iSgs- 



• • • GARDENING. 



hotbed work, wc have posts every three 

 feet at back and front, and the rafters 

 set between the posts where the3- also act 

 as braces against the pressure of the 

 bank of earth. In the case of frames that 

 are not sunk beyond an inch or two in 

 the ground, the rafters are light, dove- 

 tailed and made to set in or lift out at 

 will. 



Most of those used as hotbeds last 

 spring have the old manure still left in 

 them to keep them filled up, with four or 

 five inches <ieep of loam on top of it. 

 Into this wc will now plant lettuces for 

 hearting bclori- Christmas, or in fact till 

 March. We sow the seed out of doors, 

 prick ulTthc seedlings 2 or 3 inches apart 

 into frames to be thinned or transplanted 

 later on. But the plants now ready to 

 set out are placed 7x7or9x9 inches apart 

 for beading this fall. A sash or two of 

 radishes are also sown. All this is in the 

 old hotbeds, because the crops can be cut 

 before we need the frames for the new 

 hotbeds. When we do, we throw out the 

 loam to one side, then the old manure, 

 carting it to a pile in the garden, and fill 

 up with fresh manure for hotbeds. But 

 the larger and deeper ones of our last 

 spring's hotbeds have already been 

 emptied of the old manure, and the loam 

 that was on the top has been thrown 

 back into the bottom of the pits, and 

 here we have planted chrysanthemums 

 for November flowers, using young and 

 short plants. They bloom fine in these 

 pits too. And along the back wall we 

 plant lemon verbena and rose and balm 

 geraniums for cutting; in fact we can 

 save them there as lor g as the chrysan- 

 themums last. We generally have stevia 

 in pretty lair condition iip till the first of 

 February, and this is done by keeping it 

 in a cold pit and bringing it indoors as 

 we want it. When too cold out of doors 

 we put it into our pit for evergreen and 

 half hardy shrubbery. As we don't take 

 in the shrubs till November, ,the stevias 

 can stay in the pit till then. By that time 

 the earliest chrysanthemums in the frame 

 are cut, so we throw them out and trans- 

 fer the stevias to it, and cover them well, 

 for a stevia cannot bear a breath of frost. 

 The other part we may leave open and 

 use as our earliest hotbed, the lettuce 

 frames coming in next. 



The ordinary cold frames are filled with 

 permanent material, that is, plants that 

 require the room all winter long. These 

 are pansics, violets, daisies, forget-me- 

 nots, anemones, Canterbury bells, poly- 

 anthuses, and any other odds and ends of 

 barely hardy plants or those of uncertain 

 nature like Japan anemones and mont- 

 bretias, also young plants recently raised 

 from seeds or cuttings, and which are 

 more likely to be safe in the frame than in 

 the open ground over winter. Divide 

 these into two sets, namely those for 

 blooming in the frames, as violets, poly- 

 anthuses, pansies, daisies, anemones and 

 forget-me-nots; keep all these next to 

 each other in the frames so that the same 

 course of winter treatment may serve 

 them. The other sit consists of young 

 pansies, daisies, forget-me-nots, Canter- 

 bury bells, montbretias, snapdragons, 

 and other young plants to be wintered 

 over and planted out of doors in early 

 spring. They won't need nearly so much 

 attention as the winter-blooming plants 

 will; in fact, in severe weather we can 

 leave them covered up for weeks at a 

 time, providing field mice don't get near 

 them, with jK-rfect safety. And if you 

 should like to have some real good 

 hyacinths, narcissus and tulips in early 

 spring, plant some bulbs in the cold 

 frames devoted to winter flowers. Thev 



will bloom from February till April ac- 

 cording to treatment. And let us urge 

 upon you to try some lily of the valley. 

 Go out into your own garden wherever 

 you grow it and dig up a lot of clumps of 

 it and plant it in the frames; by a little 

 humoring as regards freezing to rest it, 

 and then keeping it warm after the hard- 

 est of the winter is past, we can have fine 

 lily of the valley in April with us — the 

 outdoor crop is a month later. This is 

 very handy for Easter flowers. 



These cold frames are in warm, sunny, 

 sheltered places where they will get the 

 benefit of sunshine in winter, and be pro- 

 tected from cold winds by contiguous 

 buildings or fences, and where we can 

 easily reach them all with a horse and 

 wagon; this is a useful point, the handi- 

 ness in getting manure and loam to and 

 from the frames is always worth consid- 

 ering. 



The violets havebeenin theopen fields 

 over summer, and we are now lifting 

 them, stripping them of any little side 

 shoots or runners, and planting them in 

 the frames and so that they will barely 

 touch each other. We take the best 

 of the little rooted |side shoots and 

 plant them 2 to 3 inches apart in a 

 cold frame for stock next spring. They 

 not only give us nice stock for planting 

 out, but yield us a few very big violets in 

 early April. 



TiiEPOLVANTHUSESconsistof old plants 

 kept over from last spring because they 

 were fine varieties and only one year old 

 then They were summered in the cold 

 frames under a lath shading. We lift 

 them now, break the ball a little and 

 plant them again in a frame in fresh soil, 

 about eight or nine inches between the 

 clumps. This may be pretty close when 

 the leaves begin to growrankly in spring, 

 but all we want from these is good 

 blossoms and lots of them, and we get 

 that. If we wished to let them develop 

 themselves to their best we would lift out 

 every second row of plants in earliest 

 spring and plant it elsewhere. Our best 

 polyanthuses, however, were raised from 

 seed sown last spring and the seedlings 

 planted out over summtr in a moist 

 border against the north side of a build- 

 ing. We lift these now and plant them 

 in the cold frames for early spring 

 blossoms. They also make the finest 

 plants for transferring to the flower 

 garden in spring. Ifyouhavea sash in 

 a warm, sunny place and another in a 

 cooler and shadier spot and covered up 

 less in winter it will prolong the bloom- 

 ing period. Apart from the double- 

 flowered primroses, which are multiplied 

 by division, we propagate our polyan- 

 thuses and other primroses from seed 

 every spring. 



Crown Anemones.— We raise the finest 

 strain of the single-flowered from seed in 

 spring and otherwise treat it like young 

 polyanthuses, and lift and plant them in 

 a cold frame now. In this way we get 

 the good of their flowers in spring, and if 

 we want them for outdoor planting they 

 lift readily with good balls and trans- 

 plant nicely. The"bulbs" arevery cheap, 

 and you can buy single or double flowered 

 varieties at the seed stores and plant 

 them now. Six inches apart is enough to 

 put them in theframe. Indeed, we would 

 rather plant them three or four inches 

 apart, and if they grew well in spring lift 

 out and transplant even.' second row and 

 every second plant in the row left. 



Daisies.— We go around the garden 

 now and pick up all that remains here 

 and there of last spring's daisies, for they 

 die out badly in summer, and plant them 

 close together in one of the coolest frames. 



From now on they grow and wax strong, 

 and before spring form a solid carpet of 

 green. We then lift, divide, and trans- 

 plant them out of doors for blooming, 

 choosing a moist, shady spot for them. 

 If wanted for blooming in the frame we 

 give them more room, and keep them 

 about as warm as we do violets; this 

 hastens them into blossom. 



Pansies for winter blooming are now 

 fine big plants from July sowings, and in 

 bud. They are planted about four inches 

 apart with the intention of thinning 

 them when they begin to get too thick. 

 For spring flowers seedlings of August 

 sowings are pricked into the frames, in 

 fact we have just sown a lot of pansy 

 seed now for smaller plants for spring 

 bedding. But so far as wintering pansies 

 over in cold frames is concerned there is a 

 good deal of waste energy. We winter 

 them out of doors just as well as in 

 frames. Make a bed 5 or 6 feet wide, 

 rather high in the middle and rounded at 

 the sides to throw off water readily, 

 plant the pansies thickly in rows about '.) 

 inches apart and let them alone till 

 December. Then lay some branches, 

 preferably of hemlock, spruce, pine, or 

 other evergreens, all over them to shade 

 them a little from sunshine, save them from 

 searing winds, and gather and hold the 

 snow about the plants. In the spring 

 time, as soon as the ground is mellow, 

 lift and transplant them wherever you 

 wish to. 



FoRGET-ME-NOTS for blooming in frames 

 should now be good plants. Treat them 

 much as you would violets, only don't 

 plant them quite so far apart, even if they 

 must be thinned out later. Little seedlings 

 two or three inches high may be gathered 

 together and planted about four inches 

 apart each way, for transplanting out of 

 doors in spring. They may be treated in 

 the frames like pansies. So, too, may 

 snapdragon and white centranthus. In 

 fact 



White centranthus is one of the most 

 generous early spring flowers we have. 

 Set out some plants now in a frame, a 

 foot apart, and in spring remove the 

 sash, and leave them there to grow and 

 blossom at will. They repay the trouble. 



Christmas roses and Le.nten roses 

 are also fine in cold frames; indeed, while 

 tbey may live out of doors in an east- 

 facing exposure in a moist, slightly 

 shaded spot, if we wish to get the good 

 of their flowers we should give them the 

 protection of a cold frame in winter. 

 Then we can get the blossoms without a 

 stain or break on them, and whenever 

 they are ready to pick, something we 

 seldom can do when they are growing 

 out of doors in the open in the wind and 

 snow. 



Mignonette —Although we can not 

 have it all winter long in cold frames, if 

 we had a lot young plants of Machetnow 

 in 2V2 or 3-inch pots and would plant 

 them 8 inches apart each way into a 

 warm cold frame we should expect to 

 have a nice lot of mignonette up till 

 Christmas. 



■ Parsley.- We always sow our parsley 

 for winter in a cold frame in summer, in 

 rows. By timely thinning and cultiva- 

 tion we get fine strong foliage before 

 winter sets in. and a good supply of 

 parsley all through the cold season. " We 

 have got cover it up warm though, for it 

 doesn't take very much frost to destroy 

 parsley. 



A Life Membership for its members 

 is what the Society of .\mcrican Florists 

 needs to place it on a decidedly perma- 

 nent footing. But let this life membership 

 cost $25 or $30 only. 



