38o 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



result was most gratifying. They grew 

 strong and thrifty. At blossoming time 

 the stems were cut on the opening of the 

 second flower — care being taken not to cut 

 below any side spikes — and brought into 

 the house. Every day the water in the 

 vases was changed, the ends of the stems 

 clipped, and the wilted flowers removed. 

 Treated in this way each stem lasted nearly 

 two weeks and blossomed perfectly to the 

 last bud. Every day added something new 

 and in a short time the house was a glow of 

 color. The changes which the blossoms 

 underwent in confinement, growing more 

 and more delicate in hue, were not the least 

 interesting part of the color feast. 



Since that summer, gladioli, even more 

 than sweet peas, have been our chief reli- 

 ance. We add each season a few choice 

 named bulbs, a dozen or so of Childsi and 

 Lemoine, and thus have come to have sev- 

 eral hundred bulbs. They still get only 

 garden culture, except that when setting 

 them I put into a hole a mixture of leaf- 

 mold and mulch with a very little litter from 

 the hen house. This is mixed with the 

 sandy soil. It gives the plants a good start 



and they are not so apt to feel the dry 

 weather later on. The bulbs are set out at 

 dififerent times, so that the season of bloom 

 extends from the middle of July or earlier 

 till near the time of frost. We have come 

 to look forward with longing to their blos- 

 soming time. They constitute in our own 

 home a perpetual supply of sunshine, and 

 they carry it to the sick, the shut in, the 

 flowerless poor, the weary girl behind her 

 desk in the city, the tired mother with her 

 many cares, and to the aged who are too 

 feeble to cultivate flowers but still love them 

 passionately. They are our floral bank 

 which never fails to honor a draft. 



In the autumn, when they are taken up, 

 the bulbs are grouped and labeled in ac- 

 cordance with the planting record and the 

 notes kept through the summer. Selections 

 are made for the friends to whom we wish 

 to send a gift or with whom we make ex- 

 changes, and the body of bulbs is put away 

 in condition for the spring planting. Any 

 plant becomes interesting when you make a 

 special study of it, and the gladiolus is an 

 excellent subject to begin with. — Vick's 

 Magazine. 



DAHLIAS. 



WHERE dahlias are propagated from 

 cuttings the dry roots may now be 

 placed in a gentle heat to start them. The 

 usual way is to place the tubers on the bench 

 or table or in shallow boxes, and cover them 

 with soil to the crown. The cuttings are 

 taken when the shoots are some three or 

 four inches long, and put in sand to root. 

 Two or three buds should be left below the 

 cut to produce more shoots, from which cut- 

 tings may be taken in the same way, and the 

 process repeated till as many cuttings as may 

 be wanted are procured. In this way a sin- 

 gle plant or clump of tubers may be made to 

 produce a great number of cuttings. Such 



amateurs, however, as grow plants in a 

 small way can get as many plants as they 

 want by dividing the tubers after they have 

 begun to grow, and in this case the tubers 

 need not be encouraged to grow for some 

 time yet, at least the double flowered varie- 

 ties. We rarely get perfect blooms from the 

 double varieties before the approach of cool 

 weather, and little is gained by starting them 

 early. Something may be gained, however, 

 by starting the single flowered varieties in 

 March, as we expect them to bloom both 

 early and late. Seeds of the single kinds 

 may be sown now. 



