3(1 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



CQtBPRAMES 

 HOiTBEDSi 



What Coldframes Are Good For 

 and How to Make Them 



EVERY well-regulated family ought to 

 have at least one coldframe and one 

 hotbed. A coldframe differs from a hot- 

 bed in having no fermenting manure to 

 supply heat, and in being used chiefly for 

 protecting, over the winter, plants that could 

 not live outdoors, such as tea-roses, while a 

 hotbed is used chiefly to get fresh vegetables 

 a month or more earlier in the spring. Both 

 are cheaper than greenhouses, and both have 

 other uses than those mentioned above. 



For instance, coldframes can be used to 

 lengthen the season of fresh vegetables both 

 in fall and spring, though, as a general thing, 

 they cannot be expected to yield a sufficient 

 variety and quantity all winter as hotbeds 

 can, because the temperature in a coldframe 

 during the winter is too low to encourage 

 growth. However, it is quite possible to 

 have fresh spinach from coldframes all winter 

 if it is started early enough to be in its 

 prime by November. So grown, it attains 

 a quality superior to any grown outdoors. 

 Lettuce and radishes also can be had from 

 coldframes throughout the winter, though, 

 naturally, the product is better and more 

 abundant in the months that have more 

 hours of sunshine than December and Janu- 

 ary. The coldframe also fulfils the same 

 function as the hotbed in starting vegetables 

 in early spring that are to be transplanted to 

 the open ground as soon as the danger of 

 frost is past, though a coldframe will ordi- 

 narily enable one to get fresh vegetables in 

 this way only a fortnight earlier, while a hot- 

 bed would gain a full month. Moreover, 

 coldframes furnish the best way of growing 

 violets, pansies, English daisies, and the 

 polyanthus primrose, all of which would 

 usually survive the northern winters out of 

 doors and bloom in May. In coldframes, 

 they will bloom for a month or more any 

 time from February to April. Again, fox- 

 gloves and larkspurs, though quite hardy and 

 easy to grow from seed sown outdoors in 

 spring, produce far better results if started 

 in September, kept over winter in coldframes, 

 and planted outdoors in spring. There are 

 a great many choice plants that are not quite 

 hardy and do not need to grow at all during 

 winter, but do require some light or they 

 will become weak and spindling. The cold- 

 frame is better for storing such plants than 

 the cellar. When a coldframe is made deep 

 enough to store rhododendrons, azaleas, star 

 jessamines, and other plants, three or four 

 feet high, it is called a pit. 



A coldframe may cost anywhere from 

 nothing to fifteen dollars. If one does not 

 care about looks, a loosely thrown together 

 framework, such as is used in the field and 

 removed, leaving the plants to mature where 

 they started, will be found useful for some 

 things, but the best thing is to have a perma- 

 nent structure which is stoned, bricked, and 

 painted. One that will answer every pur- 

 pose is nothing more than a topless and bot- 

 tomless box with a slope of a few inches to 

 the front, which must face the south or south- 

 east. Set it where there will be a fence or 

 building to protect from north winds. Fit 

 the top with a sash which can be lifted for 

 airing and watering; see that the soil is rich 

 and mellow enough for a garden bed; bank 

 up the outside, and you will be ready to sow 

 the seeds of joy for yourself and of envy for 

 your neighbors. 



If you do not wish to attempt anything 

 more elaborate than the starting of a few 

 vegetables and flowers in the spring for extra 

 early bearing, you need not bother with the 

 sash, but in its place use a piece of cloth — 

 any material that will keep out cold — fastened 

 to a framework made of inch-thick strips of 

 common pine. 



Strictly speaking, a coldframe is a structure 

 accommodating four sashes each 3x6 feet, 

 the cost being about Si 5. They can be 

 bought ready-made and shipped any distance. 



If your frame is to be used simply for win- 

 tering dormant plants, start your seeds in the 

 summer or fall, long enough ahead for the 

 plants to become fair sized before transplant- 

 ing to the frame. In the latitude of New 

 York, the middle of September is early enough 

 for cabbage and lettuce, as any earlier 

 sowing tends to make them go to seed. By 

 about November 1st, your seedlings should 

 be ready for the frame, but do not cover 

 them with sashes until there is danger of 

 freezing, and even then the sashes need not 

 be used in the daytime if there is bright sun- 

 shine. In fact, the raising of the sash two or 

 three inches for ventilation during the day 

 keeps the plants from becoming too tender. 

 As the weather becomes colder — io° or 

 less above zero — the glass must be covered at 

 night with carpet, boards, straw, or other 

 protective material. If the plants have 

 become frozen in the frames, this extra pro- 

 tection may be left day and night in case of 

 two or three days of severe cold. You may 

 apply the same principle to the removal of 

 snow — if the plants are not frozen. When 

 snow falls, it must be cleared off, for if left a 

 number of days the plants will become tender. 



If the temperature inside the frame is from 

 25 to 3 2 , the plants will remain dormant. 

 Transplant to open ground when spring is 

 settled. 



But, if you prefer to use your frame for 

 starting extra early spring-sown plants, to 

 gain two weeks in the outdoor season, plant 

 your seed four weeks ahead of outdoor plant- 

 ing. Radishes, parsley, beets, and similar 

 vegetables must be planted about March 1st 

 in the neighborhood of New York, and set in 

 the open ground about April 15th or May 1st. 

 A 3 x 6 sash will accommodate about 400 

 lettuce plants, which should stand about two 



by three inches apart until transplanted 

 outdoors. 



If you have to be very economical, build 

 some extra frames without sashes and fill 

 them during the winter with leaves or straw 

 to keep the ground unfrozen. On March 

 1 st, set in some of the lettuce plants — fifty to 

 a sash. Transfer the glass from any frame 

 which no longer needs it. Allow the plants 

 air and rain in generous quantities and you 

 will have lettuce two weeks ahead of the 

 outdoor season. When your lettuce comes 

 out in May, plant a half-dozen cucumber 

 seeds in each sash. Keep the glass on at 

 night until the middle of June, when the 

 finished article will be ready to reflect credit 

 on your table. 



Don't forget to provide yourself with 

 small shallow boxes for all seedlings; you 

 will find them more convenient and easier to 

 handle than if raised directly in the frame. 



When properly treated, plants which are 

 wintered in coldframes will become so 

 hardened that they will stand setting out in 

 the spring long before the seedlings from 

 spring-sown seed. Cabbage, cauliflower, and 

 lettuce are almost hardy anyhow, and sev- 

 eral degrees of frost do not hurt them. 



For these vegetables, coldframes are much 

 less trouble than hotbeds, and very little 

 later if closed at night and covered with mats. 

 Ida M. Angell. 



A New ReasonWhyRoses Should 

 Be Ordered Early 



TEN years ago everybody used to order 

 roses in May; now, to get the best 

 stock, they send in their orders in February or 

 even as early as January, stating the date they 

 wish to have them delivered. An immense 

 new business has started up in the last few 

 years, called the "advance order " or"reserve 

 order" business. The up-to-date nurseryman 

 now has an "advance-order house" in which 

 he places the plants for future delivery as 

 soon as they are ordered. Each lot has at- 

 tached to it a conspicuous card, stating whom 

 the plants are for and when they are to go. 

 This is a vast improvement on the old- 

 fashioned method of ordering at the last 

 minute, and as a result receiving the tag 

 ends of the stock, or, worse yet, getting an 

 inferior or different variety because the sup- 

 ply has run out. 



The March number of Country Life in 

 America will contain an elaborate ten-page 

 article on "How to Grow Roses." 



