ORNAMENTALS 269 



plants may be crowded into an 8-inch pot. You 

 will find that they make a rather pretty centerpiece 

 for the table, with the vines almost completely 

 hiding the pot and the white flowers standing out 

 against the green background. 



" Should you desire to bring one of these plants 

 into bearing, you can do so only with diligence and 

 care. In the first place, you must be sure to select 

 plants having perfect flowers, such as the Senator 

 Dunlap. Then when the plant is in first blossom 

 it will be best to cross-fertilize. This is accom- 

 plished best by means of a fine-haired brush, pref- 

 erably one of camel's hair. This is brushed over 

 all the flowers in succession so that the pollen may 

 thus be transferred from one flower to another. 



" It will help toward success with the strawberry 

 plants if you feed them occasionally, say, every 15 

 days, with a weak solution of nitrate of soda, the 

 material for which may be bought for 5 cents at any 

 drug store, and every week with liquid cow manure." 



WINTER CARE OF OUTDOOR PLANTS 



" Generally a few thrifty geranium slips have 

 been started early in the fall to produce flowers 

 during the winter," writes Cora B. Williams, " so 

 there remains the work of preserving the old plants 

 which have spent their vitality in almost perpetual 

 bloom throughout the summer. Repotted for the 

 sitting-room windows these old plants are unsatis- 

 factory for the very good reason that they have 

 become exhausted and, therefore, require a season 

 of rest. But after a long rest during the winter, 

 they will be just what is needed to set out in the 

 ground in the spring. 



" The brilliant and free blooming scarlet salvia, 



