GARDEN NOTES 
FERNS, CHRYSANTHEMUMS, GERANIUMS, ETC. 
By EBEN E. REXFORD 
P LANT-GROWERS have fads, the same as 
other people. One that a great many ama¬ 
teurs get a good deal of pleasure out of is 
that of making collections of ferns, native and foreign. 
Some of our native ferns are quite as beautiful 
as any of foreign origin, and it is an easy matter to 
make a shady corner of the home-grounds attractive 
by planting them there. It will take a season or 
two for them to become fully domesticated, but after 
that they will flourish as luxuriantly as in their native 
habitat, provided—and this is important,—they are 
given the same kind of soil as that in which they 
originally grew. If you transplant a fern from the 
woods, where it has had almost pure leaf-mold to 
grow in, to a place where there is no leaf-mold, you 
ought not to expect it to do well. It certainly will 
not, though it may live on indefinitely, for ferns are 
not nearly as delicate plants as people imagine. But 
go to the trouble of bringing a few loads of native 
soil, and you will be able to make your fern-corner one 
of the most attractive features of the home-grounds. 
In bringing ferns from the woods, be careful not 
to expose their roots. Lift 
them with considerable soil 
attached, and put them at 
once in a basket with a layer 
of damp moss in it. If you 
are going to remain long, 
it is a good plan to give the 
basket an occasional dip in 
water, to make sure that 
the moss is kept sufficiently 
wet to impart moisture to 
the soil above it. Let a 
fern-root get dry, before 
planting, and it is labor 
thrown away to plant it. 
Do not let the beauty of a 
fine, large specimen, as seen 
growing in its native quar¬ 
ters, get the upper hand of 
your good judgment, and 
lead you to choose it for 
removal in preference to the 
smaller specimens growing 
all about it. The small 
plants will be almost sure 
to] live, if properly set out 
and cared for until they 
become established in your 
fern-corner, but the large 
plant will almost as certainly die. After setting out 
your plants, water them well, and keep them shaded. 
If there is not much dew-fall, shower them well at 
night. Keep up this treatment until they begin to 
grow, after that, they wdl take care of themselves. 
One of the dlustrations accompanying this article 
was taken from a friend’s fern-corner located in 
the north side of the dwelling. Here wild ferns 
grew in the border along the path as luxuriantly 
as in their native haunts, and here she kept her 
potted ones throughout the summer, along with other 
shade-loving plants. I want to call particular atten¬ 
tion to the fine specimen of Boston fern, growing on 
the bracket at the left of the picture. This, she 
told me, was a young plant in March. She had 
potted it in rich woods’-earth, and kept it well 
supplied with water throughout the hot, dry mid¬ 
summer season. I counted twenty-seven fully de¬ 
veloped fronds on it, and a dozen or more new 
ones were peering up from the center of the 
plant. 1 hose who have large, old plants of this 
variety, will do well to copy her treatment, and 
divide them in the spring, 
making each division the 
basis of a new plant. Such 
a treatment gives strong, 
vigorous plants for winter 
use, preferable in every 
way to old plants. 
Did you store the roots 
of any of last year’s chrys¬ 
anthemums in the cellar, 
over winter ? If so, start 
them into growth as soon 
as possible. When young 
shoots appear, all over the 
surface of the soil, -as they 
soon will after you put the 
pot in the light, and apply 
water,—cut them away 
from the old plant in such 
a manner as to leave a bit 
of root attached, and put 
them into small pots of rich 
soil. Keep them well 
watered. Leave them in 
the little pots until the soil 
is well filled with roots, then 
shift to pots two or three 
sizes larger, using, always, a 
soil that is lich in nutriment. 
AN AMATEUR’S FERN-CORNER 
it? 
