288 



HOME AND FLOWERS 



the business before starting ont in it, 

 because I know, as every florist knows, 

 and will tell them if they will go to him 

 for advice, that to make a success of it 

 one must know as much about it as he 

 would expect to know about any other 

 business in order to succeed at it. There 

 is no short cut to success in commercial 

 floriculture. 



* * * 



Meelians Monthly has recently sus- 

 pended publication, with a long and hon- 



orable record ot good work along nearly 

 all lines of horticultural and floricultural 

 interest behind it. It has done more than 

 any other periodical of it§ class to educate 

 the masses to a knowledge and an appre- 

 ciation of the beautiful in nature. We 

 shall miss it sorely, for there is nothing 

 to take its place. Those who are fortunate 

 enough to possess complete files of it are 

 to be congratulated, for in them they have 

 a comprehensive and reliable library cov- 

 ering a wide range of nature study. 



WHAT TO DO IN MAECH 



THIS is a month in which to get ready 

 for busy work in the garden. We 

 can do much, now, to expedite mat- 

 ters then. 



* * * 



First of all, plan your work. Even if 

 you have only a small garden, make a 

 diagram of it as you intend to have it. 

 Study over the matter, and do not locate 

 a single bed of it until you have decided 

 just what flower can be made most ef- 

 fective in particular places. Don't draw 

 a plan for the plan's sake. Some persons 

 are satisfied to do that. If the plan looks 

 well on paper they adopt it, and quite 

 often the garden grown after the plan is 

 very disappointing. Have some good rea- 

 son for using this, flower here, that flower 

 there. Consider general effects. Consider 

 color harmony and contrast. Consider 

 your garden as a composite fact, and not 

 in isolated sections, as so many of us do. 

 Here is where we make sad mistakes. We 

 ought to think more of it as a whole, and 

 the individual features of it as means by 

 which we arrive at a harmonious general 

 result. 



* ❖ * 



Tuberous begonias can be started this 

 month. So can gloxinias. Both are 

 among our best summer bloomers, but I 

 would advise keeping them in pots. As 

 bedders they are failures. Give them a 

 light, porous soil of leaf mold and sand. 



Set the tubers so that their crowns will 

 come just below the surface. Do not 

 water much until they begin to grow. 



* * * 



Start tuberoses this month, if you want 

 early flowers from them in fall. Before 

 potting cut away the mass of dried roots 

 which is usually found at the base of the 

 tuber. Cut it off smoothly with a sharp^ 

 thin-bladed knife. Unless this is done 

 they frequently decay. 



* * * 



Arrange for seedling pansy plants for 

 early flowering from some reliable florist. 

 Have them set so that you can put them 

 out in the garden as soon as the soil can 

 be put in proper shape in spring. 



* * ❖ 



Start chrysanthemums now. Take 

 strong shoots from the roots of old plants. 

 Pot them in rich soil. Three-inch pots 

 will be large enough for them for the first 

 month. 



* * * 



I v/ould not advise starting dahlias now. 

 We have heretofore considered it imper- 

 atively necessary that they should be given 

 an early start, but two years ago I failed 

 to receive my tubers until almost the first 

 of June. I put them in the ground at 

 once — they were well sprouted — in a very 

 rich soil, and the plants grew with great 

 rapidity, and' began to bloom the last of 



