Shears for heading-in bushes
Blackberry plants are sometimes laid down in cold climates,—the tops being bent over and held to the ground by earth or sods thrown on their tips.
Knife hook for cutting out old canes
Snyder is the most popular commercial variety; but Agawam, Ancient Briton, Taylor, and others are better in quality. A new patch should be planted every five or six years.
Blue Bottle. [See Centaurea Cyanus.]
Bordeaux Mixture is a fungicide, used to combat mildews, leaf-diseases, blights, etc. It is sprayed on the plants with a spray pump or syringe, or it may be applied with a whisk broom. Apply enough of it so that the foliage looks blue. It is made as follows: Copper sulfate, 6 pounds; quicklime, 4 pounds; water, 40 to 50 gallons. Dissolve the copper sulfate by putting it into a bag of coarse cloth and hanging this in a vessel holding at least four gallons, so that it is just covered by the water. Use an earthen or wooden vessel. Slake the lime in an equal amount of water. Then mix the two and add enough water to make 40 gallons. It is then ready for immediate use, but will keep for some time. If the mixture is to be used on peach foliage, it is advisable to add an extra pound of lime to the above formula. When applied to such plants as carnations or cabbages, it will adhere better if a pound of hard soap is dissolved in hot water and added to the mixture. For rots, molds, mildews, and all fungous diseases.
Whilst Bordeaux Mixture is the best general fungicide, it discolors the plants until it washes off. On ornamental plants, therefore, a colorless fungicide may be preferable. In such cases, use the ammoniacal carbonate of copper solution, as follows: Copper carbonate, 1 ounce; ammonia, 1 volume 26° Baumé, ⅞ volumes water (enough to dissolve the copper); water, 9 gallons. The copper carbonate is best dissolved in large bottles, where it will keep indefinitely, and it should be diluted with water as required. For the same purposes as Bordeaux Mixture.
Border. The word border is used to designate the heavy or continuous planting about the boundaries of a place, or along the walks and drives, or against the buildings, in distinction from planting on the lawn or in the interior spaces. A border receives different designations, depending upon the kinds of plants which are grown therein; that is, it may be a shrub border, a flower border, a hardy border for native and other hardy plants, a vine border, and the like. As a rule, the most effective planting is that which is thrown into masses, for one plant reinforces the other, and the flowers have a good setting or background. Very striking displays of foliage and flowers and plant forms can be made when massed together. As a rule, plants are more easily grown when planted in a border, since the whole area can be kept cultivated with ease; and if a plant becomes weak or dies, its place is readily filled by the neighboring plants spreading into it. Planting in masses is also essential to the best arrangement of the yard, since the basis of any landscape is a more or less continuous greensward ([see Lawn]). The house occupies the central part of the area, and the sides are heavily massed or planted so as to make a framework for the whole place. The border may be mixed,—that is, composed of a great variety of plants,—or it may be made up of one continuous thing. In long and very striking borders, it is often best to have the background—that is, the back row—of one general type of plant in order to give continuity and strength to the whole group. In front of this a variety of plants may be set, if one desire.
