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NEW YORK, JULY, 1877. 
VALUABLE NOTES FOB FLOWER 
GROWERS. 
Moist Air for House Plants. —Every florist 
and plant-grower (says the American Garden ), will 
answer the often repeated question, “ How can I make 
my Window Plants flourish ?” by saying, “ You must 
keep the air moist.” How to do this is, however, a 
troublesome and unsolved problem. We have found 
by experience that the simplest solution to the prob¬ 
lem is the use of a common whisk-broom. Take a 
pail of tepid water every evening ; dip your broom in 
it and whisk it over the plants till everything is moist. 
Your plants will enjoy this bath and the insects will 
not. Insects dislike nothing so much as abundant 
dampness. The most troublesome enemy of all—the 
red spider—will soon leave for dryer quarters. 
“But,” says some nice housekeeper, “I shall spoil 
my carpet if I keep up such a daily showering.” So 
you will if you do not protect it, but, with a good sized 
piece of oil cloth under your plant-stand, as there al¬ 
ways should be, you may spatter away as much as 
you like. 
Success with. Calla Lilies. “ Aunt Ad die ” in 
the New York Tribune thus tells her success with 
Calla Lilies: 
In almost every collection of house plants may be 
found the Calla Lilly. Ladies call attention to “ my 
Calla” with affection and pride in their tone. It is 
justly a favorite with all amateur floriculturists. The 
little care it needs, its indifference to ordinary atmos¬ 
pheric changes, its large, showy leaves, and the purity 
and grace of its flowers render it certainly a highly-to- 
be-desired plant. And then again it never says die. 
No matter how puny its foliage or how white or spin¬ 
dling it may grow, it presents a pleasing appearance, 
and gives one some little space for hope. But in very 
many instances we see thrifty, healthy-looking plants 
that we are told cannot be made to bloom. They put 
forth leaf after leaf of rich dark green, satiny-looking 
organs, but no bud of promise appears to gladden the 
eye and the heart of the anxious watcher. I speak 
feelingly, from experience. I have tested all the many 
directions which have come under my observation, but 
all with like results—no buds. Even the entire-rest 
plan did not succeed with me, for Easter came and not 
one Lily. Disgusted, I determined to try a little pri¬ 
vate judgment. Knowing the decided distaste most 
bulbs have to being removed, I put my Callas in a pot 
filled two inches up with pieces of broken crocks and 
charcoal, then used light rich soil, with plenty of sand 
and hlack muck, watering with very warm water. I 
set the pot in a dish three inches deep, poured off the 
water that drained through, and poured very hot in it 
so as to get as much bottom heat as possible. This 
was for winter treatment. 
During the summer months I took the pot out of 
the saucer and set it in the flower bed, on the shady 
side of my garden. In the winter I stood it on a table 
by itself, in a sunny window, with these results : My 
plant is over three feet tall, and thirty-eight leaves on 
it, one fine lily and two buds. The young bulbs are 
doing beautifully also. During the last summer I had 
a lily each month, much to my friends’ and my own 
surprise. The pot is very nearly concealed by luxu¬ 
riantly growing Crassifolia. 
Used-tip Hyacinths. —A good many persons, 
says the Gardeners' Chronicle , are at a loss to know 
what to do with the Hyacinths and Narcissi that have 
gone out of flower. They don’t like the idea of 
throwing them away, and they are disfigurements in 
the greenhouse. 
Two or three courses can be recommended : one is 
to open a trench in any spare corner of the garden, and 
plant them in it, turning the bulk of earth out of the 
pots without disturbing the roots and simply remove 
the crocks. 
Some fine mould should be placed about the bulbs, 
and the soil put back and firmly pressed about them. 
Treated in this way, the Hyacinths, Tulips, Narcissi, 
etc., will ripen their bulbs and growth, and come in 
very useful next autumn for planting out in beds or 
borders. They will, however, need to be watered in 
dry, hot weather. 
Another good mode is to open holes along the 
fringe of a shrubbery border, almost beneath the low¬ 
ermost branches, and plant out for permanent effect. 
In such a spot they come into flower early in the 
spring, and they are sufficiently out of the way not to 
interfere with the summer planting, if the margin of 
any shrubbery border admits of its being done. 
Treatment of Cyclamens. —In answer to the 
questions how Cyclamens should be treated until they 
are potted off for flowering, when this should be done, 
and in what soil, the Villa Gardener says: 
Cyclamens do not do well because they are badly 
treated. The neglect begins as soon as they have 
finished flowering. The idea prevails that the mo¬ 
ment the last flower fades the plants should be dried 
off. If growers would only bear in mind that the 
chief mode of increasing the number of Cyclamens 
is by seed, that alone would save the plants from 
treatment so unreasonable and* ruinous to next year’s 
flowers. These flowers are formed by the leaves after 
the current year’s blossoms have faded. Hence, the 
importance of carefully tending, watering, and, if need 
be, feeding the foliage till fully grown, or till it begins 
to fade in course of nature. The best place for com¬ 
pleting and maturing growth is a cold frame or a 
sunny corner out of doors. After the leaves fade, the 
Cyclamen will take a period of rest without forcing it 
by total dryness. 
The best plan for resting Cyclamens, is to plunge 
them in a cold frame, alike sheltered from heavy rains, 
and the roots kept from being burnt by the sun on the 
sides. Opinions may also differ as to the best season 
for potting Cyclamens. Some pot just as the flowers 
begin to come up; others as the conns manifest 
symptoms of starting in the autumn or early winter. 
The first course is perhaps the best. The soil that 
suits them best is a mixture of loam, leaf mould, and 
decomposed manure, freely sanded into openness and 
grittiness. 
The drainage should be perfect, as stagnant water 
at base of bulb is fatal to Cyclamens. The best sea¬ 
son to sow Cyclamens is February. As soon as the 
plants are up they should be picked off, .and then 
shifted on in succession as soon as they fill the pots 
with roots. If this is properly attended to, and the 
young plants are pushed on in a bottom and surface 
heat of 60 to 65 deg. the plants may be made to flower 
within the year. 
Flowering of Sweet Peas. —A correspondent 
of Mr. Yick says he meets with extraordinary success 
as follows: 
I prepai’e a trench eighteen inches deep, and fill 
with ordinary garden soil enriched with perfectly rot¬ 
ted stable manure. About the first of December I 
sow the seeds in this trench, eight inches deep—that 
is, the seeds are eight inches under ground, when the 
trench is quite filled. Over the trench I place a foot 
of fresh stable dung, which is removed about the first 
of April. The plants appear a few days later, having 
been apparently growing through the winter, and are 
then treated in the usual manner. My plants bloom 
in extraordinary abundance, from June until Septem¬ 
ber. My soil is a heavy loam abounding in the vari¬ 
ous salts of lime, and this, doubtless, accounts in a 
great measure for my success. But the chief cause, I 
think, arises from the fact that the roots do not suffer 
from drought, as they would if nearer to the surface, 
and also from my diligently picking off every bloom 
as soon as it begins to fade. Once allow the energy 
of the plant to expend itself in forming seeds, and the 
bloom then is comparatively over. I may add that 
I deluge with water once a w r eek during the hot 
weather. 
A Good Way to Start Tuberoses. —Another 
correspondent of Mr. Vick says : 
I have hit on a good w 7 ay to start Tuberoses. I 
plant them in old tomato cans, without punching any 
holes for drainage, set them on the mantel over the 
kitchen range, and keep w 7 arm and wet. When w 7 ell 
started I move them to a cooler place, and at the pro¬ 
per time set them out in the garden. In this v 7 ay I 
have raised during the past two years vigorous plants, 
yielding from twenty to thirty-five blossoms each. 
Contrary to the teachings of at least some of the 
books, the Trailing Arbutus (Epigsea repens), can be 
brought into bloom at any time during the winter. I 
have had beautiful bunches of flowers at Christmas. 
The simple plan is to take them up late in the fall—De¬ 
cember will do if the ground is open—and plant-them 
in a fernery or wardian case. They will take care 
of themselves. The common ferns of the woods, too, 
will push up, and unroll their fronds, the scarlet ber¬ 
ries of the Wintergreen and the Partridge berry will 
swell, and remain fresh all winter, and the evergreen 
vines of the woods will grow as if it were spring. I 
always go to the woods for the contents of my fern¬ 
ery. 
