BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



423 



Mold for Flowering Plants. — One autumn, when 

 the petunias had started to grow again from the root, I 

 lifted a plant and set it in a pot filled with soft black 

 soil, taken from the hollow cherry tree. The plant 

 grew all winter, and such beautiful green leaves I never 

 saw before on a petunia. In spring it bloomed profusely, 

 and in May I set it in the open ground. Apparently it 

 had acquired a habit of growing. Stakes and brush 

 were added as a trellis until the plant was about four feet 

 high and three in diameter ; then, as there was no more 

 room for it to spread, the new growth wound about over 

 the older part. All summer the petunia was covered 

 with blossoms, from sixty to eighty being open at one 

 time. Not wishing to have the whole garden swamped 

 with petunias another year, I clipped off all the seeds 

 every week. The plant grew in a sunny spot, and did 

 not mind a little frost, but when the ground froze in No- 

 vember it had to succumb. — Adele. 



Cobaea scandens. — If given plenty of room for its 

 roots, and a rich sandy loam, this vine will cover a wall 

 or trellis for the distance of twenty or thirty feet in a 

 single season. If you wish it to cover a broad space the 

 points of its shoots should be pinched off repeatedly so 

 that it will throw out plenty of laterals. The branches 

 will cling to rough walls by means of tendrils. If the 

 plant is cultivated in a pot, the latter must be large and 

 well-drained. The cobaea may be cultivated as an an- 

 nual, biennial, or perennial. If grown as a perennial, 

 cuttings or layers may be taken in autumn and rooted in 

 a hotbed, and the young plants kept through every winter 

 in the house in pots. If as an annual, seed should be 

 sown in a warm place during February or March, and 

 the young plants transplanted into pots ; in May trans- 

 fer them to the open ground where they are to flower. 

 When grown as a biennial, sow the seeds in pots as soon 

 as they are ripe, and keep the young plants in the house 

 over winter, shifting them two or three times as they 

 grow. They should be planted out in the spring, or 

 shifted into large pots, and they will bloom all summer. 

 — Greta Beverly. 



Plant-Surgery. — In August, 1889, a Scafovthia c/c- 

 ffa7is, nine or ten feet in height, and standing on an ex- 

 posed terrace, was blown over by a heavy wind. The 

 tub remained upright, but the plant was snapped off at 

 the surface of the earth, only a shred as large as one's 

 finger connecting it with the roots. It was too valuable 

 to lose without an effort to save it ; so two-thirds of each 

 leaf was cut away, and the tub and plant carried into a 

 corner of the conservatory. Four wedge-shaped sections, 

 three inches long and half an inch wide and deep, were 

 cut out of the bulbous stem, and the plant placed upright, 

 firmly staked, and good fibrous loam was piled about the 

 incisions, and tightly packed ten inches deep above the old 

 roots. Thus the plant was held as rigidly as a plaster 

 bandage holds a broken leg. Very little water was 

 given to the patient, and for eight months there was no 

 apparent growth, then small roots pushed out from the 

 incisions and grew rapidly. More water was now given, 



and sheep-manure in liquid form was applied later, 

 twice each week. In twenty months after the accident 

 the plant had eight new leaves. No bottom-heat was 

 available, or the same result might have been brought 

 about in half the time. — Geo. G. Bvr.am, Xczc Jersey. 



Some Orchard Observations. — Last year I culti- 

 vated one row of peach-seedlings just one time more 

 than I did three other rows, and the result was a marked 

 difference in size and vigor ; the former are large enough 

 to bud, while the latter will have to grow for another 

 year. I also manured some of my Oldmixon peach 

 trees with barnyard manure, and their growth of fine 

 healthy foliage since then is surprising. Late Craw- 

 ford peach trees did equally well when manured with 

 wood-ashes and hen-manure. In order to have fine fruit, 

 we must secure well-developed fruit-buds by means of a 

 good supply of nourishment. Since my apple trees were 

 manured the fruit is much finer and less wormy, al- 

 though no spraying has been done. I top-dressed my 

 red raspberries with fertilizer from the poultry-yard and 

 chip-dirt, and find the result very gratifying. Quince 

 trees usually do quite as well when mulched with coarse 

 manure as when cultivated, but if their growth should 

 be too rapid, withhold the fertilizer for a season and 

 keep the soil about them free from weeds. — H. 



Cheap and Lasting Labels. — I take shingles (oak if 

 I can get them) and split them into inch widths, leaving 

 them as long as I desire them ; some are perhaps eight: 

 inches, others the whole length of the shingle. Then I 

 buy five cents worth of dry white lead. I mix as much 

 of this as I can use immediately with linseed-oil and a 

 little turpentine, until it has the consistency of paint. I 

 paint the shingle-labels required for immediate use with 

 the white lead, often fifty at a time. Two or three days 

 afterward I mark them all with a lead-pencil, which 

 sinks into the fresh paint and makes a lasting mark. I 

 often use unpainted labels for a few weeks until I need 

 quite a number ; then I prepare them all at once. — Cor.\ 

 Jewell, Ind. 



The Marguerite. — The marguerite or Paris daisy is 

 hardy in Louisiana. Of course everybody knows that 

 the flowers are white with a yellow center and closely 

 resemble the ox-eye daisy. They last a long while after 

 being cut, and are useful for bouquets. This marguerite 

 is excellent for window decoration. It can be grown 

 outdoors during summer, potted in the fall, and if placed 

 in the window of a warm room will produce f3owers dur- 

 ing the entire winter. When grown as a veranda plant, 

 it must be liberally supplied with water, and should not 

 be placed in an overshaded situation, else it will become 

 spindling and unsightly. The soil in which it is planted 

 should be of a good, solid nature, and contain a fair 

 amount of fertilizing material. When the plants be- 

 come pot-bound water once or twice a week with liquid 

 manure. To cause the plants to grow nice and stocky, 

 pinch out the ends of the shoots occasionally. During 

 winter keep the plants, if grown in a greenhouse, near 

 the glass. When grown continually outdoors in thi3 



