Winter Meeting. 167 



are amply worth the effort. After the transplanting period they only 

 require the weeds kept down. This must be done by the hand-pulling 

 process. Cut worms and green aphis are the enemies of this flower. 

 The first must be hunted for, and destroyed ; the last may be treated 

 in A'arious ways. Spraying with a week solution of paris green is a 

 good method to get rid of them. No more than a table spoonful of 

 the powder should be used to a gallon of water. "^'Slug Shot," a com- 

 mercial preparation, will kill aphis, but it makes the plants and blos- 

 soms look dusty and disagreeable for several days after an application, 

 for it must be used when the plants are wet, and it adheres tenaciously. 



Petunias give a greater wealth and variety of color throughout the 

 entire summer and autumn for less work and care than any other 

 flower in the catalogue. 



Merely sow petunia seed in any common light garden soil, just 

 where you wish them to remain, and thy will grow sturdily and bloom 

 profusely until Jack Frost comes in real earnest to cut them down. 

 Petunias are always attractive, and they have a delicious perfume which 

 they seem to delight in wafting out on the evening air. A petunia 

 bed in my garden last fall gave us more pleasure than all the other 

 autumn flowers. The only care they need is to keep the weeds away 

 from them. They do not require an especial amount of moisture and 

 will bloom almost equally well in sun or shade. 



^N^asturtiums are regal things, so clean of foliage, profuse of flower, 

 and so easy to cultivate. Persons who do not like them call them 

 "vegetables," and one disagreeable man I happen to know, calls them 

 "nasty stertions," but I love them, always grow them, and would not 

 exclude them from the choicest garden. They come with such a riot of 

 color, fullness of life, and brightness of foliage, that I welcome them 

 gladly, as I do the sunshine. Put the seed in the ground early — 

 almost anywhere except among other plants. Each seed will make a 

 fine, strong vine, or bush, according to variety, and will give cut flowers 

 for the table all sumuier and fall. I plant the Tom Thumb kind; 

 they bear as many blossoms and are more generally satisfactory than 

 the climbing varieties. 



These flowers will thrive in any kind of soil, and require very 

 little care. Give them nooks and corners to themselves, or plant them 



