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WINDOW PLANTS. 
Nothing adds more to the cosy, home-look of a 
room than a stand of healthy, well-grown plants. 
Rich brocade and filmy lace drapery cannot he com¬ 
pared to the tasteful elegance of wreathing vines, with 
all their rich garniture of green, interlacing sprays, 
graceful tendrils, and delicate or starry-eyed bloom. 
And where there is room enough, an Orange or Lemon 
tree, an Oleander, Abutilon, or stately Calla, give a 
tropical aspect to your bower of beauty, robbing win¬ 
ter of half its gloom, if not its rigor. It is so easy to 
have them, one wonders that any family room should 
be without. With a little care, any one may succeed 
with Geraniums, Roses and Fuchsias, while to the 
painstaking the name is “legion” of plants suitable 
for window culture. No one plant is more deservedly 
a favorite than the Geranium, both zonale and double 
flowering. Thriving under the most common culture, 
they repay extra care with a prodigal profusion 
of bloom. They need a rich soil, plenty of light, 
air, and morning sunshine, and judicious watering; 
never water in dribblets; use warm water through 
the winter; soft, if you have it; if not, liquid 
ammonia, two drops to a pint of water, is good, 
or weak manure-water once a week; frequent 
showering overhead (with a fine hose), and sponging 
of the leaves. 
Last spring I repotted mine in a compost of light 
mellow earth, two parts; one part of well rotted hot¬ 
bed manure, one part decayed leaf mould from under 
the Black Currant bushes, and just enough saird to 
keep the earth friable. In raking out the walk be¬ 
tween the currants I noticed the rich look of the de¬ 
cayed leaves, and as I am always trying experiments, 
gathered up the fine part and filled an old well-bucket , 
and set it under the drip of the smoke-house roof. In 
a few weeks it was ready for use. In taking it out it 
emitted the strong musky odor for which black cur¬ 
rants are so much disliked by many people. In the 
bottom of the pots I put a layer an inch thick of 
pounded charcoal and calcined bone, then a mat of de¬ 
cayed leaves, filled the pot two-thirds with the mixed 
soil; then with a broad-bladed knife loosened the 
plant, inverting and giving a tap or two, out it came 
without any trouble; took off the fibrous mat of roots 
at the sides and bottom, shook out the old dirt, re¬ 
planted carefully, pressing down the earth firmly, 
gave a thorough watering, and set in the shade for a 
week. All treated in this way grew straight ahead. 
They were small plants, needing no trimming. Large 
bushes I cut down to within three or four inches of 
the pot. 
Have grown plants for years, but never saw any¬ 
thing like the bloom on these Geraniums. They have 
not run to stems and leaves, but the bloom has been 
(yes, I will say it) magnificent. “ Lord Derby” and 
“Donald Beaton” having all the time more trusses 
than branches, and. thej measure nine, eleven, and 
twelve inches around, dense globes! “Madame” and 
“ Victor Lemoine ” look like great snow-balls in size, 
if not in color. All the rest, a dozen ldnds, have 
grown equally well. 
For Fuchsias, I use leaf mould from under scrub oaks, 
mixed with a sprinkle of good garden soil, a few rusty 
nails (oxide of iron is good for them), and a layer of 
charcoal at bottom ; they need perfect drainage. Have 
had seven kinds in bloom all summer. Like some 
lady’s in the Cabinet, my “Sir Colin Campbell” is 
a real tree, with hundreds of coral bells on at a time. 
But unlike hers mine did not die. Tins was my treat¬ 
ment : After it was done blooming I clipped off the 
terminal shoots of all the branches, and set it aside for 
two weeks, giving very little water—exhausted with 
blooming they do not require much; then repotted in 
a soil composed as given above. Not a leaf wilted or 
fell. In two weeks, new shoots full of flower buds 
had started all over, growing rapidly. 
Roses must have a rich soil, two parts loam, one 
part dry, well-crumbled cow manure, one part leaf 
mould, and a little soot. An occasional watering 
with a little weak soot water is very beneficial. As 
Soon as a rose withers cut it off; keep the bushes low 
and compact; in this way they are always throwing 
out new shoots, and are seldom out of bloom. The 
regal Rose ! After all, what other flower can surpass 
it? I find Bon Silene, Safrano, and Pactole very 
satisfactory—exquisite in bud and delicious in fra¬ 
grance. Pactole is so double, grows so large after 
you think it fully blown, and lasts in the shade more 
than ten days in perfection. 
In this climate in the winter the cellar is the only 
sure refuge. . So I carry my pets there at night. I 
would rather take fifteen minutes, night and morning, 
than waken to find them all frozen stiff. I have saved 
plants that were frozen hard, by placing them to dry 
in a perfectly dark cellar, leaving them covered three 
days, and they never lost a leaf, while those showered 
with cold water shed every leaf. Repot, spring and 
fall, or oftener, if the growth of any plant requires it; 
cleanse the pots with hot soapsuds, and soak new 
ones ten or twelve hours in water. 
When my plants are put in winter quarters, 1 ex¬ 
amine carefully for insects of all kinds. Am not 
troubled with red spiders, or any of its kin. “A mem¬ 
ber of the Cabinet” says: “Never keep Verbenas 
over winter, they are more plague than profit.” I 
don’t think so, as they are so easily kept, only don’t 
give too much water. I keep half a dozen or more 
choice kinds every winter. Three kinds can be grown 
in a six-inch pot, but I prefer deep tin cans. They 
always bloom early in February, and are such a 
pretty contrast to Geraniums, Primulas, and White 
Begonia. 
Flowers have such a refining influence over children, 
they love them dearly, never spoil them, but move 
among them with the greatest care, picking up the 
fallen “fuchtells” and blossoms with such eagerness. 
How they brighten the gloom of winter days for an 
invalid. I know a dear old lady of over eighty, who 
is always delighted when the plants come in for the 
winter. Watching each leaf and unfolding bud with 
the keenest pleasure ; complaining if they are taken to 
another room for sunshine, because “she is so lone¬ 
some without them.” Keep one or two plants, if you 
can no more. You will not think the time lost they 
require, and in gloom and trouble they give an almost 
human sympathy. Hoktense Share. 
different shades; they differ naturally, but some you 
will wish to retain as much as possible of a green shade; 
these gather before they begin to ripen. While yet 
green, set them in a perfectly dark closet, where it is 
dry. Others you will bleach. These set a few days 
in the warm sun, but take them in if it rains. To 
your grasses you will want fern leaves. The hardy 
ferns and maiden hair press best, and retain best their 
natural appearance. Next you want bright leaves to 
add to the beauty of your grasses and ferns. When 
you gather these do not do as several persons, who, 
anxious to have bright leaves for winter use, gathered 
them and put them away in boxes, and then wonder 
why they did not look right, but press them, 
and with a very heavy weight, a letter press is 
splendid to press them in. It takes two or three 
weeks for them to dry, changing them once or twice 
in dry papers. 
I give you these hints to begin with. Another time 
I will describe the parlor of a friend, which although 
very plainly furnished, gives delight to all who visit 
her, especially in the winter, for it is so bright and 
cheery that one almost forgets that it is winter. M. 
WINTER, DECORATION. 
While many friends give directions, and much is 
written about plants for window decoration, let me 
offer a suggestion for winter decoration now, “ while 
yet it is time ” to prepare. Always cultivate, if you 
can, a few plants for your windows; but from one 
cause and another, some cannot do so. To you who 
cannot have plants, and you too, who can, let me say, 
gather all the varieties of grasses you can and dry 
them. Do not hang them with the tops down to dry 
stiff, but tie them in small bunches, and set them up 
so they may fall gracefully. You will want them of 
A CHEERFUL PARLOR. 
My friend’s parlor is quite plainly furnished, but such 
an air of cheerfulness and brightness you seldom find in 
the elegant houses richly furnished. In the fall of the 
year she gets long branches of the English Ivy. She 
does not keep a steady fire in that room in the winter, so 
cannot put her Ivy in glass or china vases; so she takes 
tin cans, takes large pieces of the green wood moss, 
wraps around the cans, secures it there by wrapping 
fine black thread around the moss, then sets the can in 
a corner, so she may occasionally pour water around 
the moss to keep it fresh; she then puts some scraps 
of moss in the can, to hold her branches more steadily, 
and fills them with water, then puts her ivy in, and 
places it where she wishes. If it freezes, no matter, 
it will thaw again, and the Ivy is as bright as ever, 
and keeps quite well until spring, and if kept without 
freezing, some of the branches will root in the water. 
On the mantel, on corner brackets, around the' room 
you will find the Ivy twined around the pictures. 
Around the walls she has the most beautiful bouquets 
of grasses in their natural colors, brightened up with 
the green of the pressed ferns, and the beautiful shades 
of the lovely autumn leaves. These are arranged in 
wall pockets and receptacles of different forms made of 
pasteboard, covered with moss and lichens. From her 
gas pipe in the centre of the room hangs a small bas¬ 
ket, made from a cocoa-nut shell. The long gray 
Spanish moss conceals the shell and falls gracefully 
down. In the shell is a small bouquet of the more deli¬ 
cate grasses, brightened up with the smaller bright 
autumn leaves, and the leaves are studded over the 
moss and secured there by a touch of paste or glue. 
On the mantel are delicate vases with sprays of beauti¬ 
ful bright sumach and fern. She has beautiful plants 
of her own raising in the windows and her fernery, but 
as the weather grows cold she must remove these to a 
place of safety. But the frost and cold wont hurt the 
grasses and autumn leaves, they are bright all winter. 
One cannot enter the room without being touched with 
the beauty and cheerfulness, and frequently a visitor 
will ask to bring, a friend who is a stranger, that she 
too may see and admire. 
Try it, friends. It costs no money. It will take a 
little time, only you must go through the fields, or 
wood, or along the roadside, with your eyes open, so you 
may find these treasures for the winter store. M. 
