?£e i^Sies' Iflaral ifiaEin-ct 3EHciori«l Same ^am|itmi.on 
Ipuritl Sxmto3mfixttt$ + 
EXPERIENCE IN GROWING HOUSE 
PLANTS. 
When I first began sending for seeds, as the seeds¬ 
men advised those who had no green-house or con¬ 
venience for growing green-house plants not to send 
for such seeds, I did not for a few years, so I neces¬ 
sarily had but a small variety of house plants. But I 
wanted more to make home bright and cheerful, when 
everything green out-of-doors was frozen, and soon 
began sending for them, ordering a few at a time, but 
adding to them every year, until now i have enough 
to fill my windows, and have some besides. I have 
had pretty good success with nearly all of them. 
In winter I keep my plants in the living-room and 
in a small room that opens out of it. This small 
room has one south window ; here I keep those plants 
which require the least heat. The living-room, where 
I keep most of my plants, has two east and two south 
windows, which I fill with flowers, and place the others 
on a table near the south windows ; we are obliged to 
remove them every time we use the table for meals, 
but they grow and thrive just as well as those in the 
windows. We have an outside door opening into the 
room, and every time it is opened—which is very 
often—it makes quite a change in the atmosphere of 
the room. On pleasant days, during the winter, 1 
sometimes open the door for a while, when 1 think 
the room is getting too hot for my plants. 
To grow Cyclamen Persicum I mixed garden soil 
and leaf mold, pressing it down in the pot or box, and 
scattered the seeds about two inches apart, sprinkled a 
little fine mold over them, and having covered the box 
with a pane of glass, sat it in a warm place and kept { 
it moist. In about two weeks two of the seeds came 
up, the remaining ones made their appearance in about 
three mouths. I let them grow in the box through 
the winter, and on the approach of spring potted them 
singly in small pots. As I had no cold frame to keep 
them in, I made a rough frame of boards and tacked 
white domestic over the top in lieu of glass; then 
placing my pots on the ground I set my frame over 
them, to keep the hot sun from them by day, but 
removed it at night that they might have the benefit 
of the cooling dews. About September I repotted 
them in larger pots, using rich garden soil and leaf 
mold mixed with a little sand; took them into the 
house as the weather grew cold, where they blossomed 
during the winter. In the spring, when they were done 
flowering and the weather became settled, I plunged 
the pots in a shady border until September, when I 
treated them as I did the previous winter. The second 
winter each plant bloomed from October to March, 
having from twelve to fourteen blossoms at a time. 
I prepare the soil for Primulas in very much the 
same way as for Cyclamen, with this exception: I 
put broken charcoal in the bottom of the pot and use 
silver sand with the leaf mold and garden soil. When 
they show the third leaf, prick them out in small pots, 
keeping them moist and away from the direct rays of 
the sun. When large enough repot in larger pots, 
using the same compost as before. If seed is sown in 
the spring the plant will blossom the next winter. 
After blooming, when the weather becomes warm, set 
the pots out-of-doors where they will not he exposed 
to the sun, and pinch off the buds as they appear 
during the summer, that the plants may grow stronger 
and bloom more profusely in the winter. 
Begonia, Hybrida, and Cineraria require the same 
treatment, except the Begonias, being stove-plants, 
require a more tender care. 
When I sow seeds I always write the name of the 
seed and date of sowing on the box or on a label, lest, 
memory proving treacherous, I might have a plant 
without a name. I bake and sift the mold for some of 
my plants, thus destroying any foreign seeds or any 
worms there may be in the soil. The soil in the pots 
must be stirred often to keep it light and to keep the 
weeds down. I sponge the leaves of my plants on 
both sides, and occasionally sprinkle the foliage with 
tepid water, and am not much troubled with the plant 
louse; I watch for them, and if they appear I wash 
the plant, pick them off, and generally succeed in free¬ 
ing the plant from them. I think it benefits plants to 
water them with warm water, and to put water that is 
nearly boiling hot in their saucers occasionally. On 
very cold nights in winter I draw the table into the 
middle of the room, put up the leaves and fill it with 
plants, then pin newspapers all around and over them j 
to protect them from the cold; in the morning they; 
look as bright and cheery as though no frost had been 
around them. 
I do not always start my slips alike, sometimes I 
use sand, keeping it mud wet; again, I put them in a 
deep box and cover with a pane of glass, or in a 
thumb-pot and cover with a tumbler; and sometimes 
I start them out-of-doors. I like baskets to hang in 
the windows Very much, hut for a long time I could 
not think of any way to have them, unless I took an 
old tin pail; that would hold the plants very well, hut 
it did not look well enough; at last I thought that if I 
could cover the tin it would do, so I procured some 
birch-bark and pine-cones and went to work. I fitted 
my hark to the dish 1 was ab< ait to cover, scraped the 
prickles from the cones, picked them to jfieces, and 
sewed the scales on the hark, putting them on plain or 
in fanciful shapes, but lapping them as shingles are 
lapped oil a roof. Sliruh-oak acorns, hemlock burrs, 
and such things, improve the appearance of the bas¬ 
kets when mixed with the pine-cones. When the 
sewing on is done 1 varnish it over with glue, which 
serves the double purpose of holding fast any loose 
pine scale and of glazing the surface of the basket; 
then insert the tin dish, add a cord to hang it by, and 
it is ready for the plant to grow in. Lobelia, Ice 
Plant, Ivy Geranium, and plants of a trailing habit, 
make good basket plants. 
Hanging baskets require more water than other 
plants, since, being more exposed to the sun and air, 
it evaporates sooner. I sometimes take the covering 
from mine and set them in a tub of water till they are 
thoroughly wet. When hut little water is given at a 
time, only the surface is wet, while the roots, deeper 
in the soil, get comparatively little, and the health of 
the plant is impaired in consequence, and, generally, 
its owner cannot guess what the trouble is, so lets it 
suffer through ignorance, as 1 did before I learned 
from experience. 
As soon as it becomes warm enough to set plants 
out-of-doors, I remove most of my pots to the open 
air, placing those that will not bear the hot rays of 
the sun in shady places. I do not set my house plants 
in the ground, If I wish them to blossom the next 
winter. Mrs, Chastina J. Agard. 
may he used for this purpose, growing well in situa¬ 
tions where they cannot get much sunshine; many 
climbing plants are especially adapted to this treat¬ 
ment, and indeed we have one or two which never 
receive the direct rays of the sun, yet they are thrifty 
and beautiful. 
Our German Ivy grows well in the shade, as also 
the Money Myrtle, Tradescantia, Smilax, and Perns 
of various kinds. These last are very pretty when 
planted in boxes and placed behind pictures, so that 
the delicate fern fronds may droop over the top. 
Nothing could he more gracefully effective. Another 
pretty way is to plant them in a hanging wall-basket, 
made from one of those large conch shells, such as are 
common enough to he easily obtained. Bore three 
holes in the sides of the shell and suspend it by cords 
against the wall, and when filled with earth and 
planted with ferns, no prettier basket could he devised. 
Of course the ornamental climbers null he equally ap¬ 
propriate for these shell baskets. 
Little black walnut boxes, supported upon brackets, 
are as pretty as anything for growing plants upon the 
walls, and almost any hoy can make these with a 
knife or small saw. They may be more or less orna¬ 
mental and varied in style and pattern, according to 
taste and skill of the one who makes them. Dear lady 
readers of the Cabinet, here is an opportunity to en¬ 
list the interest of your hoys in the refining work of 
home adornment. Let their “ whittling ” propensities 
he turned to good account, and you will find them very 
valuable allies, I assure you. 
One of our bracket flower boxes, though perhaps a 
little difficult for a juvenile whittler, is beautiful enough 
to tempt some masculine of more dignified years into 
the familiar occupation. Some of you, ladies, coax 
“ John ” or “ William” to try their hands at making 
something like this: The miniature semblance of a 
tall gothic window, with a balcony in front supported 
upon brackets, is cut out in the black walnut; a piece of 
colored glass is placed behind the quaint lattice-work of 
the window which forms the high hack of the bracket, 
and which is surmounted by projecting ornamental 
ridge hoards, thus representing the gabled end of a 
tower in some gothic church, with its stained glass 
window; and in lien of Ivy we have Smilax vines 
trained up over the gable and overhanging the pointed 
arch of the window. They are planted, of course, in 
the oblong box which forms the balcony, and it also 
contains a thriving Musk Plant (Mimulus Moscliatus), 
which completely fills the box and droops down over 
the brackets. If 1 could hut do justice to this pretty 
ornament you would not wonder that it is one of the 
most admired among our many pretty contrivances for 
flower growing; hut the above imperfect descrijition 
may perhaps give the idea which I wish to convey to 
anybody who will try to make one. 
Mary F. Williams. 
WALL POTS FOR FLOWERS. 
One of the prettiest modes of using plants for in¬ 
door decoration, and yet one which is not often adopted, 
is to have them growing in bracket pots upon the 
walls of a room. The writer of this has several such 
in view at the present moment, and very graceful or¬ 
naments they are. There are numerous plants which 
Slugs. —If your readers have been troubled as 1 
have been with the small slug which destroys the 
leaves of the roses, they will he glad to know that a 
decoction of White Hellebore, sprinkled over the 
hushes twice, is a successful remedy. 1 take a quarter 
of a pound, and steep it in a gallon of water, and when 
cold, apply with a whisk brush. My llose hushes are 
looking finely where the application was made, while 
others are nearly ruined. 
Exchange. — I would like to exchange plants, bulbs, 
or seeds with any of the subscribers of the Floral 
Cabinet. 
Jefferson, Md. Miss Emma May. 
