i895- 



GARDENING, 





VASE OF FLOWERS IN SPENCER PARK, ROCK ISLAND, ILL 



any injurious effect, sulphate of potas- 

 sium — V2 ounce to 2 gallons of water. 

 Syringe the plants in the evening. If 

 thrips are troublesome fumigate with 

 tobaeco. 



Our neighbor, Mr. Thos. H. Spaulding, 

 is growing this year about 12,000 plants, 

 including 2,300 seedlings; some from 

 their own hybridizing, and a great part 

 from imported seed from Japan. 



Wm. Fitzwilliam. 



Orange, N.J., Sept. 5. 



WINDOW PLANTS. 



M. W. P., Hagcrstown, Md., "had an 

 outside window put to an cast window in 

 the sitting room last winter, with a space 

 between them for plants; besides the floor 

 room there are two shelves. The sun 

 caie n from sunrise till 2 p. m. The 

 inside windojv was general!}' open. The 

 tcrpcrature in the day time was 55° to 

 70 '; at night it was much cooler, but with 

 the aidof oldnewspape s nothing ever got 

 frozen. The plants I grew there were 

 rose, nutmeg and fish geraniums, Otaheite 

 oranges, ixias, sparaxis cyclaTcn, Mexi- 

 can primrose and helotrope. In water- 

 ing th;m a little ammonia was usedinthe 

 water oci.a'ionally. Most of them grew 

 and luoked very healthy, but only the 

 sparaxis and heliotrope bloomed. Do 



j'ou think that violets, pjnsies and carna- 

 tions would bloom theie next winter, and 

 would it be best to keep the window in 

 the sitting room up or down?" 



That window should be a good place 

 for plants. Bv a'l means open thetitting 

 room vv.ndow all you want to. And 

 have the outside window so arranged 

 that you can open it much or litile, as 

 you wish; then every fine morning while 

 the sun is shining oq it open it a little, 

 and for a few minutes or more, according 

 to the weather. After January you can 

 have many p'ants in bloom; the short- 

 ne.'s occurs from November into January. 

 And much depends upon the condition of 

 the plants before they are brought into 

 the window whether they are going to 

 bloom earh' or not, for instance newly 

 lifted or newly potted p'.in's exert their 

 efforts in healing their wounds from the 

 late lifting, then they have to make lots 

 of fiesh roots and some more growth be- 

 fore they take to blooming. But with well 

 prepared, well rooted plants that window 

 should be gay from now on. Violets and 

 pansics dislike dry heat and high temper- 

 ature, still the coolness at night might 

 offset that and they bloom with you. 

 Carnations, such as Portia, and given 

 lots of water too, should bloom nic.ly 

 there. So too should Roman hvacinths, 



paper white and trumpet narcissus, frees, 

 ias, Dutch hyacinths, Zanzibar balsams- 

 siogle petunias, red oxalis,obconica prim- 

 ula, dwarf stevia, pink (incarnata) bego 

 Ilia by pulling a mus'in curt am between it 

 and the sunshine, and other begonias. In 

 fact experiment alone can limit the mate- 

 rial at your command for such a use. 



BULBS FOR WINTER FLOWERS. 



TULIPS. 



While we have a large variety suitable 

 for planting out of doors, those fitted for 

 indoor work are comparatively limited. 

 Late tulips are worthless for this work, 

 and so are all of undecided or negative 

 colors, and of tall lanky habit. Tulips of 

 purple shades while all right in the flower 

 garden are undesirable for forcing. And 

 although tuUps when planted out are 

 sure to bloom and at their seasonable 

 pLriod, it often happens that there is a 

 i;i)od deal of trouble and uncertainty as 

 regards the proper flowering of tulips in- 

 doors in winter. It is useless trying to 

 u;et them in very early, say at the holi- 

 days, we only court disappointment. 

 True, we often find Due Van Thol tulips 

 in the market at New Years, but as a rule 

 how wee, and short stemmed, and un- 

 happy they look. 



Varieties eor forcing, or rather for 

 winter flowers. — Get some scarlet Due Van 

 Thol for earliest blooms. Then have Belle 

 Alliance, dark scarlet; Bride of Haarlem, 

 white, striped and feathered with crim- 

 son; Canarybird and Chrysolora, both 

 vellow; Joost van Vondel, rosy crimson 

 with white pencillings; Keizer Kroon, 

 crimson scarlet broadly edged with yel- 

 low, one of the best; White Pottebakker; 

 I'roserpinc, rose; Rose Grisdelin, rose and 

 white; and Vermillion Brilliant, vermilion. 



SoilandTreatment.— Weget the bulbs 

 • IS soon as possible and plant a lot in 

 ]"its for greenhouse and house decoration 

 n id the balance in flats (shallow boxes) 

 lor cut flowers. Never have more than 

 •iiie variety in each pot or box. Mixed 

 tulips are of no use for winter work as 

 they are uneven in size and widely differ- 

 ent in color of flower, habit and time of 

 blooming. We use the same kind of soil 

 for tulips as for hyacinths, and otherwise 

 treat them like the latter, but in potting 

 them we bury the bulbs out of sight; this 

 is not necessary in the case of the boxes 

 though. 



Old Bulhs. — After forcingour tulips we 

 let them ripen, and when they are dry 

 shake them out of their pots or boxes, 

 keep them cool and dry over summer, and 

 plant them out in the garden in fall. In 

 a year or two many of them will make 

 good enough outdoor tulips. But they 

 are worthless for forcing again the next 

 year. 



Lilies.— We keep over our old Harrisii 

 lilies. After they have done blooming 

 they are given water enough to keep them 

 plump and green till May or June, when 

 we turn them out of their pots and with- 

 out breaking the ball of roots at all plant 

 them out and close together in a row. 

 They get no water except the rain and no 

 attention except to keep them clean from 

 weeds. About the end of August they 

 are lifted, broken apart and the bulbs 

 separated and graded. They are then re- 

 potted, one bulb in a 6-inch pot, and 

 more together into a larger one, and set 

 outdoors alongside the callas andfreesias, 

 liehind a north-facing board fence, where 

 thc3' are shaded from warm sunshine. To 

 set them into a cold frame with a shutter 

 over them would be a good place,, and 

 better than on the open ground because 

 they wouldn't get unduly drj' or soaking 



