THE month of December is the most 

 trying period in the entire year for 

 plants that are being grown in- 

 doors or forced in the greenhouse. 

 The same principles apply in both cases. 

 The sun is low, there is very little strength 

 Plants t° *t> an d the days are very 

 T , short, which means that prac- 



indoors tically all the heat required for 

 the plants must be supplied artificially. It 

 is advisable to keep the night temperature 

 a few degrees lower than normal, so that 

 the plants will not get soft and sappy. Too 

 high a temperature at this season of the 



year is the cause of more failures in the greenhouse than everything else com- 

 bined. Ventilate freely every day if possible, without subjecting the plants to 

 cold draughts. Try to maintain the desired night temperature, while leaving 

 one of the top ventilators slightly open. Careful watering is important. Plenty 

 of damping down can be done to offset the dryness of the atmosphere caused by 

 the fire heat; but the actual watering of the plants at the roots must be done 

 carefully. Give water only when a plant is dry; root action is very slow at this 

 time of the year and the \ plants are very easily over watered. An occasional 

 watering with lime water will be found beneficial to all except Azaleas, Heaths 

 and similar plants; this prevents the soil from souring which is the cause of the 

 green moss that collects on the benches and pots of plants in the greenhouses. 

 Feeding plants is rarely necessary at this time of the year and don't, under any 

 circumstances, try to force them by this process. Forcing cannot be done 

 before the plants show a natural tendency to growth, and excess of food when not 

 needed causes serious injury to the roots. 



Red spider, white scale, green fly, white fly, and mealy bug thrive in fire heat 

 and little spraying. Generally a tobacco preparation, if used frequently as a 

 preventive spray, will keep the plants clean; if not, fumigation must be resorted 

 to. Spray the plants with clean water as often as possible on clear days, using 

 the hose and a good force of water; place the first finger over the nozzle to make 

 the spray finer, so that it penetrates to all parts of the plants. The white fly 

 must be treated as a scale and can be destroyed only by fumigating with hydro- 

 cyanic acid. 



HARDWOODED vines (Allamanda, Stephanotis, Plumbago), should be par- 

 tially dried off and rested. It is not well to withhold water entirely, but 

 reduce the watering until the foliage hardens up; then whatever pruning is 

 necessary can be done. 



Greenhouse Tomatoes under glass need special attention to set fruit. 

 v . Tap the vines a couple of times a day, to cause the pollen to fly 



ines, e c. an ^ m very ^^ ^fi weat her it is sometimes necessary to fertil- 

 ize the flowers by hand, thus: During the middle of the day, when the air is dry, 

 hold a spoon or some such receptacle, under the flowers and tap the stem gently. 

 Dip the pistils of the flowers into the pollen thus collected or apply it with a 

 camel's hair brush. 



Stake tall flowers, such as Antirrhinum, Lilies, etc.; it must be done some 

 time, and the sooner the better. Short stuff, such as Freesias, can be supported 

 by placing a few twigs in each box or pot. String beans can be supported in the 

 same manner. 



LATE in the month dark forcing can be started in earnest. While it is not 

 really necessary to have a greenhouse for this work, it is usually (and best) 

 accomplished under the benches in a greenhouse and is indeed part of the routine 

 of greenhouse work. Rhubarb, asparagus, mushrooms, endive and sea kale 

 Beginning are a ^ f° rce< i in about the same way; the dormant roots (with 

 „ the exception of mushrooms, which are planted by spawn) are 



to t orce planted in a bed prepared for them under the benches. If you have 

 no greenhouse you can use the cellar of the house or a hotbed. 



Flowers for Christmas, such as Lilies, Poinsettias, early bulbous stock, Azaleas, 

 Roses, Carnations, etc., are of course very desirable. When the plants are in 

 a healthy condition, no harm results from a slight increase in temperature 

 to hurry them along. Be careful not to overdo, particularly with plants that 

 are permanent winter fixtures, such as the Rose and Carnation. With others, 

 where their usefulness ends with their flowering, such as the Lily and Poinsettia, 

 one can afford to run more risks. 



BULB planting indoors can be started in earnest now. Commence with the 

 early forcing types, such as the French grown Narcissus, the early Tulips, 

 or the Roman Hyacinths. Do not start too many; bring in a few pots at a time, 

 and then at such intervals as the flowers are needed. 



Bulbs for Amaryllis wanted early can be started now. It is not a good 



plan to repot these plants too often; the best method is to 

 Jiarly Bloom remove a couple of inches of the top soil and replace each year 

 with a good rich mixture. 



Take good care of the Chrysanthemum stock plants, and keep them as cool as 

 possible. Cuttings may be struck now for bush plants, or the number of plants 

 of good varieties may be increased in this way. 



CLEAN up every nook and corner of the garden; burn all refuse; gather up 

 all leaves; put away trellises and supports of all kinds; do not leave any- 

 thing around to accumulate dirt and shelter bugs. If you can, trench the 

 garden; if that is impossible, plow it. Let it stay plowed up all winter, giving it 

 The Last a g°°d application of air slaked lime next year, particularly on 



heavy, clayey soils. 

 Clean up Q et pi en ty f litter on hand for quickly covering vegetable 

 trenches when heavy freezing weather comes. Pile it up right by the trenches 

 so that it will be handy. Mulch the asparagus bed at once. Various materials 

 are used for this purpose (such as sea weed, manure, etc.) , but well rotted manure 

 is preferable. Sea weed makes a good mulch but has very little fertilizing value; 

 manure has both. 



THE MONTH'S 



REMINDER 



COMPILED WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HOME GARDEN, FROM 

 THE TEN YEARS' DIARIES OF A PRACTICAL EXPERT GARDENER 



For reckoning dates, the latitude of New York City is generally taken as a 



standard. In applying the directions to other localities, allow six 



days' difference for every hundred miles of latitude 



AFTER the leaves are gone spray the 

 orchard trees to keep down San Jose 

 scale. Spray every fall whether the trees 

 are known to have scale or not. There are 

 Work in numerous sprays on the 



t .. a...,, . market for this purpose, 

 tne urcnara which are effective and easy 

 to apply; and while the home made lime 

 salt and sulphur spray is the best spray I 

 have ever used, I must admit it is a difficult 

 spray to handle, and the commercial articles 

 are of standard quality and thoroughly 

 efficient. This is the best time of the year 

 to prune grape vines; late pruning does not 

 give the wood a chance-to make up and bleeding results. Mulch all borders of 

 berry vines with good well rotted manure. If you haven't covered the straw- 

 berry plants, do so at once — just a little covering with salt hay or some similar 

 material to prevent the foliage from getting burned. Rabbits often destroy 

 young trees by eating the bark and girdling them; prevent this by covering 

 the lower part of the trunk with a little tar paper or tarred burlap. 



ROOT vegetables that have been stored for the winter had better be picked 

 over carefully and the bad ones removed. Do this frequently. Be sure 

 the celery and other vegetable trenches are kept banked up so that they shed 

 water. If the soil settles during rainy weather and the trenches are left in that 

 condition, the rain will penetrate through the soil and ruin the 

 vegetables stored in the trench. For best quality try to get the 

 celery out of the trenches the same day you intend to use it. 



Vegetables 

 in Keeping 



THIS is an excellent time to prepare big trees for moving. Cut out and 

 prepare the "ball" of earth that is to be moved with each tree. If the soil 

 is frozen solid and the tree moved in this condition, it will not suffer any check. 

 Another distinct advantage is that balls of earth of an immense size can be 

 Moving Planting moved when frozen solid because of this comparative 

 , ,, , , . lightness. With an ordinary stone boat, trees up to 



ana Mulching fifteen inches calibre can be transplanted 



Mulch the bulb beds after they are frozen; this also applies to perennial 

 borders of all kinds, shrubberies, Rhododendrons and other Evergreens. Get 

 manure ready for mulching the lawn. While it is claimed that manure in- 

 troduces weeds (and in a measure it is undoubtedly true) , I do not know of any 

 suitable substitute as a winter mulch. Where lawns are bumpy and irregular, 

 cover them with a mixture of soil 12 parts and coarse crushed bone one part; a 

 couple of_ inches can be put right on top of the grass and the lawn next year will 

 be much improved. 



PROTECT all tender Evergreens from the full rays of the sun. The best 

 protection is a few pine boughs stacked up around the plants. 



Hedges very often winter kill, and even plants of a very hardy nature suffer 

 from the cold. Remember that the soil underneath a hedge is a solid mass of 

 Evergreens roots and it is hard for them to get nourishment out of frozen 

 „. , , ' soil. A winter mulch of good manure will feed the roots and 



anru ery prevent winter killing. One winter I mulched some hedges and 

 left others uncovered; all the winter killing happened in the latter! 



Get after scale in the shrubbery borders by spraying as for fruit trees. Evony- 

 mus, Japan Quince, and the entire Pyrus family, climbing Roses, etc., are 

 specially liable to attack. An effective way to fight the gypsy moth is to paint 

 the egg masses now with poison while the trees are dormant. These egg masses 

 may be easily detected on the bark while the trees are dormant. Spraying with 

 poison after the worms are hatched will of course kill myriads of them, but 

 don't procrastinate. Get after the egg masses now. 



Making December Count in California 



TO GET the maximum enjoyment from December you must be an indoor 

 gardener. Of course there are plenty of days when odd jobs can be done 

 outdoors, but to keep up a real, live interest in growing things a greenhouse, or a 

 hotbed, or even a few pots and boxes in a sunny south window, are decidedly 

 essential. 



The special requirement of indoor plants — those to which you must pay par- 

 ticular attention — have to do with moisture, temperature, ventilation, and light. 



Moisture. Because you cannot use a hose or watering pot as freely indoors as 

 in the garden, you must imitate natural conditions as nearly as possible in other 

 ways. Whenever you water, soak the soil thoroughly. 



Pots and tubs will need more water than benches or beds because of the addi- 

 tional surface they expose to the air. So, too, plants in a dwelling will dry out 

 much more quickly than those in a greenhouse because of the much less humid 

 atmosphere that surrounds them. 



Temperature. Strictly speaking, temperature conditions in dwellings are 

 just the opposite of what plants require' — warm days and cold draughty nights. 

 Don't forget, however, that the Palms, Ferns, rubber plants, etc., will appreciate 

 either newspaper covers or a warm room to themselves at night. 



Ventilation. Fresh air is essential to plant growth but taken in the form of 

 cold drafts it is deadly. Similarly, coal or illuminating gas will soon destroy 

 the thriftiest of specimens. Your duty, then, is to keep nearby windows closed, 

 to pull down the shades or move the plants from the windows at night, and to 

 keep the door to the cellar closed when feeding coal to the furnace. 



Light. The average window rarely admits too much light for any plant, but 

 in the greenhouse brilliant sunlight often necessitates shading, especially of 

 seedlings, newly made cuttings, etc. Whenever the light comes entirely from 

 one side, it will be necessary to offset the effects of heliotropism and the tendency 

 of the plant to become one sided, by turning it around frequently. 



With the groundwork of general principles, on which to base the detailed care 

 required by various species and families, even the novice should find the raising 

 of house plants quite within his abilities. 



"152 



