'i8g6. 



GARDENING. 



197 



CKYPTOMEKIA .lAPONI 



the summer is over both tubs should be 

 well filled with foliage and flowers. It" 

 two good plants of the nymphajaare put 

 in the tub a full eifect will sooner be real- 

 ized. For a tank use brick and good 

 cement. Eighteen inches deep will do; 

 any size you wish, for single lily pads 

 spread from 2 to 6 or more feet, and one 

 plant of nelumbium would, if permitted, 

 soon cover several yards, but you can 

 restrict both to any reasonable space you 

 wish. Build a single brick (4-inch) wall 

 across the tank between the nelumbium 

 and the other lilies, else the former will 

 soon enter and monopolize the nymphaea 

 ground. If you keep a few goldfish, sun- 

 fish, or carp in the tank or tubs you will 

 have no trouble with mosquitoes, but if 

 not, a more congenial breeding place for 

 these pests would be hard to find. 



The Greenhouse. 



MY OREENtiOlSE FLftNTS IN WINTER. 



May I give your readers a page of my 

 experience? [Gakuening welcomes your 

 experience, and so it will that of our 

 other readers. — En.] I have a greenhouse 

 about 35 by 12 feet in which, for recrea- 

 tion, 1 try to keep a supply of cut flowers 

 of the simpler kinds, for our parlor in 

 winter. It is heated by hot water from 

 a boiler in the house, and I keep the tem- 



perature as near as possible to 50° at 

 night and 70° in the day time. These are 

 my successes and failures. 



Heliotropes, I grow very finely and with 

 abundant bloom, from cuttings taken in 

 the summer. Pelargoniums, the same, 

 but in pots, heliotropes in the ground. 

 Freesias, I have an abundance of, as they 

 increase very largely from year to year, 

 and it does not seem to make any differ- 

 ence what kind of soil they have, they 

 always bloom beautifully. Only I cannot 

 get much of a succession, as those that I 

 planted in boxes early in September and 

 in the benches in October aiid November 

 all come into bloom about this time. 



Rose geraniums, I have a large bed of, 

 the same plants for the last three years, 

 giving me constant cutting, and they are 

 always thrifty. Daisies, I took up two 

 of, which had been in the garden bed all 

 summer, but were nearly dead from 

 drought; cut them back and potted them, 

 brought them in before frost and they 

 have bloomed all winter. Abutilons the 

 same. Nasturtiums, I always plant, and 

 have tried all kinds of soil, even almost 

 pure sand. One year they bloomed pro- 

 fusely, but other years, thej' grow to 

 vine, with few flowers. [Restrict their 

 root room, but otherwise feed them 

 liberally. — En.] Sweet alyssum and mig- 

 nonette, I always have plenty of, if I am 

 careful not to have the soil too rich, and 

 thin them far apart. 



Begonias, several varieties, grow and 

 bloom well, but are not of much value for 



cut flowers. Two of them, spending the 

 summer under shade of bushes, dropped 

 seeds, from which I have potted a dozen 

 plants which are growing finely. 



Callas, I let dry out in the summer, and 

 then repotted and followed the directions 

 given somewhere, "give them plenty of 

 warm water and wait for blossoms." 

 [Not in Garueninc,?— Kd]. And I am still 

 waiting; they look fine, but show no buds. 

 Would they not do better, of planted out 

 for the summer? [No, they bloom better 

 and with more certainty when dried oil 

 in summer. When they have done bloom- 

 ing, say in May, lay them on their sides 

 in a shady place out of doors, keeping 

 them quite dry; about the firstof August, 

 shake them outof theirpots, separate the 

 "bulbs" cleaning away all dead parts 

 from their base, and repot, say four large 

 roots into an 8-inch pot. Stand them up 

 and leave them outdoors in thin or partial 

 shade till end of September. — Ed.] 



Carnations are my hete noir. I raise 

 fine plants, give them rich soil, compost 

 of old sods and barnyard manure, water 

 them, sometimes sparingly and some- 

 times freely, occasionally with liquid 

 manure, and they grow luxuriantly, but 

 have few and usually small blossoms, and 

 my neighbor Besold at Mineola.has them 

 in abundance and as large as roses, and I 

 am tempted to break the tenth com- 

 mandment. Can it be only that I do not 

 press down the soil firm enough? 



Hyacinths and other bulbs, I have no 

 success with. No matter how I plant 

 them, half of them are failures, and 

 none of them are fine. [Don't hurry them. 

 When you bring them up out of the cellar 

 or elsewhere, don't set them up on the 

 bench, but place them on a platform or 

 shelf under the back bench, and where 

 drip cannot reach them, till they grow 

 and throw up their flower stems but not 

 open or color their flowers. — Ed.] 



Cyclamen Persiciim, send up fine 

 mottled leaves, but only a few flowers. 



A friend gave me three years ago, a fine 

 root of allamanda, which I planted out in 

 the bench. It grew and bloomed most 

 profusely, but last summer, began to 

 drop its leaves and buds, and finally 

 died. Did it exhaust itself? [No, it is a 

 long-Uved very luxuriant woody vine 

 some local cause was the trouble.— Ed.] 



I keep always a nice bed of parslev. 



Garden Citv, N. Y. S'. C. 



BOUGfllNVILLEfl-STROBILftNTfiES. 



A Wisconsin reader asks about 



1. BouGAiNViLLEA GLABRA as a win- 

 dow plant? 



Ans. Although splendid in its floral 

 glory and of fairly easy culture we can- 

 not recommend it as a popular window 

 plant; but the dwarf' form called Sanderl- 

 ana, being of much more restricted 

 ■ growth than the type, ma\' probablj' 

 make a fairlj' good window plant. Have 

 any of our readers grown it as such? 



2. Strodilanthes Dverianus as a 

 window plant? 



Ans, No, we don't recommend it as 

 such. In a warm greenhouse it makes a 

 pretty little pot plant, and under certain 

 conditions it makes a good fine-foliaged 

 plant in the flower garden in summer. 



3. PRUNrNG Cacti.— Will the long-leaved 

 cacti (Pbyllocactus) bear priming or 

 shortening in of any sort? If not, what 

 can be done to prevent a too straggling 

 growth? 



.Ins, Yes, you can cut off branches or 

 stems at any length, the wound will soon 

 heal and lateral shoots (maybe not this 

 season though) in due time spring out 

 from the shortened branches. But when 

 plants are in verj' vigorous condition the 



