{> 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



August, 1912 



she had admired there came a time when 

 something had to be done. Some of the 

 plants had to be discarded or some other 

 provision made for growing them as the 

 task was too great for her. 



Our house is built on a very deep lot 

 and on the rear of it is a small unused stable. 

 The room was there and we decided to 

 build a small greenhouse 10 x 16 ft. to take 

 care of the plants while they were growing, 

 from which they could be transferred to 

 the house while in bloom. A local car- 

 penter did the work. It was placed against 

 the stable so that a portion of the stable 

 ■did for a potting shed and store room, and 

 the corner of the cellar for a boiler room. 

 When completed the geraniums, begonias 

 and other plants which were in the living 

 room of the house were transferred to the 

 greenhouse. 



By doing a little work in the morning 

 before going to the store and taking a peep 

 at the plants at noon when home for lunch, 

 and again in the late afternoon when I 

 came home to dinner I was able to keep the 

 plants in good condition. I must also 

 confess that there was frequently some 

 potting done on Sunday forenoon. 



I had not been growing mother's plants 

 very long before I became about as en- 

 thusiastic over them as she was. This 

 meant buying a plant now and then which 

 took my fancy, and I soon subscribed to 

 some of the horticultural trade papers, 

 and later The Garden Magazine. The 

 little house soon proved too small, so one 

 summer several years ago I turned it 

 around, putting the end against the barn 

 and extended it until now it is about fifty 

 feet long, and di-dded into three compart- 

 ments. 



I am growing a fairly representative 

 •collection of plants. Among the foliage 

 plants I have dracenas, zanzevera, philo- 

 ■dendron, aspidistra, Pandanus Veitchii, 

 Asparagus Sprengeri, Phcenix Roebelenii, 

 ChamcBrops humilis, Kentia Forsteriana, and 

 Washingtonia filifera. Some of them are 

 rather small, while others are goodly 

 specimens. 



Most of the bench room in one house is 

 devoted to carnations. I usually grow 



about one hundred and twenty-five plants. 

 I buy from some of my gardener friends 

 field grown plants in late summer. The 

 varieties which I grew last winter were 

 Winsor, Victory, Enchantress, Rose-pink 

 Enchantress, and White Perfection. Some 

 of the gardeners in the vicinity who are 

 trying their hands at hybridizing carnations 

 to get new varieties, always give me a 

 chance to grow their productions; they 

 sort of "try it out on the dog," but it 

 gives me a very active interest in watching 

 new developments. 



I am very fond of the common zonal 

 geranium and each winter grow about 

 fifty plants of the popular varieties. My 

 method of growing these probably might 

 not meet with the approval of professional 

 gardeners, but the plants certainly afford 

 me an abundance of bloom with a mini- 

 mum of care. When they are about 

 through blooming, I take off cuttings and 

 after these are rooted and become estab- 

 lished in pots the pots are plunged out-of- 

 doors in the garden during the summertime, 

 where they have a chance to grow. Upon 

 the approach of cold weather the plants 

 are transferred to the greenhouse and cut 

 back. It is not long before they start 

 into renewed growth and furnish an 

 abundance of flowers all through the 

 cold winter months. Old plants which 

 I wish to carry over another year are 

 usually cut back in February, and re- 

 potted in six-inch pots. They then are 

 tucked away in an out of the way corner 

 and given just sufficient water to keep 

 them alive until along in the summer 

 when they are started into growth again. 



The pelargonium or Lady Washington 

 geranium, is also in my collection. I 

 usually have about a dozen plants. These 

 are cut back in August and started into 

 growth and furnish a mass of bloom the 

 following spring. 



There are several gardeners in my town, 

 a couple of them being old country gar- 

 deners of no mean ability. We have 

 considerable rivalry among us as to who 

 can grow the best cyclamens. I do not 

 want to brag about my plants, but my 

 friends who have spent their lives at 



Tlie house grew out of necessity and has been enlarged to accommodate the owner's developing interest 



Only a few minutes morning and evening with a 

 peep at noon are given to the house, but it has be- 

 come part of the owner's life 



growing plants have not been able to put 

 anything over me in the way of growing 

 cyclamens. They are grown from seed 

 sown in August and they are usually in 

 bloom a year from the following Christ- 

 mas. There are usually about fifty plants 

 in the greenhouse in anywhere from five 

 to eight-inch pots. The soil used is com- 

 posed of equal parts of leaf mold, compost, 

 and cow manure, with, enough charcoal 

 to insure good drainage. 



There are about a dozen callas which I 

 have successfully bloomed every year for 

 a number of years. Each bulb averages 

 about five blooms during the course of the 

 winter. There is never a time but there is 

 at least one flower, and most of the time 

 there are several. This success is due to 

 the rich soil in which they grow. It is 

 made up of one third cow manure and 

 two thirds compost. The bulbs are given 

 a rest of a couple of months during the 

 early summer; in August they are started 

 into growth once more. 



There are about a hundred ferns in the 

 greenhouse, nearly all of them being the 

 crested forms of the Boston fern. They 

 vary in size from plants in three-inch pots 

 up to one mammoth specimen of Whitmani 

 in a fourteen-inch pot. 



There are a dozen or so begonias of 

 various species to be found tucked away 

 in one place or another in the houses. 

 These amply repay me for the attention 

 bestowed upon them by their profuse 

 bloom in late winter and early spring. 



The delightful fragrance of the flowers 

 of Olea fragrans pervades the greenhouse 

 for the greater part of the year I have a 

 specimen about four feet tall and nearly 

 three feet in diameter. 



For four years I have grown a speci- 

 men of the Ponderosa lemon. I could not 

 resist the alluring descriptions of it in the 

 catalogues. In the winter of 1010-1911 I 



