LILIES FORMING SMALL BULBS. 
Mr. Vick : — Last year my wife bought of you, among other things, one bulb of the Lilium Longiflorum, which 
gave us one perfect flower, and we this year anticipated much from it. It gave us five or six dwarfish stems and 
no flowers at all. Taking it up to sec what was the trouble, we found one bulb about as large as a hickory-nut, and 
over forty smaller down to the size of a Pea. Can you give us any 
reason for it, and if we shall put the little ones in dirt, how long, 
with good management, before they will give us blossoms?— T. J. M. 
In the first place, if those small bulbs are not in the 
ground, put them there as soon as possible. It would 
have been better if they had not been disturbed the first 
season. The largest of the bulbs will flower next sum¬ 
mer. If a Laly bulb becomes injured by the winter, or 
from any cause, so that it cannot live and flower, it will 
make a desperate effort to do its owner good service, by 
leaving a family behind, and if there is vitality enough, 
will form a large number of small bulbs. These, after a 
year or two, make bulbs of flowering size. Last winter 
was unusually severe on all bulbs and tubers, and no 
doubt your Longiflorum was seriously injured, and so did you excellent service, making an extra 
effort at the last — an example that should not be lost. It is well to “consider the Lilies.” We 
give an engraving of an injured bulb just as it was taken from our grounds, the little bulbs being 
shown, though rather indistinctly, at the base of the scales. 
A DIFFICULTY WITH THE ASTERS, AND A REMEDY. 
D. B. Allison, of Windsor, Nova Scotia, wrote us some time since of his ill success with 
Asters. As will be seen by the following communication, a remedy seems to have been discov¬ 
ered, and the information may be valuable to others: 
Jas. Vick —Dear Sir:— I have told you of the trouble we have with Asters ; of something affecting the plants, 
causing them to grow up a pale sickly color, spindling, and blooming very poorly; some of the buds coming half 
out ; some but a little on one side, and others not opening at all. This trouble is general here, and we had almost 
decided to give up the cultivation of Asters, a favorite flower of mine. The trouble I believe to be caused by an 
insect, a small gray fly, or miller, eating into the young shoots, and not an enemy at the roots, as you supposed, as 
a general thing. Last year a lady friend, one of the most successful cultivators of flowers in Windsor, used as a 
remedy a mixture of hellebore and alum, and had most beautiful flowers. I did not use it, and mine were a great 
failure. This year I used it freely, and have a fine show of Washington, Improved Paeony-flowered, and other 
Asters, some magnificent. Some were failures, more particularly on plants on which I used the mixture sparingly, 
and some without it, convincing me that the faithful use of the remedy saved those that bloomed well. Others who 
did not use the mixture have a very poor show, almost a total failure. The mixture is this; Half a pound of 
hellebore; steep in one gallon boiling water an hour; add three gallons cold water, and half pound alum. I 
poured it around the roots after the plants got fairly growing, and when the side shoots began to put out, sprinkled 
it pretty freely on the plants, repeating it every few days, say three times. After the buds were formed, gave 
them two doses, or more, using the compound without stirring it up when putting it on the buds in the two last 
applications. As hellebore is insoluble, the mixture has to be stirred to give it full strength in using before the 
buds are formed. The plants will stand a liberal dose of the stuff, more than I thought they would.— D. R. A. 
The Bouquet Aster. — Mrs. Dr. G. W. Rogers, of Decatur, Mich., thus writes of a Bou¬ 
quet Aster which must have been truly splendid : 
Mr. Vick : — Sir: — I have a red Aster—-Bouquet — about one foot high, it has 102 flowers on it. Have you any 
better? It is perfectly splendid. 
We do not think we could do better than that. A well grown Bouquet Aster, a perfect bou¬ 
quet of flowers, with only here and there a leaf to be seen peeping out from between the flowers, 
is really a splendid sight. 
Doing Good. — It is pleasant to know that we are doing a little good in the world. A gen¬ 
tleman of Cobbleskill, Schoharie county, writes as follows : 
I am a lover of flowers. Since I commenced taking your Floral Guinn my wife takes great pleasure in culti¬ 
vating her flowers, as heretofore she cared but little for them; but now it is most of her glory to cultivate and care 
for them after James Vick's plan. — D. M. B. 
Destruction of Ants. — F. J. Cri GLAND, of Mobile, finds no difficulty in ridding the garden 
of ants, by sprinkling Tobacco ashes about their haunts — Tobacco dust or Snuff will answer, 
always watering immediately after its use. 
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