Letters from Our Friends 



I want to saj right here that I am greatly 

 pleased because so many tlower lovers have re- 

 sponded to my request and written about their 

 experiences in flower growing for the benefit 

 of others. This month I am able to use in this 

 department a number of letters which are not 

 only delightful reading, but full of practical 

 and useful suggestions which the readers of 

 Home and Flow^ers will be sure to profit by. 

 I hope to be able to fill two or three pages— or 

 more — each month with letters like these. Let 

 me again urge my readers to give others the 

 benefit of what they have learned in the garden 

 and among their house plants. Don't hesitate 

 because what you have learned seems simple. 

 Simple things constitute the sum of all knowl- 

 edge, bear in mind. 



Here is a letter, full of practical information 

 of the kind 1 like to get, from Mrs. J. E. Lipe, 

 Manistee, Michigan : 



In the January issue of Home and Flowers 

 I note your request for tried and successful 

 plans. Also your recommendation of the simple 

 egg-shell plan. ("Blessings be" on the head of 

 the inventor thereof.) 



Last year, in March, two one-year Kambler 

 Toses came from a Pennsylvania greenhouse. 

 Snow and frozen ground outside — no available 

 pots or cans at hand. Having two one-quart 

 paper oj^ster pails, and knowing them to be 

 waterproof^ I filled them with soil and set in 

 the rose plants and saturated with water. The 

 roses remained in these for six weeks. The 

 pails looked as clean and fresh as ever outside, 

 when at last I set pails and all into the earth 

 and watered freely. The roses suffered no set- 

 back whatever by transplanting in this manner. 



In April v\'e purchased several dozen one- 

 pint paper oyster pails, at one cent each, from 

 our grocer, and, filling each with soil, trans- 

 planted one plant to each of tomato and dahlia 

 -seedlings which were crowding in the window 

 boxes. About the same time we planted cucum- 

 I)er and muskmelon seeds in the same kind of 

 ■paper oyster pails, set out-of-doors against a 

 wall so we could stand old windows over them. 

 They had their second leaves when the dariger 

 of frost was past, and we simply carried the 

 pails to the prepared hills and set them down 

 well into the earth, watered very freely, and the 

 roots soon pushed out through the paper. The 

 result was a few hills of cucumbers and melons 

 two weeks at least ahead of ordinary planting. 



The main advantage in using the paper pails 

 is, that when placed right in the ground in 

 these pails the plants go right on growing. Be- 

 ing square and about two inches across, fifteen 



one-pint pails can set side by side on an ordinary 

 window sill and yet each plant be turned to the 

 light as it needs and not be crowded. 



Here is a delightful letter from Mattie E. 

 Green, Curryville, Georgia. I hope it is not 

 the last one we shall have the pleasure of read- 

 ing from this welcome correspondent: 



Heading Mrs. Drennan's article "Febniary in 

 Southern Gardens," in the February number of 

 Home and Flowers, makes one realize what a 

 vast area our loved Southland embraces, and 

 that what will obtain in some sections won't 

 hold good in others. For instance, she speaks 

 of Spirea prunifolia— "Bridal Wreath"— as a 

 February bloomer, w^hereas it blooms here in 

 North Georgia nearly two months later, nearly 

 with the lilac, which blooms in April and May, 

 and the "English dogwood" (local name, I guess). 

 But to me the loveliest of all spireas is S. Van 

 Houtte. It is a veritable snow-bank of bloom, 

 when it has no backset by trying to take advan- 

 tage of a too early "warm spell," and setting 

 its buds prematurely and getting nipped by Jack 

 Frost. But even then it is not discouraged, 

 but blooms later, though not so profusely. I 

 believe S. prunifolia is a little earlier than S. 

 Van Houtte, though they bloom nearly together. 



But one of our earliest as well as most beau- 

 tiful shrubs is one of the Forsythias, I guess, as 

 it partly fits the description of both F. viridis- 

 sima and F. suspensa. Locally it is called 

 "golden drop," "golden bells," and "lemon 

 bush." I call it "the sunburst/' as it is like a 

 dazzling burst of golden sunlight when in full 

 bloom. It blooms in March before the foliage 

 ajjpears, and one would judge from the number 

 of flowers it would not have strength left to put 

 forth any leaves at all. It never fails whether 

 the season is early or late— at least mine doesn't 

 — but always comes on time, fairly loaded with 

 its golden pendant bells, so thickly set along 

 its branches that one wonders "how they stick 

 on," as the children say, sometimes doubling 

 up in spots, as when two limbs join, till they 

 form bunches as large as goose eggs. I would 

 like to know its true botanical name. The leaf 

 is a dark, shining green, about the size of an 

 orange or lemon leaf, with serrated edges, and 

 makes a comely looking bush in foliage only. 

 It is quite easily propagated by layering or 

 cuttings under the right conditions. 



Then we have another yellow mnter bloomer 

 called the "yellow jasmine" here, not the famous 

 "Southern yellow jasmine," but a half climber 

 like the white jasmine which it somewhat re- 

 sembles, only it is more graceful when let alone, 



