November, 1912 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



159 



Conducted by Ellen Eddy Shaw 



Work For The Month 



TURN to The Garden Magazine for 

 August and read an article on "An- 

 nuals for Winter Bloom Indoors," and 

 get some good suggestions for raising 

 flowers in the class-room this winter. The 

 dwarf French marigolds spoken of are really 

 very satisfactory. They blossom well and 

 do not attract lice. 



If your class room has sunless windows 

 a real woodsy window box would be just 

 the thing. The best arrangement for 

 placing the window box is the following: 

 Screw two ordinary iron brackets into the 

 woodwork below the window sill. Place 

 across these brackets a board stained to 

 match the woodwork. Upon this board 

 shelf place the window box. Plant in this 

 north window box some little evergreens; 

 cedars and spruces do well, too. First 

 place in the bottom of the box an inch of 

 drainage material such as old broken 

 crock, then a few lumps of charcoal, and 

 upon this layer put the soil. Get soil from 

 the woods ; soil in which the little trees have 

 been growing is the best. Firm this black 

 wood soil all about the trees. Over the 

 surface place moss and thus you have a 

 sort of natural wood covering. The moss 

 covering helps to hold moisture in and 

 about the tree roots. Such a box of ever- 

 greens will last perfectly all the winter and 

 stand the over-Sunday drop in temperature 

 so fatal to most plants. 



So many schools are unable to solve the 

 houseplant matter because of the over- 

 Sunday problem. Plants are growing 

 beautifully and then comes the cold week- 

 end. The plants are in poor condition 

 when the teacher enters her room Monday 

 morning. A sort of tireless cooker arrange- 

 ment can be made. Take a large packing 

 box, put some hay, straw, excelsior, saw 

 dust or even old newspaper in the bottom. 

 Place on this a smaller box and stuff all 

 about the box with whatever packing is 

 used. This box should be drawn close to 

 the source of heat on Friday. The big 

 box, the little box and the packing all get 



heated through. Place the plants in the 

 inner box, cover it over and put packing 

 between that and the outside cover. It 

 is well to put a cloth over the packing before 

 putting the cover on; so that no air will 

 creep in through the cracks. The plants 

 remain in very good condition in the 

 "cooker" until Monday morning. Often, 

 however, it is enough to wrap the pots and 

 plants in newspaper and place them in a 

 sheltered part of the room. 



Certain plants are suited to conditions 

 of sunlight and others to conditions of 

 semi-light. In boxes and pots to be placed 

 in sunny windows put geraniums, mar- 

 guerites, petunias, abutilon, alyssum, wan- 

 dering Jew, and, in fact, any of the sunny- 

 garden plants you may care to take inside. 

 For the box which is to be under conditions 

 of shade plant begonias, ferns, dracaena, 

 palms, vincas, ivy and fuchsias. 



OUTER BOX 



v ' : r'-' 



■;-,-■ ■ • 



This plant box. a sort of tireless cooker, solves the 

 over-Sunday plant problem tor schools 



So often the buds of the Chinese lily 

 blast. The foliage grows beautifully, buds 

 put forth but before becoming perfected, 

 wither and die. An interesting experiment 

 to try is the following: Take a bulb and 

 make an incision with a sharp knife from 

 tip to base. Cut through several of the 

 bulb's coats but not clear into its centre. 

 Plant the bulb as usual in stones and 

 water, put away in the dark for almost a 

 week or until vigorous roots form. Then 

 bring into the light. You will observe 

 that shoots start out from the places of 

 incision and that the growth is much more 

 rapid than in the case of uncut bulbs. 

 Get your lily bulbs started for Christmas 

 flowering by the middle of November. 



Have you tried forcing lily-of-the-valley 

 pips? These can be forced for Christmas 

 time. The pips cost about fifty cents a 

 dozen from any good florist. When they 

 come to you cut off about one half the 

 root area. Each pip has a vigorous growth 

 of roots. Take a sharp knife, gather the 

 roots all up together in your hand and 

 cut off from one third to one half this root 

 growth. Pot in any good garden soil. 

 The pointed bud end of the pip should be 

 out of the earth. Lilies-of-the-valley look 

 best planted in low pots or pans. Ten pips 

 may be planted in an 8-inch pan. The 

 pans should now be placed for a few days 

 in a semi-dark and warm place. Keep the 



pips well watered. The boiler room in 

 school buildings makes a good forcing 

 house. Alter about a week bring the 

 lilies to the light but continue to keep them 

 warm and moist. If these are started 

 about the middle of November one should 

 have blooms by Christmas. 



During November one is constantly 

 thinking of Christmas. The week before 

 this vacation should see blooming plants 

 in the class-rooms. With lilies-of-the-valley, 

 Chinese lilies and Roman hyacinths the 

 rooms may breathe forth the sweetness 

 of the season. To add some color and 

 vigor to the decorations or gift plants try 

 to force out sprays of apple and cherry 

 trees. In November, about the middle of 

 the month, after some good cold weather, 

 ask the boys to cut some fruit branches. 

 Place these in jars of warm water and put 

 away in the dark and warm. As soon as 

 the buds begin to swell and burst bring 

 the jars out to the light. Keep up the 

 temperature and it is possible to have real 

 blossom for Christmas. These make lovely 

 decorations and charming Christmas gifts. 



Care Of House Plants 



IT IS better to start right with house 

 plants than to be constantly doctoring 

 them up later. 



First pot them up with plenty of drain- 

 age material. Broken rock is the best 

 sort to use. An inch to an inch and one 

 half of this will be sufficient. A little char- 

 coal helps keep the soil sweet. One need 

 not be so fussy about a potting soil as 

 many people seem to think. Any good 

 garden soil will do. Use one part of sand 



Lilies-of-the-valley may be transplanted from pot 

 to pot without disturbing the growth 



