PLANTS" AND FLOWERS USEFUL FOR THE HOME 29 



their desirability, or anytliing of that kind, but just as they occurred 

 to me while walking through the green house and looking them over. 

 The first are the azaleas. They are one of the nicest plans you can put 

 into the house. They are very beautiful and easy of culture. The plants 

 that are received by the average florist are grown either in Holland or 

 Belgium, and imported. They are a small hard wooded shrub, in 

 compact form. They are received from abroad along in the latter part 

 of October, or early November. The florist will bring them into bloom 

 before Christmas time for the early varieties, and for the later ones 

 in time for Easter sales. Now we sell quite a number of these plants 

 every year, and find them very satisfactory in the homes. They can 

 be kept over from year to year by plunging the pots outside, — putting 

 the pot right down in the ground, — and then keeping them watered 

 and bring them in before the frost strikes them in the fall. These are 

 often better, and have more growth than they do after being directly 

 imported. The flowers, instead of giving one burst of bloom, all at 

 once, come along gradually, and they seem to be better than they were 

 the first year they are imported. 



The next I would mention would be cyclamen. This is some- 

 thing, that will do well in any home where a plant will thrive. We al- 

 ways save our own seed. When the plants come into bloom in the early 

 winter, probably along near the middle of December, we select the 

 plants that appeal to us as to color and size of bloom and the shape of 

 the foliage, and we set aside. It does not take many; we grow two 

 or three thousand plants and we set aside five or six of a color. This 

 year we have dark red and a bright red, and bright red orchid, flowered 

 or butter_fly type, and pink shade. We selected half a dozen of one shade 

 and put them off by themselves, in a carnation house. We find we 

 get them more true to color than where we buy either the English 

 or German seed. If you do buy your seed, we find the German seeds 

 are the best. We sow our seed along in August, and the plants are 

 now ready or nearly ready to go into two inch pots. We get all the 

 plants we need in five or six inch pots, for Christmas sales. 



In the home I do not think you will find that you will need 

 hesitate to recommend the cyclamen for any and all conditions. 



The primroses are also a good proposition. We prefer the 

 obconica. to the chinensis. for the reason it is not so delicate. 

 They both grow about the same way in the green house. If you have 

 to handle them very much, unless they are potted exactly right, the 

 chinensis varieties will get loppy. And they are more apt to drop 

 their flowers and look ragged. There are some very nice colors and 

 the size of the obconica is all you would want. The pure white 

 obconica is very good for design work, and it is equally as free flower- 

 ing as the other varieties. The Kewensis, the yellow variety, I 

 could not recommend. It makes a very strong sturdy growth, but the 

 blossoms are small and it is really not very desirable. The Baby 



