1889. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



59 



are lit to pruuo; in doing so cut back to a 

 good proininent eye on each shoot, clean off 

 nicely, stand them in a cool frame if to he 

 had, water moderately ami syringe three or 

 four times a day, shut up the frame on cool 

 nights, or during cold rains, and in ten to 

 flfteendays the eyes will have broken nicely- 

 They should then be removed to a green 

 house where the temperature can be kept at 

 46° to ■«<■ at night with plenty of air during 

 line days, and watered, syringed, etc., as re- 

 quired. About every ten to twelve days the 

 temperature should be increased two or 

 three degrees at night with less proportion 

 of air during the day according to the 

 weather. As soon as the buds are set they 

 will be greatly benelited by having a good 

 watering or liquid manure twice a week, 

 but they shotild never be saturated or given 

 more water till the soil in the pot is in a 

 healthy condition for the roots to absorb the 

 water given. Plants treated this way will 

 be in bloom in ten to twelve weeks from the 

 time they are pruned. 



Varieties.— Those most suitable for this 

 purpose are: Gen. Jacqueminot, Magna 

 Charta, Anna de Diesbach and Mrs. John 

 Laing, though the latter is hardly as good 

 for earliest pot work as the other three. For 

 blooming in February or even end of Jan- 

 uary there are a great many good varieties, 

 but for most people the following are per- 

 haps—including those named above and 

 Mme. Gabriel Luizet, one of the finest Roses 

 ever raised — the best : Ulrich Bninner, 

 another grand Rose, and the new variety 

 Gloire de Margottin, one of the brightest 

 colored Roses known; Baroness Rothschild, 

 Mabel Morrison and La Roserie. This gives 

 all the most desirable shades of color, and 

 all are good Roses. 



For later blooming the varieties that can 

 be had in perfection are almost legion; with 

 of course less trouble as the plants can be 

 allowed to grow on naturally till frost stops 

 their growth, and then by placing them in 

 a cool house or like place they can be pruned 

 and brought into the greenhouse as required. 

 One very important item in their cultiva- 

 tion during the time they are in the open 

 air is that they should never he saturated 

 with water for any length of time or the 



WIRE FRAME FOR TABLE DECORATION. FIG. 1. 



result will be fatal, as black spot will soon 

 have supreme control. 



Holiday Table Decorations. 

 The possession of a little natural taste and 

 talent, and the utilization of simplest de 

 vices, are, after all, the only things needful 

 to be able to make a very creditable and at- 

 tractive display in table decorations with 

 comparatively little floral material. The 

 objectionable feature of crowding plants and 

 flowers can easily be avoided by making use 

 of the very primitive devices illustrated in 

 Figs. 1 and 2, and of many other similar 

 ones. In Fig. 1 we see a wire frame too sim- 



ple to need description. Killed with Roses, 

 Asters and other flowers, nicely arranged 

 on Fern leaves, and a few green sprigs of 

 some suitable material, il appears in very 

 attractive garb as the table decoration Fig, 

 3. In Fig. 'J we have a sample of flower and 

 fruit frame, consisting of plate, fruit dish 

 and tumbler, and in Fig. 4 the complete 



soon as they arrive, but, instead, we set them 

 out in rows in a nursery patch we keep for 

 this purpose, and where we give them good 

 attention, and mulch the ground about them. 

 This was the way with these Andromedas, 

 and we mulched about them with tree leaves. 

 They had been in these rows two years, and 

 la.st week when 1 lifted them to tran.splant 





TABLE DECORATION, FIG. 3. 



decoration, with fruits and flowers in pleas- 

 ing and tasty array. 



We need hardly say that these devices are 

 merely given as samples. They may be var- 

 ied in a thousand and one different ways, 

 according to your own fancy and the mater- 

 ials at hand. The devices may be primitive, 

 and the decorative material common — a few 

 flowers, a few Ferns, perhaps some Celery 

 or Parsley leaves, and some] Apples, Pears, 

 Grapes, etc., but they can be made to con- 

 tribute largely to the enjoyment of a meal. 







Leaf Mold for Shrubs. 



The value of leaf mold as an admixture 

 to potting and other soils is generally rec- 

 ognized; not so, however, the advisability 

 of gathering dry forest leaves in fall or win- 

 ter for the sake of the mold to be obtained 

 from them by composting. Where mold 

 can be scooped up from the woods ready- 

 made, of course we would gladly avail our- 

 selves of the opportunity to get a supply for 

 whatever purpose we might wish to use it. 

 Otherwise we would not scorn to gather up 

 dry leaves in fall and winter whenever prac- 

 ticable. We are glad to note so good an 

 authority as Mr. Wm. Falconer come out in 

 favor of the practice. "* 



A large bed of Rhododendrons had be- 

 come too crowded, so he tells the Country 

 Gentleman, and it was resolved to lift and 

 replant them. They had been planted five 

 years and grown bushy and tall. Every fall 

 (November) when the Oak trees shed their 

 leaves we raked up large quantities of the 

 dry leaves and mulched the bed with them 

 to a depth of 12 or l-") inches, letting the 

 mulching stay there permanently, and year 

 after year adding to it a like amount. By 

 fall the mulching would have rotted down 

 to two or three inches in thickness. In lift- 

 ing these Rhododendrons we found that the 

 great mass of young fibrous roots were in 

 the leaf mold on the sm-face of the soil, and 

 keeping this point in mind, in replanting 

 we threw several shovelfuls of prepared leaf 

 soil from the compost yard around the ball 

 of every Rhododendron. And as soon as 

 the bed was replanted we again mulched it 

 with leaves to preserve the fine surface root- 

 lets from drying up by the wind. 



Another notable case of the partiality of 

 shrubs for leaf mold was evidenced in a lot 

 of A ndromcda Japan ten. When we receive 

 fine trees from home or foreign nurseries, 

 we do not plant them out permanently as 



DECORATION. FIG. 4. 



them elsewhere to their permanent quarters' 

 I found that not only had they, like the 

 Rhododendrons, made a carpet of fine, white, 

 fibrous roots among the leaf soil, but what- 

 ever branches had laid upon the mulching 

 had emitted roots, and that plentifully, 

 wherever they touched the ground. In re- 

 planting them, too, I used leaf mold freely 

 about their roots. 



We use a great deal of leaf soil for this 

 work. We not only gather up and save the 

 leaves that fall upon our own place, but we 

 go out into the woods in early spring or late 

 winter, as soon as the snow has gone, and 

 rake up a large quantity, cart them home 

 and make a pile of them where they will re- 

 main moist and not blow away. Towards 

 spring, after the leaves have lain on the 

 ground under the rain and snow all winter, 

 they have begun to decay, and we can pack 

 a very great deal more of them into a wagon 

 than we can when they are fresh in the fall. 

 Some years ago I raked large quantities of 

 leaves in the woods in the fall and left them 

 in piles in hoUow places till towards spring, 

 when I intended to bring them home. But 

 when spring came I found that some of my 

 neighbors had availed themselves of my 

 kindness, so now I cart the leaves home as 

 I rake them up. 



But when people have only a few Ever- 

 green shrubs to plant, they can get all the 

 leaf soil they want by scraping together 

 some of the surface earth they will get in the 

 hollows in roads. 



1,443. Wintering Fuchsias. Fuchsias may be 

 wintered very well in a dark cellar, if it is dry, 

 so that the plants do not mold. Late in the fall 

 withhold (Water gradually until the leaves drop 

 otf . then put them awa.v in tbls dormant condi- 

 tion, bringini? out again in March or as early as 

 j is feasible.— S. C. Valentine. 



' 1,467. Tuberoses, These bulbs do not bloom 

 i a second time. The little offsets, if preserved in 

 an equable temperature, will bloom the first 

 season they reach blooming size.— C. S. V. 



1,4)43. Propagating Carnations. This is done 

 both by seed and by cuttings. The cooler months 

 are best for both. Cuttings may be struck any 

 time from now until April — later they do not do 

 so well— in a cool temperature with light bottom 

 heat. For amateurs, summer la.vering is apt to 

 be the surest plan, as slips are ditficult to root 

 without bottom heat.— C. S. Valentine. 



1,466. Laying Down Orape Vines. This should 

 be done after trimming and before severe freez- 

 ing weather, say during the latter half of No- 

 vember in the vicinity of Plattsburgh. Delaware 

 is hardy if laid down; and probably would te in 

 heltered situations it not covered.— C. S. V. 



