148 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



If you can, let a few iiiornin<? glories run over your back porch 

 or fence, and near by have a bed of the old-fashioned flowers, such as 

 garden pinks, golden coreopsis, sweet peas, ragged ladies, bachelor's 

 buttons, bouncing Bettys, and four-o'clocks. 



They hold more inemories for us than the more showy annuals 

 that have crowded them out. They take us back to the days when 

 the fra (/)•(( ace of the roses of life was with us, but we knew of the 

 thorns only by hearsay. 



When the plants are brought into the house give them as good 

 a light as you can afford. If tliere is Ijut one sunny window in the 

 house, however, don't fill it with plants. The family is of more 

 importance than the flowers. 



" Eternal vigilance " is more truly the price of blossoms indoors 

 than out, especially in the dwelling house. The green fly is the most 

 common enemy. To get rid of it, steep tobacco stems in water until 

 the liquid is the color of strong tea, then dip the plants in it if they 

 are small; apply it thoroughly with a florist's syringe if they are 

 large. Tobacco tea will also kill worms in the pots, if the plants are 

 watered with it. Tobacco stems can be obtained for a trifle from any 

 cigar maker. 



Water your plants, except callas, when the earth in the pots be- 

 gins to look and feel dry. We amateurs are apt to water too often. 

 Our plants no more need to drink all the time than we do. In win- 

 ter, too, like ourselves, they are partial to warm drinks. 



It is a good thing for all house plants, especially callas, to cover 

 the tops of the pots with packing moss. If you can mix with it a 

 little bone-dust — one part by weight of dust to thirty of moss, Hen- 

 derson says — so much the better. Plants so treated need not be 

 watered so often, nor so soon shifted to larger pots. 



If the bone-dust is not easily obtainable, liquid manures made 

 from ordinary compost may be substituted. Make a leach with an 

 old pail or barrel, according to your needs. To water your plants 

 with this is not a dainty operation; but never mind, in the wonder- 

 ful lal:)oratories of root and branch that cunning chemist, the sap, 

 will transform the malodorous liquid, and give it back to you in the 

 shape of brilliant blossom, or in the delicate perfume of rose or he- 

 liotrope. 



I know of but two varieties of plants that can be propagated 

 better in winter than at any other time. These are carnations and 

 tea roses. When your tea roses bloom in winter cut off a half-open 

 rose with suitable stem, say three inches long, then take off a cutting 

 just below where the rose was cut. 



To get a carnation slip, take hold at the end of a shoot with one 

 hand, and three inches further back take hold with the other, and 

 pull till the shoot unjoints. Snip off the ends of the leaves of the dis- 

 joined piece and treat like any other cutting. 



