ANSWERED BY AN "OLD HAND" AT THE "PLAY WORK" - PLANTS FOR AN EXPOSED POSITION - HARDY FLOWERING AND HERBACEOUS PLANTS - OVER-SHADED CHRYSANTHEMUMS - CHOICE LILIES.

I am a subscriber to and constant reader of The American Garden, but a beginner at gardening, full of zeal and ignorance. Were I the only one of this sort, I would not trouble the paper with this letter, but I know at least thirty just such persons who would be helped by what would help me.

1. Could there not be a department for us ignoramuses, where we could learn to manage our little gardens without emptying our purses every year into the pockets of the nurserymen ?

2. My house faces the north, and there is in front a little garden upheld by a stone wall two or three feet high. The soil is gravelly and dry. It gets the sun morning and afternoon. What list of hardy perennials and annuals would prefer such a situation, and what list of such plants will submit to these conditions, though not preferring them ?

3. What drooping plants would grow on the edge of my stone wall to fall over and conceal it, and what climbers, either perennial or annual, would do best in this cool and shady position ? A nurseryman to whom I applied for advice, as well as plants and shrubs, set out twenty-five roses, all perfectly hardy, he assured me. The next summer one alone survived, and it has not yet blossomed. This was but a sample of his supplies.

4. The directions in most books on gardening are not sufficiently elementary for beginners. For instance, I have been struggling to raise chrysanthemums for two years past; have bought healthy plants, which all dropped their blooms and were devoured by aphides in spite of tobacco smoke, showering and the most approved insecticides. Meantime, I have read English and American periodicals diligently, seeking light, and wishing I lived far enough in the South to raise these charming flowers out of doors, but convinced that great skill must be necessary to raise them at all in this climate. Last week a lady told me they were perfectly hardy here, and that the roots survived our coldest winters. Not a hint of such a thing has my reading furnished. Now, it would be very pleasant if the Garden would give a list of a dozen good and hardy chrysanthemums, with plain directions for starting and cultivating them in our gardens.

5. I trust my suggestions here will not be thought impertinent. In the multiplicity of species given in the catalogues, one gets bewildered. I should rather have the six best sorts of lily, iris, clematis, narcissus, etc., pointed out, than to be left to my own devices and discouragements. C. M. B.

Cambridge, Mass.

Answer By The Editor

1. Yes, that is just what we want to do - to give information that will enable our readers to manage their fruit, flower and vegetable gardens, so that they will become both pleasant and profitable. The only way we can do it is for our readers to state their necessities, to ask for what they want, and they will be answered by the specialists we employ for this very purpose. We cannot promise to be always correct, as there may be conditions of climate and soil we do not clearly understand ; but we will promise materially to assist all who apply, and that without other motive than to impart information, the only article we have to sell.

2. Your location and soil is about as poor for a first-class garden as it is possible to picture, but if grass or plants of any kind will grow, flowering plants will. Next to the house, or between the house and the path, if such there be, we should say plant native ferns, and especially the maiden hair, Adiantum pedatum, also clumps of Solomon's Seal, and Jack-in-the-Pulpit, both of which do splendidly under cultivation and in the shade. These are all of perennial habit, and form a beautiful mass of green, contrasting finely with all other forms of vegetation. For the more sunny part of the yard the following herbaceous plants will do nicely : Hibiscus californi-cus, and some of the hybrid varieties; delphiniums, campanulas, lily-of-the-valley, day lily (Funkia sub-cordata), nearly every species of lilium, particularly Z. superbum iris in variety, particularly I. Kaempferi; sedums; bleeding heart, and other species of dicentra. As for climbing plants, the Adlumia cirrhosa, one of the most beautiful, simply delights in shade, while the morning glories will be truly glorious with but little sun. Their flowers will last until noon in the shade. The adlumia is a biennial, but after it once flowers, it will take care of itself without the slightest trouble.

It does not run or flower the first year from seed. Among the annuals that do well in partial shade are the pansies, balsams, mignonette, coreopsis, adonis, snap dragon (which is also biennial), browallia, Convolvulus minor, lupins, marvel of peru,. forget-me-not, nemophila and sweet sultan.

3. If there is room at the base of your wall, the best possible plant is the Ampelopsis Veitckii. It would soon cover it so that not a rock could be seen. If the plants must be set on the inner side of the wall, the Nepeta Glechoma will fill the bill. It is a perennial, and will grow in sun or shade. There is a variety with variegated foliage (white and green) that is very ornamental, but we do not think it perfectly hardy.

4. The trouble with your chrysanthemums has undoubtedly been that they have had too much shade. They should be grown in full sunlight in the open ground during summer ; then the aphis will not trouble them. When the plants are taken into the greenhouse, tobacco smoke is an antidote for the enemy. It is worse than folly to grow these plants in the house during summer, or in the garden, unless there be a free circulation of air and unobstructed sunlight. None of the modern chrysanthemums are hardy, and we do not know of a collection of the old varieties ; yet they are common in old gardens, and grow without the slightest difficulty when once planted.

5. The best six lilies are candidum, speciosum, album and rubrum superbum, auratum and elegans, All the clematis are good, and none better for shade than our native sorts. Narcissus are all good, but the polyanthus section are not hardy; in fact, nearly all the bulbs should be protected against frost. The German irises are hardy, and next to the Iris Koempferi, the most beautiful.