1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE 



365 



to enjoy made me forget for a time my weary frame. 

 Yes, you may thank God for this new pleasure ; for if 

 there is nothing else visible it is a blessing — at least it 

 is to me. When I see people's yards destitute of flow- 

 ers, and no vines about the porch or windows. I almost 

 pity them. Mrs. N C. Dozier. 



Ashland, Oregon, Mar. 28. 



THAT I,TTTI,E GREENHOUSE. 



I remember seeing, some years ago, a man 

 going around town with a wagon, selling 

 plants ; and I especially remember something 

 he called cineraria. Seeing them advertised 

 for a small amount in the American Florist I 

 sent for half a dozen, assorted colors. I think 

 the price was a dollar a dozen. Afterward I 

 saw some smaller plants advertised for about 

 4 cents each, and I ordered 25. Well, now 

 they are just getting well in bloom, especially 

 the larger ones. I have been trying to think 

 of a word that expresses what the cineraria 

 looks like ; and the word " animated " comes 

 the nearest to it. It has such a sprightly, vi- 

 vacious, almost coquettish look, that some 

 mornings when I go out to the greenhouse for 

 the first time I almost feel like shouting. I 

 can imagine the beautiful blossoms with their 

 startling bright colors speaking, if not in 

 words, in a way that flowers do speak, " Mr. 

 Root, a'«7 I pretty?" Then another one 

 says, "Mr. Root, a'n't /pretty ? " And then 

 the third one says, " And what do you think 

 of me ? " Then one of the smaller ones peeps 

 out of the foliage and says, "Well, I am a 

 little different, as you see, from any of the 

 rest; but don't you like me toof' Well, it 

 is so early in the morning that nobody else is 

 around — possibly about five o'clock, and I 

 can talk to my posies without any fear that 

 somebody will overhear me, and think I am 

 out of my head, or something of the sort ; so 

 I reply, "Yes, yes, you precious little dar- 

 lings, you are all handsome — every one of 

 you, and I thank you from the bottom of my 

 heart for trying so hard to please me and give 

 me pleasure. May God be praised that he 

 has seen fit, during the latter years of my life, 

 if not before, to ' strew flowers along my path- 

 way,' and also to open my eyes that I might 

 see them." 



I have one bed made up of cinerarias and 

 pelargoniums. The foliage is considerably 

 alike, but the flowers make a very pretty con- 

 trast. By the way, I found a pelargonium be- 

 longing to a lady not a hundred rods from the 

 greenhouse. It is, perhaps, two feet high, 

 and nearly two feet across, trained on a trellis, 

 and just covered with those beautiful entranc- 

 ing blossoms. She says they call it "apple- 

 blossom geranium." 



Well, there is another of the geranium fam- 

 ily that is giving me great pleasure. It is the 

 ivy-leaved geranium. 1 have noticed these, 

 but I did not know before they furnished such 

 great masses of beautiful bloom. A friend 

 gave me a slip last fall, and now it is three 

 feet high, atid bigger than a barrel. It is 

 trained around one of the iron posts in the 

 greenhouse. When I saw great quantities of 

 buds coming out along in M^rch I thought 

 possibly it would be some small insignificant 

 flower. But the hlo-soms are large and very 



handsome. Our good friend Pike sent me 

 some rooted cuttings of ivy-leaved geraniums. 

 Like all the rest of the posies there seem to be 

 ever so many different varieties. These were 

 named "the Bride," "Joan of Arc," and so 

 on ; and to my surprise some of them are cov- 

 ered with buds while yet in thumb pots. Is 

 that a modern invention among florists — get- 

 ting plants to blossom when they are hardly 

 any thing more than rooted cuttings ? Besides, 

 the ivy leaved geranium is about the easiest 

 thing to make grow I ever got hold of. It is 

 not only easy to start, but it keeps growing, 

 and grows " out of sight," as the expression 

 goes, almost before you know it. I have not 

 learned how to make every thing grow ye, by 

 considerable. My roses have bothered me 

 greatly. The leaves turn yellow and drop off, 

 then they die. I am sure they are not too wet 

 nor too dry, and I do not believe they are too 

 warm. About lialf of them are blooming 

 most beautifully. I put the sick ones outdoors 

 to see if the open air would not cure them. 

 They are in a bed, so if there should be a frost 

 I can put the sash over them. 



Both of my ginseng plants started in the 

 greenhouse are dead. Perhaps I should not 

 have put them in the greenhouse at all. I 

 sent and got some more, and part of them are 

 growing, and the other part started all right ; 

 but the leaves get moldy, and the plant rots, 

 root and branch. I really hope other folks 

 get along better, for ginseng is a pretty expen- 

 sive plant just now to have die on }'our hands. 



BRAN FOR BEES. 



Our neighbor across the way, a grain-dealer, 

 got in a carload of bran in bulk ; and on this 

 beautiful 16th day of April they began shovel- 

 ing it up to store it in their warehouse. But 

 the bees from our apiary just across the way, 

 in consequence of the cold March and April 

 so far, were lacking in pollen, and they pitch- 

 ed into the bran with such vim that the men 

 who were shoveling beat a retreat. Why, it 

 made one think of a leaky carload of honey, 

 only the bees seemed to be very happy and 

 civil in their rejoicing over their big find of 

 pollen . I got one of our biggest wheelbarrows, 

 loaded it up with bran, and wheeled it out in- 

 to the apiar3'as a " counter-irritant ; " I think 

 that is what the doctors call it, don't they ? 

 Well, just now (about 3 in the afternoon) it 

 makes me feel like old times to hear the bees 

 humming and rejoicing over that big wheel- 

 barrow full of bran. I tipped it up edgewise 

 so the coarser particles would run down over 

 the side, and that seems to be jtist the thing 

 to suit them. 



THE FAMINE SUFFERERS OF INDIA. 

 As some inquiry has come in in regard to 

 how this money is sent, and how much of it is- 

 given for salaries, and the expense of sending 

 it to the sufferers, 1 have asked the treasurer 

 of the American Board to give a brief state- 

 ment, which I take pleasure in submitting : 

 Dear Mr Root .—Your favor of April 7th is received. 



