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THE FLORAL IVORLTD 



THE NOVEL EXPERIMENT OF A NOVICE. 



A college student, and then a col- 

 lege teacher, from six to twenty-one, 

 I had no leisure to tend, or even to 

 study, flowers. But when I found my 

 self possessed of a professor and a 

 home, I turned eagerly to The Floral 

 World. My flower-growing neighbors 

 speedily gave me seedsi, slips and sug- 

 gestions. All the slips I carefully 

 planted in their respective soils! But, 

 alas! I found only "slips"— and "a 

 harvest of barren regrets." Thrice I 

 tried, and thrice I failed. Love and 

 pandom hints could not work the won- 

 ders of study and patient experience. 

 Thrice I "rested from all my labors!" 

 Last spring I chanced to subscribe for 

 The Floral World, and what a new 

 world of possibility opened before me! 

 I tried again; and, lo! there came "the 

 seventh year' — of prosperity ! 



Succeeding out-of-doors determined 

 me to try indoors again this winter, 

 and two hundred carefully prepared 

 (and painted) tin cans early held two 

 hundred fine bulbs. .The cool and 

 dark closet (made by an old quilt iu 

 front of rude shelves in an unfre- 

 quented and well-aired room) brought 

 up elegant fat "noses" in six and 

 eight weeks' time. These grew well 

 in a west window, with only an hour's 

 sunshine, until the unprecedented 

 "cold snap" of December. Twenty or 

 more of the forty out were then seri- 

 ously injured. Lack of sunshine, 

 over-watering, and extremes of tem- 

 perature from day to night were the 

 cause. I chased away* despair with 

 desperate study. Light came at last"! 

 — glorious sunlight — from our kitchen 

 transom (the only "southern expos- 

 ure" in our large house). My husband 

 finally yielded to "the unheard-of no- 

 tion" and changed the shelf from the 

 sitting-room double (but almost sun- 

 less) window to the sunlit kitchen 

 transom. In addition to six hours of 



steady sunshine, my plants now re- 

 ceive a continual steam bath from the 

 constantly boiling water on the 

 kitchen stove — and much fresh air 

 from the frequently opened door. And 

 life, new and abundant, has come to 

 all — and fragrant bloom. "Where 

 there is a will there is a way," which. 

 is "a word to the wise." 



Tennessee. Mrs. F. A. Peake. 



SUCCESS WITH GERANIUMS. 



I want to tell you my success witk 

 a small flower bed last season. I had 

 a great deal of work to do which kept 

 me busy all the time. I almost gave 

 up the idea of having a flower garden, 

 but I had a few pretty geraniums 

 which needed repotting, so I had sl 

 bed three feet by eight feet spaded 

 and enriched and made ready for 

 them. There were six of the gerani- 

 ums, so I planted them in a row the- 

 length of the bed and between and 

 back of them I set aster and poppy 

 plants, and in front, some ageratum 

 plants. The graniums began to blos- 

 som, and there jvasn't a day from that. 

 time on that there were not several 

 nice bunches of flowers. They re- 

 quired so little care, and did us so 

 much good, I kept them picked quite 

 olose, as there were so many places I 

 wanted to send them. 



Michigan. Mrs. T. L. Perrine. 



THE BERIWUDA BUTTERCUP OXALIS. 



No plant produces a greater profu- 

 sion of uninterrupted bloom during 

 the winter months than does the Ber- 

 muda buttercup oxalis. Plant the 

 bulbs in Augut or early in Septem- 

 ber, placing six bulbs in a six-inch pot. 

 Set the bulbs one inch deep and put a . 

 layer of fine sand under them. Water ^ 

 thoroughly and set the pot in a dark„ 

 place for a few weeks for the bulbs 

 to root. Do not water again unless the ^ 



