HOUSE PLANTS 



WATERING, BEGONIAS, ETC. 



New or dry pots should be soaked in water before potting plants, so as to fill the pores, 

 or they will absorb moisture from' the soil and dry out the roots. It is a good plan to pro- 

 tect potted plants with covers or set them inside of a second pot to keep plant from drying 

 out. The roots near the sides of the pot are easily dried in sun or draft. Covers or double 

 pots shade them. Covers can be made of rice matting, and various other materials, or pot 

 covers can be r purchased ready made. Set small plants in small pots repotting on into 

 larger sizes, as the old pots fill up with roots. Never put a small plant in a large pot, as 

 the soil is apt to sour or become sodden. 



Regarding watering, there is no regular rule as to time Water thoroughly whenever 

 surface is dry. Plants in vigorous growth require frequent watering ; give them enough 

 to soak through the ball and run out of the hole in the bottom of the pot. One good 

 watering is worth a dozen where the water only goes over the surface and around the sides 

 of the pots. If the leaves shrivel and turn yellow, it indicates that the soil has been too 

 dry ; ifr they turn yellow without shriveling, it means too much water ; if the plant looks 

 sick and neglected, it shows a failure in following these directions. 



Plants need air and sunshine, but should never stand in a draft or be exposed to drying 

 winds or hot sun. Pot plants are greatly benefited if moved outside occasionally in the 

 cool moist air at night, or in a gentle rain. They enjoy a thorough spraying on their 

 leaves once or twiee a week. Ferns should never be sprayed over head at night, the 

 water standing on their foliage spots them, especially Adiantums. Early morning is the 

 most favorable time; the soil can be watered at any time necessary. No plants should be wat- 

 ered and left in the sun, as it will burn them and leave white spots on the leaves. Ferns 

 are especially sensitive, as their native home is in the shade. 



If begonias in pots or in the garden look shabby, after long blooming, cut back to in- 

 duce new and vigurous growth. Surface watering in the garden causes plants to seek the 

 surface, where they dry out when the sun shines hot, while deep watering invites them to 

 seek water below, the natural place to find it. 



Cannas are among our most showy and useful bedding plants. They have a resting 

 period in the late fall and early winter months, when they are dormant. At this time the 

 old foliage should be cut away, and they ean be divided and transplanted without injury. 

 During this period we can ship them dry. 



* The Belladonna lily grows in winter and spring, then the foliage dies down, and the 

 flower stems and blossom appear, so the leaves and flowers are never seen in company 

 with each other. The best time to plant these bulbs is after they are ripened in fall, or 

 after the leaves die down in the spring. 



A TRIBUTE TO MRS. SHEPHERD'S GARDENS. 



[Extract from the Sunday Los Angeles Times, Magazine Section, July 6, 1902.] 



Mrs. Theodosia B. Shepherd's home is not far from the old mission gardens of San 

 Buenaventura, where still stand the hoary olive trees and the two stately sister palms planted 

 more than a century ago by the Spanish Padres, Here lies Mrs. Shepherd's garden, flooded 

 with sunshine and fanned by the softest seajareezes. Here grow rare palms from Australia 

 and Guadalupe as well as the graceful bamboo - and the Strelitzia reginae from the Cape of i 

 Good Hope, its splendid coloring seeming a sunbeam incarnate. Here a great tree fern 

 rises in semitropic beauty, and here flaunt scarlet poinsettias, the rainbow cosmos and the 

 giant flowering c anna. Myriads of carnations, "the divine flower," fill the air with spicy 

 perfume. Purple heliotrope riots in long stretches of hedges, and great beds of Belladona 

 Amaryllis dazzle the eye with their richness. 



Over great frames and across lath houses are thrown veils of blossoms of the magnificent 

 Bignonia venusta, the rich magenta rose bracts of the Bougainvillea, the intense violet blue 

 of the Ipomea Learii, or the rare and snowy Mandavilla grandiflora. Masses of glossy fol- 

 iage, long, trailing, graceful branches, showy colors in flaring yellow, trumpet like flowers, 

 or airy clusters of Ipomea. "Heavenly blue," or rich rose-pink and scarlet blossoms of 

 passion vines all charm the eye with their effective and exceeding loveliness. In the 

 shadow of the lath houses, or growing near them in the open air, a hundred varieties of 

 captivating begonias run riot, in myriads of exquisite flowers. While Flora has done much 

 to these gardens, art has added greatly to her work f for Mrs. Shepherd has lived so many 

 years close to the heart of nature, and has so truly been her interpreter, that through these 

 years of careful selection and the method of cross-fertilization she has evolved many new 

 types of flowers. 



