WINTER BLOOM. 67 



dition at night, and a temperature of 45 or 50 rising 

 to CO or 70 during the day I mention a few more of 

 such winter-blooming plants as have a good "window 

 reputation " among amateurs and professional florists : 

 Azaleas ; Astilbe Japonica ; Catalonian Jessamine; Cen- 

 tradenias (in a Wardian case) ; Cupliea, or Cigar plant ; 

 Cyclamen Persicum ; Cytisus racemosus ; Daphnes ; 

 Dicentr,a spectabUis ; Geraniums, of all varieties ; Lau- 

 rustinus (rather too large); Lilonia floribunda ; Lobe- 

 lias, for a north or east window ; Maker nia odor at a (or 

 vertitittaia), and all the hardy bulbs, Hyacinth, Tulip, 

 Crocus, Narcissus, etc. 



Some of the plants which are easily forced into bloom 

 by the florists are hardly desirable for your rooms, because 

 of the difficulty of supplying the needed conditions, or 

 for other sufficient reasons, such as unwieldiness, inferi- 

 ority of flowers, etc. Camellias require considerable skill 

 in management, and Bouvardias, Tuberoses, and Helio- 

 tropes a rather unhealthful degree of heat. But if you 

 have an outdoor summer garden well stocked with com- 

 mon " bedding plants," you may draw upon them ad lib- 

 itum. With a little preparation, a few of these will 

 furnish you with abundant bloom through all the late 

 autumn, if not through the winter ; but more of this 

 further along. 



SPECIAL TREATMENT. 



You will not allow yourselves to be misled by the word 

 "monthly," as if Monthly Roses and Monthly Carnations 

 could go on blooming year in and year out, until they 

 die of old age. Even these vigorous bloomers require, 

 like other plants, some season of comparative rest ; and 

 if they do not have it in winter, they must in sum- 

 mer. In this fact we have the simple explanation of 

 what is called the "preparation" of winter-blooming 

 plants. It consists merely in giving them their rest in 



