546 



SbBTROPICAL PLANTS FOR WINTER. 



before it is turned. This compost is strewn liberally in 

 the furrows, and the plants are set above it in rows about 

 four feet apart. 



Cultivation and bleaching go on here much in the same 

 fashion to which the northern reader is accustomed, Mr. 

 Alden tried some stiff paper cylinders over a few plants, 

 but their effect was not satisfactory, and he soon aban- 

 doned it for the banking system. His soil is a stiff, heavy 

 sand — locally known as "flatwoods " — with a very slight 

 inclination to the east. There is a subsoil of clay about 

 i8 inches below the surface, that retains water and fer- 

 tilizer well. This sand can be shaped up stiff and 

 strong, almost like iron-molders' sand in a foundry. The 

 banks reach almost to the top of the spade-handle, and 

 run up nearly to a feather-edge on each side of the 



plants. When smoothed and firmed with a spade they 

 will turn water like a roof. 



The variety most grown is Boston Market. It was 

 ready for use in January, and we ate it for three months 

 fresh from the beds. Some of the stalks were bleached 

 i8 inches all were crisp, nutty and free from rust. A 

 neighbor who did not use any soft phosphate, and whose 

 plants did not grow so thriftily, had some rust. I have 

 seen Kalamazoo celery in the Jacksonville markets that 

 was decidedly more rusty than Mr. Alden's crop. 



There is plenty of good celery-land in the flatwoods 

 and hummocks of Florida, but the flatwoods land needs 

 to be carefully selected to avoid iron-stains. This, I 

 think, would make the celery-stalks rusty. 



Bradford County , Florida. Stephen Powers. 



SUBTROPICAL PLANTS FOR WINTER. 



LISTS FOR THE AMATEUR. 



and 



^ - >'^i FINE selection of winter- 

 X. ■ blooming plants, suited 

 to the warm-temperate, 

 subtropical or tropical 

 house, would be so easy 

 for any one to grow that 

 the scarcity of such col- 

 lections is remarkable. I 

 do not use the terms 

 stove-plants," as they are not well 



' ' greenhot 



understood. Any structure is called a greenhouse, irre- 

 spective of temperature. Subtropical plants are, per- 

 haps, the most abundant, but very many of the purely 

 tropical plants also will exist in a temperature ranging 

 from 55° minimum heat to 80' or 90° maximum, with sun. 



My list shall be an amateur's list, and the method of 

 culture adapted to a scarcity of labor. The plants 

 nimed may be propagated during March, and treated 

 precisely as are bedding plants, Set them in a good, rich 

 portion of the kitchen-garden, in rows about lYz feet 

 apart. A distance of 2 feet apart in the rows gives suf- 

 ficient room for almost any kind of plants from a three- 

 inch pot, while for such sorts as Libonias, for instance, 

 one foot is enough. 



Lifting from the ground and potting should be done 

 from September i to 15 in southern climates, and from 

 September 15 to 30 south of New York — as much to ben- 

 efit by the natural heat and moisture, as to escape frost 

 and chilly weather. It is astonishing how great a differ- 

 ence a week or two makes in transplanting at this season. 

 A friend of mine asked my advice about lifting and pot- 

 ting some very fine dwarf dahlias. This was early in 

 September. I told him he would succeed if he did the 

 work at once, and fail if he delayed it. He lifted one 

 plant there and then, and at the end of the month sev- 

 eral more. I saw them all during October. The one 

 was the picture of health, the others were dying off. 



The temperature of the earth and the moisture of the 

 air both aid in filling pots with roots early in September. 



In some localities the plants, after potting, may stand in 

 the shade of trees, and be syringed and watered there 

 until rooted ; in other cases the roof of a house had best 

 be shaded for them, and the atmosphere within kept sat- 

 urated with moisture. In the tropics, even during the 

 height of the dry season, the wet aad dry-bulb thermo- 

 meters rarely vary more than 5° or 6°, while during the 

 rains they read evenly all the time. Hence the need of 

 constant syringing in a tropical plant-house, and shading 

 to check evaporation. This is absolutely necessary with 

 plants recently lifted, mutilated as their roots have been 

 to a greater or lesser extent. 



A soil composed of equal parts of rotted sods, thor_ 

 oughly rotted manure and leaf-mold, with enough sand 

 to give the whole a sandy appearance, will suit all the 

 following plants : Abutilon, Hibiscus Chinensis, Linum 

 triffytium, Impaliens llookerii and ;platyfetala (plan 

 these in shade ), Inga splendens, Grayia Sulher 

 landii. Begonia hydrocotylifolia, manicata, Verschaf- 

 feltiana, longipcs, Malabarica, subfeltata, nitida, 

 suavcolens, Ingramii, fuchsioides, f. alba, metallica 

 hybrida mullijiora, rosea midtiflora, semperjlorens, 

 s. rosea, IVeltonie^isis, IV. alba, cocctnea and argy 

 rostigma. From the last two varieties I obtained £ 

 seedling with pink flowers, and placed it in the hands o; 

 Hallock, the florist. These three begonias, if well grown 

 will clothe with bloom a rafter 12 feet long 



Begonias do well planted outdoors in shade, if the soi 

 be light and fertile ; otherwise they do best in pots 

 Grow them from cuttings taken in March, and shift them 

 about three times during the summer. Grown in a moist 

 shaded house, they form fine plants. 



Liiculia gratissima is a beautiful plant, and I wonde 

 that it is not more grown. Its treatment is almost the 

 same as that of poinsettia, except that the drying off 

 must not be so thorough. After it blooms plunge the 

 pots in ashes in a cooler house than the one it grew in, 

 or at the cool end of the same house, and withhold water 

 sufficiently to bring off nearly all the leaves. 



