i895- 



* • GARDENING. 



313 



vvliite, pale blue, lilac, violet and many 

 shacks of iiitinse bhie-pui-ple. Tliev are 

 aiiioii;^ ilicclicapcst of bulbs. Get a lot 

 ot tliiiii wIkii you order your Dutch bulbs 

 ami plant tlaiii in clumps in the garden 

 as you would narcissus in good, warm 

 ground. They are hardy here and come 

 up and bloom year after year. S])anisli 

 irises treated in the same way bloom a 

 fortnight earlier. 



Tii.\T "MvsTKKiois CRor," page 2'.)() 

 —Three out of the four persons mentioned 

 in that note have since then communi- 

 cated with us on the subject, and given 

 us considerably more light on it. The 

 bottles that were buried were empty ones 

 and used as an edging in the garden; 

 they were planted close together, necks 

 well down and bottoms up and all even 

 in the row and level on top, as if they 

 were a tile edging or curbing. An edging 

 to garden walks and flower beds, of in- 

 verted, deeply set bottles, is not uncom- 

 mon in old country gardens in Europe, 

 we have seen it there, but we don't likeit, 

 and we earnestly hope the "celebrated 

 amateur" will remove it from his garden. 

 The landscape gardener denies them 

 "Novice," knowing that his neighbor is 

 dceplv versed in chemistry and entomol- 

 ogy, thought that the bottles were insect 

 traps or destroyers. But the irrepressible 

 brother-in-law having bought his knowl- 

 edge ot gardening in the school of experi- 

 ence gives "Novice" some sound advice. 

 He writes: "You want to know whether 

 spring or fall is the best time to plant 

 bottles. Now, John, the experience you 

 and I gained in our youth — by observa- 

 tion, of course — should not be forgotten 

 by you. Most bottles should be planted 

 before you fall, and the deeper the better, 

 and moreover, they should never again be 

 disturbed. 'What will they raise?' you 

 ask. Well, that's uncertain. If not 

 planted soon enough and deep enough 

 thev often raise Cain." 



The Greenhouse. 



VARIOUS QUESTIONS, 



BY V. W. MCISTIKE. IOWA. 



1. TiiK Fi.owER Business Pays.— "In 

 a small village of three hundred people 

 ray business is paying. I may say, how- 

 ever, that it is only a side issue, for I am 

 a woman and a housekeeper." 



And that is just how it will pay. You 

 get pleasure and profit both out of your 

 greenhouse and garden, and instead of be- 

 ing hard work to you it is recreation and 

 rest and a happy change from your 

 domestic duties. Thereis health, strength, 

 interest, love, and pleasure in it. In truth 

 if many of our sickly ladies woidd turn 

 their attention in the same way to their 

 gardens in summer and a little greenhous; 

 in winter it would do them more good as 

 regards health than all the medicine in 

 the drug store. 



2. Wants a Bigger Greenhouse.— 

 "We want to enlarge our little greenhouse. 

 How would it do to excavate simply for 

 the center walk, board up the sides, and 

 use the natural level of the ground for 

 plant benches?" 



Not at all. True, it looks reasonable, 

 but it isn't. For violets it would be all 

 right, and so too it would be for lettuces, 

 radish, spinach and parsley, but for a 

 general assortment of plants it would be 

 wrong. It would be hard lo kccj) U]) a 

 steady temperature in it in winter, :<n(liii 

 dull weather damp would be very bad in 

 it. Far better excavate the whole space 

 within the house to the floor level, and 



have the benches above the giound level. 

 If you visit the greenhouses of leading 

 florists, you will find that they keep their 

 plant benches well up above the ground 

 level, and except in the caseof violets and 

 pits for storing plants in over winter all 

 tlic sunk houses arc excavated the full 

 depth between the walls of the building. 



;(. What TO FILL UP WITH in summer. 

 — "My seedbed in one comer of the green- 

 house is just empty. What would be best 

 to plant it to now?" 



What depends on circumstances local 

 with you and of which we have no knowl- 

 edge.' We presume it is a warm, shady, 

 moist comer; then it is just the home lor 

 many Rex and other fine begonias, ferns, 

 palms, dracasnas, and the like, spread 

 them out to give them room. If it isn't 

 too close it would be a nice place to start 

 cinerarias and calceolarias in. Many 

 think it is a pity to have the greenhouse 

 empty in summer, and so it is if you have 

 appropriate plants to fill it, but if your 

 plants are better in the open air in sum- 

 mer than in the greenhouse, then it is 

 cruelty to keep them in it. 



4. "I had dahlias, geraniums, cannas, 

 verbenas, cuphea, scarlet sage,ageratum, 

 pansies, golden feverfew, chrysanthe- 

 mums, etc., in all over thirty sorts. I 

 want to fill it now for winter with about 

 the same number of sorts." 



.■\s your greenhouse is small everyone of 

 those plants is better outside than 

 indoors. But you can propagate and pot 

 a few geraniums, and pot some chrysan- 

 themums, getting them ready for fall and 

 winter flowers, even a few cannas may be 

 potted up, but they all are better plunged 

 out of doors than taken into the green- 

 house. Plant the dahlias out and let 

 them alone till lall. Verbenas are easily 

 raised from seed sown in January to 

 March, or a few rooted cuttings may be 

 secured in Septemper, August is soon 

 enough to strike cuphea. Sow seed of 

 scarlet sage in March, pansies in July and 

 August, and golden feverfew in February 

 and take slips of ageratum in September 

 or October. 



5. Bought dirty plants.— Have we 

 retailers any rights that wholesalers are 

 bound to respect? I got a supply of Papa 

 Gontier roses from a wholesale firm, and 

 when they bloomed they were a delicate 

 flesh color. A lot of coleus and oleanders 

 I got were filthy with scale and mealy 

 bug, and some chrysanthemums from 

 them were black with aphides." 



As re. ards wrongly named or misrepre- 

 sented plants you have redress. In the 

 case of the vermin-infested plants, how- 

 ever, you should have returned them as' 

 soon as you got them and examined them 

 and found them dangerously dirty, or at 

 least notified the florist of their condition 

 and that they were unsatisfactory, and 

 you would not accept of them. If you 

 paid for them before you got them, 

 though, perhaps the easiest way out of 

 the difficulty, is to lefit drop. 



OTflflEITE ORANGE. 



F. C. D., Conn., asks: "What shall I 

 do with my Otaheite orange, which was 

 in the house all winter? It blossomed full 

 from January to April and now has con- 

 siderable fruit set. I have it in the same 

 pot as it was in in the house and sunk in 

 the ground, it is growing and looks 

 thrifty. Will it do to wait until fall be- 

 fore repotting?" 



We cannot tell except in a general way. 

 It doesn't need a big pot. If the drainage 

 is clean and perfect and the plant is 

 healthy and growing well we should be 



age be clogged to the hole and the earth 

 soapy with worms we would repot the 

 plant, picking out the worms, and remove 

 the old drainage and as much of the soil 

 as can well be done without injuring the 

 roots; then repot into a clean pot. -well 

 drained and use fresh loamy soil mixed 

 with leaf mould. Pot fimily. Plunge 

 out of doors in a bed of coal ashes, or at 

 least put a lot of ashes into the bottom 

 of the hole you plunge the pot in to ex- 

 clude worms. Sprinkle overhead twice a 

 day for a few weeks and shade from hot 

 sunshine. 



W«y WON'T T«E ORANGE TREES BIOOM? 

 W. E. B., New Haven, Conn., writes: 



1. "Is it true that orange trees fail to 

 blossom in northern greenhouses unless 

 grafted? I have heard that such is the 

 case, and have known of trees grown 

 from cuttings that have not bloomed, 

 though they are now seven oreight years 

 of age? 



2. "How old ought a tree to be, in 

 order to blossom and produce fruit?" 



1. No, not exactly. It is with orange 

 trees as with apple or pear trees, seed- 

 lings in their early life are apt to run to 

 wood more than to Iruit, but age and 

 restricted food and root room will bring 

 the most stubborn tree to terms and 

 make it flower in a northern greenhouse 

 or anywhere else where it will live. But 

 what's the of it? Our mission is to help 

 nature, not defy her. The seedling orange 

 gives us a healthy root, and to obtain 

 particular varieties and early fruiting 

 c[ualities we bud or graft the seedling 

 stocks with cions from bearing trees. And 

 as we use the quince stock to dwarf the 

 pear so we use seedlings of a dwarf spe- 

 cies of orange tree on which to work the 

 greater oranges and fit them as pot 

 plants. 



2. Much depends upon cultural condi- 

 tions. Usually 2 years for dwarfs, and 

 may be twice as long or more for others. 



SOME PRETTY GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 



"The Scarlet Freesia, " Anowatheca 

 cruenta, is a beautiful little bulbous plant 

 resembling a freesia, except in color, 

 which is soft rose, the three lower petals 

 having each a blood-red stain. It lasts 

 long in bloom, and is abeau iful contrast 

 with the freesia. [The name "scarlet 

 freesia" is unfortunate, even misleading. 

 True, both the Anomatheca and freesia, 

 belong to the iris family of plants and are 

 natives of the Cape of Good Hope, but 

 the first named although it has been in 

 common cultivation in greenhouses for 

 fifty years, has never taken with the peo- 

 ple as the freesia has done. At the same 

 time it is a real pretty little plant and of 

 the easiest cultivation, and if allowed to 

 ripen and scatter its seed it will natural- 

 ize itself on the floors and benches of our 

 greenhouses as rivinia, Zanzibar balsams, 

 and dalechampia do. The name "scarlet 

 freesia" was given to it a few years ago 

 by some of our florisits who were "boom- 

 ing it" as a novelty. — Ed.] 



Saintpaulia ionantha is in bloom with 

 us just now. It is a little gem related to 

 gloxinia. Its flowers are deep violet 

 blue, and its stamens are clustered tightly 

 in the center, forming a golden yellow- 

 speck. 



OxALis.— Two beautiful little summer 

 blooming kinds are the rose and white 

 forms of Horibunda. They are dainty 

 little plants blooming in the bright sun- 

 shine, but they close up their flowers in 

 dull weather. They are useful for filling 

 or fringing vases. They are of easy 

 culture, simply keep them in a dry cool 



