130 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 
experience is to the contrary, for I have never seen such vig- 
orous plants as my hollyhocks were when the rust first ap- 
peared. Each plant was from three to four feet in circum- 
ference, and each sent up from four to six stalks six feet 
high or more. I was advised to use a weak solution of per- 
manganate of potassium, enough to tinge the water, if the 
plants were young; or a weak solution of Bordeaux mix- 
ture, if the disease was advanced. I used the latter, as the 
yellow spots had crept up to the top leaves and the lower 
ones had all fallen leaving my hollyhocks as naked as a 
plucked fowl. The result was immediate death—I trust a 
painless one. 
Reasoning from the advice that a frequent spraying with 
Ivory soap-suds was an excellent general insecticide for roses, 
I proceeded to apply the suggestion in a new way to holly- 
hocks and larkspurs. I made a thick foaming suds, adding, 
as an antiseptic, a half teaspoonful of baking soda to two or 
three quarts of water. Taking a handful of the foam, I be- 
gan at the root of a plant and ran my hand upwards so as to 
cover with foam the under sides of the leaves as well as the top, 
the stems, and even the buds, if they were forming. This 
treatment was begun in early May, and four or five applica- 
tions were made at intervals of a week. For the first time in 
many years the hollyhocks were free from rust, though on 
several plants, that did not get an early treatment, it appeared 
toward the middle of the summer in a mild form; and on 
others, that, intentionally I did not treat at all, the rust ran 
its usual destructive course. This method was wholly success- 
ful with larkspurs, and was rewarded with a full crop of bloom, 
the first in years. This simple remedy costs nothing, does not 
disfigure the plants, and from my two years’ experiment I 
believe that these two diseases can be kept under control, if 
the applications are begun early, and continued for a month 
