House and Garden 
tub full of flowers scattered about indiscriminately. 
Nothing gives the human touch to a room more than 
flowers and in few ways is taste manifested more 
patent than in their arrangement. 
THE GARDEN 
All roses do better in a rather heavy, firm soil—one 
containing considerable clay—packed firmly about 
the roots. Roses set in loose, loamy soil often fail to 
show any growth and never bloom. While doing 
better in this firm soil, they require ample fertiliza¬ 
tion. Ashes worked into the soil are very beneficial. 
Bone meal is a good fertilizer, but old, well-rotted or 
pulverized manure cannot he excelled. 
Roses require special attention this month. Pru¬ 
ning should he done before growth begins. Remove 
all old and weak wood. Secure symmetry by 
pruning to a proper balance the branches. In fact 
it IS well to shorten all the leading branches—that 
forces the development of side branches and gives 
larger amount of blooming surface. 
^ oil can hardly manure roses too much, and the 
best manure is that from the old cow-pen. The 
older the manure the better, even to the extent of 
being so old that it is black and will crumble at the 
touch. Pulverized cow-pen products are now manu¬ 
factured and sold on a commercial basis from the 
Union Stock Yards, Chicago. Unquestionably that 
is the best form of fertilizer to use about the roses, and 
it should be worked into the soil thoroughly. 
Blackberries, gooseberries, raspberries and cur¬ 
rants, as every gardener knows, should not make a 
rush growth, but a steady even growth, which 
means that they should be nourished little and often. 
An application of nitrate of soda or of pulverized 
manure every week or ten days, just before a rain, 
will show surprisingly fine results. Any fertilizer 
thus used should be such as is ready for immediate 
assimilation. 
If you have not done so in the past, suppose you 
try a bed of balsam this year. 'I'he flowers are as 
double as roses, beautiful in color, and so frequently 
produced that the stalks are veritable wreaths of 
bloom. The profusion of foliage is the only draw¬ 
back to the balsam, that hides the flowers but it can 
be obviated by clipping the leaves all up and down the 
stalk, just before the flowers open, d'his gives them 
opportunity to display their beauty to the best ad¬ 
vantage. 
It will be no experiment so far as results and satis¬ 
faction goes, if the yard has a bed of Salpiglossis. 
riiere are but few annuals which eclipse it in rich 
coloring, and gorgeous combinations of color. 
Clean pots before using a second time. Bacteria 
are likely to be in the pores. To clean, give them a 
hot bath of strong soapsuds. Immerse them in a 
tub of hot water in which plenty of soap has been 
dissolved. When the water is cool enough to handle 
scrub them thoroughly inside and out, with a stiff 
brush. Another good way is to put them in a wash- 
boiler and boil them for ten or fifteen minutes. Very 
often plants potted in old, slime-covered pots refuse 
to make healthy growth and being put into new, or 
cleaner pots, they grow most satisfactorily. 
See that arbor posts and strippings are in good 
condition before the grape and other vines begin to 
show growth. Be sure that all vines are tied up, 
that the roots are dug about, and fertilizers applied. 
The best method of planting sweet peas is to dig a 
trench eight or ten inches deep, fill in three or four 
inches of well decomposed manure and add an inch 
or so of good soil. This leaves four or five inches of 
the trench unfilled. Embed the seed about an inch. 
When the vines are up and growing, gradually fill in 
earth around them until the surface of the trench is 
near but not quite level with the top of the adjacent 
ground. Sweet peas require a good deal of water 
and planting them below the surface is an aid in 
supplying necessary moisture. Pick the flowers 
daily if you desire them to bloom all season. 
This is the month in which the surgeon of the yard 
must operate, just as the surgeon operates on the 
human body, so must the gardener use the pruning 
shears on his plants. Where there is disease or signs 
of disease, prune without mercy. Cut away all 
diseased branches if it takes every one. It does 
not hurt a bush to cut it to the ground—that forces 
the roots to find an outlet for whatever vitality is left 
in them. If the roots are diseased, the thing to do is 
to uproot the plant, the sooner the better, and remove 
the old earth which lay about the diseased roots. 
A good liquid manure for potted plants can be 
dipped up from the barn-yard after a shower, but in 
that state it is too strong for the plants and requires 
dilution to about the color of weak table tea before 
being applied. It is an easy matter to keep the 
manure in this form by putting it m an earthen jar 
or wooden keg and keeping it covered. 
Plants require their richest nourishing when their 
fine spraying rootlets are new and tender. If they 
do not get it then, the rootlets quickly harden to a 
small size and will not expand or extend sufficiently 
for the plants to get full nourishment later on. The 
loss cannot be made up after the hardening proc¬ 
ess has set in. 
140 
