Ivtay^ 
MAT. 
How sotUy comes the brcutli of bloom 
From (inlet garilcn closes ! 
Ami, blcmlocl in a rare perfume, 
The royal scent ol Roses! 
How tcmlcr is the touch of May 
While gentle winds arc blowing. 
And in a sweet, yet silent way 
All sylvan things arc growing! 
How brilliant is the morning dew 
Amid the fields of Clover! 
Beneath a stainless arch of bine 
The mock-bird is a rover; 
His songs are echoed o’er tlie hills. 
Their boon of music bringing,— 
Till all the land with wonder fills 
To hear his inplurons singing! 
How gracious is the light that gleams 
Across the dancing billows,— 
Or with a clVastencd splendor beams 
Above the drooping Wiilows! 
How fair are Slay’s benignant leet 
O’er rugged vales and mountains. 
And how lier magic pidses boat 
Beside the brooks and fountains! 
What sudden fervor thrills her blood,— 
Through grove or garden straying,— 
To linger o'er some tardy bnd. 
And chide its long delaying! 
Wliatpure contentment fills her breast. 
Through thick-leaved forests roaming, 
To find the peaceful birds at rest 
Beneath the dews of gloaming! 
What month so musical and bright. 
So rife witli venial gloiy,— 
All gannented in air and liglit. 
Like some Arcadian stoiy !— 
Oh! fragrant is the breath of -May 
In trancpiil garden closes,— 
And soft yet regal is Iier sway 
Among the spring-tide Hoses! 
— WilUam II. Ilmjntln Good Cheer. 
We have gorgeous 
liii, which, intilie up m vm at a 
lack in delicacy; , then we have 
distance rather than c os ^ texture 
flowers of the utmost c • . 
and of great beauty of I'’'" 
which comes early in „.,ound 
ishes suddenly. Occt.pying a 
is the Gladiolus, a flower „hlia 
and yet vivid enough to make 
It is .as beautiful asthclus, ana 
than the Dahliti, and 
one of the tnost ellective flowers that we 
have for the garden. 
It is not necessary to start it p' 
the house. AVait till Corn-plantm„ sca- 
Then dig ui) the earth whcic 
to the depth of a foot 
envious, 
more easily grown 
second only to that of the Lily. Combine 
them with some pleasing green, which this 
plant docs not furnish* for such uses, and you 
can have no liner ormiment for your rooms. 
The uiideveloped buds grow and develop 
after cutting, if the watei’ is kept fresh. 
Ebkn E. Kexfoi 
TOuh. 
• SEASONABLE HINTS. 
At this season of preparing and laying out 
flower-beds, a bit of our last yeai-’s e.xperi- 
enue may perhaps serve as a seasonable 
hint, espeei.illy to amateurs. 
Intending to arrange a mixed flower bor¬ 
der, four feet wide, by 200 feet in length, in 
a most unpromising situation, with a cold, 
heavy soil that had not received any feilili- 
zers in several years, we spaded the ground 
deeply in the fall of 18.S.0. It was then cov¬ 
ered with a coat of throe inches of fresh 
stable manure, and over this was s))re.‘id a 
layer of raw muck, thick enough to cover 
the manure comiiletely. Iiuring wintei-, 
sifted coal ashes as they arc taken from the 
furnace room were spread ovei’ this to a 
dejjtli of about two inches. 
In the spring following, the ajijiearanee of 
the prospective flower-bed was anything but 
encouraging. As soon as the gi-ound was 
dry enough it w.as siiaded with .a fork, mi.x- 
ing the diflerent strata as much as jiossible. 
Two additional spadings weias given, at in¬ 
tervals of a few weeks, bcfor(! sowing iind 
planting, which was not done before .June,. 
As the result of all this prejiaraCion the 
ground remained !is mellow tind uniformly 
moist throughout the season as could be do 
sii’cd, .and the healthy growth and luxuri¬ 
ance bf the hundi’eds of dill’erent plants that 
gi-cw in it we have never seen erpialed. 
'I’hat much of this success was due to the 
coal ashes cannot be doubted, as the adjoin¬ 
ing ground, trciitcd exiietly alike, less the 
in 
son comes, 
you want it to grow 
and a half. iMakc it rich by .adding some 
thoroughly rotted manure from the cow- 
yard. Mix the earth and manure well to¬ 
gether, and if it does not seem light, i‘dd 
some sand. The Gladiolus does not like a 
heavy soil to grow in. Plant the bulbs .about 
four inches beneath the surface. I would 
advise you to plant at least half a dozen in a 
clump. The ellcct will be much liner where 
there is a large number of stalks than where 
there arc few, and as the bulbs do not often 
send up more than two or three stalks it is 
necessary to plant several bulbs together if 
you would produce much strong ellect. 
As soon as the blossom-stalks begin to 
shoot up, set some neat stakes among them, 
to tie the stalks to later, for they will be 
top-heavy when the buds begin to expand, 
and a wind often breaks them down. Paint 
the stakes green, if convenient, for they will 
be inconspicuous, and you want nothing to 
draw attention away from your flowers. 
The rarer varieties of Gladiolus are very 
expensive, some of the newest ones being 
listed at six dollars in the catalogues of our 
most extensive growers. \ow few of us 
can aflbrd six-dollar bulbs for our little gar¬ 
dens, but we can have others in the ]dacc of 
these costly ones almost, if not rpiito, as 
beautiful, for little monejL 'I'here are doz¬ 
ens of very beautiful varieties oll'ered at ten 
and flfLeen cents, and for twmity-fivc and 
thirty cents you can get some in most exiiui- 
site shades. If you do not care for named 
varieties, you can get mixed bulbs at To 
cents and SI per dozen which will allbrd you 
excellent .satisfaction, and as many of them 
are, .seedlings which have not hloomed, you 
stand a chance of getting some, very idioiec 
new varieties. Vou will proh.ahly be just 
as well pleased with the.se, mixed colleetious 
as you would be with sideeted iiaine.d va- 
riiaies. 
'I’he Gladiolus ranges through red and all 
its similes,—pink, scarlet, crimson and ma¬ 
roon, and we have It in pui’iile, orange, pale 
yellow and white. Often a flower combines 
two Ol’ three of these colors, in diflurent 
shades and markings, and the ellect Is su¬ 
perb. The flowers are borne on one side of a 
long spike, and are somewhat like the Anm- 
ryllls in shaiie. They are wonderfully dell 
cate in texture. There Is nothing cairse 
ahout them, not even among the very iioorest 
CARNATIONS. 
The present perfection of the Carnation, 
.said C. M. Atkinson before tlic Massaelui- 
setts llorticuitural .Society, is the result of 
long apd patient industry. At tiie begin¬ 
ning of the eighteenth century it numbered 
between five and six hundred varieties. 
Throughout the civilized world it is an es¬ 
pecial'^favorite for its simple and graceful 
beauty, iind above all for its delicious fra- 
o-rancc. In Euroiie it is universally culti¬ 
vated in pots, but that method is totally 
unsuitable liere. Good, d; ep garden soil (yel¬ 
low loam is preferable) enriched with thor¬ 
oughly rotted cow manure, some leaf-mould, 
and, if the soil is too adhesive, some sand, 
are requisite. 
Dig deep find thoi’ouglily, and when the 
weather is fairly settled, set out the plants, 
nine inches by twelve apart; stir the surface 
frequently, and as soon as they begin to 
throw up their flower .stems remove all but 
one, which tie to a iie.at stake. The weather 
about the time of flowering is usually bright 
and hot, thus prematurely hastening the de¬ 
velopment of the flowers. An evening 
visit with the water pot, sprinkling on and 
around the plants, but not over the flowers, 
is beneficial. Shade is necessary in the hot¬ 
test part of the day. For the real amateur, 
cotton ' '-Uh, attached to a roller and fixed 
on a neat skeleton framework sO as to let up 
and down, is the thing. Second-hand Ash¬ 
ing nets, or seines, stretched double over 
stakes sulliciently high to walk under, answer 
very well, and need not be moved until the 
bloom is over. In Europe they display six 
or eight flowers, siqiported by a stake, but 
the speaker likes a good mass rather than a 
few. 
.\s soon as the i>lants are ready for layor- 
ing it should be done, thus obtaining strong 
plants by the middle or end of September, 
when they should be tninsferrcd to their 
winter quarters. For this purpose a bed 
should be, made of the .size of the cold frame, 
and the plants set thickly in it. By the end 
of November strew two or three inches of 
dry tan, or, what is preferable. Fine needles, 
among them, put on the frame, ifiace the 
sashes over them, but give all possible air, 
excluding nothing but heavy rains, snow and 
extreme frost, and when May comes ronnd 
again transfer the plants to more agreeable 
and attractive quarters. 
of the many varieties. 
It is a most useful plant 
furnlshhijj 
TUBEROSES. 
Many bulbs are lost every year by bein.S 
planted out too early, 'rim Tidterosoisa 
native of tropical East India and cannot 
thrive In our climate except hi hot weather. 
In this latitude It is not safe to plant out-doors 
before .lime, hut by starting the bulbs i» 
pots hi a hot-bed or warm room, and Irans 
planting to the open ground hi .Imub thi\V 
maybe had in bloom several weeks eaifi'-’ 
than by planting directly in the border. 
They reiiiilre a deep, rich and rather nio s 
soil, and tlip sunniest position avail 
