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THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



\Novemher, 



Green House and House Gardening. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The growing taste for cut flowers is com- 

 mendable. Thousands who could never be 

 brought face to face with nature, are introduced 

 in this way, and many have enjoyment who 

 never thought of the pleasure a plant gives 

 growing in the ground, and which has been made 

 to grow under earnest hands and the soft influ- 

 ence of loving eyes. There is much amusement 

 at the vulgar taste which makes sailing vessels, 

 birds, and household furniture out of flowers. 

 Correct taste would have them arranged merely 

 as cut flowers; in bunches or basinets, in vases 

 or other vessels. 



We believe that flowers themselves can be 

 made to ornament other things, without being 

 forced to represent the things themselves. And 

 the good people who argue in this way are un- 

 doubtedly correct. Yet we must not forget that 

 all good things have to grow. There must be a 

 beginning to all things ; and the love of flowers 

 in ungainly ornaments though it be a vulgar 

 love, is a good beginning. "We get the love 

 first, and the more tasteful love will grow. For 

 this reason we look with some charity on the 

 cui'ious devices seen at marriages, funerals, and 

 horticultural exhibitions, and do not deride 

 them as some do. We hope the florists will 

 have good success in this business, and that 

 every home will be decorated with cut flowers 

 the coming season. We would have them in- 

 telligently used of coitfse ; but at any rate let 

 them be used. 



It is however a misfortune that the rage for 

 cut flowers seems to interfere somewhat with 

 the nice greenhouse collections people once 

 loved to have. Now we find little else but Ge- 

 raniums, Bouvardias, Heliotropes, Mignonettes, 

 Carnations, Tea Roses, Callas, Camellias, Aza- 

 leas, and a few other well known things, that do 

 for cutting. The beautiful Ericas about which 

 Mr. Fyfe recently wrote, and the other interest- 

 ing Winter-flowering things from the Cape of 

 Good Hope and Australia, which in the past 



made the Winter greenhouse so very enjoyable, 

 are now seldom seen. This is the dark side of 

 the cut flower era. It is to be hoped it will im- 

 prove in this respect. 



Coming from greenhouses to mere room 

 plants, we think there is a much greater im- 

 provement manifested in these the few past 

 years than ever before. There are few houses 

 now of any pretension to taste and elegance 

 that do not provide for the window plants. The 

 knowledge that it is fumes of illuminating gas 

 that injures them more than any thing else, 

 has led to various contrivances to shut off the 

 atmosphere of the plant cabinets from that of 

 the living rooms, and there is little left to insure 

 success than watchfulness. Insects have to be 

 looked after ; the plants washed occasionally ; 

 the earth never over-watered, nor never kept 

 too dry. These with all the sun light possible', 

 make nearly all that is required for successful 

 window culture. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



The Bedding at Fairmount Park. — The 

 hundreds of thousands who saw and admired the 

 bedding at Fairmount Park during the Centen- 

 nial, would have been more than delighted with 

 it the past season. It is conceded on all hands 

 that it was the most successful attempt at this 

 style of gardening ever attempted in this coun- 

 try. It is to be hoped that the Park Commis- 

 sioners will keep on in the good work they have 

 begun. It is pleasant to write that while the 

 work in some of the parks in our leading cities 

 is falling behind, that of Fairmount Park meets 

 with general praise. 



Orchids in the Open Air. — At the Octo- 

 ber meeting of the Germantown Horticultural 

 Society, two species of Stanhopea were exhibit- 

 ed in bloom, filling the hall with their delicious 

 odor, and which plants had been simply hang- 

 ing out in their baskets on the branch of a tree 

 all Summer. They were exhibited chiefly to 

 show how easily this class of orchids could be 



