Winter Flowers for the Window Garden -By Florence Spring, ssr 



LIFT PLANTS FROM THE GARDEN BEFORE FROST AND KEEP THEM GROWING INDOORS 

 — ANNUALS THAT WILL FLOWER IN WINTER — STARTING FLANTS FROM CUTTINGS 



SEVERAL years' experience has enabled 

 us to know just which plants will 

 give us the most blossoms during the few 

 winter months, and to select a pleasing 

 variety for gay color, sweet odor, and or- 

 namental foliage. 



In order to have the best possible suc- 

 cess in window gardening, a southern ex- 

 posure should be chosen. We have our 

 plants on a long shelf before three sunny 

 windows in our dining room. The shelves 

 are covered with white enamel cloth. At 

 each end of the shelf we put a pot of the 

 pink Vernon begonia : this is in the shade 

 of the window casing, but thrives luxu- 

 riantly with little sun. 



Next to these are put pots of climbing 

 nasturtiums. We plant the seeds early 

 in September, or, if prevented, cut off 

 stocky slips of the vines in the garden any 

 time before frost, root them in water — 

 the roots will appear almost immediately — 

 and plant them. Four or five plants are 

 enough for each pot. We use for the nas- 

 turtiums the shallow wide pans in which 

 the florists grow bulbs. As the vines grow, 

 make a trellis of green string up the sides 

 and across the top of the window. The 

 plants will blossom freely all winter. 



Geraniums are used extensively in our 

 window garden, as we have found nothing 

 that will take the place of their showy and 

 abundant blossoms and luxuriant foliage. 

 The most beautiful and free-blooming 

 variety for us is Dryden. This produces 

 numerous large clusters of flowers of the 

 most exquisite bright salmon red, of a 

 peculiarly brilliant tone, with white eyes, 

 and is covered with blossoms all through 

 the winter. 



It is best to cut back to within eight or 



Heliotropes in the garden may be cut back severely 

 and brought indoors for winter bloom 



ten inches from the root two or three old 

 plants, which begin to bloom immediately. 

 Two or three small plants, rooted during 

 the summer, will furnish beautiful large 

 clusters of blossoms in the late winter 

 or early spring. A couple of plants of 

 some free blooming, single white geranium 

 furnish just the right contrast to the 

 brilliant crimson clusters. 



For flowers through the fall we take 

 up from the garden a few of the annuals, 

 just coming into bloom. French marigolds 

 are among the most satisfactory. Also 

 balsams, which in perfection resemble, 

 and are almost as beautiful as, azaleas. 



A plant of the gorgeous large double 

 orange marigold, with care, may be lifted 

 from the soil without a leaf or bud wilting, 

 and will make a corner in your parlor, or 

 an end of your shelf sunny, for many a 

 cold dark day. One plant will often blos- 

 som for weeks. If space will allow, add 

 two or three pots of the small summer 

 annuals, mignonette, giant candytuft, 

 sweet alyssum, and Phlox Drummondi. 

 And a pot of single pink or lavender petunia 

 will supply continuous blossoms until 

 spring. Small seedlings may be taken up 

 from under the old plants in the garden. 

 Deluge the large annuals well, after 

 potting, and keep in the shade for two or 

 three days. These "transients" are 

 thrown away after s few weeks, and make 

 room for the increasing size of the regular 

 numbers of our plant family. 



Another annual which I have never seen 

 in any window garden except my own is 

 the Schizanthus. Start some seedlings 

 in September, or take up two or three little 

 plants from the garden. As they grow, train 

 carefully on a little trellis, or two or three 

 small sticks, and during the winter you will 

 be rewarded by a mist of lavender blos- 

 soms. 



We always have one or two pots of the 

 sweet olive of the South, with its glossy 

 dark-green leaves, and clusters of tiny 

 white blossoms, which have the most 

 delicious fruity fragrance. Another beau- 

 tiful plant for window-gardening and one 

 seldom seen, is Streptosolen, both the blue 

 and orange flowered varieties. The first 

 has abundant and most lovely sky-blue 

 flowers of a size and shape similar to crow- 

 foot violets. The second has clusters of 

 brilliant orange blossoms. Both flower 

 luxuriantly. 



No window garden is complete without 

 a pot of heliotrope, which, for both beauty 

 and fragrance, is unsurpassed. If one 

 prepares for the winter garden in summer, 

 start three of four slips, and put them in the 

 same pot — using a shallow bulb pan. 

 Keep them well pruned, and buds will soon 

 appear, and the blossoms will be a delight 

 all winter.' If, however, one's window 



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garden is unpremeditated, cut down un- 

 sparingly an old plant, put it in a good 

 sized pot, drench it well, and keep it in a 

 dark place until the tiny new shoots appear, 

 which will be almost immediately. Many 

 more desirable plants might be added, and, 

 for the space at most flower-lovers' disposal, 

 many must be subtracted from my list. 

 Each year's collection may vary; which, if 

 one has space for a few plants only, will 

 add to the interest of caring for them. 



Neither care nor trouble must be spared 

 in preparing a rich, finely pulverized soil, 

 of the right proportions of loam, fertilizer, 

 and humus, as with the small amount in 

 each pot, no subsequent care of the plant 

 will make up for poor, scanty earth. Take 

 equal parts of good garden loam, well 

 rotted manure, and light earth from the 

 bottom of the compost heap, add a little 

 sand and a sprinkling of wood ashes. 

 Mix all well, and sift through a coarse 

 sieve, or ash sifter. Put an inch or so 

 of broken flower pots, or brick, in the 

 bottom of each pot for drainage. 



Also, I would add one suggestion in 

 regard to the winter care of house plants. 

 Keep them well sprayed, as the dust on 

 the leaves, if not removed, prevents them 

 from doing well. The spraying also dis- 

 courages, and usually removes, the green 

 aphis and also the tiny red spider, either 

 of which will kill a plant if unmolested. 



We have a small plant sprayer, consisting 

 of a rubber bulb with a finely perforated 

 hard rubber end. With this we spray our 

 plants thoroughly once or twice a week. 



Some good plant food should be used at 

 intervals throughout the winter, and the 

 earth stirred frequently about the roots 

 of the plants. 



Old geranium plants should be cut back to within 

 eight inches of the root 



