1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Forced Lily of the Valley. 
Lily of the valley is now to be seen in 
the flower stores during fully 11 months 
of the year. It is very readily forced 
into bloom, the “ pips,” as florists term 
the little bulbs, being merely planted in 
pure sand, freely watered, shaded, and 
kept in a high temperature. Twenty to 
twenty-five days of this treatment bring 
them into bloom. Sand is used because 
they are not expected to produce roots, 
merely to force out the flower through 
the nutriment stored in the bulb. Under 
ordinary conditions, while the flowers 
could be produced at any time during 
winter previous to the normal period of 
blooming, they could not be produced 
after that, but the florists have obvi¬ 
ated this difficulty by putting the bulbs 
into cold storage until needed, these 
cold storage roots providing the summer 
flowers. The lily of the valley bulbs 
forced in this country are all imported, 
being grown in France, Belgium, Hol¬ 
land, Germany and Russia. It is easy 
enough to force this plant by digging 
up some clumps from the garden bed. A 
square clump might be dug before the 
snow covers the bed, and stored in a cold 
place until wanted. Freezing will not 
do any damage. In this case, the bulbs 
should not be disturbed, the whole clump 
being put in a pan, and brought along 
gently. 
Seasonable Work. 
This is an excellent season to do a 
little propagating, so as to have nice 
plants for bedding out. Geraniums, 
which may be growing tall and strag¬ 
gling, will yield cuttings which may be 
potted firmly into soil in two-inch pots ; 
they will do quite as well as though put 
into sand. While they need warmth 
and protection from draft when rooting, 
the air of the room in which they are 
kept must be pure and free from the 
fumes of gas or coal oil. The escape of 
illuminating gas is always very destruc¬ 
tive to plants, especially when in bloom ; 
the usual result is immediate dropping 
of the buds, followed, in the case of 
such subjects as begonias, by dropping 
of the leaves also. 
Ageratums may also be propagated 
now, as they will soon begin to grow 
straggly, and when the cuttings are 
rooted the old plants may be thrown 
away. We find them very satisfactory 
as a window plant, providing plenty of 
bloom. They should be carefully looked 
over for traces of mealy bug; if any 
of the tiny white cottony dots are 
observed, rub them carefully off with a 
soft pointed stick. These bugs are a 
great nuisance on soft-wooded plants. 
If some old coleus have been carried 
over from last summer, propagate them 
from the young shoots ; the old plants, 
which are usually dull in color when 
cold weather sets in, will be getting 
very angular and stalky, as they so often 
drop their leaves when in a low tempera¬ 
ture. They should, however, have 
plenty of “ breaks ” or young shoots for 
propagating. Ivy geraniums will now 
MOTHERS .—Be sure to use “ Mrs. Wins¬ 
low’s Soothing Syrup ” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best — Adv. 
be throwing out long shoots, and they 
will be all the better for stopping ; the 
top shoot should be pinched off, to pro¬ 
duce a more stocky growth, and this 
severed shoot may be planted in a small 
pot, thus increasing the stock. Ivy 
geraniums have been wonderfully im¬ 
proved of late years, and there is no 
reason to grow the old-fashioned type 
with small single blooms, when we can 
get the fine new varieties, such as 
Souvenir de Charles Turner. Their 
luxuriant foliage and trailing habit 
render Ivy geraniums indispensable 
where basket plants are required. 
The Winter Hawthorn. 
This title is sometimes given to the 
Cape Pond-weed, known botanically as 
Aponogeton distachyon. It is one of 
the most attractive water plants we 
have, and very satisfactory for the 
house garden, as well as out-of-doors. 
The plant has fleshy strap-shaped leaves, 
and very oddly-shaped white flowers 
with purple anthers. The blossoms are 
deliciously fragrant, scenting all the 
surrounding air. Being a native of the 
Cape of Good Hope, the natural bloom¬ 
ing time of this pond-weed is winter, 
though, outside, it usually begins to 
flower in August, continuing until frost. 
Though hardly considered reliably 
hardy in this latitude, it is tolerably 
sure to stand the winter if where ice 
will not interfere with its roots. It is 
not a floating plant, so should be planted 
in shallow water near the edge of the 
pond or stream. Or it may be planted 
in a tub or pail half filled with rich 
compost, with a little sand on top, to 
prevent the water from becoming muddy. 
For house culture, it may be planted 
in the same way in a jardiniere or 
aquarium. First put in the soil and 
plant the roots, then put sand over the 
top of the earth, and then fill up the 
vessel with water. A temperature of 
55 to 60 degrees is suitable. Under such 
circumstances, the aponogeton flowers 
well during the winter, and is unusual 
as well as attractive. During the sum¬ 
mer, the vessel containing the plant 
may be placed on the porch or veranda. 
GENERAL NOTES. 
Poinsettias, which, though not com¬ 
mon, form a beautiful winter plant for 
the window, are now developing their 
showy bracts, and being heavy feeders, 
will soon exhaust the soil in their pots. 
Water them twice a week with liquid 
manure; it will encourage both color 
and size of the bracts. If starved, the 
poinsettia is pretty sure to lose all its 
lower leaves, spoiling the appearance of 
the plant. 
The first snow of the season fell in 
the vicinity of New York November 29. 
It was extremely wet and heavy, and 
its effect is noticeable on evergreens, 
where it was allowed to lie, the branches 
being badly spread out of shape. It is 
always advisable, after a heavy snow 
fall, to knock or shake the snow from 
the branches of evergreen shrubs ; this 
is readily done with a rake or hoe- 
handle. If, after the snow is removed, 
some of the branches remain out of 
shape, tie them into place with a bit of 
marline, taking care to avoid undue 
tightness. Such shrubs as the dense¬ 
leaved retinisporas suffer greatly from 
this weight of snow. 
One of the prettiest window plants 
recently noted was a greenhouse slipper 
orchid, Cypripedium insigne. Its oddly 
shaped green and brown flowers were 
freely produced, and have the valuable 
quality of lasting on the plant for sev¬ 
eral weeks. It succeeds under the con¬ 
ditions given to ordinary window plants, 
and, if a well-established plant of fair 
size, a good crop of flowers is cer¬ 
tain. This plant is grown in very large 
quantities by commercial florists for cut 
flowers, a tremendous crop being mar¬ 
keted in New York at the holiday season. 
Winter Salads. —A pleasantly pun¬ 
gent winter salad is young mustard, 
which may be grown in the kitchen 
window. Fill a shallow cigar box with 
earth, put a little clean sand on top, sow 
thickly with mustard seed, moisten, and 
put in a warm place. It should be up 
in a few days, and may be cut within a 
week from its first appearance. By sow¬ 
ing it at intervals of a week or ten days 
a succession is sure. Instead of mustard 
only, a mixture of mustard and cress 
may be sown. Another quickly-grown 
salad, which may be obtained under 
similar circumstances in winter, is nas¬ 
turtium ; the young plants are cut when 
about one inch high. They are tender, 
succulent, and pungent in flavor. Of 
course one would not buy a high-priced 
strain of seed for this purpose ; the com¬ 
mon seed sold by the pound is quite 
good enough. 
Cannas. —If seeds of these are sown 
now, they should be well-grown plants 
ready to bloom at bedding-out time. 
Cannas are not easily germinated unless 
the seed is prepared by soaking. Many 
of the florists soak them for 24 hours, 
and then, holding the seed firmly in 
pincers, chip a little of the hard shell 
off one end with a very sharp knife. 
Sow in a shallow box containing one 
inch of earth and one inch of sand. 
Naturally, they germinate better and 
more quickly when in a place with 
bottom heat, as a greenhouse bench 
with pipes underneath it, but this 
“Mend it 
or End it,” 
has been the rallying cry of 
reform, directed against abuses 
municipal or social. 
For the man who lets him¬ 
self be abused by a cough the 
cry should be modified to: 
Mend it, or it’ll end you. You 
can mend any cough with 
Ayer’s 
Cherry Pectoral. 
ii 
position can hardly be secured by an 
amateur, so we must select as favorable 
a place as possible. When the young 
seedlings have made a fair start they 
may be removed from the box and 
potted before they begin to crowd. The 
variety Mme. Crozy, the best general 
utility canna we can grow, usually 
comes true from seed, but many of the 
others vary considerably from the par¬ 
ent type. Don’t think, however, be¬ 
cause your canna seedling differs from 
its parent, that it is necessarily new or 
valuable. There are over 500 different 
varieties of cannas now in cultivation, 
and fully 400 of them are too much alike 
to be valuable. We doubt whether any 
park superintendent or other large 
planter grows 50 different varieties, and 
one could prune the collection down to 
a dozen, and still have the cream for 
general purposes. Dwarf growers like 
Mme. Crozy make fine pot plants for 
winter flowering. 
What lamp-chimney is it 
that lasts like a teacup and 
gets the best light a lamp is 
capable of? 
Macbeth’s; but you want 
the Number made for your 
lamp. Let us send you the 
Index. , 
Geo A Macbeth Co j 
Pittsburgh Pa 
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We believe that there is no better machine made than this. There are now, 
at least, a half dozen of them in homes connected with The Rural New-Yorker, 
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special price. It must be remembered that 
it usually costs more to sell a machine than 
to make it, and that is why local agents 
charge §40 to §60 for machines no better 
than this one. They must get pay for 
their time, and also for the time of their 
horses and wagons. We simply save you 
the cost of seUing, and give you the bene¬ 
fit of wholesale prices. Every machine is 
warranted for 10 years, is sent on 20 days’ 
trial, and, if not satisfactory, we will 
return the money, and pay freight both 
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parts can be secured at any time. A com¬ 
plete set of attachments and instruction 
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§19.50; with one year’s subscription to The R. N.-Y., §20; or we will send it, 
freight paid, and a club of 20 yearly subscriptions, for §25. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, New York. 
