IN MY LADY'S GARDEN 



without the help of soil, for the seeds are retained on 

 the plant whilst they germinate and produce young plants. 

 It is an easy matter to peg these down into a box of light soil, 

 where they will quickly take root, and can then be potted 

 up separately. They are very useful for table decoration, 

 for window-boxes, and for the border in summer, as well as 

 for furnishing, and are hardy enough to survive a little frost 

 in winter. It is, therefore, a plant which every one may 

 grow, and it should be much more common than it is. 

 All the anthericums enjoy a plentiful supply of water when 

 in growth, but like to be kept rather dry in winter ; a light, 

 open soil, with a little peat and leaf mould intermixed in it, 

 suits them best ; but they are not too particular, and will 

 grow in ordinary garden loam. 



The quamashes (camassia) of North America are not 

 so often seen in our gardens as they might be, for their 

 white or blue blossoms are very effective in the early 

 summer. Camassia Leitchlini, with silvery star-like blossoms 

 on a tali spike 2 feet in height, is specially beautiful, and 

 they all appear to be perfectly hardy, as they should be, 

 coming as they do from the north-west of America and 

 British Columbia. C. esculenta is not so tall, producing 

 blossoms of a soft violet-blue ; and C. Cusiki has flowers of 

 a paler shade of blue, with stouter foliage than the rest. 

 They all enjoy a deep, rich soil, and although they are said 

 to prefer the shade, they do well also in the sunshine, 

 appearing year after year in the borders, and forming 

 clumps of bulbs if left alone. 



Basket plants of many kinds are very desirable in the 

 greenhouse, but one must know a little of their nature 

 before using them, as some of them need shade, others 

 the full sunshine. A basket of achimenes, for instance, one 

 of the most effective of all, should hang in a rather shady 

 position, below a creeper-clad glass roof, as the dry heat of 

 the sunshine (without this) curls up the foliage and spoils 

 the flowers ; tuberous begonias, too, love the shade, for they 

 grow (in their native haunts) amid the overhanging tropical 

 foliage on the slopes of the Andes, where the warmth only 



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