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GARDENING 

 YOUNG FOLKS 



CONDUCTED BY ELLEN EDDY SHAW 



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Class Room and House Plants 



FIRST a good potting soil is needed. If pos- 

 sible I would have the children themselves 

 prepare the soil mixture. In school time give 

 them the receipt for this, using it as a spelling 

 ■or writing lesson. If you find that the soil brought 

 in for this work is very heavy and lumpy, have it 

 sifted. The sieves may be made in the manual 

 training shop. Some of my boys made theirs at 

 home last year; they took soap boxes and starch 

 boxes, knocked out the bottoms and put wire 

 screening on. Use either of these receipts for the 

 potting soil; ^ garden soil, % sand and 5 rotted ma- 

 nure; or I garden soil, ^ sand, § leafmold. 



After the soils are sifted (and do this only if 

 necessary), have the children mix the three kinds 

 together with their hands. It is real fun to get 

 right into this. Then place crock in the bottom 

 of the pot and fill in some soil. Tamp, or press 

 down firmly the soil into place. The boys can 

 make the tampers, whittling out pieces of wood to 

 resemble potato mashers only smaller in size, having 

 the end of the tamper about two inches across. 



After tamping down this first layer of soil hold 

 the plant in the pot with one hand and fill in soil 

 with the other, occasionally pressing it down. 



With the following plants you will be successful: 

 (a) For sunny windows: geranium, marguerite, 

 coleus, petunia heliotrope and fuchsia, (b) For 

 sunless windows: geranium, abutilon, fuchsia, 

 Begonia sanguinea, Begonia metallica, Begonia 

 semperflorens, pandanus, dracena, ferns, and palms. 



The Wardian Case 



DID you ever have a Wardian case? Well, it 

 is the best sort of little plant house, a sort 

 of baby conservatory, a house of glass to keep in 

 the schoolroom or living-room. Assisted by the 

 sun, it very nearly takes care of itself, which is the 

 principal reason why it is fine for class-room use. 

 An aquarium made of glass, oblong in shape with 

 a nice firm metal base, is just right for a Wardian 

 case. This case can also be made in the manual 

 training shop. 



Note position of plant and 

 ball of earth in repotting. Set 

 the plant lower in the pot than 

 it was before 



Ferns in Wardian case. A variety of plants set close to- 

 gether makes a better appearance 



Put about an inch layer of crock in the bottom of 

 it, then a 2-inch layer of sphagnum moss, and over 

 this about four to six inches of rich, light soil, 

 above it there must be space for air. The case 

 should have a glass top so arranged that occasionally 

 each day a little air may be let in. If the plants 

 in the case are sprayed with clean, warm water 

 once a week, this will give sufficient moisture, for 

 the moisture evaporates, condenses on the glass 

 top, and drops back again into the soil. 



The following plants will do nicely. I give their 

 scientific names so that the plants may be more 

 easily ordered from 

 the florists: 



Dracaena Godseffi- 

 ana 



Dracaena Sanderi- 

 ana 



Begonia Thurstoni 



Pandanus utilis 



Pandanus Veitchii 



Pteris serrulata 



Calathea ornata 



Calathea zebrina 



Alternanthera 



Anthericum Lilias- 

 trum 



Pellionia Daveaue- 

 ana 



Peperomia Sander- 

 sii 



Cordyline (Dracae- 

 na) terminalis 



The children will 

 find the Wardiancase 

 one of the most in- 

 teresting of nature 

 lessons. The dust 

 and uneven temper- 

 ature of the ordinary 



class room usually a fatal combination to work 

 against, play practically no part in the life of 

 Wardian case plants. Here is something to do 

 with plants that represents a permanent, all- 

 winter joy! 



Window Boxes 



IT SEEMS to me that perhaps one of the most 

 satisfactory ways to keep growing plants in a 

 class-room is by the use of the ordinary window 

 box. Such a box, bracketed below the window sill, 

 takes almost no room and the window sill itself is 

 left free for single plants. 



At the Ethical Culture School, New York City, 

 I had a window box full of little cedar trees. These 

 trees, taken from the Adirondacks, brought care- 

 fully down to the city by one of the teachers, placed 

 in a window box, lived undisturbed for three years. 

 After that they were transplanted and the soil was 

 renewed. If you start such a box of evergreens, 

 place over the surface of the soil a covering of sphag- 

 num moss. This helps hold the moisture in the 

 soil keeping it damp like wood's soil. 



I would not attempt to have any unusual com- 

 bination of plants in my window box. It is a hard 

 task to raise plants in any class-room, so stick to 

 old standbys such as geranium, fuchsia, begonia, 

 dracaena, coco palm, sweet alyssum; and vinca, 

 tradescantia (Wandering Jew) and English ivy as 

 trailers. All these plants are good to use as separ- 

 ate potted plants in the class-room. 



I have found that there are usually one or two 

 reasons why window boxes fail to look well: one 

 is lack of drainage, the other improper watering of 

 the box. Fill the bottom of the box with at least 

 two inches of drainage material, rocks, crock, char- 

 coal, etc. Children water the top surface of the 

 soil for the most part. I make a regular lesson out 

 of this method of watering. When plants are 

 watered they should be thoroughly watered. After 



121 



a watering ask some child to take a plant label and 

 poke carefully down into the soil to see how far 

 down it is wet. So often only the top inch is moist 

 the rest quite dry. 



Most people fuss so over their boxes of plants; 

 fill, in fact crowd, the box full of plants. Water 

 thoroughly when necessary and leave the rest of it 

 to the air and sunshine. Suppose there is no sun- 

 shine entering your room? Then fill the box with 

 begonias, ferns, fuchsias, aspidistra, dracaena, trade- 

 scantia and myrtle. 



Working with Bulbs 



AFTER much experimenting with bulbs, I believe 

 ■t\ children get more pure joy out of them than 

 from perhaps any other one kind of plant. Chinese 

 lilies do behave so badly; the buds blast if con- 

 ditions are not just right, they run to straggly 

 leaves and cause much disappointment to the chil- 

 dren. The other members of this family, however, 

 such as the Paper White narcissus, the little sweet 

 scented jonquils or even daffodils, planted in the 

 same way in pebbles and water or sand and water 

 are much more reliable. 



The storage of bulbs is another problem. If it is 

 impossible to dig a deep trench (two feet) for this, 

 dig a shallow one so that when the pots are placed 

 on the bottom of it they will be about four inches 

 below the surface of the soil. Then fill in with ashes, 

 and if the season be very severe, heap the ashes 

 above the ground level. I have found this excel- 

 lent when I have been unable to dig deep; and 

 so many people feel that they must have a deep 

 trench. 



I have found that, in working with boys and girls, 

 too often we attempt to raise a number of things, 

 and do it indifferently; I believe it better to 

 concentrate on one or two things. 



One of the easiest of all plants to raise indoors is 

 the spirea. Buy roots, from the florist in the fall, 

 of a good potting variety, such as the Gladstone. 

 If there are several roots together, cut and break 

 them apart, using no special care for tender treat- 

 ment is not needed. If the roots are long, cut them 

 back. These roots will usually take an 8- or 10- 

 inch pot. 



Gladstone Spirea, a pot variety, easy of culture: excellent 

 for use in school rooms 



