CULTURE OF FAVORITE PLANTS. 
NO AMARYVLILIS. 
HE Amaryllis, through all its various species, produces the most brilliant 
flowers, blooming generally in the winter and early spring. This 
family of plants has been much divided of late years, and the many 
known to the masses under the above name have other appellatives 
,as well. They delight in a rich soil made up in about equal parts 
of well-rotted manure (sweetened by exposure to the air), leaf-mold 
or spent hops and good loam, with a slight admixture of sand. To 
i vest and ripen the bulbs for future use, after the flowering season, the pots are 
embedded in the soil in the open air until the approach of winter, when they 
should be taken where they are to grow and bloom. Our own experience is 
practical, so we will give it. We purchased five bulbs, two with persistent 
foliage, and three that would keep it only a part of the year. These last we 
planted in pots, having the promise that they would bloom that summer; but they only 
grew leaves, and filled their pots with thick, white roots as large as a pen-holder. In due 
time they lost their leaves and went to sleep, and we intended keeping them dry, as directed. 
By some means, two got enough moisture to retain their long roots, and they bloomed the 
following spring; the third spent its strength in forming roots again. Of course, under 
proper circumstances, they should blossom every year. Abundance of water and occa- 
sional applications of manure-water are required during the season of leafage. They 
should be set in not less than seven-inch pots, with about half the bulb bedded in the soil. 
ASTER. 
S@HEN in their course the spring and summer flowers have passed 
away, and the months come on that ripen the fruits and finish the 
harvests, we find ourselves dependent upon such flowers as the 
\ Asters and Chrysanthemums for the beauty of our flower-beds, the 
p first named furnishing an almost infinite variety, both in shades of color 
and styles of flower. Some of the dwarf kinds appear like a gathered 
eA bouquet, so closely are the flowers crowded together. Whatever the style of 
IN flower, they all require the same treatment. The seeds should be started in a 
bed or box prepared for the purpose, and from there transplanted to where 
they are to bloom, before they begin to grow or start their flower-stalks. They 
can be placed a foot apart, in rows, if it is desired, or set singly for specimen 
plants. Water should be supplied them until well established, and in August a 
dressing of manure, with occasional supplies of manure-water. This treatment will give 
an increase of flowers, as well as improve their quality. Any favorite may be potted 
before frost, to finish its bloom in the house. In saving seeds, the outside rows would be 
the best developed and ripest. A friend who is eminently successful in Aster culture pulls 
the plants from which seeds are desired before frost, and hangs them up by the roots, so 
that the sap will go into the ripening seeds as they dry. 
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