1 66 



GARDENING. 



Feb. 



'S, 



water or vapor, but theothtrtwo insects 

 won't; the mealy bugs have got to be 

 brushed or washed off. and the red spider 

 to be washed offwith a sponge and soapy 

 water. The stereotyped advice "sprink- 

 Hng the plants with water and keeping 

 the atmosphere moist will kill the red 

 spider" is all nonsense. Let it get started 

 once and 3'ou can not keep the atmos- 

 phere in your conservatory moist enough 

 to kill the pest no matter what people 

 may say orwritetothe contrary; it takes 

 hard and persistent use of the syringe or 

 hose to dislodge and destroy this insect, 

 so much so that rather than spend time 

 trying to clean common plants like abuti- 

 lons, carnations, salvias and such sus- 

 ceptible subjects, we would throw them 

 out, and the other plants we would wash 

 with a sponge and soapy water and use 

 the syringe at the same time. 



3. The cause is local, and as we have 

 no data to work on we could only guess 

 a reason and it might be wrong and mis- 

 leading. Tell us what the plants are and 

 the conditions under which thej- are 

 grown. 



PLANTS IN SCHOOL. 



Help! if you please. A public school in 

 Chicago — many windows, warm, very 

 dry air, dust, frequent changes in temper- 

 ature, careless teachers here and there, 

 but a determination to havethe windows 

 filled with plants next year. I have 

 "mums" rooting as a starter, and plenty 

 of geranium stock. 



1. What geranium is most apt to 

 bloom in winter? 2. Will begonia Vernon 

 begood for north windows? 3. Willseed 

 plantecl soon make good plants for Sep- 

 tember next? 



4. Will you name three or five kinds of 

 plants hardy enough, which I can raise 

 for next winter to be most attractive? I 

 want plants that do not need to be syr- 

 inged and fumigated, etc., and have 

 north, south, east and west windows. 

 5. What palm would do well on a teach- 

 er's table out of the sun? A plant in a 5- 

 inch or 6inch pot does best in window, 

 as such can be carried to warm room on 

 cold night. 



6. What plants will make an attract- 

 ive hanging basket ior south window? 



7. Will not a shallow tray with 2 

 inches sand form best resting" place for 

 the pots in the window? H. S. T. 



Chicago. 



1. Either single or double flowered 

 fish, commonly called scarlet, geraniums. 

 The plants should be kept in pots over 

 summer, somewhat dry, and be repotted 

 early in August, to give them an oppor- 

 tunity to get well rooted and ready for 

 blooming when school opens in Septem- 

 ber or October. Plants lifted Irom the 

 open ground seldom recover enough to 

 begin blooming before January. 



2. No, Vernon is of very little use in 

 winter; get Rubra. 



3 and 4. S xeet alyssum and single pe- 

 tunias raised from seed sown in summer 

 will make nice pot plants for fall and win- 

 ter, so will Impatiens Sultani, or you will 

 get bigger plants of it by sowing earlier. 

 Chinese and obconica primroses sown 

 this spring, and cinerarias in summer will 

 also give you nice winter blooming plants 

 that should do well with you in a cool 

 room, but we fear they will need too 

 much attention in their summer stage to 

 be of use to you Real!}', there are very 

 few plants you can raise from seeds now 

 that will be worth your while for winter 

 flowers. Chrysanthemums are perhaps 

 the best, if the seed is sown now, and the 



seedlings planted out in summer and 

 lifted and potted in August or September, 

 they will give you a great variety of types 

 and blossoms, but as you say you have 

 plenty of them you would gain nothing 

 by raising more from seed. 



5. No palm needs direct sunshine. 

 Among fan palms Livistona rotundifolia 

 is the neatest, but the common Borbonica 

 is excellent; among feather palms Cocos 

 Weddeliana is the prettiest, but Kentia 

 Belmoreana or Areca lutescens will an- 

 swer admirably. 



6. Single flowered petunias, common 

 red and yellow flowered oxalis, othonna 

 and ivy geraniums for hanging over the 

 sides of the pots and Impatiens Sultani, 

 scarlet geraniums, oak and rose gera- 

 niums and the like for filling up the mid- 

 dle, Wandering Jew. variegated panicum, 

 German Ivy, English ivj' and the other 

 plants so much used for" hanging baskets 

 are generally suspended in north or sun- 

 less windows so as to give up the sunny 

 windows to blossoming plants. 



7. Yes, very well. The dishes generally 

 used are flower pot saucers; they are 

 made a purpose and of every size to suit 

 the pots. The sand in the dishes is unnec- 

 essary. In the case of the fibrous rooted 

 flowering plants water should not be 

 allowed to stand in the saucers, but as 

 regards palms, rubber plants and screw 

 pines, plants most used in dwellings in 

 winter, water in the saucer doesn't hurt 

 them, in fact seems to do them good. 



OERflNlUMS FOR WINTER FLOWERING. 



Many of the varieties which are valua- 

 ble for blooming in the greenhouse in 

 winter do not behave satisfactorily when 

 planted outdoors in summer. The three 

 sections of geraniums we find useful for 

 cutting and decorative work are the 

 zonal, ivj'-leaved and scented leaved. In 

 the zonal geranium we have scarlet, crim- 

 son, salmon, purple, white and interme- 

 diate shades of color. The rangeof colors 

 in the ivy-leaved section is also large and 

 beautiful; while thej' have additional 

 charm of their beautiful pendent growth. 

 They are useful for supended baskets, 

 window boxes and conservatory decora- 

 tion. Even in the parlor and dining room 

 placed on brackets for a short time they 

 come in useful. The scented leaved sorts 

 are grown for their branches, which are 

 cut for mixing with cut flowers, for vases, 

 bouquets, etc., while a single leaf is often 

 used as a background for a blossom for a 

 boutonniere. 



Culture.— The zonal section we root 

 from cuttings about the middle of July, 

 pot them and grow them on till they get 

 their last shift into 6-inch pots. While 

 outside we keepthem in a sunnv position, 

 pinch them back and pull the flowers off 

 them till we bring them inside in Septem- 

 ber. When they fill their pots with roots 

 we give them liquid cow manure. We 

 sometimes pot a few extra specimens in 

 8-inch pots. We keep them in the sunniest 

 part of the greenhouse, and to keep them 

 flowering well they should have a night 

 temperature of about 58°. The ivy-leaved 

 section we root in March and otherwise 

 treat like the zonals, except that when we 

 bring them in we place them on shelves 

 and let them hang gracefully down; we 

 never stake them. The scented leaved 

 sorts we root in May, pot and plunge 

 outside and keep them on the dry side to 

 prevent them growing too vigoroush'. 

 The following is a list of some meritorious 

 varieties: Zonals— M. Bruant, double 

 scarlet, good for either bedding or winter 

 flowering; Mr. H. Cannell, double scarlet; 

 B. K. Bliss, ('.ainbetta,Acteon, fine double 



scarlets. W. P. Simmons, M. Pasteur 

 and Circe are good double flowering crim- 

 sons; Gloire de France and M. Presse are 

 double salmon; Jeanne d'Arc, Le Cygne 

 and, probably the best, La Favorite are 

 double white; Gloire Lyonnaise, cherry 

 and scarlet; and Copemia, rose and car- 

 mine; and President Dutailly, amaranth, 

 are good. These last three" are superla- 

 tively beautiful. 



Ivy-leaved— Berthelot, magenta; Lavoi- 

 sier, scarlet; Le Pcrle, lilac; La Rosiere, 

 soft rose; Emile Lemoine, orange scarlet; 

 Congo, lilac, center rose, edges white; 

 Jeanne d'Arc, white suffused with laven- 

 der; and Holly Wreath, variegated foli- 

 age, are fine. Scented leaved varieties — 

 Balm, Dr. Livingston, and rose scented 

 (Capitatum) are among the best. 



Orange, N. J. Wm. Fitzwilliam. 



fl LITTLE GREENHOUSE. 



Subscriber, St. Louis, says "a1 the back 

 of my house which faces south a space 

 where I would like to put up alittlcgreen- 

 house. The length is fourteen feet, the 

 height at the back, because of a window 

 in my house, must be ten feet six inches or 

 thirteen feet three inches, but there is 

 plenty room for width. Adviseme about 

 it. Sketch of place enclosed." 



The sketch shows the intention to have 

 a lean-to greenhouse built against the 

 brick wall of the dwelling house. Ten 

 and a half feet high at back is enough, 

 make it five feet high in front, of this 

 two and one-half may be of board or 

 brick, and two and one-half feet glass. 

 Have the front bench two and one-third 

 feet high, two feet nine inches wide; path 

 two feet three inches wide; back bench in 

 two stages, the front of which may be 

 eighteen inches wide and four or" six 

 inches higher than the front bench, and 

 the other reaching back to the wall, four 

 or six inches higher than the other. Ven- 

 tilate at the top. The inside of a house 

 should be made according to w hat one. 

 wishes to grow in it and the width of the 

 path according to the 

 ments one wishes to ha\ 



PALM LEAF TIPS DISEASED. 



W. B , Chatham, Ohio, asks:— "What is 

 the matter with the tips of my palm 

 leaves, they always go brown? Do I give 

 too much water or too little or is there 

 any other cause?" 



The trouble probably is the tip blight, 

 a fungous disease. The diseased tips can 

 not be cured, but a further spread of the 

 disease may be prevented by dewing or 

 spraying the plants every few weeks with 

 Bordeaux mixture. 



POTTING PLANTS. 



M. B. W. writes, "It is recommended 

 for almost all plants to pot in small pots 

 when small and repot them as necessary. 

 Is this better for plants generally Ihan to 

 put them into large pots at once?" 



Bad watering. weakens or kills more 

 potted plants both in the window and 

 gref ihouse than any other cause, and 

 next comes over-potting. We like to use 

 moderately small pots — compared to the 

 size of the plants — for all things, and as 

 soon as the plants are well rooted in them 

 repot into pots, one size larger if in the 

 fall season, or one and a half to two sizes 

 larger if the plants are in vigorous health 

 and the season is the spring or summer. 

 Take a geranium for instance: If well 

 rooted in a 4-inch pot in the fall we would 

 shift into a 5-inch pot; if in spring, how- 

 ever, a i)ot the next size larger would be 



