424 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that have been grown and flowered in water are altogether useless for 

 farther growth. The twelve best single hyacinths for cultivation in 

 glasses are Mimosa, Grand Gilas, Porcelain, Sceptre, Robert Steiger, 

 Sultan's Favorite, Madame Hodgson, Norma, Madame Talleyrand, 

 Themtocles, Alba Superbissima and Anna Caroline. The best double 

 for the purpose are A la Mode, Bouquet Tendre, Blocksburg, Freder- 

 ick the Great, Grand Sultan and Marie Louise. 



Charles E. Parnell. 



Sweet Peas and Golden Rod. 



Within the last month so many people have asked me, "How do 

 you manage to grow sweet peas so plentifully f that a word in the 

 Express may not be out of place. There is no secret about the pro- 

 cess that is in the least degree mysterious. Three simple directions 

 will cover all the requisites to complete success. Plant early, not later 

 than the first of March, water abundantly, and, each day, cut every 

 flower that blooms, and you will be much more certain to be bounti- 

 fully rewarded for your pains than if you were trying to raise potatoes ; 

 but don't forget that early planting and constant watering are indispens- 

 able. The cutting of the flowers is to prevent the plants from com- 

 pleting the cycle of their lives by maturing seeds. You may thus 

 secure an abundance of the fragrant beauties from June to Decem- 

 ber, for the old vines endure a good deal of cold without damage, and 

 the young plants, though puny and unpromising, are not injured by 

 ordinary frosts. 



For years the sweet pea has been the most popular flower with all 

 classes, and it bids fair to continue in favor indefinitely, perhaps as 

 long as woman continues to love the beautiful. Its cultivation, there- 

 fore ought to be increased a hundred fold, and it probably will be, for 

 all who can command a strip of moderately rich soil a foot wide and a 

 nickel to pay for the seed may have hundreds every evening for months. 



The golden rod craze which originated with city people who proba- 

 bly saw it native heath once in five years, has nearly died out. From 

 the first the popularity of that showy plant was more owing to the 

 magic of an attractive name and the ignorance of the people who 

 pushed it into notoriety than to any good quality except in good looks ; 

 but " all that glitters is not gold," and its three years of glory are 

 gone. Yet soon along every roadside and hedgerow that flaunting 

 beauty will burst into the most intense and gorgeous that nature her- 

 self can paint, but its magnificence is the kind that it is the most pru- 



