54 AMERICAN HOMES 
AND GARDENS 
January, 1906 
GRIL MANTELS 
su a TILES 
Al Nas 7 
yar ray varie of Every Description for Walls, Floors, Etc 
| 13 9 buys this solid oak Mantel, 80 in. high, 54 or 60 in. wide 
. 28x16 Mirror. Heavy columns and elaborate capitals. 
: Tile facing and hearth. Club house grate, $10.00, 
Write for catalog of Mantels, Grates, Tiles for floors 
and baths, Slate Laundry Tubs, Grilles, etc. It is free. 
Or send 10 cents to pay postage on our Art Mantel Cat- 
alog. Mantel Outfits from $12 to $200. 
W. F. OSTENDORF, 2417 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa 
i ieee ee ame- Mt 
Bl pen ren die ray |?! 
PmOsoOsG 
No. 225—48 x 12 inches, $3.60. Retail value, $7.00 
No. 230—48 x14 inches, with Curtain Pole, $4.50. 
Retail value, $9.00 
Others from $2.50 up. Largest assortment. 
Screens and special Grilles to order 
Division 
Chicago Embossed Moulding Co. 
Embossed 
and Plain 
Mouldings 
Columns, 
Interior Caps 
and Raised 
Carvings 
591 & 597 AUSTIN AVE., CHICAGO: ILE: 
SEND FOR OUR NEW 
Balusters and ea a sTETETTTTIO Carr Tits 
Stan Work f & = = aE EW Wore a te wr SO aE ON No 
1995 CATALOGUE 
he Grounds of pour Country Home or City Residence transformed into 
places of beauty and topllic charms. Artificial lagoons with waterfowl and waterlilies, rippling 
brooks, miniature waterfalls, cascades, rustic bridges, pergolas. fountains, stately old English and Colonial gardens, Italian 
and formal gardens, French gardens, rock and water gardens, artistic Japanese gardens. parks and public squares. Proper 
locating of buildings. Selection of homesites. Grading of grounds. Plans for sewage and drainage. Private water 
supply. Artificial ponds and lakes. Managing and planting of forests. Designing and building of bridges in masonry timber, steel 
and iron for highways, Building of roads, dams and reservoirs, Designing of sea walls, retaining walls and piers of property border- 
ing on lakes and rivers. Laying out and surveying of subdivisions. Designs carefully executed SS 
and supervised. Designs for large and small estates. Correspondence invited. Satisfaction abso- 
“Carl Alfred Meltzer 
Landscape Architect, Civil and Forest Engineer 
104 MICHIGAN AVENUE, CHICAGO 
USE JOIST HANGERS 
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Don’t cut away your 
timbers or depend on 
flimsy spiking 
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We make Hangers adapted 
to all conditions 
Lane Brothers Company 
(The Door Hanger Manufacturers) 
434-466 Prospect St., Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
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specimen I have never seen. I presume it has 
as many as a hundred leaves—so many, in fact, 
that it would seem as if there was not room 
for more—but it is putting up new ones all 
the time, and these are as luxuriant as those on 
any plant having an abundance of root room. 
Visitors often wonder how I treat the plant to 
produce such rich and perfect foliage, and are 
surprised when I tell them that it is done by 
the use of liquid food, administered once a 
week. ‘The plant is in such healthy condition 
that it does not lose half a dozen leaves a year. 
Of course, most plants draw their support 
from the soil, but I believe that if liquid food 
were substituted for the food contained in 
soil it would be an easy matter to grow fine 
specimens and keep them in perfect health for 
an indefinite period without giving them large 
pots. Here is an interesting field for the 
amateur to experiment in. Of course one 
must be careful to not overfeed; for if this is 
done a rapid but weak growth results, from 
which there will soon be a reaction. The aim 
should be to give just enough food to bring 
about a healthy development, as shown by the 
size, color and quantity of the foliage. Our 
commercial florists are in the habit of using 
concentrated and easily assimilated foods on 
old plants which they do not find it convenient 
to shift to larger pots or tubs, but we have not 
applied this method to plants in the window 
garden, or those in use for decorative purposes 
in hall or parlor to any great extent. I am 
quite confident that larger pots can be dis- 
pensed with if your plants are furnished with 
all the nutriment they require in liquid form. 
ANOTHER correspondent asks me what 
plants I would advise her to purchase for 
purposes of table decoration. One of the very 
best flowering plants for such use is the new 
begonia, Gloirede Lorraine, which most florists 
have on sale at this season. ‘This is a most 
lovely variety, with rich green foliage, and 
great clusters of dainty pink flowers so freely 
produced that they nearly cover the plant. The 
color of both foliage and flower comes out 
beautifully under artificial light. The plant 
should not be left on the table during the day, 
as it is soon injured by being kept away from 
good light for long at a time. 
ANOTHER plant that is extremely decora- 
tive in itself and can be made the basis of an 
elaborate decoration, if desired, is asparagus, 
plumesus nanus. This has very delicate 
foliage, and its fern-like fronds have all the 
effect of fine lace. If a bit of greenery only is 
wanted, it is quite equal to any occasion with- 
out the backing of any other plant, but if a 
touch of brighter color is thought advisable, 
long-stemmed flowers will give it, by thrust- 
ing their stalks into the soil between its fronds. 
The daybreak carnation in combination with 
this plant gives charming results. Lily of the 
valley and white lilacs are exquisite when seen 
among its filmy foliage. It is not easy to find 
a plant that will afford more pleasure. Water 
it moderately. Shower it daily. Keep it near 
the glass when it is not doing duty on the 
table. 
For daily use on the home table the Ma- 
dame Salleroi geranium will be found very 
satisfactory. This variety is quite unlike the 
ordinary geranium. It has a good many very 
short branches, sent out from a sort of crown, 
and these are generally about equal in length, 
therefore a plant of it is never “leggy,” after 
the fashion of the flowering geranium. It 
forms a rounded, compact mass of foliage, and 
does this without requiring any attention what- 
ever in the way of pruning or training. Its 
foliage is small, of a soft, pale green bordered 
with creamy white. A well-grown specimen 
