42 WINDOW GARDENING. 



tropes, etc., etc., can be placed in boxes and vases on piazzas or balconies, or a 

 garden can be made on the roof. 



Large strong boxes can be attached to the outside of the windows, and all 

 the plants set into them. In this way much care is avoided, for the plants can 

 be watered with a syringe or watering pot, and the debris of withered leaves and 

 stems is more easily cleared away. The plants can also be kept much freer from 

 insects, and will grow more luxuriantly. Manure waterings can be given weekly. 

 A tablespoonful of guano in a gallon of water, which should stand in the sun two 

 or three days before being applied, is the easiest to procure, but all or any of the 

 manures alluded to before, can be employed. When the flower buds appear, 

 stimulants are much needed ; and if no other can be procured, try this. Put a 

 teaspoonful of aqua am)nonia into a gallon of water, and sprinkle it all over the 

 leaves and surface of the soil. Cut off all faded flowers ; this greatly helps to keep 

 the plants free from mildew, and increases their healthy condition ; every yel- 

 low leaf should be taken off as soon as perceived. 



If ever a plant becomes thoroughly dry from oversight or neglect, place it in a 

 deep pan of rain water (if possible,) and let it remain for an hour or longer, until 

 it is thoroughly soaked, but do not let the pot be entirely covered with the water. 

 Hot water will frequently revive faded cut flowers ; cut off a small bit of the 

 stein, and then immerse the end into very hot water; you can see the petals 

 smooth out from their crumpled folds, the leaves uncurl, and the whole branch 

 and flower resume its beauty. Colored flowers revive the most completely. 

 White flowers turn yellow, and the thickest textured petals come out the best 

 from this hot foot bath 



For preserving flowers in water, there is nothing so good as finely powdered 

 charcoal. It keeps the water from all obnoxious odors. As a general rule too much 

 air and too much light can not be given ; yet when m full bloom the direct rays 

 of the sun will cause delicate flowers to fade rapidly, while if they are shaded 

 from the noon-tide heat, their beauty will be much prolonged ; but during the 

 night the more fresh air they breathe is the better. 



If house-plants are plunged in pots into the borders, care must be taken to 

 either close up the outlet at the botom of the pot, or else to put bits of plank or 

 shingles under them, or set them upon small stones. This is needful on account 

 of the tendency of their tiny rootlets to force their way out of the pot, and when 

 the plant is removed, they must necessarily be cut off, thereby causing it to 

 droop or wither, and greatly injuring its growth. 



It is not advisable to let your plants run to seed. You desire to secure flowers, 

 and to do this you must not let the plant fulfil its mission of leaves, buds, flow- 

 ers and seeds in natural order, but by cutting off all the faded blooms, stimulate 

 it to shoot forth fresh branches and buds, and strive to do its duty. 



In order to secure seeds that are worth planting, it is needful to pick off al' 

 the later buds, and throw the whole strength of the plant into forming seed tha> 

 will prove worth the raising. 



