Beautify Your Jtom^s. 



In this favored land, where storms and blizzards are unknown, where the sun shines 300 days in the 

 year, every home should be beautiful. Where nature so bountifully repays a little effort, with small expense, 

 it is a sin of omission to fail in providing the verandah with a climber and the front yard with a few violets, 

 pansies and roses. 



Beautify your homes. Teach your children to love and cultivate flowers; do not live without them. 

 They have a message every day for those who love them. 



" Your voiceless lips, O flowers, are living preachers, 

 Each cup a pulpit, and each leaf a book, 

 Supplying to the fancy, numerous teachers 

 From loneliest nook." 



piapts ii? I^oo/ns. 



Health in a great measure depends upon clean foliage. In a glass-house there is never much dust, 

 whereas in a living room there is always a great deal, and this suffices to choke every pore of the leaves. 

 Every plant here should therefore get a tepid bath twice a week, washing both the upper and under side of 

 the leaves, or, if the foliage is much divided, it should be syringed. It is wonderful the difference in the 

 appearance of plants which get this loving attention, and such as lack it. I feel sure that in the growing 

 season a thorough cleansing will often benefit a plant more than several doses of liquid manure. Plants in 

 rooms have to struggle against many adverse influences, and need close attention both as to cleanliness and 

 watering. Water so that the soil does not become close and sour ; if the roots can be kept active, the top 

 will not be likely to go wrong. During winter the soil should nearly dry out before water is given. If pans 

 are used, keep empty now. Windows that project from the building are the best, and in such plants may be 

 grown with success ; indeed, many do almost or quite as well in them as under a glass roof. An east aspect 

 is the best for most things, getting the early beams of the sun and escaping its fiercest rays. Some fine-leaved 

 plants can be kept in the dwelling the year through without injury, but the great majority must have the 

 free open air during the warmest months of the year. Geraniums turning yellow, Fuchsia buds dropping, 

 and other evils complained of so frequently, are caused by want of "tone," brought on by the enervating 

 influence of a too confined and vitiated atmosphere. In dwelling rooms the ventilation is regulated by the 

 needs of the inhabitants; in others the plants can be made the primary consideration. — Gardening Illustrated. 



5tudy Your piapts. 



To grow plants well it is necessary to study. If you do this you will soon find out what treatment they 

 need, and you will do this if you love flowers. If you do not love them, and try to grow them simply be- 

 cause it is " the style" to have plants in the house, the sooner you give up the attempt the better, for you 

 will never succeed in having good plants. Be sure of that. House plants are generally put out of doors in 

 the summer. Some turn them out of their pots into the open ground. Here they make a vigorous growth ; 

 but when it comes time to take them up and get them into pots for the house it will be found that the roots 

 have made a rampant growth, and a large share of them will have to be cut off. This necessitates a corre- 

 sponding cutting back of the top, and the plant is greatly injured at the very time when it should be strong 

 and vigorous. I prefer to keep my plants growing in pots all summer. I put them on a veranda, shaded 

 from the hot sun of mid-day and afternoon, and keep them there from May to the last of September. When 

 it comes time to take them into the house they are not injured by any violent change and are ready to begin 

 their winter's work. — Hammond's "House Plants." 



Doi/t Overu/ater. 



When too little water is given to house plants, the wilted and drooping leaves soon indicate what the 

 trouble is, and it is very easy to apply the remedy before any serious injury is done. When too much water 

 is given, however, the injury is not discovered until, perhaps, the leaves turn yellow and begin to fall, and it is 

 then too late to repair the damage. This means that it is easier to injure house plants beyond remedy by 

 giving too much water than by giving too little. — Garden and Forest, 



