NovEMBER, 1906 
will have pushed up about two inches. Take 
them out now and put in a warm place— 
about 60° night temperature—and shade 
the tender shoots until they become accus- 
tomed to the sun’s rays. In ten days or 
two weeks the flowers will have opened and 
be ready for cutting. 
STRANGE AUTUMN-BLOOMING BULBS 
The nerines are interesting autumn-bloom- 
ing bulbs which also require a warm 
corner and are usually considered hard to 
grow. ‘The commonest one is the Guernsey 
lily (Nerine Sarniensis). These send up 
naked stems eighteen inches to two feet long, 
which are crowned with a mass of flowers 
in different shades of red or pink. They 
are the showiest bulbous flowers to be found 
in the greenhouse during the period of 
September to November. These bulbs make 
their growth during the winter. As soon as 
you can get them put three or four in a 5-inch 
pot. For a potting soil use three parts of 
good strong loam, one of well decayed cow 
manure, and one of clean sharp sand. Put 
about one inch of drainage material in the 
bottom of the pot. The top half of the 
bulb must be above ground. The bulbs 
will not bloom if entirely covered. Give 
them a night temperature of 55° or 60° and 
keep them growing until May or whenever 
the leaves begin to turn yellow. Then dry 
them off gradually and when dried store 
under a bench or other dry place, setting 
each pot on its side. 
Next fall you may see some flower buds 
coming out of the dry soil, in which case 
place the pots on the bench and water very 
carefully. You will be fortunate if you get 
flowers at this time. I should not expect 
any from the small bulbs one usually buys 
for three or four years. 
About the time when they should begin 
their annual growth, scrape off about one 
inch of the surface soil with a sharp stick 
and replace it with some fresh rich compost. 
Never repot these bulbs if you can possibly 
avoid it, as they are very impatient of having 
their roots disturbed. 
The best feathery white bloom in winter 
is that of Astilbe Japonica (pictured on page 
188), which every florist wrongly calls 
“spirea”” (Spirza belongs to the rose family; 
Astilbe to the saxifrage family). The astilbe 
is quite hardy and a most desirable plant 
for the perennial border, where you can put 
it after forcing. Outdoors it sometimes 
grows three feet high, but the roots com- 
monly imported for forcing usualiy grow 
only one to one and a half feet higher 
than the pots. The compound leaves are 
eight inches to a foot long and are so divided 
that they have an airy graceful appearance. 
Several pyramidal specks of very small 
creamy white overtop the leaves six inches. 
The astilbe is one of the most graceful 
plants in florists’ windows during late winter 
and early spring. 
FORCE BLEEDING HEART THIS WINTER 
Every one knows the bleeding heart 
(Dicentra spectabilis), a favorite in the 
hardy border. It has many large heart- 
EEE GeAT ROD) BN 
shaped flowers of a rosy red suspended from 
the under side of the branches. In Europe 
it is quite the fashion to force this plant. It 
is seldom brought into heat before February 
or March, as it only requires about four 
weeks indoors, but November is the time to 
buy the roots. You get them from bulb 
dealers. They are grown in pots in Euro- 
pean nurseries for this special purpose. 
If you have a cool greenhouse why not grow this lovely gladiolus for Easter? 
G. Colvilleit, an early-blooming species and best for forcing 
You might take up plants from the garden 
but you would doubtless get inferior results, 
because you would lose so many feeding 
roots. It makes a good cut flower. 
A FLOWER OUTDOORS AT CHRISTMAS 
The Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) 
blooms outdoors in winter, but north of 
IMPANGACZ LINE 
189 
New York it is safer to grow it in a cold- 
frame. By this means you can be reason- 
ably sure of having the flowers for cutting at 
Christmas. It has only a few leaves which 
are divided into six or seven lobes. They 
are dark green and rather uninteresting. 
The large white flowers, one and a half to 
two inches across, are very beautiful indeed. 
Just bring the potted plants indoors two 
The Bride, a variety of 
weeks before you want the flowers, and as. 
soon.as the blossoms are cut out go the 
plants. Is there anything quicker? 
HEPATICAS TWICE THE USUAL SIZE 
The pretty little European hepatica (/7. 
angulosa—Anemone angulosa of the Dutch- 
catalogues) has beautiful clear blue flowers, 
