia- ture species of some of the above. The Cape Hyacinth, with its bell-shaped flowers an inch long, is also fragrant and attractive, and the Grape Hyacinth (Muscari botry-oides), blossoming in April, finds its best variety in the Heavenly Blue, though it is also to be found in white varieties, as is
Text Appearing After Image:
This shows a novel use of bamboo in the construction of a garden fence She can climb that high if she wishes to, but one look at the spikes will convince her wise self of the futility of a raid. A BAMBOO fence ANOTHER of our readers sends us an interesting note L about an unusually ingenious and inexpensive bamboo fence. "I have made excel- lent and attractive fences for my garden of pieces of bamboo fishpole, cut to a uniform length and thonged in place by means of tarred cord, which holds the bam- boo 'pickets' in slight notches which I cut in the horizontal poles that run from post to post as a skele- ton, frame for the bamboo lattice. The idea is one I obtained from seeing a sim- ilar fence in a very attrac- tive Japanese garden in the vicinity of Rochester, N. Y., and I adapted the scheme there carried out to suit my more slender resources and my having to do all the work for myself. Perhaps some of your readers would like to try similar fences for their own gardens. They make admirable backgrounds and supports for sweet peas, etc." USES FOR DEAD TREES. HEN one finds a tree gone beyond recovery, leaving a bare trunk or leafless branches amidst the foliage of summertime, the first thought is naturally the one of getting it out of the way, of considering its utility at an end with its life. However, if it happens to be properly situated in the home landscape nothing can be lovelier than an old dead tree around which Rambler Roses have been planted and over which they have been allowed to grow much of their own will and undirected by pruning. w:

Note About Images