[Dec] 
232 
AND 
H[fj 
F' 
greenhouse. 
WIOTOW gardening EOE DECEMBER. 
WATERING PLANTS. 
Observe dii-eotions given last month. Soft 
water is better than hard water; bnt, no 
matter what kind you have, never allow 
yonr plants to suffer of thirst. Water should 
be of about the same temperature as the 
atmosphere of the room in which your plants 
are growing. In watering plants in pots, 
lower the watering-pot, so that the spout 
touches or comes near to the rim of the pots, 
then pour in gently and fill up to the brim. 
Don’t let it overflow. If you have saucers 
underneath the pots, don’t keep them full of 
water with the idea that you are doing the 
plants a kindness, as the opposite would be 
the case. In watering, do not pour the 
water into the middle of the pot, as you 
so often find is done, but toward the out¬ 
side—that is, around just inside the rims 
of the pots. Watering right in the mid¬ 
dle of the pot and at the base of the stem 
of the plant, is apt to make a hole in the 
soil there, and to injure the roots. 
Observe plants under natm’al conditions 
from Oaks to Cabbages, and yon wilt find 
that, instead of arising from basin-like 
hollows or having water-holes at the base 
of their stems, they emerge from gentle 
mounds which, instead of retaining the 
water around the stems, lead it off to 
where the fibrous roots abound and where 
it is most required. 
Geraniums and Fuchsias are “cast- 
iron” plants, and will stand much rough 
usage with apparent impunity; and Callas 
don’t seem to mind how they are watered, 
proriding they get a copious supply. But 
if you wish a striking example of the eril 
of water-holes around their base, try it 
with a sash of Lettuces in winter, 
CLEANING PLANTS. 
Never allow dead or moldy leaves or 
wood to rest on or about your plants. If 
decaying, moldy leaves or flowers fall 
upon fresh leaves and are allowed to 
remain there, the fresh leaves will rot 
also. If the leaves of Callas, Draeamas, 
Ficuse.s, and other plants with large, 
smooth foliage, get dusty, wipe them 
over with a sponge and soapy water; but, 
unless they are very bad, I should disad- 
vise your wiping the leaves of Coleuses and 
other soft, woolly leaves. Wage war against 
insects, and spare them not. A little soot 
mixed in the water you give the plants 
destroys or dispels earth-worms-mean 
things in pots. 
WINTER FLOWERS. 
Uic following are some of the flowers 
that 1 had in quantity last December: 
Abutilons, Allarnanda Schottii, double 
Sweet Alyssum, Amaryllis aulica. Begonias 
Bouvardias, Callas, Carnations, Cestruin' 
Pans daisies. Euphorbia spicndens, Gera¬ 
niums, Heliotropes, Yellow and Catelonlan 
.^ssamines, Meteor Marigolds, some Orchids 
Violets, Chinese Primroses, Pansies Drum 
months before. 
Have some soB it, 
one heap, well -1 otte 
if you can get it, som 
mold in other heaps, when you 
S-SShs 
Tm.v 1 . V„. d.». .1 
o,, in .thnr I"”**;"! “ 
“best soil’’mixtures recommended foi t 
several classes of plants. Europeaii hoi l - 
oultural literature is as precise in the coi- 
stitiients of its composts or soils foi the 
different classes of plants as doctors are 
with drugs in medical proscriptions. Visit 
vast floricultural emporiums. 
where 
vances into soil or manure, the 
clown a little deeper, and thisN I 
get rid of the worins-I prefer ho,?^^‘« 
manure when it is frozen. Of eoi 
such as the dry cakes I find in ^ 
pastures, I gather a lot every y * 
freeze, then bring it into the >t 
warm sheds. Cow manure seems t^ 
more insect vermin than horse raanurt"***'” 
LIQUID manure. 
Guano, or sheep, or hen-house man 
often used in water for liquidmanuring '* 
times an old bag is partly filled wifi, f 
yard manure, or put into a barrel of 
so that the manurial suhstanee mayT^^’ 
through into the water. After the b***'" 
has been emptied of water once or 
the manure in the bag is thrown out 
frosh manure introduced, and the sack*”^ 
placed in the barrel as before. This is 
I make it in winter. During the summer"! 
have one or more barrels sunk into the 
gi'onnd, so that their brims are an ine], 
or two beneath the ground level, andimo 
the side of the manure piles. Every rain 
fills these barrels full of the richest ma¬ 
terial, and the drainage from the heaps 
settles into them all the time. 
Wm. Falconer. 
the BERMUDA EASTER LILY. 
Plante, in inillonary variety, are handled 
and you will find „o “best- soil eomposts 
to trammel the dispalcli of bnsinoss. tf is 
H.mply a question of plain, 
iichest, according to tlio nature of II ’ 
p ante. Such a thing as one-foiirtli oaeli of 
peat, loam, loaf mohl, ami slnim V 
any other rigid r„l„ L ' 
But porous and wcll-dn,.imarHoi‘r''"'.''''"'‘'''- 
Iiitoly necessary for ifi,, 
gTowinginpote; of plants 
man UR n. 
I use woll-rottod fami-viird . 
take in a fair supply before i and 
tho hulk of mi luiSXr T I 
in a frozen state. Itichmaiinre ■ ’‘"'h' 
of worms, and I don’t want n 
potting soil it I can help it ! f 
. Ah Irost ,ul- 
THE BERMUDA EASTER LILT, 
(Lllimn Harrisii.) 
Our illustration represents a specimen 
of this magnificent Lily, exhibited last 
spring at a meeting of the New-York 
Horticultural Society. This variety ot 
Liliiim ioiif/i^orirm, brought here from the 
Bermuda Islands, has elicited consider¬ 
able discussion as to its being sufficiently 
distinct to justify its introduction ns a 
new variety. Having gi-owu both kinds 
side by side in the open gi'ound, we con¬ 
fess our inability to detect any material 
difference under these conditions. Never¬ 
theless, for forcing, those who have had 
ino.st extensive e.xperience consider the 
true Bermuda Lily far superior to the 
common kind. It not only can he forced 
earlier into bloom, so that flowers maj 
be obtained by Christmas, but under prop¬ 
er troatmoiit it produces a greater niini- 
her of flowers, and of larger size. 
Such 
-superb spccinions of Boniiuda Easter bil- 
ios as may bo soon at almost any winD^ 
mooting of the Now-Y^ovk Horticuh'U* 
(Society have eortainlj' iiovor been shoiva 
of the coinnion L. loiiyijlorioit. 
o get a finv bulbs of Hyaeinths, 
lyacinllm, 'I’uliiis, .loniiiiils, and I’olys" 
'''areissns ; iiot thoin, imtling, aceorii>"h 
DUTCH BULBS. 
If not alroaily [ilanted, there is still 
to got a fow bulbs of Hyaeinths, Hoa’» 
'l.\ 
Na 
size, ono or sovoral bulbs into a livi''*'" 
pol.. 'I'lion water as you would a 
I'otlod plant of any kind. Sot tho 
of-doors and oloso togolhor, and covoi 
over Ihreo or four inches deep with si 
ashos, or oartli. Hoforo hard frost sots 
inovo tho iiots to tho collar or 
placo, but away from frost, and covri’ 
as boforc. A Cow at a timo may bo 
np to tlio window of a warm roonb a"® 
a succossion of llowors bo maintainoJ' 
