24 HOME AN. 



.green ground. Another is green and white, 

 AThile a third variety has a white, green and 

 ■pink variegation. It roots very readily. Often 

 branches thrown on the ground take root and 

 grow. It is a good basket plant if pinched back 

 •enough to make it bushy and compact. It 

 should not have a rich soil if you want it to 

 produce plenty of foliage, as in such a soil it 

 makes long joints with leaves so far apart that 

 plants lack density In a rather poor soil it 

 grows less rampantly, and is in every way more 

 satisfactory. If exposed to sunshine its colors 

 come out tinely. In shade it is far less 

 attractive. 



Co/e?;."?.— (Mrs. M.) This plant is not a good 

 one for mnter use in the living-room. It re- 

 quires a rather high and a very even tempera- 

 ture, A slight exposure to cold winds or to a 

 draft of cold air will often affect it, and cause 

 it to drop its leaves. Frequently death takes 

 place after such exposure, as if the plant had 

 received a chill which acts on it very much the 

 same as frost does on other plants. Unlike 

 many other plants used for summer bedding, 

 this one completes its work with the season, 

 and is inclined to die, like the annuals, and it is 

 •difficult to carry it over the winter. The only 

 way to do so successfully is' by starting young 

 plants in fall from cuttings. It is never worth 

 while to undertake to T\inter it unless you can 

 teep the temperature even, and never allow it 

 to fall below sixty degrees. 



Scale(?) on i^er/i.— (Mrs. O. W.) Are you 

 quite sure that your fern is badly infested with 

 ■scale? Of course what you say about "brown, 

 Taised spots" would apply to scale, but what you 

 ■say about "regularity of disposition along the 

 -edges of the leaf" makes me suspect that what 

 you take for scale is really the seed of the fern. 

 These spores will be found along the edge of 

 the lower side of the leaf, and the seed-bearing 

 fronds die off shortly after ripening seed, as 

 this completes their work. Because of this you 

 may think the "brown, raised spots" accountable. 

 They are, it is true, but not because they injure 

 the plants as insects do. These affect all por- 

 tions of the plant alike. 



Eose Not Growing. — (M.) Your rose may 

 be mildewed because of exposure to too sudden 

 and severe changes of temperature, or the dis- 

 ease may be the result of a weakened constitu- 

 tion. In the former case the remedy is as even a 

 temperature as possible — one ranging between 

 sixty and seventy-five degrees being preferable. 

 If the trouble comes from lowered vitality the 

 only thing to do is to feed the rose well, and 

 infuse enough strength into it to enable it to 

 overcome unfavorable conditions. I would ad- 



FLOWERS 



vise putting the plant in the ground this 

 summer. 



Plant to Cover Po?c/i.— (Mrs. E.) You will 

 find Clematis paniculata a very satisfactory 

 flowering vine, and one hardy enough to stand 

 our Northern winters. Among annuals the 

 wild cucumber is satisfactory because of its 

 exceedingly rapid growth, and its airy, delicate 

 beauty. The Japanese hop is another good 

 annual, having prettily variegated foliage. Of 

 rapid growth. Eoses would not give you any 

 flowers the first season, and they are not very 

 satisfactory as shade-producers after they be- 

 come large enough to bloom. 



Plant for Upper Veranda.— (H. W.) I would 

 advise madeira ^dne. Have a box made, ten 

 inches deep and about the same in width, and 

 as long as you desire. Fill with a rich sandy 

 soil and plant tubers about ten inches apart. 

 Train the vines to coarse-meshed wire netting. 

 Water well in dry, hot weather. This plant 

 has thick, heart-shaped leaves of a rich, shining 

 green, and white, fragrant flowers in fall. The 

 tubers can be carried over winter like those of 

 the dahlia. 



Lice on Sweet Peas.— (\\. B.) Each year an 

 aphis attacks my sweet peas, but as soon as I 

 discover it I prepare an infusion of Ivory soap 

 — half a cake to a pailful of water— and spray 

 the plants with it. I do this, daily, until the 

 insect takes Its departure. There may be other 

 applications wliich will do as effective work, but 

 I do not know of any, simply because I have 

 been so well satisfied with the action of this one 

 that I have not cared to experiment with others^ 



Violet TrouNe.— (K. M. M.) Your violev 

 does not do well simply because it is not adapted 

 to living-room conditions. This plant likes a 

 cool atmosphere, and one in which there is more 

 moisture than is often found in the living-room. 

 Not one person out of one hundred succeeds in 

 getting flowers from it in winter in the house. 

 Better concentrate your efforts on a plant better 

 able to adapt itself to the conditions of the 

 living-room. 



Japanese Cherry.— (^Irs. E. W.) I presume 

 you have reference to the Jerusalem cherry, so- 

 called, extensively used nowadays as a holiday 

 plant. You might root a cutting in sand, or in 

 a vial of water, as we root oleanders, but I think 

 the surest way is to grow plants from seed. 

 Plant the ripened "cherries." and you will soon 

 have all the plants you want. They ought to 

 grow to fruitage size by fall. 



''Smut" on Oleanders.— (:Sh's. W. F. C.) What 

 you call "smut" on your oleander is really a 

 fungous growth which should be speedily got 



