664 



BITS OF EXPERIENCE AND PROPHECY. 



*he right amount of w^i.er to each plant. In the first 

 place, the plantsman sees to it that every plant in his 

 charge has, drainage provided in the pot, so that any 

 excess of water can quickly escape. Then he watches 

 l"is collection hourly, and at the first signs of dryness 

 among the plants down comes a shower from his hose or 

 pot. He applies water with a bold dash — that is, when 

 a plant needs water at all, he gives it enough to saturate 

 the soil thoroughly. These are points which the amateur 

 should also observe. The very keystone of success lies 

 in judicious watering. 



Nourishment. — At the beginning of the .season, be sure 

 that each plant has a suitable soil. If the stock comes 

 from an intelligent florist, he will see to this ; but every 

 amateur plant-grower should have on hand a supply of 

 potting-mold, for use when plants are lifted from the 

 garden, and in case repotting is needed. This mold may 

 be had for a small price from regular plant-growers. In 

 buying it, be sure to ask for the best article obtainable. 



In addition to good soil, some stimulant will be needed 

 for the plants. Liquid manure, used in a diluted form, 

 so as to have the color of weak tea, and any of the con- 



centrated plant-foods, are useful ; growers of market- 

 plants bring large and beautiful specimens to the flower- 

 ing stage without repotting. Liquid manure may.be ap- 

 plied in place of pure water ; the concentrated fertilizers 

 can be dusted on the surface of the soil, and their strength 

 will be carried down to the plant's roots by the water. 

 Both stimulants must not be given at the same time. 



Repotting. — Amateurs, as a rule, repot too often, and 

 keep their plants in too large pots. It is of no use to 

 give a plant fresh soil before its roots have pretty well 

 occupied the old. There is a proper time to repot, and 

 that is when the ball of earth is well surrounded by 

 roots, a state that can be determined by tipping the plant 

 out of the pot. 



Patience. — One can expect no real success with win- 

 dow-plants by a haphazard course of treatment — now 

 bestowing an excess of care, now neglecting them. It is 

 the constant, daily attendance upon their wants that 

 insures success. The best plant-grower is sure to be 

 one who has the capacity for observing minute details in 

 plant-requirements, doing all that is necessary for them, 

 and doing no more. 



BITS OF EXPERIENCE AND PROPHECY 



GATHERED AT WOODBANKS DURING THE YEAR. 



MPROVED CANNAS.— Tu- 

 berous begonias, gladioluses 

 and the French cannas all 

 bloom at nearly the same 

 season, and after a careful 

 comparison of the beauties 

 and merits of these plants, we 

 predict that the latter will, in 

 time, be even more popular 

 than improved forms of gladio- 

 luses and begonias. Of course 

 we are now speaking of the 

 recently improved varieties of 

 French cannas, such as Madame Crozy, Aiphonse Bon- 

 nier, Star of i8gi, and not of the common seedlings of 

 this strain, which have attracted considerable notice for 

 several years. 



For the sake of comparing the two flowers, we show on 

 pages 665 and 666 an outline of a flower of gladiolus, and 

 a flower each of Madame Crozy and Aiphonse Bonnier. 

 All are of natural size, and from blooms picked on our 

 grounds August 12. The plants bearing these flowers 

 were set in the open border May 25, without first being 

 started in artificial heat, and since that time have re- 

 ceived only ordinary culture. 



That the new cannas are larger than common gladiolus 

 flowers will be at once perceived. Like the gladiolus, 

 the blooms appear in a spike, but a gladiolus bulb usually 

 furnishes only one strong spike of flowers, lasting but a 

 short time, while a single tuber of these new cannas will 

 produce a succession of flower-spikes from July until 



frost. The plant from a gladiolus bulb is often single- 

 stalked, and, apart from the flowers, is an insignificant 

 affair, while from a canna tuber spring from six to a 

 dozen shoots, each clothed with a number of broad 

 leaves a foot or more in length. During the blooming 

 season the larger shoots are topped by one or more spikes 

 of bloom, each comprising about a score of flowers. 

 Being several feet across, cannas are handsome, stately 

 plants aside from their bloom, but every good-sized 

 shoot is sure to fl^ower, and on every spike from four to 

 nine flowers are open at once. When one spike of 

 flowers fade another follows it on the same stem, some 

 stems producing three or more spikes during a season. 

 The flowers of the canna do not present the regularity of 

 arrangement noted in those of the gladiolus, and this we 

 think is another point in their favor. 



The new cannas thus are seen to meet the demand for 

 a bright, handsome bedding plant that blooms all sum- 

 mer, more after the style of the scarlet geranium than of 

 the gladiolus, the chief charge against which is its short 

 blooming season. In striking and tropical effects the 

 geranium, of course, cannot compare with the canna, and 

 — a point of great importance to the amateur who has no 

 greenhouse — the stock of tubers can be wintered in any 

 frost-proof cellar as easily as potatoes, and planted 

 directly in the open ground in May. At Woodbanks we 

 grow a hundred or more canna tubers of various kinds 

 each year, and never think of starting them in heat. 



A chief merit of the new cannas we have tried is that 

 they are as hardy and healthy as we could wish, requir- 

 ing not a particle of nursing or petting to enable them to 



