The Editor will be glad to answer in these columns queries that appear of general interest pertaining to individual problems connected with the 
garden and grounds. When a direct personal reply is desired, please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope. 
St. Valentine’s Month 
T. VALENTINE chose rather a chilly 
month when he selected February 
for his festival, yet for these twenty- 
eight days the good old Zodiac is 
ruled by the Heart, and that gives the 
world something to think about when 
Winter, still clinging with its snows, seems 
to bid the enthusiastic Garden-maker be 
patient and await the real coming of 
Springtime. However, February is not 
a month to be idle in; there are more 
preparations to be made and more things 
to be done m this month than, perhaps, 
your young gardener about to enter upon 
his experiences has ever dreamed there 
could be. Here are some of them: 
February Preparations 
Don’t forget that you may have some 
spraying to do in February. 
Hotbeds will hardly be started as 
early as February in parts of the country 
north of Philadelphia, surely not near 
Chicago, Detroit or New York. 
If you are intending to start a Mush¬ 
room crop you have no time to lose now. 
Achimenes tubers should now be 
started in flats, in light soil, with leaf 
mold and sand, and sheep manure to 
enrich it. A temperature of 60 degrees 
will be required at night. 
The Achimenes is one of the most striking 
summer-blooming conservatory or window- 
plants. 
Cuttings may now be taken for Paris 
Daisies, Chrysanthemums, and Begonias 
for October and later flowering. It would 
be well to buy small greenhouse plants at 
this time to be grown through the sum¬ 
mer to maturity. 
If you are digging around your garden 
at any time remember that dug-in snow 
chills the soil w'here roots may be dor¬ 
mant, consequently they will be injured 
or killed by thoughtless treatment of 
this sort. 
Don’t forget that your lawn needs 
winter care. Top dress it with fine 
manure. 
Both Gladioli and Cosmos may be 
started indoors now for early bloom, and 
bedding plants propagated from stock 
plants. 
Place your orders early with your 
nurseryman if you would avoid disap¬ 
pointment in the rush for good plants 
that always seems coincident with the 
beginning of every season's rush work. 
If you procure your seeds in time you 
will have an opportunity of testing their 
germinating qualities before the regular 
outdoor planting season. 
This is a good time to put greenhouse 
benches in shape, for nothing is more dis¬ 
couraging than to find them rotting away. 
Spray them with copper sulphate, and 
after that as often as necessary with your 
whitewash mixture. 
For early vegetables start beets, 
cauliflower, string beans, kohlrabi, etc., 
in greenhouse or window for later trans¬ 
ference to hotbeds and coldframes. 
Now is the time to take cuttings of 
your Stevia (Piqueria trinervia), or as 
soon as it is through its Christmas flower¬ 
ing. From time to time shift them until 
they are ready for 6-inch pots. Then 
plunge them outdoors in ashes when all 
danger of frost is past, turning the pots 
every day to keep them from rooting into 
the ground. Induce a bush form by 
pinching out the growths. Store the 
plants in a light cool place as cold weather 
comes on, and bring a few of them at a 
time into the flower room. Thus, in 
succession you will have the Stevia for 
November, December and January. 
Inspect your house-plants, especially 
palms and ferns, and if you find their 
roots greatly grown and spread, shift them 
to larger pots. 
Among the indoor vegetable seeds 
you will be sowing in February for out¬ 
door transfer in May are lettuce, toma¬ 
toes, cabbage, eggplant, celery, onion, 
endive, radishes, parsley, etc. 
Flowering Tree-twigs 
nPHERE is a sort of indoor gardening 
that February and the early spring 
months bring around to everyone who 
initiates himself in the delightful pastime 
of forcing the twigs of flowering trees 
and shrubs into early bloom by cutting 
them and placing them in vases of water 
indoors. 
There is a very long list of the twigs 
and branches that thus may be coaxed 
into flowering weeks and weeks before 
Nature, left to her own devices, awakens 
them to the song of the real Springtime. 
Branches of the Dogwood (Cornus florida) bring 
forth beautiful white flowers several inches 
wide 
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