206 MAKING OF A FLOWER GARDEN 



death to the red spider — ^that pest so difficult to dis- 

 lodge. In using fill a large pail or dish,, place a cloth 

 or paper over the soil and place the hand on this, 

 straddling the stem of the plant and dip the entire 

 plant in the water, holding it there at least a minute 

 or while you count sixty. 



Almost aU greenhouse plants may be grown from 

 seed started in flats in the house in early spring or 

 in flats in a hotbed, potted off as soon as large enough 

 to handle into thumb pots and plunged in boxes of 

 wet sand in the open air in a sheltered position — 

 on the east side of the house, if possible. They should 

 be shifted into larger — ^just one size larger — ^pots as 

 they fill with roots until by fall they should be in 

 six-inch pots and full of buds ready for winter bloom- 

 ing. Where one has a penchant for geraniums it 

 will be well worth while to plant seed of Lady Wash- 

 ington or Pelargonium geraniums in spring for winr 

 ter blooming. These are so much finer than the 

 zonale geraniums and so much more certain to bloom 

 that they should always find a place in the winter 

 window garden. 



If one has a few palms, aspidistras and ferns, then 

 one may supply blossoming plants by planting freely 

 of spring blooming bulbs such as tulips, narcissus, 

 hyacinths, crocus and the like. Begin planting in 

 September and continue until the first of December, 

 planting in window boxes, by preference, but putting 



