August 19 12 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



was rewarded by the plant producing four 

 fruits, each of which weighed about a 

 pound and a half. I was so proud of them 

 that I took them down to the store and 

 put them in the window. 



For two or three years it was my custom 

 to grow several dozen plants of the Easter 

 hly; these were potted up as soon as they 

 came, put down in the cellar until the 

 bulbs had produced a growth about two 

 inches high when the pots were brought 

 into the greenhouse. 



The freesia is indispensable; about a 

 dozen eight-inch pans are started every 

 year in July for Christmas bloom. Another 

 bulbous plant which is always attractive 

 to me is the buttercup oxalis. I always 

 have a half dozen hanging baskets of it 

 suspended from the rafters in the 

 houses. 



The rich man's hobby — the orchid — 

 has not escaped my attention. I have 

 had one failure; the ccelogyne would not 

 do well in my greenhouses. It was too hot 

 for it in the summertime. The thirty 

 cypripediums, however, have thrived. C. 

 insigne, hirsutissimum, Spicerianum, Har- 

 risianum, var. nigrum, are the kinds which 

 I have grown. I have no trouble in grow- 

 ing these since I commenced summering 

 them in a heavily shaded corner of the 

 greenhouse. One plant of insigne has 

 rewarded me by producing thirty-five 

 blooms at one time. 



Cattleya labiata and its varieties, Mossia, 

 Percivaliana, and Trianai, have all suc- 

 ceeded. I was particularly proud of one 

 plant of Trianad which had four spikes, 

 each spike carrying five flowers. I have 

 only eight pieces of Cattleya. Two plants 

 of Dendrobium nobile can always be de- 

 pended upon for a good supply of bloom 

 each year. From my experience I believe 

 it is the easiest grown orchid. Another 

 orchid of comparatively recent accession 

 to my collection is Oncidium ornitho- 

 rhynchum. The flowers are fragrant and 

 are produced rather profusely. 



In addition to the regular greenhouse 



plants, I grow from a thousand to fifteen 

 hundred bedding plants each year for use 

 in my garden. They include such plants 

 as china aster, salvia, petunia, ageratum, 

 phlox, verbena, snapdragon, stocks, lark- 

 spur, zinnia, coleus, Dimorphotheca auran- 

 tiaca, and Sanvitalia procumbens. Any- 

 where from a dozen to five hundred of 

 these are grown. 



I have lettuce the year round on my 

 table; the greater part of the year it is 

 grown in coldframes out-of-doors, but 

 during the coldest months, a few plants 

 are grown in the greenhouse among the 

 carnations. The same is true of radishes. 

 Last winter I grew lettuce out-of-doors 

 in a frame all winter by means of the 

 double glass sashes. 



I do considerable propagating. For this 

 purpose I have a small cutting bench three 

 feet square in the carnation house. The 

 sand is renewed each year, but in order to 

 prevent any danger from the damping-off 

 fungus troubling my cuttings, the cutting 

 bench is watered freely every time it gets 

 anywhere near empty with the ammoniacal 

 copper carbonate solution. I use the 

 regular formula as recommended for spray- 

 ing. 



The soil in which I grow most of my 

 plants has as a basis a compost which is 

 put up every year. I get a farmer to haul 

 in several loads of sod from his pas- 

 ture and with it I mix cow manure, using 

 about one part of manure to three parts 

 of the sod. 



To fertilize my plants — particularly the 

 potted plants — I use Wagoner's formula; 

 it is cleaner and easier to handle than 

 the making of liquid fertilizer from man- 

 ure, and a barrel of it can be made for 

 about twenty cents. It is composed as 

 follows : 



Phosphate of ammonia, 2 ounces 

 Nitrate of soda, 1J-4 ounces 

 Nitrate of potash, i?-_t ounces 

 Sulphate of ammonia, 1% ounces 



This should be dissolved in fifty gallons 

 of water for use, but I dissolve it in about 



a gallon of water keeping this as a stock 

 solution, and diluting it down to the 

 proper strength at the time of using 

 ■ — three or four ounces to a gallon of 

 water. The ferns receive a dose of this 

 regularly once a week, and the other 

 plants as often as I think they need it, 

 which may be once a week or at longer 

 intervals. 



I do not like to say much about what it 

 cost me to run this greenhouse, for like most 

 people, I feel that such expenses are a 

 purely personal matter, but it really does 

 not amount to very much during the 

 course of the year. I burn twelve tons of 

 coal to keep my greenhouse warm, which 

 costs me six and a quarter dollars a ton. 

 The coal bill and the necessary repairs on 

 the greenhouse structure and its painting 

 are paid for by stock sold — the sur- 

 plus of what I raise. I do all the work 

 myself. 



The street windows of my house always 

 have a display of flowering plants or cut 

 flowers, and I give away a good many to 

 my friends, but this does not use up my 

 supply of plants, particularly the bedding 

 plants, such as asters, and a great many 

 people come to me every spring wanting 

 to buy, and I am perfectly willing to sell 

 them such plants as I do not need. If I 

 cared to go into it on a commercial basis 

 I believe I could sell a hundred dollars' 

 worth of plants where I sell one now; 

 however, I feel that would be degrading a 

 very pleasant pastime. 



This little greenhouse has brought me a 

 host of friends among plant lovers. As 

 soon as the local gardeners found out what 

 I was doing they commenced dropping in 

 to have a look at my "extensive" establish- 

 ment, and now it has become a regular 

 thing for at least one of them to drop in 

 on Sunday morning for a visit. Fre- 

 quently there are four or five, and we 

 certainly have an enjoyable hour or two 

 among the plants. So thoroughly am I 

 in love with this hobby of mine that it has 

 become a very real part of my existence. 



A few lady slipper orchids (Cypripedium insigne) are most successfully grown Boston ferns, near the roof to get abundance of light, and Easter lilies with callas 



