54 



GARDENING. 



Nnv. 



zibar balsam will bloom fairly well in an 

 east window, but of course most free- 

 flowering plants like a south-facing one 

 better. In our east window too plants 

 requiring no direct sunshine as ferns and 

 palms will also flourish if kept back a lit- 

 tle from the glass. 



Mrs Langtry; Ella Walz. creamy white, 

 and J. H. Troy, but an early white needs 

 to be Tcry good to displace some of our 

 older favorites such as Ivory or Miss 

 Kate Brown, the latter being one of the 

 verv earliest seen in the market. 



CRINUM KIRKII WON'T BLOOM. 

 M. N., Chippewa Falls, Wis., writes; 

 "I have a Crinum Kirkii that has not 

 flowered although I have had it three 

 years. When I got it the bulb was about 

 thirteen inches in circumference; it is now 

 only nine inches in circumference and con- 

 tinually growing smaller, the outside be- 

 comes dry and peels off", while the bulb 

 makes a good vigorous leaf growth and 

 there are three offsets of about one and 

 one-half inches in diameter. The bulb 

 was in a 7-inch glazed pot. Can you tell 

 me how to treat it to make it flower?" 



I would suppose by wording of inquirv- 

 that the crinum has been kept constantly 

 in a pot. This is a thing I never do. 

 neither would I use painted pots. I 

 would suggest that the bulb be allowed a 

 comparative rest, and in early spring 

 plant it in the open ground in full sun- 

 shine and in good, well drained soil, and 

 I feel convinced that in a short time this 

 effort of reproduction by bulbs will be in 

 great measure discontinued and blooming 

 will fommence. I turn out into the open 

 ground the whole of our collection e->'ery 

 spring and have good plants and free 

 blooming ones. J. Gir.ney. 



Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis. 



EARLY CflRYSflNTHEMUMS. 



While a majority of our larg st and 

 most showy chrysanthemums are found 

 among mid- season or late varieties orig- 

 inators are now adding largely to the 

 early forms. These are of especial interest 

 to amateur gardeners, since their flower- 

 ing season is early enough for them to 

 develop out of doors or without artificial 

 heat. Although during a clear bright 

 autumn we have kept up a bright show 

 of outdoor chrysanthemums until close 

 upon November, with no other protection 

 than a canvas curtain put over them at 

 night, many of the well known show va- 

 rieties are too late for this. Cultivators 

 are now turning their attention towards 

 producing earlier forms, and some very 

 beautiful varieties are the result. 



Miss M. M. Johnson, the variety here 

 illustrated, is a new one, exhibited belore 

 a committee of the Xational Chrvsanthe- 

 mum Society October 20. It is a very 

 shapely Japanese incurved flower of ro- 

 bust habit, a perfect golden yellow, and 

 unusually good for so early." This orig- 

 inated with a western grower, who is 

 also the originator of Mrs. E. G. Hill, a 

 very beautiful jjearly pink, extra large 

 and very early; this latter flower was 

 first shown last year, but disseminated 

 this season. Among other new early 

 chrysanthemums are Sunrise, very large, 

 incurved, light terra cotta withbuff" re- 

 verse, the earliest of the reds; Daybreak, 

 an exquisite soft pink, fading to pale 

 lemon in the center; Princeton, bronzy 

 yellow, flowers about eight inches across, 

 and Rosa Kupferlc, magenta pink, a large 

 flat flower, in shape resembling Viviand- 

 Morel. When we saw^ this flower for the 

 first time last year we thought the ma- 

 genta tinge would be against it, but 

 every lady who saw it fell in love with it 

 at once, and the variety seems likely to 

 become a general favorite. There are 

 several new early whites, among them 

 White Cloud, somewhat in the stvie of 



HoTitKD IN Winter.— "Ign 

 Dunkirk, N. Y., writes: "I have had a 

 hotbed and cold frame made and would 

 like to know (1) can I grow anything in 

 the hotbed this winter, or not till spring? 

 2. What should I plant and when?" 1. 

 .A hotbed as a hotbed is of no use to you 

 in winter. But you can use it as a cold 

 frame in winter, say for lettuces, parsley 

 or spinach, or to winter pansies, anem- 

 ones, daisies, polyanthuses, forget-me- 

 nots or the hke in for planting out in 

 spring, and when you empty it of its 

 winter crop use it as a hotbed. AtDosoris 

 we treat about a hundred sashes in that 

 way. 2. Don't start a hotbed till you 

 are prepared to take care of it, say about 

 the middle or end of March. W'e who are 

 accustomed to them may, in the event of 

 open weather, start one in February, but 

 early hotbeds are laborious undertakings. 

 Sow seeds of early cabbage, cauliflower, 

 lettuces, tomatoes, egg plants, and pep- 

 pers. Also slow growing flower seeds as 

 lobelia, cockscomb, ageratum, vinca and 

 the like. Marigolds, zinnias, stocks and 

 asters do well if not sown till the first of 

 April. 



Begonia Rex.— E. L. H., Brooklyn, 

 sends us a Rex leaf with a rotted spot 

 near the middle of it and decaying parts 

 near the edges. The spot looked as if it 

 might be caused bj' wet, a leaf or petal 

 from another plant falling and decaying 

 on it, or scalding; scalding, wet or cold 

 might cause the other defects. But we 

 did not get material or information 

 enough to enable us to give a clear 

 opinion. Presuming it might be a fungus 

 blight we submitted it to Dr. Byron D. 

 Halsted for examination. He reports 

 "The begonia leaf bears no fungus that is 

 criminal, and I am not able to find anv 

 cause for complaint. Sometimes nema- 

 tode worms are at the bottom of begonia 

 blights." Rigid cleanliness is to a con- 

 siderable extent a preventive against 

 these microscopic worms. 



A Greenhouse in W'inter — M. T. T., 

 Geneva, N. Y., asks "What is the most 

 profitable thing to grow in a greenhouse 

 in the winter time?' It is impossible to 

 tell. Ten thousand greenhouse men in 

 the country to-day are asking themselves 

 that very'question, and by actual prac- 

 tice trying to solve it. Some are growing 

 roses, others carnations, others miscel- 

 laneous plants, grapes, tomatoes, cucum- 

 bers, lettuces, cauliflower, radishes, young 

 nursery stock and so on. Some people 

 are making money in the greenhouse busi- 

 ness, lots are making a bare living only, 

 and others losing money. A great deal 

 depends upon the man running the green- 

 house. But if you take up any special 

 branch of greenhouse work and we can 

 aid you we shall be glad to. 



What Ails the Cyclamen?— A. B. O., 

 Ingersoll, Canada, sends us a cyclamen* 

 leaf and writes: 'The leaves have been 

 turning yellow and curling up, and 1 

 can't make out what the trouble is." 

 The sample sent is a well developed, 

 sturdy leaf, but all over the underside it 

 shows traces of thrips. Wash the under 

 sides of the leaves with a sponge and 

 tobacco water; or have a pail or old but- 

 ter tub filled with tobacco water, and dip 

 the leaves into that but not the roots; or 



chop up some fresh tobacco stems and 

 place them thickly on the bench the cycla- 

 men are standing on, or fumigate the 

 greenhouse three or four times in close 

 succession, say every second day. 



Keeping Seeds OVER Winter. — A Michi- 

 gan subscriber asks: "How should flower 

 and garden seeds be kept over winter— in 

 tight boxes or bags?" It is immaterial 

 providing they are well ripened and kept 

 perfectly dry. We would not like to keep 

 them in airtight boxes nor in a very high 

 or a very low temperature, anywhere be- 

 tween 30° and 60° is good. Providing 

 seeds are perfectly dry and well ripened a 

 few degrees of frost won't hurtthem; you 

 have good evidence of this in corn out in 

 the crib over winter, it is perfectly good 

 for seed in the spring. The same with 

 Lima beans, and with seeds of man^- 

 other warm country plants. 



Pleroma elegans.— In answer to W. 

 E P., Aurora, Ont. The unhealthy con- 

 dition of your plant is due to some local 

 cause we have no means of knowing. It 

 is a very easily grown greenhouse plant 

 requiring warmth in winter and a thin 

 shade, and it maybe plunged out of doors 

 in summer in such a place as you would set 

 fuchsias or begonias. As a window plant 

 it needs care. Don't give it very much 

 water but never let it get dry. If it con- 

 tinues dropping its leaves, if the plant is 

 big enough head it down to within a few 

 inches of the ground and let it branch 

 out again. 



Roses. 



FOLyflNTflfl ROSES IN CflLIFORNIfl. 



The Polyantha class of roses is rapidh- 

 becoming popular with us. The smaller 

 sorts such as Paquerctte, Little Pet and 

 George Pernet make pretty dwarf hedges, 

 being evergreen and almost perpetual 

 bloomers. Nothing can be more appro- 

 priate as a surrounding to a plat of 

 stronger growing roses. But the most 

 valuable of the tribe, at least for this 

 locality, are Cecile Brunner and Perle 

 d'Or. These two sorts are almost iden- 

 tical except in the color of the flowers^ 

 the former being a La France pink with 

 sometimes a touch of salmon, and the 

 latter orange fading to almost pure white, 

 a good deal in the way of William Allen 

 Richardson. Though often described as 

 dwarfs they are in reality' stalwart grow- 

 ers, often in one season making canes the 

 size of one's thumb that rise from the 

 ground to the height of five or six feet. 

 On the tops of the high branches the 

 flowers came in corymbs but on the low 

 and side shoots they come singly on long 

 stems, excellent for cutting, and it is for 

 decorating and tte making of set pieces 

 that these flowers are mostly used. They 

 also make up splendidly into boutonnieres, 

 the buds being small but fine both in form 

 and color. For commercial purposes 

 these roses have been grown almost ex- 

 clusively out of doors up to the present 

 time, but this season many have been put 

 under glass. 



From cuttings the3' grow readily with 

 us in the open field. A florist here put in 

 some three thousand cuttings of Cecile 

 Brimner and something less of Perle d'Or 

 about the first of last December, and the 

 plants are now on an average two feet in 

 height and have been yielding flowers for 

 the last two months" in immense quan- 

 tities. 



Clothilde Soupert, the favorite at the 

 east, is of little value here out of doors. 



