64 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



I'loral EditioiL. 



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The Aster (Michelmas Daisy) Novaae Anglae 

 Rost;na. 



Hot-beds, as will have been gathered 

 from the description of one in the mak- 

 ing, are warmed by a bed of manure 

 giving heat by fermentation. Both are 

 a sort of small green-house with almost 

 unlimited possibilities. Don't get the 

 idea that they are to be used only for 

 securing a supply of early flowers and 

 vegetables. You may also have a late 

 supply in the fall, and during the sum- 

 mer montlis they may be used for grow- 

 ing perennials from seed. Cuttings of 

 most kinds of bedding plants are read- 

 ily rooted by the aid of the "little 

 green-houses. ' ' 



Ventilation is a phase of hot-bed and 

 cold frame culture that should receive 

 careful attention. Too much of it will 

 chill your plants, and too little will 

 make them soft. This is especially so 

 when they have been transferred from 

 the hot-bed to the cold frame to harden 

 off. 



In cold weather raise the sash slight- 

 ly on the side away from the wind at 

 mid-day when the sun is hot. In warm- 

 er weather the sash can be slid down 

 or elevated to admit plenty of air. 

 During very cold weather some cover- 

 ing should be put upon the glass. Straw 

 or burlap mats are very convenient for 

 this purpose. When hardening off 

 plants do it by degrees, so that when 

 the time comes to plant out, the plants 

 are getting the maximum amount of air 

 in the frame. 



Those v/lio are unfortunate enough 

 not to have a hot-bed may have early 

 plants to set out by starting the seeds 

 in the living room or the kitchen. To 

 do this you will require some boxes, 

 "flats," they are called by the florist, 

 in which to sow the seed. Twelve by 

 twenty-four inches is a convenient size, 

 but for home use haddock boxes that 



can be readily obtained from the gro- 

 cer ^re just the thing. These should 

 have a layer of moss or coarse leaf- 

 mold, put in the bottom to provide 

 drainage, aiid be filled to within an inch 

 of the top with the same kind of soil 

 that was recommended for the hot-bed, 

 then thoroughly watered. When the 

 surplus water has drained away the 

 seed can be sown. Sow thinly and as 

 evenly as possible and cover the seed 

 but slightly. The directions on the 

 package are a good guide in this. Many 

 failures of seed to grow can be traced 

 to its being covered too deeply. Cover 

 with a sheet of glass, shade with news- 

 paper and stand the box in a warm 

 place. Heat may he furnished by ele- 

 vating the boxes on bricks over the 

 radiator or on the kitchen range. A 

 sunny window in a warm room may be 



brought into use. In short, each indi- 

 vidual house will have its own little 

 corners where the boxes may be placed. 

 Care must be taken not to allow the 

 soil to get dry or the seed will not 

 grow. Look over them at frequent in- 

 tervals, and if any show signs of need- 

 ing water, place them in the sink where 

 the water can soak up through the bot- 

 tom of the box and through the soil by 

 what is known as capillary attraction. 

 When the seed germinates give them 

 the lightest position in the house, and 

 when large enough lo handle, trans- 

 plant to other boxes, planting ih-j seed- 

 lings two inches apart. Where a num- 

 ber of varieties of seeds are grown in 

 this way, and transplanted, they occupy 

 a good deal of room, and a cold frame 

 should be provided for them, the same 

 as for the hot-bed plants. 



Informal Planting of Home Grounds* 



Miss Mary Yates, Port Credit 



NO garden is at its best unless it has 

 a beautiful lawn. To dot it over 

 with flower beds, be they never 

 so gay, or with trees be they never so 

 stately, is to leave it no longer a lawn, 

 but a flower garden or a shrubbery. 

 When lawn, flower beds and trees are 

 wanted, let the lawn proper be made 

 smaller and detached portions of it be 

 given up to the flower beds and trees, 

 or let them be placed upon its margin. 

 This will be to the advantage of the 

 flower beds, trees and lawn. 



The easiest way to spoil a good lawn 

 is to put a flower bed in it. It should 

 be free and generous. The more it is 

 cut up and worried with trivial effects, 

 the smaller and meaner it looks. 

 Flowers, too, need a background, and 

 border planting sets bounds to a place 

 and makes it one's own. The places 

 for flowers are along borders, against 

 groups, by the corners of the residence, 

 in front of the porches, using their 

 colors, as an artist does his paints and 

 palette, to give life and finish to the 

 whole. 



Wood Lot. 



The pleasure grounds and general 

 landscape should have some definite 

 connection with the wood lot. This may 

 be had by masses of flowering shrubs, a 

 thicket of free-growing roses, a planta- 

 tion of hydrangeas, or the lawn can 

 slope up gently by grass paths to a 

 rock garden with dwarf shrubs and 

 alpines. 



Have a Plan. 



It is most desirable to have a definite 

 plan on paper and draw to a scale, giv- 

 ing the location of the leading features, 

 such as the house, wood lot, outbuild- 



• Continued from Feibruary issue. 



ings, service areas (clothes yard, soils, 

 manures, nursery bed, frames, etc.), 

 vegetable garden, drives, walks, lawn, 

 to serve as a general guide for medita- 

 tion, rearrangement and development 

 of future plans. Make this plan with a 

 key having numbers to correspond with 

 the list of plants used. 



The View. 



An important feature, not included 

 in the plan, is the vista or view obtain- 

 able from the grounds. From our own 

 drive a neighbor's orchard makes a 

 glory, whether in bloom, in fruit, or 

 when the bare branches form a delicate 

 tracery against the sky. To take the 

 best advantage of this, it was neces- 

 sary to make a special type of fence. 



A garden overlooking a magnificent 

 view of the Georgian Bay has used such 

 restraint in the planting that the eye 

 is never violently dragged back to 

 trivialities in the foreground, but ap- 

 pears to be conducted quietly to the 

 scene beyond. Andrew White's garden 

 on the hillside was planted to be an in- 

 spiration to students passing to the 

 Agricultural College at Cornell Uni- 

 versity. . . 



To bring the planting into Ime with 

 these schemes, some consideration as 

 to methods is necessary. A few years 

 ago Mr. P. E. Buck, of the Central 

 Experimental Farm, Ottawa, gave an 

 admirable plan for grouping the four 

 flower periods. This has formed the 

 basis of my own informal plantings, 

 and cannot be too strongly recom- 

 mended as a working scheme by which 

 to plan pictures for large or small 



gardens. , , „ r. 



In May we have Dutch bulbs, such 



as tulips and narcissus, and shrubs and 



alpines and such other flowers as prim- 



