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MY SHADY WINDOWS. 
The windows of my sitting-room, one north and 
two west ones, used to he a great trial to me. I tried 
to keep house plants, hut they would not grow and 
flourish they only dragged out a lingering, miserable 
existence, making the gloomy winter days yet more 
gloomy hy their forlorn presence. 
At length, however, I have succeeded in obtaining 
a few that will thrive without the direct rays of the 
sun, and will write a description of my three shady 
windows for the benefit of those who have no sunny 
south nor cheerful east ones. 
I will begin with the north one, which is more 
shaded than the others, for there is a wide verandah 
outside. First, I had a shelf made, about eight inches 
wide, and long enough to reach across the window and 
a few inches further each side. This was placed close 
to the bottom of the sash and supported by iron 
brackets. On each end of this shelf I put a large 
flower-pot containing English Ivy. I find that this 
accommodating plant does equally well in sun or 
shade, only care must be taken not to give it too much 
water when it is not in the sunshine. 
The soil was composed of two parts leaf mould, 
one part thoroughly decomposed manure from an old 
hotbed, and one part coarse sand; and though the 
English Ivy has the name of being a plant of slow 
growth, it was not long before it reached the top of the 
window and crossed it. Since then it has rambled 
around pictures and cornice at will. 
There are no curtains to my window, only common 
roller-shades that are drawn up to the top every morn¬ 
ing, and lowered at night to protect the plants from 
the cool air around the glass. 
Then I had a box made just long enough to fill the 
space between the flower-pots, and nearly as wide as 
the shelf. This box was filled with soil from the 
woods, mixed with a little sand, and then I planted 
pretty Ferns therein, and between the Ferns numerous 
slips of Tradescantia Zebrina, then carefully covered 
the surface of the box (also the pots each side), with 
green moss. 
By a course of judicious piuching-back treatment, 
the Tradescantia soon covered the sides of the box 
and the shelf with a thick mat of beautiful green and 
brown. The only attention this plant requires is plenty 
of water. I had a unique hanging-basket in the centre 
of this window—the bark off an immense hemlock 
knot. The tree from which it was taken had been cut 
in the summer time, so the bark came off the old knot 
in one entire piece, and when suspended by scarlet 
cords looked very pretty. I filled it with common 
garden soil and planted German Ivy therein. A cocoa- 
nut shell hung on each side of the central basket: one 
filled with Partridge Vine, and the other with Money¬ 
wort. That completed the north window, and though 
there were no flowers, the different shades of green 
among the Ferns and Ivies were very pretty. 
For my west windows I had shelves made similar to 
the one in the north window. On one of these were, 
seven six-inch flower-pots, placed side by side in a box 
that extended the length of the shelf. After being 
careful to provide good drainage in the bottom of these 
flower-pots, I filled them with the richest soil I could 
find, and in each one planted a cutting of Pansy pre¬ 
viously rooted in wet sand. These cuttings were taken 
from the most beautiful plants in my Pansy bed the 
first week in September, and in the middle of Decem¬ 
ber they began to blossom, lifting up their bright faces 
and peerless colors, as much at home as if in their 
own shady bed under the appletrees. 
Once a week I gave them a liberal supply of liquid 
manure, and, at the same time, turned each pot half 
way around to keep the little plants in good shape. 
The spaces between the pots I filled with common 
garden soil, and planted in it numerous tiny slips of 
German Ivy and the green and white striped variety 
of Tradescantia. 
I had only one hanging-basket in this window, 
made thus: eight little beech sticks, about six inches 
long, and less than half an inch in diameter, were cut 
(each of them had tiny projecting branches) and holes 
burned in them an inch and a half from each end. 
Then pieces of strong wire were passed through these 
holes and drawn into circles and securely fastened, the 
upper circle being a little larger than the under one. 
The sticks were then arranged at equal distances 
apart on the wires, and the whole lined with a sheet of 
the long green moss found in low, swampy grounds. 
A flower-pot was placed inside, filled with soil from 
the woods, and a Maiden Hair Fern planted therein. 
I was very much pleased with this window, and dur¬ 
ing our long winter picked handful after handful of 
the beautiful Pansies, for the more we picked the bet¬ 
ter they blossomed. 
On the shelf in front of the other west window, I 
had three winter-blooming varieties of Fuchsias. So 
much has been written about the culture of these beau¬ 
tiful plants, that it is needless for me to add anything, 
so I will describe the covers I made for the flower-pots 
containing them. 
These were made of strong pasteboard, and were 
large enough to slip over the pots easily. I covered 
the pasteboard with dark brown silesia (such as is 
used for lining dresses), and around the top and bot¬ 
tom placed a little vine of briglit-hued autumn leaves, 
principally blackberry and strawberry; and in the 
centre, a pretty cluster of brilliant maple and glossy 
beech. These were fastened on with thin glue and 
the covers afterwards received two coats of varnish. 
At the end of this window I had a pot of Madeira 
Vine. I took the tubers up from the open ground 
early in the fall, planted them in good-sized pots, put 
them in the shade, and gave scarcely any water for 
about six weeks. Thea I gave them a liberal sup¬ 
ply, placed them in the window, and by the end of 
January, the beautiful glossy leaves had covered the 
cords up each side of the window and across the top. 
Before winter was over, they had crossed and re¬ 
crossed the window several times. 
The hanging-basket in this window was made like 
the one I have already described, filled with good rich 
earth, and then oats were sowed therein. Don't laugh : 
oats are very pretty in a hanging-basket. They grew 
healthy and strong ; some of the stalks stood nearly 
upright, and others drooped over the side, their light 
green leaves contrasting well with the dark rich moss. 
They need to be sowed rather deep or they turn yel¬ 
low soon after coming up. 
In front of this window my Fernery stood. The 
foundation of this Fernery was an old cheese-box; 
the outside covered with gray lichen, pasted on with 
thick flour paste. This box was placed on an old 
light-stand, and in the bottom of it, I put a large soup 
1 plate. Then an old tin pan, with a good-sized hole in 
the bottom, was set in the box, resting on the plate. 
The pan was filled with leaf-mould, and in it were 
planted Ferns, Wild Mignonette, Wood Sorrel, Part¬ 
ridge Vines, and moss. It was like a little bit of the 
woods transplanted to the house, and was fresh and 
beautiful all winter long. Of course, there was no 
glass over it, but regularly twice a week, 1 sprinkled 
it, as well as the rest of the plants in the room, with 
warm water. 
I ought to have said that this is for a winter garden 
only; but the preparations must be made in summer, 
or, at least, in early fall. Of course, fresh cuttings of 
the Pansies have to be taken every year, and fresh 
slips of German Ivy and Tradescantia. The English 
Ivies and Fuchsias I place on the verandah, and the 
Madeira Vines in the open ground. The Tradescau- 
tias and German Ivy are carefully removed to the 
rock-work in the garden, where they grow with re¬ 
newed vigor. 
bo, in the hot July days, I have only the memory 
of the cool green.leaves and Ferns, the glowing Pan¬ 
sies, and brilliant drooping Fuchsia bells, that made 
so many exclaim, “How beautiful!” when, in the 
depth of winter, they looked upon my shady windows. 
Margaret Sutherland. 
FLORAL NOTES. 
While visiting a large floral establishment in the 
vicinity of New York city, I was much pleased with 
the large collection of variegated Caladiums. I think 
these are the most gorgeous and beautiful colored 
leaved plants I ever saw. Some are elegantly traced, 
veined and tinted with delicate colors, others are 
richly mottled, spotted and marked. 
On questioning the polite attendant, we learned that 
they were easily grown, but should be kept out of the 
direct rays of the sun, which causes their colors to 
fade. 
They are easily propagated by cutting the bulbs up 
into small pieces, leaving an eye in each ; these are 
then placed in sand and kept rather dry until they have 
well started, when they are potted in rich, light soil, 
and i lentifully supplied with water while growing. 
In the fall they are gradually dried off and put in 
sand and kept in a warm room, like Tuberoses. 
If they cau be started late, so as to be kept in the 
window garden or conservatory during the winter, 
they would give it a charming effect. And I do not 
see why they cannot. I noticed that many of the va¬ 
rieties resembled each other very closely, so I selected 
the following as the most distinct, and, in my humble 
opinion, the most beautiful: Meyerbeer - , Keteleeri, 
Wrightii, Cbantenii, Splendidum, Argyrites Refulgens, 
Max Kalb, Phorphyrophyllum. 
While viewing a lot of Poinsettias, I was reminded 
of one I had last winter, the leaves of which although 
it was treated according to the most approved method, 
which had previously been very successful, turned yel¬ 
low and dropped off. It bloomed, however, but the 
flower-bracts were inferior in size and of a dull color. 
I wondered what was the matter, so I asked our won¬ 
derfully patient attendant (who still survived our flood 
of questions), and he told us to use manure water 
moderately, which would induce them to hold their 
leaves, and make them more healthy and large, which 
is necessary to bring the flowers to perfection, as 
they will be in proportion to the leaf-power the plants 
possess. 
We saw an operator syringing a bed of Tuberoses, 
in full bud, with pure water, and were told that the 
flowers did not open well, but turned yellow and 
dropped off, on account of the hot dry weather, and 
that this would cause them to open freely. I was 
very happy to learn this, as I—and perhaps others— 
have often experienced this difficulty, and never knew 
of a remedy. Amateur. 
