AND 
greenhouse 
EOONOMIOAIi PEOPAQ-ATION. , 
• I have a gi-eenhouse which is fitted up for 
helping and forcing early salads and some 
vegetable plants, as an auxiliary to the hot¬ 
beds, to be used during the first months o 
the year, when hot-beds are hard to manage 
successfully. Having a love for plants, I 
naturally made the greenhouse the recep¬ 
tacle for such house-plants as could not find 
room in the living-room windows, and which 
would not keep well iu the cellar. 
Toward spring, the increasing'of my stock 
of common and half-hardy bedding-plants of 
the varieties most sought after was at¬ 
tempted, and I have, since that time, divided 
the heat and accommodation of the green¬ 
house with the best success with both plants 
and vegetables. During early winter the 
vegetables occupy most of the room, leaving 
only a sand-bed over the furnace for cuttings, 
and the space just beyond for stock-plants 
and the propagation of cuttings, and for 
seedlings. 
As spring advances, the vegetables give 
place to the fiowers; while, iu May and 
June, all the vegetables are transferred' to 
outdoor culture, and the house is full of 
plants alone. After the first of July, all the 
plants left on hand, together with those 
previously saved for stock-plants, are placed 
in the open ground. 
Geraniums, Heliotropes, Petunias, Fuch¬ 
sias, Salvias, Verbenas, and Pansies are most 
in demand, and as they will grow in a low 
temperature, are found most profitable for an 
amateur florist. Pansies, Stocks, Phlox, Asters, 
Marigolds, Nasturtiums, and Petunias I raise 
from seed early enough to have plants in 
bloom during May and June. Verbenas I 
raise from seed in preference to cuttings — 
buying seed of the choicest kinds only, and 
from reliable sources. 
The seed is sown in December, and comes 
L fifvwn fot out- 
ag, beJote frost, ottio I”"*”’" 
““V” fa wo.. 
easUy be learned by - ^ ^hat he 
seed, itisavciyiu prove 
grown from first-class seed do not i 
satisfactory. AV. H. Bull. 
PEEPETUAL PELAEGOmbM GEAHDIFLOETJM, 
Among the many classes of 
gi-ownin gi-eenhouses, the Pelargonium tube 
rJcertLy occupy one of the first place , 
on account of its handsome flowers, as wel 
as the gi'eat variety of color. The ^'ea es 
fault with them, so far, has been that t e 
period of their flowering is so short. Ih 
imperfection seems now to have been over¬ 
come by Mr. Abandon Heede, of Lille, who, 
by artificial crossing of P. Gloire de Paris 
and Gloire de Crim6e, has obtained a variety 
which is constantly in bloom. 
The flowers are large and of good form, 
the lower petals light vivid f)ink, the upper 
ones darker and spotted deep pui-ple, center 
I white. The foliage is well formed and light 
I green. It is evidently a grand acquisition, 
I competing with the Zonals, with which it is 
desirable that it should be crossed in the 
manner Mr. Wills has crossed them with 
i P.peltatim. To the intelligent experimenter 
there is a wide field open in this direction. 
Jean Sisley, Lyons, France. 
STAETIEG SEEDS. 
“ When possible to pm-ehase plants from 
a nurseryman, the amateur will avoid much 
care and trouble iu trying to sprout seeds by 
getting his garden stock ready started.” I 
mostly true to name, and produces much i don’t know where this advice was printed. 
nicer plants for bedding than those raised 
from cuttings, and the seedlings do not 
suffer from the green fly in the low tempera¬ 
ture, as cuttings do. I force them rapidly 
into bloom in two-inch pots after the first of 
April. 
Fuchsias I propagate from cuttings taken 
during the summer months, and rooted in 
separate pots of earth on the north side of a 
tight fence. This keeps them shady, and if 
kept well watered the cuttings will be hand¬ 
some little plants, ready to be lifted in the 
pots at the first indication of frost in the 
fall. Early cuttings in the greenhouse in 
the fall make little winter growth. The 
summer-grown ones remain dormant on the 
benches till forced forward by warm, spring 
weather. 
HeUotrope, carefully lifted and potted in 
September, will have made a now growth 
for cuttings about Christmas. When these 
cuttings are potted off, later on, tho top is 
out off, which makes the plant branching 
and stocky, and the cut-off tops may be used 
for propagation again. Salvias and Petunias 
such as I wish to propagate, are preserved 
by cuttings made before hard frost. Tho 
stock-plants I leave to die. Choice double 
Petunias are saved and perpetuated best in 
fry force, and soaking in warm wate 
night oh the hack of a stove, where 
warm, puts common seed in good co d**®® 
for sowing. 
The soil for seed-boxes or beds « 
sure to.be too coarse or too fine; 
lumps which shade and chill the se T ^ 
cramp it when sprouted,, or the too * ’ 
but it caught my eye in the heap of garden 
literature on my table as gratefully as if it 
had suggested buying a music box instead of 
learning the art of music. Of course, all 
such hints are proper enough, taken with 
reserve. If one has little time, and wishes 
flowers with least effort, or if perennials are 
wanted to bloom tho present year, the nur¬ 
sery florist is one’s best friend. But those 
who prden for the love of it find no plants 
so priceless as those tlioy have raised from 
fTm ""I 'itched 
from the first seed leaf, rejoiced in day by 
day, guarded, cherished without check into 
loyely and perfect luxuriance. It is not 
^ough that a plant merely liyes and blooms 
one cant bo satisfied unless it is brought 
to the highest beauty of which it is capable 
And, to secure this, one wants to control 
every hour and condition of its life. 
Ab for 8(J0d, 0710 18 TTIUgIi nf ilw 
-a iM.^ 
BOW seeds except those obtained rm ^n 
most reliable sources. ^ 
T “» 
a gain in short northern “ 
Boftens the shell which the germTasS?S 
sower has sifted it till it is like flopj 
breaks into a crust which no seed can hr 
Sifted it should be, but like coarse 
and more than half sand, which is w ’ 
light, and loose, for the tender plunufle^^ 
root in. 
My seed-boxes, made to answer the nn 
pose of in-door hot-beds, are four inchj" 
deep, with cracks or holes bored for dra^ 
ago in tho bottom, over which a scant layej 
of moss is spread, and an inch or more of 
soil. This was sifted, mixed with sand 
and stored in the shed last fall, where it 
was thoroughly frozen, the frost glistening 
through it when brought in lumps into the 
house. To thaw it, the boxes were set in 
the oven tiU the earth came out smoking 
warm, and drying on the top like furrows in 
a March wind. In this propitious state, a 
tablespoonful of bone-dust was forked in 
wfith a little hand-fork, the top smoothed 
and the seed sown, picking the finest on the 
point of a penknife and sinking it just where 
it w'as wanted. 
It is not easy sowing wet seed otherwise, 
and the covering is a nice matter. To sift 
soil over and then water it will sink and 
wash part of the seed out of good growing 
depth, and you cannot sift damp soil. It is 
easier to press the seed down ever so slightly, 
and a light hand is needed for this and other 
operations of gardening, or a jar of the box 
will make the seed sink enough of them¬ 
selves. 
Pressing the surface with a boai'd or 
trowel is not necessai’y; that is only called 
for in outdoor gardening, to protect seed 
from the sun or from high winds, which 
would carry it away. In boxes we can 
give the seed its mellow soil, its steady heat 
and moistm’e, the darkness and shelter it 
loves. The secret of quick starting is to 
give seed heat, moisture, and shelter with¬ 
out interruption. In a greenhouse or hot¬ 
bed this is easy; but I am writing of the 
in-door work,—raising plants by hand, one 
may call it,—which the beginner feels an 
uncertain essay. The risk and care may be 
diminished more than half by planting m 
moist soil, already warm, and keeping it so. 
But how' to keep them so, when boxes oyer 
the stove or in a room have a trick of drying 
up hopelessly when one least expects? 
There came a little invention wbich has 
made my spring sowing so successful that 
am anxious to share tho knowledge wit' 
others. Tliick wrapiiing-papor was cut two 
inches wider than tlio top of on oh box, on 
all 
sides, and folded to fit as closely ns the cover 
of a book, tho corners hold by a tack drive" 
in each-, just so it would hold. This was u® 
good as a hot-bod cover for keeping tho see 
protected and moist. Tho boxes were pil® 
on shelves back of the kitchen stove, sowo 
sot on soap-stones on tho top of parlor a" 
cooking stoves to secure under heat, ® 
to their own devices for throe days. 
tho tacks were drawn and cover lifted; 
the soil being perfectly moist, tho paper wa 
fastened down again till tho ond of the ' 
when most of the boxes needed a spriu*!®*' 
