December Making Plans 



Narcissi, to mention a few of the most important of 

 seasonable flowers. The way to have them bright 

 throughout as long a season as possible is to keep the 

 atmosphere dry, to admit a little air every day when- 

 ever the weather allows of this being done, and to give 

 water to the roots only when the soil is fairly dry. It 

 is said that if a little ammonia is placed in a bowl of 

 water in the greenhouse, the flowers suffer no ill effects 

 from fog, and all whose gardening is carried on within 

 the area of smoky fogs know how liable they are to 

 be spoilt. The Zonal Geraniums, among the most 

 brilliant of winter flowers, are quite easy to grow 

 from cuttings taken in March. They, together with the 

 Perpetual - flowering Carnations, need only a minimum 

 temperature of 55. These two groups of flowers offer 

 remarkable variety of colouring, and no warm green- 

 house need be dull at this season, especially if a few 

 early bulbs were potted in September. The yellow- 

 flowered Primula floribunda, its relative Primula 

 kewensis, and the Star-flowered Chinese Primulas are 

 delightfully easy to grow from seed sown in spring if 

 one has a cool frame in which to keep them during 

 summer. 



It is time to put in a few cuttings of Perpetual 

 Carnations if one wishes to have flowers next autumn ; 

 plants for spring - blooming are grown from cuttings 

 inserted in early spring. They form roots best in a 

 shallow box, filled with silver sand, covered with glass 

 and placed over the hot-water pipes. So far as concerns 

 next winter's display of the other flowers named, it is 

 not yet time to make preparations ; the reader may 

 enjoy them to the full, undisturbed by the gardening 

 bogy of " looking forward." Chrysanthemums are, 

 however, an exception, and if it is desired to grow large 

 blooms, or form specimen plants, cuttings should be 

 taken as they become ready. Some of the old plants, 

 the stems of which have been cut down, have a number 



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