130 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 



experience is to the contrary, for I have never seen such vig- 

 orous plants as my hollyhocks were when the rust first ap- 

 peared. Each plant was from three to four feet in circum- 

 ference, and each sent up from four to six stalks six feet 

 high or more. I was advised to use a weak solution of per- 

 manganate of potassium, enough to tinge the water, if the 

 plants were young; or a weak solution of Bordeaux mix- 

 ture, if the disease was advanced. I used the latter, as the 

 yellow spots had crept up to the top leaves and the lower 

 ones had all fallen leaving my hollyhocks as naked as a 

 plucked fowl. The result was immediate death I trust a 

 painless one. 



Reasoning from the advice that a frequent spraying with 

 Ivory soap-suds was an excellent general insecticide for roses, 

 I proceeded to apply the suggestion in a new way to holly- 

 hocks and larkspurs. I made a thick foaming suds, adding, 

 as an antiseptic, a half teaspoonful of baking soda to two or 

 three quarts of water. Taking a handful of the foam, I be- 

 gan at the root of a plant and ran my hand upwards so as to 

 cover with foam the under sides of the leaves as well as the top, 

 the stems, and even the buds, if they were forming. This 

 treatment was begun in early May, and four or five applica- 

 tions were made at intervals of a week. For the first time in 

 many years the hollyhocks were free from rust, though on 

 several plants, that did not get an early treatment, it appeared 

 toward the middle of the summer in a mild form; and on 

 others, that, intentionally I did not treat at all, the rust ran 

 its usual destructive course. This method was wholly success- 

 ful with larkspurs, and was rewarded with a full crop of bloom, 

 the first in years. This simple remedy costs nothing, does not 

 disfigure the plants, and from my two years' experiment I 

 believe that these two diseases can be kept under control, if 

 the applications are begun early, and continued for a month 



