332 



* GARDENING. 



July 15, 



wallflowers continuously from March till 

 January, for we cut wallflowers in the 

 open garden last winter till the 6th of 

 January. 



The dwarf forget-me-not Goldelse is a 

 pretty ye low-leaved bedding plant. The 

 flowers are too small for cutting. Ele- 

 gantissima is fine, but I should make this 

 selection: tor earliest, dissitiflora, for cut- 

 ting to follow, grandiflora robusta, for 

 borders and pots, Victoria, and to follow 

 these, palustris grandiflora and palustris 

 semperflorens. Dissitiflora and the al- 

 pestris varieties began to bloom in frames 

 about April 1st; the same varieties which 

 had been in the border all winter followed; 

 then came the palustris varieties and 

 they promise to keep up the flowering till 

 the end of summer. Nearly all these 

 classes may be had in white and rose as 

 well as blue. 



Dianthus plumarius from seed sown 

 last summer yielded some fine examples, 

 including Cyclops, and all are very pro- 

 fuse flowering; they come about a month 

 earlier than the early Vienna and Grena- 

 din carnations, which makes them valua- 

 ble. These latter are just passing from 

 their bright, fragrant and abundant 

 bloom, and the Marguerite, Chabaud 

 and border classes are coming in to carry 

 forward the season till mid-autumn. 



A few earlier sown pansies of last sum- 

 mer were larger than the usual sowing 

 when put into the frames in fall; they 

 came out larger in the spring and have 

 yielded a great many more flowers. I 

 intend to sow all my pansies earlier this 

 year, that is in July. E. R. 



Plainfield, N. J., July 3. 



FRENCH RANUNCULUS. 



What is the proper treatment of French 

 ranunculus after blooming in a frame? If 

 desired to bloom again next season should 

 they be left alone or taken up? Can they 

 be relied upon to do well or is it better to 

 buy new stock? C. 



It is advisable to lift the bulbs when 

 they are properly ripened and store away 

 in dry sand in some cool place. If they 

 have been properly ripened they can be 

 relied upon to bloom next year all right. 

 Try a few planted out in the garden early 

 in spring. We have had them do very 

 well in this way. The bulbs can be kept 

 dry over winter without injury. They 

 like plenty of water in their growing sea- 

 son, and this should be seen to if large 

 flowers are wanted. David Fraser. 



Miscellaneous. 



THE USE OF CUT FLOWERS. 



Man3 T villages of the middle west are 

 without local florists, but set pieces are 

 beginning to be seen at funerals just as 

 they are losing cast in cities, yet that 

 amateur work in flower arrangement is 

 a necessity in most country towns is 

 shown by my own experience. Within 

 one week, recently, I was asked to take 

 in hand floral decorations for two funer- 

 als and a High School commencement. 



The funerals were on successive days, 

 one being held in a dwelling house and 

 the other in a church. The first step in 

 collecting available material for the work 

 was a trip to fern hill where enough wild 

 maiden hair fern of luxuriant growth to 

 closely fill a small tub when standing 

 with stems in water was gathered, also a 

 less generous supply of one of the aspidi- 



ums, having dark green evergreen fronds 

 shaped like those of the so-called sword 

 fern, as well as some of the peculiar sensi- 

 tive fern Onoclea sensibilis. Part of the 

 ferns were used for the first service and 

 the remainder, left in the tub and stored 

 in a cool, dusky cellar, were in excellent 

 condition for the second. Suitable hardy 

 flowers in bloom included German irises, 

 snowballs, lily of the valley, columbine in 

 variety, Reeves doublespirara and Deutzia 

 gracilis. 



For the house service the mantel in the 



BUTTERFLY CYCLAMEN. 



front parlor, before which the casket 

 stood, was used as the basis of opera- 

 tions. A board fitting it in length and 

 width, and having a narrow strip of pine 

 tacked lengthwise on the front edge, was 

 laid on the mantle. Then beginning at 

 the middle of the front edge of this board, 

 and working to the ends, slender strands 

 of evergreen ferns that had been made bj r 

 overlapping fronds bound with dark 

 green cotton thread, were tacked in posi- 

 tion at equal distances, the strands grow- 

 ing shorter as the distance from the 

 middle increased. These strands were 

 brought down in gradually lessening 

 curves, and gathered back and tacked to 

 the plastered walls just where they met 

 the marble pilasters of the mantel, mak- 

 ing a dainty drapery of green against the 

 white background and seemingly held 

 back by a generous cluster of lily of the 

 valley set where the strands met and then 

 fell free like the end of a draped lace cur- 

 tain. Near the ends of the mantel were 

 placed two handsome Royal Worcester 

 vases differing in shape and decoration 

 but each about twelve inches high and 

 both of the well known soft cream tint. 

 The wider mouthed of the two was filled 

 with long stemmed pearly white irises 

 showing a faint mauve tone and with 

 them a few spikes of their own clean cut, 

 blue-green leaves. The other held a tall 

 bunch of nodding columbines in white, 

 two shades of lavender, deep purple, pale 

 yellow and, standing well above the oth- 

 ers, perhaps half a dozen of the singularly 

 graceful Aquilegia canadensis, all rising 

 from their own foliage, 



In the middle a crystal rose bowl held 

 a large, rather spreading but not over- 

 crowded bouquet of purple irises, none of 

 which stood much higher than the tops 

 of the end vases. The spaces between the 

 bowl and the end pieces were nearly filled 

 by two common, sheet iron bake pans 

 filled with wet sand and tilted up between 

 the wall and the cleat on the front edge 

 of the board. The pans were fringed all 

 around with maiden hair ferns, hiding 

 them as well as the edge of the board, 

 and were then filled with a billowy mass 

 of big, fleecy snowballs which were 

 relieved by a filmy veil of scattered fronds 

 of maiden hair, and from the upper side 



of each projected three large leaves of the 

 plantain lily (funkialall leaning outward 

 from the center piece of purple irises and 

 resting against the wall, their stems being 

 veiled by the fringe of maiden hair ferns 

 which was lighter on the upper sides than 

 on the ends and lower sides. 



At theextreme ends outside the Worces- 

 ter vases large bunches of lily of the val- 

 ley in nests of their own foliage were laid 

 on the board, and the design was com- 

 pleted by a similar tied bunch resting in 

 the middle in front of the rose bowl where 

 it peeped out through the almost inter- 

 lacing fringe of maiden hair ferns that 

 bordered the banks of snowballs. 



A tall lamp with base in the form of a 

 small table with top and shelf below of 

 California onyx was placed at one side in 

 the wide doorway between the parlors, 

 the lamp being replaced by a Parian mar- 

 ble vase filled with upright and drooping 

 sprays of Deutzia gracilis. Below on 

 the table, a similar vase held a bunch of 

 long-stemmed Bride roses, while on the 

 lower slab of onyx rested a circular 

 mound of pansies and ferns. 



On the square piano in the back parlor 

 stood a dull red Japanese jar about two 

 feet high filled with quite large branches 

 of snowballs interspersed with extraor- 

 dinarily long-stemmed purple irises, and 

 at the opposite end of the room a smaller 

 redjarfullof white irises and drooping 

 sprays of double Spirsca Reevesii finished 

 what proved a decidedly effective decora- 

 tive scheme. 



For the church service time, materials 

 and space demanded large and simple 

 pieces. The church furniture included 

 two small square tables — on each side of 



CRESTED CYCLAMEN. 



the pulpit just inside the after railing. 

 One of these was removed and its place 

 filled by a section of nine-inch drain tile 

 painted in oils for use as an umbrella 

 stand. On a background shaded irregu- 

 larly from almost black at the bottom 

 through olive tones to pale yellow green 

 at the top were painted flowering trails 

 of trumpet creeper in natural coloring. 

 By using a pail of water inside it this 

 served admirably as a receptacle for a 

 snowball tree built up with carefully 

 selected branches bearing fine blossoms, 

 some of them of extraordinary size. The 

 tree when finished stood fully five feet 

 high and some of the lower branches 

 curved out over the altar rail making a 

 unique and effective yet appropriate dec- 

 oration. On the remaining table an em- 

 broidered linen tea cloth — all white — was 

 spread, and on it stood a sheet iron bake 

 pan fifteen inches square filled with wet 

 sand. In the middle of the pan was 

 placed an old fashioned glass fruit stand 



