126 



GARDENING. 



Jan. 



arranged cut flowers in her music room. 

 She did it herself every day and in this 

 manner. At 4 o'clock in the morning she 

 gathered her poppies when they were 

 covered with dew, and this ensured their 

 keeping fresh in water for several days. 

 A faded flower was never seen in her vases. 

 If my memory is correct she had thirty- 

 seven vases, all of which she describes — 

 this one for nasturtiums, that one fjr 

 poppies, several for sweet peas find soon. 

 She liked best glass vases which showed 

 the stems through. She was an artist as 

 well as a true lover of nature and plant 

 life, and the arrangement of flowers in her 

 rooms gave her artistic instinct full play 

 and snowed a love of each individual 

 blossom that comes only to those who 

 love plants and flowers well enough to 

 take care of them. She planted and raised 

 her own flowers; no hand but her own 

 touched her garden after it was once 

 spaded in the spring. Can one imagine 

 such a flower lover running an iron spike 

 through the heart of a carnation or bind- 

 ing a lily of the valley to a toothpick 

 with a bit of wire, or combining tulips with 

 maidenhair ferns, or sticking stems of 

 flowers into a basket of moss? 



Stiff, set, wired floral pieces belong to a 

 past age. The best people grow less arti- 

 ficial and more simple in manner all the 

 time, and consequently like to be sur- 

 rounded by natural and graceful forms 

 rather than by that which is formal and 

 conventional. A single fine chrysanthe- 

 mum in a glass vase showing the clear 

 water and fresh stem, two or three fine 

 specimens of any flower in season, or one 

 fine rose — any of these used with its own 

 foliage is enough decoration for a dinner 

 table for an informal occasion. 



This is not the opinion of an expert flo- 

 rist but of a woman who is a flower 

 lover, an amatuer grower, who is much 

 interested in the subject and wishes to 

 see flowers used still more in house deco- 

 ration and for our daily enjoyment. 



Chicago, December, 1896. F. M. G. 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



Referring to the article in Gardening 

 for November 15 last relative to litera- 

 ture treating of landscape art, I do < ot 

 see mentioned Edourd Andre's work 

 "L'Art des Jardins." The numerous 

 illustrations would be interesting and in- 

 structive to all, and the text equally so 

 to anyone with a fair knowledge of 

 French. 



It is probably the best modern treatise 

 on the theory and practice of landscape 

 gardening. Charles N. Lowrie. 



MUSHROOM BED OVER-DRY. 



I have followed instructions contained 

 in the book entitled "Mushrooms, howto 

 grow them," and have made up and 

 spawned a bed of about one hundred and 

 fifty square feet in my cellar. But I find 

 now that the manure five days after 

 spawning seems too dry; although damp 

 it will not stick together when squeezed 

 in my hand. The bed rose to 110° and I 

 spawned it after it had fallen to 96°. 

 The manure is about 9 inches deep and 

 shows a temperature of 80° now at a 

 depth of 4- inches. Please say whether 

 this dryness can be remedied and how, 

 and what chances are for crop in its pres- 

 ent condition. C.J. B. 



You cannot expect to get a good crop 

 of mushrooms from an over-dry bed. Bet- 

 ter throw up the manure into a pile 

 again, wet it and let it ferment and then 

 use it. 



HORTICULTURAL BOOKS. 



We can supply any of the following books, postpaid, at the prices given: 



How to Grow Cut Flowers (Hunt). 

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GREENHOuse Construction (Taft). — It 

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Mushrooms: How to Grow Them 

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The Garden's Story (Ellwanger). — A 

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Fruits and Fruit Trees of America 

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Fruit Garden (Barry). $2.00. 



Small Fruit Culturist (Fuller). $1.50. 



Gardening for Profit (Henderson). 

 $2.00. 



Practical Floriculture (Henderson). 

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On the Rose (Parsons) $1.00. 



Truck Farming at the South (Oemler). 

 $1.50. 



Window Flower Garden (Heinrich). 75c. 



Ornamental Gardening (Long). $2.00. 



Art Out of Doors (Van Rensselaer) — 

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The Flowers of Japan and the Art of 

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Sweet Scented Flowers and Fra- 

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How to Know the Wild Flowers 

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According to Season (Dana). — Talks 

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The English Flower Garden (Robin- 

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Plant Breeding (Prof. Bailey). — Denis 

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The Horticulturist's Rule-Book 

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The Soil (Prof. King). — Its nature, 

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. . THE, GARDENING GO.. Monon Building. GUicaao. 



IH 



ARDY ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, VINES, EVER- 

 GREENS, AND HARDY HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS. 



tion. Plans and estimates furni 

 |TIIK HEADING NURSERY, 



led. Send yt 

 JACOB W. 



The tin*"- 1 ppneral assortment of Hard; Orna- I 

 mental Plant* In Amerlra. Two hundred page 

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st of needs for special ratea. 



MANNING, Proprietor, READING, MASS. 



When writing mention Gardening. 



