BUDS, BLOSSOMS, FRUITS. 



49 



color of La France, and will doubtless prove a valuable 

 acquisition, Mr. Little has also a rose-freak —a seedling 

 from Reve d'Or crossed naturally with the Cherokee. It 

 is a double, light yellow rose, and very hardy, but re- 

 sembles the Cherokee in bush, and in blooming at stated 

 intervals. Among other roses originated by Mr. Little I 

 may mention Souvenir de Beauvoir House, a violet- 

 purple tea, very distinct ; Mildred Lee, silvery rose, 

 striped with carmine, and Flo Fields, pearly white, tinted 

 with violet. Mr. Little's gardens are ia the garden dis- 

 trict of New Orleans. Some notes ®n his methods will 

 be given next spring. — Lawrence H. Pugh. 



Treating Lily-of-the-Valley. — Beds of this plant 

 often become so crowded as to produce inferior flowers. 

 A simple and consistent method of treating such a bed is 

 shown by the illustration given. Half the plants are 

 taken up, roots, soil and all, checker-board fashion, in 

 15-inch squares. The pockets thus formed are filled with 

 fresh soil, moderately firmed after it is in place. Into 



Treating a Lily-op-the-Valley Bed. 



the new soil the plants from the remaining blocks 

 will spread rapidly, soon covering them with a strong 

 growth that will yield fine large flowers. After the new 

 blocks are well set with plants, resulting later on in a 

 generally crowded condition of the bed, then the blocks 

 of old plants may in turn be taken out. In this way a 

 lily-of-the-valley bed may be kept in prime condition in- 

 definitely. 



Success with Roses, Trees, etc. — We feel like re- 

 peating almost to weariness, that success in growing any 

 kind of plants, shrubs or trees depends upon the feeding 

 they receive. It would be as unreasonable for a man to 

 invest in costly Jersey cattle or in premium grades of 

 poultry and then pay no regard to their food, as to disre- 

 gard the soil in which his trees grow. Plants of every 

 kind require food for growth ; nothing from nothing 

 comes. Midsummer is the time to provide for successful 

 planting next spring by laying in a stock of plant-food. 

 We know of no better fertilizer for use in connection 

 with planting than decayed sods from a pasture-lot, and 

 old rotten manure. If procured now and piled up in thin 

 layers in a heap, using about three parts of sod to one 

 part of manure, turned over once or twice and left until 

 spring, the material will then be a prime article of plant- 

 food. It should neither be a difficult nor expensive task 

 to get together a liberal supply of such a compost. The 

 man who does general teaming in your neighborhood 

 should be the man for the job — he ought to know where 

 both the sod and the manure can be obtained if it is not 

 now on the place, and he could make the heap. The sod 



should not be cut more than three inches thick — two 

 inches would be preferable. It can best be loosened with 

 a plow. The best form of compost-pile is one that is 

 square, with even layers of material. Then the top 

 should be convex and filled with water repeatedly until 

 the pile is thoroughly soaked. After several weeks the 

 compost should be chopped with a sharp spade and 

 thrown into a fresh heap of any shape, where it may lie 

 until wanted for use in spring. If you desire to make an 

 easy and perfect success of hardy rose-culture, scatter 

 4 inches of this compost upon the bed, working the soil 

 fully 20 inches deep, but keeping the subsoil part mainly 

 at the bottom, mixing some of the compost with it also. 

 Every fall spread an inch coat of such a compost over 

 the rose-bed, working it in somewhat the following spring. 

 As the bed tends to get too high from this treatment, dig 

 out patches a spade square and a foot or more deep here 

 and there, and fill them from the surface of the bed. 

 Plants For a Busy Woman. — " How do you manage 

 to keep your back yard looking so nice ?" I asked 

 one of my neighbors, a widow with five children 

 K. and seven boarders, and often without help in the 

 kitchen. "By having plants for busy women," 

 she answered. "Do they come on purpose?" 

 I asked. "Perhaps," she replied, "for it was 

 meant that all should have something in their 

 gardens. " Some flowers which she said cheered her 

 immensely when she was tired and discouraged 

 were white and purple lilacs. She was always glad to 

 give an armful of these to a church near, for the font. 

 Such days, she said, were her lilac-Sundays. Next came 

 bleeding-heart, one of the most graceful of garden plants, 

 and blooming in May. But the "iris" is the busy 

 woman's proudest plant. Curious, free-flowering and of 

 most lovely colors, and having long stems, the irises are 

 splendid for table decoration and for vases anywhere. 

 Of course there are peonies in this garden. They like 

 better to be let alone than to be fussed with. "But 

 don't you do anything to your garden ?" I asked. ' ' Some- 

 times ; I can spare an afternoon once or twice a season, 

 and it is a relief to get out, pull up the weeds that crowd 

 my dear old ' stand-bys,' or loosen the soil around the 

 roots. To keep up interest, I get a new plant every 

 spring. This year it was a Hydrangea gra>idijlora , 

 and they tell me it is a grand shrub, with the flowers in 

 bunches as large as a dinner-plate, and growing seven 

 feet high." Yes, there are plants for busy women, and 

 they should have them. — Sister Gracious. 



Some Water-Plants in Streams and in Culture. 

 — Water-lilies grow abundantly in the clear waters of our 

 streams in this locality. At planting-time scatter two 

 or three shovelfuls over the hole made for planting and 

 over the soil thrown out, thus providing for its being well 

 mixed with the soil as it is returned to the hole in plant- 

 ing. It is as important to mix this compost well with the 

 soil as it is to supply it. To have them where I cm 

 enjoy them daily in all their glorious beauty, I grow 

 them in large tubs, two on each side of the front walk, 



