LETT EES FEOM OUE FEIENDS 



25 



the same old plants and fruits because our 

 florists are not honest enough for us to trust? 



"I Tvant to ask when is the best time to pro- 

 cure Clematis Paniculata. I have bought three 

 good looking plants, but can not get them 

 started. One or two came up, then died. I 

 had a strong, beautiful plant of it over our 

 porch that was burned. It is the best of all 

 Clematis for shade. I have now four other 

 kinds well started on the new house, but I 

 want this one on the west of the veranda. 

 Perhaps I did not set them right." 



This letter from an Alabama reader is sug- 

 gestive of the pleasure every lover of nature 

 can enjoy who is willing to go to nature in 

 search of it: 



"I have read of so many failures with the 

 'Little Gem' Calla that I would like to give my 

 experience with the plants. When I received 

 them they were planted in nice loamy dirt and 

 placed in my little greenhouse, where I only 

 used an oil stove in the most extreme cold 

 weather. They grew very nicely and began to 

 bloom soon as spring came. The blooms were 

 simply exquisite, especially the smallest of all, 

 which was only about five inches high, when 

 there came the loveliest 'fairy' Calla I ever 

 saw. 



"I have been so surprised at so many failures 

 that I could not keep quiet on the subject any 

 longer. 



•'Speaking of forests and Ferns calls to mind 

 my trip to the mountain this spring with a 

 dear friend. A great many people think Ala- 

 bama contains no natural Ferns, but they are 

 wrong. We went about two miles from Bes- 

 semer, and, after some rough riding up the 

 mountain, we came to a ravine where the 

 ground was marshy and very rich. We gazed 

 about to see if the place would be suitable to 

 stop in, when lo! the most exquisite Ferns I 

 ever saw, from three inches to two feet and 

 more in height, met our sight. It was really 

 Fernland. We had a dray with us, which we 

 tilled full of beautiful plants. The old drayman 

 stood gazing at us in amazement, then re- 

 marked, 'Good land, Miss, is you all gwine 

 to take dis stuff back thro' town?' We said 

 most certainly. I think he was so amazed at 

 our taste for 'dat trash' that he had very little 

 to say until we reached home. 



"I am a lover of flowers and a worker (as 

 far as my strength will let me) among them. 

 ^slj yard is almost a wilderness of many va- 

 rieties of flowers and foliage. 



"I love Home and Flowers. I have many 

 of the old copies of different years way back 

 that I get out and read after reading all that 

 the new ones contain. I wish and hope much 



for Home and Flow^ers. May success attend 

 it in its forward march. I have many little 

 things concerning flowers I would like to tell 

 some time — when I have another chance." 



Come again, and often, please. 



Mrs. Mary Hooper sends this letter. It was 

 intended for The Floral World, but I have 

 "inherited it" among the assets of that defunct 

 periodical, and am glad to give it place here, 

 because, aside from its interest as a letter from 

 a flower lover, it affords me an opportunity 

 to answer some questions which other readers 

 may be glad to have answered: 



"I am a subscriber to The Floral World, and 

 I enjoy reading it very much. In the Janu- 

 ary number I found some things that surprised 

 me. First, in the 'Thanksgiving Day Back 

 Yard' we are 'old of Chrysanthemum cuttings 

 rooted in midsummer in bloom at Thanksgiv- 

 ing. How could that be? Again, the one T-ho 

 wrote 'Bathe the Flowers' lays her plants in a 

 tub of water and leaves them an hour. If I 

 laid one of my plants in a tub of water for an 

 hour the earth would absorb so much water it 

 would all wash out of the pot. How does she 

 manage it? Another floral sister puts a 'table- 

 spoonful of Castor oil in a gutter' around her 

 Calla once a week. I have a nice CaUa, and 

 if it needs Castor oil it shall have it, but I 

 want to know why? What effect does the oil 

 have on the Calla? And why would laot pink 

 pills do just as well? I do not ask these ques- 

 tions to find fault, but only for information. 

 I love my plants and am anxious to learn." 



As to the Chrysanthemums, there is nothing 

 strange about flowers at Thanksgiving from 

 summer-rooted plants. They have had several 

 months to grow in, and late-started plants will 

 bloom the same season, if kept away from frost. 

 As to bathing the plants, if the soil is not very 

 light, and the pot is not disturbed after being 

 placed in the tub, the soil ought not to wash 

 out. It certainly will not when there are many 

 roots to hold it together. It simply absorbs 

 what it can, after which the water in the tub 

 has no further effect on it. As to the Castor 

 oil treatment, all I have to say is, that plants 

 don't require physic, and whoever advises it 

 does so without a proper understanding of its 

 effect on a plant. Oil and water are antag- 

 onistic, and if you put oil about the roots of 

 your plants you are pretty sure to clog the 

 tender working roots with the sticky substance, 

 thus preventing them from reaching out into 

 the soil for the food they need, and in a short 

 time your plant "gets sick," and, to be consis- 

 tent, I suppose the person who administers 

 oil gives it a dose of something else to counter- 



