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^••IIIIIIIMMIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIMIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIMtl lllll Mil IIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIMIIIIIK.: 
[ Odds and Ends 
From the Garden. j 
Continuous Color in the Border. 
A flower border is an attractive 
thing, but a difficult affair to keep in 
display from early spring until late 
frosts. In England, wide borders are 
not unusual, but in America the nar- 
row ribbon is an every day affair, they 
are not only ordinary, but difficult to 
arrange for succession of bloom. In 
fact without the use of annuals no 
great play of color is possible. The 
one I have in mind is most successful 
in this respect, there is a strip perhaps 
five feet wide at the edge of the lawn, 
behind, a hedge of mingled shrubs 
where Golden Bell blooms in earliest 
spring, is followed by the willow leaved 
Spirea and Mock Orange while in 
winter there are brilliant coated ber- 
ries of the bush Bittersweet and the 
red haws of a wide rambling Rose. 
Against such a background I have 
clumps and clusters of sturdy peren- 
nials forming an irregular edging, with 
open spaces for early bulbs, for an- 
nuals, and for spiry groups of Gladioli 
in their season. The big perennials, 
Peonies, a few late Phlox, Larkspurs, 
and an odd evergreen plant, or so, give 
substance at all times, and some bloom 
between flowering of Tulips and the 
earliest Bachellors’ Buttons. They are 
all easy growers but it takes a certain 
amount of care to keep apart the 
spaces for bulbs, or food-demanding 
seedlings, both planted in long irregular 
bands and I must acknowledge that 
now and again I spade up the ground 
in some bulb crowded place. Many of 
the annuals I raise in the vegetable 
garden and transplant ; Forget-me-nots 
and Johnny-jump-ups I use with the 
early Daffodils ; each in its place and 
so rampantly do they seed that it is 
merely a matter of transplanting to the 
most needed site. 
Many are the possibilities of combi- 
nation, but two or three have proved 
particularly successful. One a group 
centered about the double flowered 
Babys Breath which with its strong 
deep-reaching tap-root permits of close 
planting of the odorous Crown Im- 
perial with its tawny diadem and in 
front a group of late flowering Gladioli. 
In April yellow Crocuses form a broad 
band next to the grass, a little later 
Jonquils interspersed with the blue of 
For-get-me-nots, with June a near-by 
Larkspur in blue with a white eye, 
towers above the pale yellow of Mar- 
guerites. Both these carry on until al- 
most August and even later when the 
pink of Gladiolus A merica rises above 
the misty Gypsophila with a touch of 
color that repeats the tones of carefully 
raised Nemesias. These last are fasci- 
nating things, a little touchy as to han- 
dling, but worth a trial, pale blue, pale 
yellow, and pink and misty white ; all 
charming. 
Further on where the encroaching 
mock-orange makes a bay I have a less 
placid combination, flaming Red hot 
Pokers and cream Gladioli, and a bit 
Ol)e .flower (Brower 
of carefully selected Phlox, intermedi- 
ate in tone. I shall not venture to give 
the name for both Phlox and Tritoma 
vary much in color and I might lead 
you into difficulties. It is a risky com- 
bination at best, many were my fail- 
ures, but now it is just perfect. 
Among the annuals I like Arctotis 
for general use, its shadowed starry 
flowers and gray foliage are always 
good, the husky Calendulas carry well 
through the first light frosts while 
sweet Alyssum, though ubiquitous, 
has a similar value, the terra-cotta of 
Calliopsis is also effective whether in 
garden or vase and who does not like 
the golden silk of California Poppies. 
In such a border it is well to keep to 
comparatively few varieties, few colors, 
soft hues predominate with only here 
and there, one at a season, a thread of 
brilliant contrast. 
Gladioli have a wonderful individual 
beauty, but I find them very difficult 
to use to advantage with my hardy 
perennials and, however, I appreciate 
them in the house they are a restless 
element in a border. Nothing could 
be lovelier than a straight row in the 
vegetable garden, but it is such a 
prosaic place for beauty, that I try to 
find available spots that can be well 
prepared in the garden proper, I plant 
the bulbs deep and close together in 
small groups and plan for succession 
of bloom rather than a mass. The 
Primulinus Hybrids with their wonder- 
ful range of color seem less stiff and 
more in accord with other plants, but 
no one could expect more in the way 
of color. With the second blooms of 
Larkspur, with white Lilies, with loosely 
panicled Phlox or Aster wands they 
may be delightful, but I am a mere 
amateur with Gladioli, you who know 
the best should have many suggestions 
to offer. 
R. S. Barre. 
Growing the Poinsettia. 
By Ernest Bisson. 
[ Written expressly for The Flower Grower. ] 
In the “ Flower Grower ” for Febru- 
ary I noticed a paragraph asking for a 
brief article on the culture of Poinset- 
tias. 
The Poinsettia is a native of Mexico 
and should not at any time be sub- 
jected to a low temperature, 65° at 
night is about the best temperature. 
A good way to start with Poinsettias 
would be to procure small plants in 2 1" 
pots about the middle of May and grow 
them along in a light warm house re- 
potting them to 4" pots as soon as they 
have filled the small pots with roots, 
and later potting them in 6" pots. The 
final shift should not be done later than 
the first week in October as they will 
certainly lose their leaves if shifted 
after the bracts begin to form. Grown 
along in a night temperature of about 
65° they will flower nicely for Christ- 
mas. 
Poinsettias are subject to the mealy 
bug and green fly but this can be con- 
trolled by weekly fumigations and syr- 
inging on all bright days. 
Poinsettias can be grown for cutting 
by planting thrifty young plants from 
May, 1920 
four inch pots, about August 1st, into a 
bench with about 4-5 inches of soil. 
Grown in this way the stems are longer 
and bracts larger than when grown in 
pots. 
When cutting Poinsettias take a vase 
or pail of hot water into the green- 
house and immediately put in the stems 
as soon as cut, removing in two or three 
minutes to cold water, this will pre- 
vent wilting. 
To carry over for another year or to 
propagate, in January, the pot plants 
should be gradually dried off and put 
under a bench in a warm green-house 
where they can be kept absolutely dry 
till about the middle of April. Then 
they should be brought out and shaken 
from the old soil and repotted into 
smaller pots, and any dead wood should 
be trimmed out at this time. They 
should then be placed on the bench and 
be well watered and kept syringed, and 
in two or three weeks they will have 
made a fine lot of cuttings. 
Cuttings of the Poinsettia can be taken 
off and rooted in pots or pans filled with 
clean sand. They root more freely if 
kept rather close in a small propagating 
case, or box with a sheet of glass laid 
over the top. As soon as they are well 
rooted, pot into 2| inch pots and keep 
close and warm until they begin to root 
into the soil. The best soil is a good 
turfy loam, with about one-fourth of 
well rotted cow manure, and a small 
quantity of sand. When potting into 
their final pots the addition of about a 
four inch pot of bone meal to the bushel 
of soil will be a great advantage. 
The Poinsettia. 
As I am wintering in the Sunny South 
and not in the land of snow and ice, 
having my valued "Flower Grower” 
sent to me from my home, will give you 
some information as to growing the 
Poinsettia. It grows here in Florida in 
abundance forming shrubs which some 
times tower above the roofs of bunga- 
lows. Two years ago I took home with 
me a few cuttings. Cuttings must be 
taken from th<_ lower part of stalks and 
not from the tips. They were in water 
until my return home the latter part of 
April. The time for pruning is about 
the last of February, when the bloom- 
ing time is just going by. I gave a 
cutting, which had thrown out a few 
little roots while in water, to a friend 
who grew it out of doors in a large 
pot bringing it in when cool nights 
came on. She had a beautiful plant of 
nine blossoms. After they were gone 
she pruned it back “severely” and 
placed it out again in the summer with 
the result that last November, when 
I left my home the plant measured 
over two yards around and was about 
four feet tall with a promise of eleven 
large perfect blooms. I am rooting a 
lot of them to take home with me. 
F. B. C. 
We regret that this month Mrs. Au- 
tin’s Talks were not received in time 
for publication. She has been in Cali- 
fornia and we have had no definite 
news from her for several weeks. 
