ioral finJkiiei u ml Pictorial 
Ofiie 
lOmjmmori 
Dewy, fragrant flowers. 
Heaven's messengers of love, 
Purely brightening every life 
With sunshine from above. 
Sent to cheer the weary heart,. 
Bowed down by grief and pain, 
They comfort, chasten, sweet inspire, 
And hope comes back again. 
Bright-eyed little comforts, 
The purest ever given; 
Dear as a guardian angel's smiles, 
Or dew-drops just from heaven. 
You know the angels are so good, 
Of course they love the flowers, 
And so they drop them everywhere, 
To brighten lives like ours. 
Lily S. Jones 
Flower Gossip.— I want to thank “G. S.” for her 
article in the January No. It seems to me to supply 
the information I have been wanting, and experiment¬ 
ing for, the last three or four years. Over and over 
again I have read that if I took up Salvias, or Gera¬ 
niums, or Carnations, as the case might he, before 
frost, and potted them, they would bloom all winter. 
I never believed it, and when I have tried it and failed 
I have only said to myself, “I told you so.” “G. S.’s” 
suggestions sound so coimnonsense-y and practical that 
I am going to try them next summer, with perfect 
faith in their success. I always have some flowers 
blooming in the winter, hut have never yet had 
enough to satisfy me. Primroses, Begonias, Callas and 
Camellias I can do nicely with. This winter I have 
succeeded for the first time in coaxing a Heliotrope with 
a succession of its beautiful flowers; hut Carnations, 
Bouvardias, and even Geraniums, which are said to 
bloom so easily, have always mocked at all my efforts. 
Some one in a late number gives directions for culti¬ 
vating Poinsettia in an ordinary sitting-room. My 
verdict, after three months’ experience, is, “it don’t 
pay.” I thought the reason why it did not answer 
my expectations was owing to the uncongenial atmos¬ 
phere of the sitting-room, hut this winter I saw for 
the first time a number of them in a greenhouse, 
and I came home thinking mine a fine sjiecimen. In 
a greenhouse, where plants can he arranged above 
and below, so that only the scarlet bracts can he seen 
between masses of green, they are effective, hut in a 
small collection, where the whole plant is shown, it 
seems awkward and out of place. Smilax is a favorite 
vine and of the easiest cultivation; hut, oh! my sisters, 
who are looking forward anxiously to its fragrant 
flowers and beautiful red berries, do not set your 
hopes too high. When mine first bloomed I could 
have cried with disappointment, but the vine is lovely 
enough without flowers, and I don’t care whether 
mine ever has another blossom. German Ivy is another 
vine about whose flowers, I think, the less said the 
better. To all who want fragrant white flowers in 
early winter, I would recommend Jasminum grandi- 
florum, or Catalonian Jasmine. I kept mine in a pot 
in the summer, on a light wire trellis, pinching off the 
flower buds until fall. It bloomed two months or 
more after it was brought in, then rested, and is now 
putting out new shoots, to bloom again I hope, before 
spring. Can any one toll me if the Pilea needs a 
season of rest like the Lycopodiums? I have one 
which grew and flourished, to the admiration of all 
who saw it, for two years. It was really splendid, 
Jihe gem of my collection, when I brought it in last 
fall; hut a month ago, with the same treatment to 
which it had been accustomed from its youth up, it 
began to droop, and finally looked so forlorn that I 
put it down cellar to take a nap or die as it might 
think best. It seemed to like a light soil, shade and 
plenty of water, and I found it would root readily from 
the tiniest slips or ends of leaves. E. E. It. 
Pansies at Christmas. —I wonder if any of the 
readers of the Cabinet ever gathered a nosegay of 
Pansies, on a Christmas day, that had bloomed amid 
the snow. I did it this Christmas, from a bed that 
has no protection hut a few leaves strewn over the 
top. Is there such a plant as a hardy Petunia that 
will withstand a winter of snow and ice ? I had a bed 
of very handsome Petunias, late in the fall, that wore 
somewhat sheltered by a neighbor’s house, and the 
fallen leaves have covered it pretty well. Only this 
morning (Jan. 4) I was looking at them, and found 
them standing as erect and looking almost as green, 
with the snow and ice clinging to them, as they did 
when in bloom. How must a white Water Lily he 
managed through the winter—must it he kept cov¬ 
ered with water, or only moist? I wish Aunt Lei¬ 
surely would tell ns how to make more of the beautiful 
things that she saw in her afternoon out. Jeanne. 
Fertilizers for Plants.— With much pleasure I 
have read and re-read the prize articles already pub¬ 
lished, hut I would like to he enlightened a little more 
in reference to the use of guano-water, spoken of in 
the articles on “Hanging Baskets.” My experience 
is, that Heliotropes will not hear it. The • article to 
me seems a little obscure, for I am not certain whether 
the writer means that the “Ivies, Geraniums and 
Heliotropes flourish” under the use of the ammonia, 
guano, or hone-dust, or each in turn, as “gentle 
stimulants.” I used a solution made from our own 
hen-house, warmed to the temperature of the room, 
perhaps a little more. Next day the leaves of the 
Heliotrope began to dry and turn black. I have not 
given it any more, and it is beginning to look better 
again. In fact, I have used the solution sparingly, 
and on some plants not at all, fearing to, until I knew 
what plants were benefited by it. I would like to 
know the best stimulant for Heliotropes, to make them 
bloom. Mrs. M. J. S. 
English. Ivy.— F. H. Hubbard, M. D., of Sacra¬ 
mento, in an article in June No. of Cabinet, on 
“Window Gardening,” says, “Two feet in a year is a 
good growth for English Ivy, but ambitious Califor¬ 
nia does hotter by her plants than that;” he has one 
that has grown, by actual measurement, 5 feet since 
the previous November. Mrs. J. R. G., of Lyme, 
Mass., writes in August No. that she has one that has 
grown 11 feet 7 inches since November last, some of 
the leaves measuring 4 by 4-1 inches. Now the old 
Granite State can do still better than that. I have an 
English Ivy, trained around the walls of my room, 
that from July, 1873, to July, 1874, has grown 20 
feet, by actual measurement. Some of the leaves 
measure 4J by 4J inches. It then rested for three or 
four months, till about the first of November, when 
eight new branches started out, and, cutting off two 
for slips, during the last month to the time of writing, 
December 26, the growth of the remaining six 
branches, taken together, amounts to 3| feet. 
Hillsboro’, N. H. B. C. Prtest. ! 
Frozen. House Plants.— House plants that have 
been frozen may he so thawed out as not to sustain 
any injury from the freezing. Florists and gardeners 
are not supposed to need any information iii this line; 
hut there is many a woman, striving to protect her 
plants from the encroachments of winter, who thinks 
that of necessity she must give her treasures over to 
their death when once they are frozen. 
One evening I neglected to remove a few choice 
plants that I kept, for their beauty, in the dining¬ 
room. A sudden cold change during the night made 
me remember them very early in the morning, when, 
to my dismay, I found my plants were frozen stiff. I 
had recently learned, from a fruit-grower’s experience, 
that he never lost the sale of any fruit from freezing, 
because he always thawed it out rapidly in the dark. 
The frozen fruit was put into a heated room and cov¬ 
ered closely with blankets, quilts, or anything that 
would keep out the light. This report affirmed that 
fruit when perfectly thawed out in this manner, was 
beyond suspicion of frost. 
My plants were so badly frozen that their foliage I 
considered beyond the hope of recovery, at least for 
that season, and thought I should risk nothing in 
making them the subjects for experiment. So I ar¬ 
ranged my poor frozen pets on the floor in the warm 
kitchen, as near the stove as convenient, and covered 
them with empty barrels, tubs or boxes, according to 
the height or size of the plants. The room I kept 
well warmed all day. At night the coverings were 
removed, when, instead of the limp, blackened, un¬ 
sightly mass I had been fearing to find, hj! every 
plant was as fresh and green as on the day preceding 
the frost; the leaves rustled responsively to the touch, 
and looked bright enough to demand a reason for being 
locked up in the dark. Nor did these plants turn yel¬ 
low, or drop their leaves afterwards, biff grew and 
throve all winter, in utter unconsciousness of their 
narrow escape. 
This was two years ago. I have had occasion sev¬ 
eral times since to test how thoroughly plants may he 
restored in this way; hut they must ho covered up 
before they begin to thaw or wilt, or the restoration 
will not be complete. D. B. FI. 
Sowing Seeds—A Little Girl’s Questions.— 
Would you please give me a little advice about my 
flowers? I don’t succeed very well with them, par¬ 
ticularly with my seeds. How soon ought I begin to 
raise my seedlings, and is it necessary for me to have 
very rich soil for them, or not? I think I must have 
begun too late last year, tor many of my seeds did not 
come up, and those that did presented such a dilapi¬ 
dated appearance I gave up all hope of ever being a 
good flower-grower; hut I am determined to try again 
this spring, and perhaps I will get along better. Do 
you think it forces them too much to lay panes of glass 
over the boxes ? Aud is it better to raise Mignonette, 
Sweet Peas, etc., in the house, and transplant, or sow 
in the open border late in the spring? 
Lily S. Jones. 
Answer .—See this number of Cabinet for good 
floral hints as to growing flower seed in-doors. Gen¬ 
erally it requires good experience to start seed in-doors 
and transplant to open air. Most flowers, we think, 
grow larger by sowing in the open border aud then 
thinning out. Seeds like Cliauthus Dampieri do bet¬ 
ter when started in-doors and then transplanted. Seeds 
to germinate well in-doors must have a moist tempera¬ 
ture, not less than 70 deg. Use panes of glass over 
the boxes. The temperature should ho uniform, never 
falling. Your seeds may have failed last year from 
various reasons—the soil may have been too wet, or 
too dry; you may have sowed too deep. Thousands 
blame seedsmen for poor seed, when the fault is in the 
soil, weather, or in the sowing. From April 1 to 15 
is the best time to start seeds in-doors; May 1 to 15 
for out-doo-rs, unless the season or ground is cold. 
