EVERT WOMAN HER OWN FLOWER GARDENER. 143 



or three plants and pick off all the side buds, sending the whole strength 

 of the plant into two or three blossoms at the most ; frequently one is 

 quite enough. Tie up the plants with colored yarn, so that no one will 

 pick them ; pull up all the single flowers that might mix with them, 

 and you may be quite sure of saving good seed. Gather them on a dry 

 day, when the seeds are thoroughly dry. Seeds preserved in the seed vessel 

 are more clumsy to pack away than those which are cleaned, but they 

 are said to keep fresher. When ready to sow them, clean them by pass- 

 ing them through sieves, having holes large enough to let the dust 

 escape and retain the seeds. Small sieves can be made of a thin bit of 

 pasteboard cut in a circular form, and the edges turned up, then pierce 

 the bottom of it with holes made with a pin or a darning needle. Make 

 several different sized sieves, and rub the seeds through the different ones* 



A lady can make a small cabinet of pasteboard, with as many drawers 

 in it as there are letters of the alphabet, and as she ties up the packets, 

 each can be put into its corresponding drawer; or a paper bag with each 

 letter of the alphabet marked upon it, can hold the seeds until desired 

 for planting. 



Preparing Pots. 



If new pots are used for any kind of seeds or plants, they should be 

 soaked in water for a few hours, as they will otherwise suck away the 

 moisture from the earth, and nothing is worse than to water seeds too 

 often, or let them become dried up. All empty pots should be washed 

 and cleaned before using again. 



Taking up and Preserving Flowers in Winter. 

 One is often in a great quandary to know what to do with large bushes 

 of Geraniums, Roses, Feverfews, Heliotropes, etc., that have grown so 

 finely all summer, and now the frost threatens to lay them low forever- 

 All the plants that have a woody nature, can be preserved in a dry, 

 cool, perfectly dark cellar. Last autumn, I had a splendid bed of Zonale 

 Geraniums every color and hue, and some fifteen plants. What should 

 I do with them ? I could not bear to lose them forever ! So I took a 

 large box, and filled it with a light soil, and planted the roots in it, first 

 cutting off all the tender branches, and leaving none over twelve or 

 fifteen inches long; on these the leaves were left, but every blossom was 

 cut away. The box was placed in a cold, damp, perfectly dark cellar, 

 where potatoes never freeze; no water was given it the whole winter, 



