92 



THE SCHOOL GARDEN BOOK 



flowers are forced into bloom in greenhouses during the win- 

 ter months, but not every one is aware that it is easy and 

 practicable to get very satisfactory results by forcing them in 

 the school-room or in the home. If there is available a warm 

 closet near a stove, furnace or heated chimney in which a 



uniform temperature of about 75° 

 Fahrenheit can be maintained for 

 three or four weeks one can easily 

 bring these plants into blossom. 



The pips or roots of the lily- 

 of-the- valley are kept by the great 

 plant-supply houses in cold stor- 

 age so that they may be purchased 

 at any season of the year. They 

 cost at wholesale about one dollar 

 and a half per hundred. Many of 

 these are retarded plants, that is, 

 crowns in which the normal pe- 

 riod of blossoming has long since 

 passed, so that it is possible to 

 force them into blossom in a very 

 short time. As soon as the pips 

 arrive, trim off about one-third of the length of the roots 

 with sharp scissors, then plant them in garden soil or sand, 

 or even sphagnum moss, in a box of some sort, water them 

 thoroughly, and place away in the warm closet where a tem- 

 perature of 75° or 80° will be maintained. In city school- 

 houses such a closet can generally be found somewhere in 

 the basement near the boilers. If the room is dark it will be 

 better to bring the plants up during the daytime after they 

 have been in the closet about two weeks, returning them each 



Lilies-cif-the-\'alley in Japanese 

 Flower-jar. 



