no 



GARDENING. 



Jan. IS, 



Storrs & Harrison Co. or Vaughan for a 

 few young healthy plants. All of your 

 begonias prefer shade, but not dense 

 shade. They like a moist atmosphere, a 

 moderate amount of water at the root, 

 but not overhead, and in watering never 

 pour the water on to the stem in the 

 middle of the pot, pour it more to the 

 side. Black prairie soil if of a waxy ten- 

 dency isn't good, no matter if mixed with 

 sand. Pity you didn't have some surface 

 soil from the woods, surface soddy scrap- 

 ing from a field or roadside, something 

 that would be free and porous, but not 

 loose or chafiy . Use comparatively small 

 pots, well and clean drained, and pot 

 firmly. Keep the plants rather warm in 

 winter, but never let them wilt for want 

 of water; screen them from sunshine, and 

 keep them out of draughts, be thej' cold 

 or not. Bowker's fertilizer is excellent 

 for well plants, but a manure stimulant 

 of any kind is very poor medicine for a 

 sick plant. 



help, and to aid you in this, in very cold 

 weather unroll a strip of matting over 

 the sash or use shutters on them, they 

 will greatly help in preventing ice forming 

 on the glass. Plants keep excellently in 

 such a frame. At Dosoris we have a 

 string of them 120 feet long, heated by 

 one run of 4-inch pipe. 



fl HOTBED flEflTBD WITH flOT WATER. 



What do you think of the advisability 

 of making a range of hotbed frames 

 against the sides of a greenhouse, inclin- 

 ing the sash away from the greenhouse, 

 abolishing the use of manure and obtain- 

 ing heat from hot water pipes passing 

 through the greenhouse walls? I under- 

 stand it has been successfully done, the 

 pipes being carried along the sides above 

 the soil. A Re.\der. 



Such frames are an eve j'day occurrence 

 and work splendidly, and they do away 

 with a vast amount of laborious work. 

 But let us explain: The heat of a regular 

 hotbed is bottom heat, it comes from the 

 fermenting manure in the bottom of the 

 frame and under the surface coating of 

 soil, and it keeps the air between the bed 

 and sash warm, moist, and genial for 

 most all young plants usually grown or 

 started in frames. The bottom heat is a 

 great impetus to the growth of roots, 

 hence of tops, but by careful ventilating 

 we can manage to keep the top air cool 

 enough so that the plants will assume a 

 sturdy, stocky growth and not a spindly 

 one. But the heat is unsteady. To begin 

 with it is quite brisk, but in a few weeks 

 it cools down so much that we have to 

 use extra covering over the sashes to keep 

 the beds warm enough in cold weather. 

 Hotwater pipes carried above the ground 

 have a very different effect, it is simply a 

 heated frame and if we warm the pipes, 

 say keep them at 125° or 130°, while we 

 may not raise the temperature above 60° 

 we would soon ruin everything in the 

 frame by the parching breath of the pi pes, 

 and red spider would abound on every- 

 thing that it would live on. But if you 

 dig out the frame deep enough to allow 

 of an air chamber under the bed of the 

 frame and run the hot water pipes in that 

 chamber, you get the bottom heat and 

 the genial moist top warmth as well, 

 even better than that of the manure 

 heated frame, for it will be steadier. For 

 covering the air chamber under the frame 

 don't use close boards, for they wouldn't 

 admit the heat fast enough; use narrow 

 boards leaving them % of an inch apart, 

 then spread a layer of straw over them 

 under the soil, this admits the heat and 

 affords perfect drainage. And thin slate 

 is better than wood. You may also run 

 a pipe as j-ou suggest to the outside 

 above the bed, but never heat it hot, 100° 

 to 110° is hot enough. If your idea is to 

 have a heated frame, that is one in which 

 you can winter geraniums, cannas at 

 rest, or miscellaneous lowgrowingplants 

 or grow violets or anemones or the like in 



THE BEST PALMS, FERNS, DRACAENAS, ETCi 

 FOR HOUSE PLANTS. 



Mr. James Dean of Bay Ridge (part of 

 Brooklyn) N. Y., is one of the oldest, 

 largest and most successful growers of 

 these plants in the country, making a 

 specialty of them and growing them in 

 thousands and of all sizes for the New 

 York market. He sells them in wholesale 

 quantity and as required to the retail 

 florists in the city, who dispose of them 

 to their customers for dwelling house 

 decoration, for in the house of every re- 

 fined family in New York living plants- 

 palms, rubber plants, screw pines or ferns 

 are used, and regarded as being as much 

 an article of necessary home decoration 

 as the pictures on the walls. Long expe- 

 rience has taught Mr. Dean what plants 

 are the best for this purpose, and he con- 

 lines himself mostly to these. We have 

 asked him to tell us about them, and in 

 the following notes he kindly accedes to 

 our request. We know the man and 

 assure you when he speaks we listen. 



The following plants I believe to be the 

 best for use in dwelling houses, and they 

 are all standard varieties of easy cultiva- 

 tion, and can be had from the florist at 

 reasonable figures; indeed after years of 

 trial they still head the list. In fact they 

 are the only ones that we can sell to the 

 city florists in quantity. In growing 

 palms for use in house decorations they 

 should be grown in a cool temperature, 

 not over 60° at night during winter, and 

 in summer they should have plenty of air 

 which induces a stock}' growth, this will 

 enable them to stand the dry air of the 

 dwelling house: Kentia Belmoreana, 

 Ketitia Forsteriana, Latania Borbonica, 

 Areca lutescens, Phcenis. nipicola, Cocos 

 Weddeliana. 



Phcenix rupicola can be used when there 

 is not much light to be had better than 

 any of the above. Kentia Forsteriana 

 will do fairly well in halls when the light 

 is poor. If but one palm can be used take 

 Kentia liehnoreana, and so follow down 

 the list. 



The best screw pine is the green leaved 

 Pandanus utilis by all odds. Give it a 

 sunny warm place in the room and it will 

 do well. 



The best dracoenas are D. tcrminalis, D. 

 fragrans and D. Lindeni. 



The best fern is Nepbrolepis davallioides 

 farcans. As smaller olants of ferns for 

 ferneries and as small table plants I use 

 Pterin serrulata and its variety cristata, 

 and Pteris albo lineata. 



Araucarias, especially A. excelsa and 

 its variety o^/auca, make splendid plants 

 for house decoration. 



Fartugium grande, an old fashioned and 

 much neglected plant, is also an excellent 

 house plant and equally good for the 

 garden. 



An open window on the shady side of 

 the house on a cold morning, while dust- 

 ing and cleaning the ro ms, is the cause 

 of many plants being lost; if they are not 

 frozen they are chilled so that they never 

 regain their health; they should always 

 be removed from the window before it is 

 opened on a cold morning. All house 



plants should be taken to the bath room 

 once a week and swished through tepid 

 water to remove the dust from them. 

 James Dkan. 

 Bay Ridge, N. Y., January 6. 



DRY BUIBS. 



Look over the bulbs and tubers that 

 you have stored dry in your cellar, store 

 i-oom, or potting shed, to see that they 

 are keeping well, that frost does not 

 reach them, drip fall on them, rot start 

 among them, or that they do not become 

 shrivelled by over-dryness All those that 

 were grown in pots and are still in them 

 but dry and atrest.forinstan egloxinias, 

 achimenes, caladiums,gloriosas, begonias 

 and gesneras, may remain as they are so 

 long as they are doing all right, keeping 

 plump and fresh and not starting to 

 grow. But if }'ou need the pots for other 

 plants 30U can shake the gloxinias and 

 begonias out of theirs, and pack the 

 tubers in flats, close together heads up, 

 and one deep, with a little sand or soil 

 under and over them. Then keep them 

 dry as before. But avoid over dryness. 

 Better give them a sprinkling of water 

 every now and again to keep them plump 

 than allowed them to shrivel in the least, 

 and if necessary check their growth by 

 keeping them a little cooler Begonias 

 keep well in a temperature of 40° to 50, 

 gloxinias in one of about 55°. The achi- 

 menes, gesneras, and caladiums may also 

 be turned out of their pots and stored in 

 flats in the same way, but there is less 

 risk in letting them stay as they are, and 

 even if we turned out the achimenes we 

 would let ti^e balls of earth remain intact. 

 As our greenhouses are pretty well filled 

 up now, and when we begin propagating 

 plants for our summer gardens they will 

 be still more crowded, we should avoid 

 rushing any more dry bulbs and tubers 

 into growth than we really need. 

 But pot up some gloxinias for bloom in 

 April; and whatever araaryllises are push- 

 ing up new leaves or showmg flower 

 scapes, should be brought up from their 

 resting place and set on the stage where 

 they can get a little water and have light 

 and warmth. 



CHINESE FRIMROSBS. 



Our greenhouses are quite gay with the 

 finer varieties of what are known as 

 Chinese primroses (P. sinensis vars.), and 

 also with Primula obconica and P. 

 Forbesi, both of which are likewise 

 Chinese species. It pays to get the very 

 finest varieiies of Chinese primroses; get 

 each color by itself; mixed seed contains 

 a good many poor reds. And i takes 

 just as much time, room, and pains to 

 grow poor varieties as it does the best 

 sorts. 



Our obconicas are the large flowered 

 strain like what you grow at Dosoris. 

 They were sown in pots in the greenhouse 

 in spring, and pricked oflT into flats when 

 large enough to handle, then potted oft' 

 singly into 2Jj-inch pots, then into 3 to 

 4-inch ones, and finally into 5s. Duri g 

 the summer months we kept them in a 

 well ventilated, in fact almost uncovered, 

 cold frame, giving them plenty water at 

 all times, and shading them from bright 

 sunshine. 



But Primula Forbesi is my favorite, 

 what a gem it is! I shall grow a lot of it 

 next season, it is so beautiful, so full of 

 flowers and long in bloom, and when cut 

 its blossoms last better than even those 

 of P. obconica. It is excellent as a win- 

 dow plant. We sowed the seed of it on 

 April 15 last, in a pan in the greenhouse; 

 it was slow to germinate. When the 



