Au-gust, 
194 
the: 
AND GREENHOUSE. 
THE whtdow hasdeit foe ATJ&UST. 
If your Cinerarias and Calceolarias are not 
yet sown, sow them, and keep them in a 
cool, shady place. Prick them oflf and pot 
them singly as soon as they are large enough 
to handle. Some chopped-flne tobacco-stems 
scattered among them will keep off green fly. 
Kepot Chinese Primroses before they be¬ 
come pot-bound. If you have none, sow 
now and you will get nice blooming plants 
for late winter or early spring. 
Kepot young Cyclamens as they need it. 
Old Cyclamens at rest in pots or planted out 
will now be starting to grow; lift or repot, 
using rich, mellow, light earth, and well- 
drained, clean pots. 
Geraniums, Heliotropes, Maheruias, and 
some other plants required for next winter's 
flowers, should be lifted and potted before 
the warm season passes; but Bouvardias, 
Carnations, Libonias, and some others are 
in time enough for a month or more yet. 
Sow biennial Stocks for blooming next 
spring, and Meteor Marigolds for winter 
flowers. Attend to staking, tying, pinching, 
watering and other routine matters as for¬ 
merly advised. 
To rank-growing plants that are pot- 
bound, give eneouragement in the waj’- of 
liquid manure. 
Use the prunings of Geraniums, Fuchsias, 
Alternantheras, etc., as cuttings. Strike 
some Nasturtiums {Lohbii) and when rooted 
grow them along in pots for winter flowers. 
The following notes and queries h.ave been 
sent to me by readers of The American 
Garden, and the answers to them may ap¬ 
propriately serve as seasonable hints at 
present. 
CRAPE MYRTLE AND POMEGRANATE. 
“I have a Crape Myrtle and a Pomegran¬ 
ate which I have grown in boxes for years and 
wintered in the cellar, but they are not do¬ 
ing well and they did not blossom last year. 
YlTiat had I better do with them ?" 
If they are in fairly good health let them 
alone till next spring, then just as their 
wood buds begin to swell, cut the plants in 
pretty well, turn them out of their boxes, 
shake away ail the old soil from the roots, 
and return the plants to tho.se or other boxes, 
using fresh, fibrous, loamy soil with rotted 
leaf-mold mixed with it, and observe that 
the boxes be barely big enough to hold ttie 
roots comfortably. Better u.se a small box 
and shift a little later into a larger one, than 
over-box your plants. 
ZEPIiyRANTIIL'.SES CROWDED IN POT.S. 
“I have a six-inch pot so full of jiink Ze- 
phyranthuses that the bulbs ajipear to be 
crowded in it. Should i shift the wliole 
mass into a larger pot, or divide and repot 
into more pots?” 
Shift into an eight-inch pot; that will not 
much disturb tlieir blooming, and then wlieii 
they get pot-bound again, divide tlie mass 
and repot into tlie six-inch pots. Bulbous 
plants cultivated in pots sliould not liave 
very much pot room if you want a full croj) 
of flowers. 
GLOXINIA.S AND KKGONIA,S. 
“I wintered my Gloxinia and Begonia 
-boxes with a little dry earth 
bulbs in shallow -- and 
over and about jg a dry 
kept them in the cellar. The cell. ‘ 
one; nothing ever freezes m i, a 
■ums,Koses .and Chrysanthemums live and 
sprout in it, but all my Gloximas died, a 
Begonias lived. IVhat was the cause. 
Cold. A merely frost-proof cellai 
w'arra enough for Gloxinias; they 
kept in a wduter temperature of ‘ o 
and the last is the better one. Tubei-ous- 
rooted Begonias are very much haidiei^ lai 
Gloxinias; indeed, away from frost is all 
the w'mtor temperature they need. no\i 
have Gloxinias in bloom in pots and have 
had others in bloom all summer, also I have 
360 square feet of cold-frames occupied by 
Gloxinias, and half of tliem were wintered 
as recommended to our correspondent, ex¬ 
cept in a high temperature, and that, too, 
w’ithout losing one bulb; the otlier half .aie 
from seeds sow'll or cuttings made last spring. 
For cuttings I used tlie sprouts that grew on 
some of the “bulbs” w'hilc they iverc yet in 
their wdnter boxes. 
A THERMOMETER. 
This costs only a few cents, and if one has 
to winter plants in the cellar it will p.ay to 
have a thermometer in it. Many plants. 
Geraniums for instance, w'ill bear ivith im¬ 
punity a little frost, w'liereas Gloxinias, 
Achimeues, Tydteas and the like cannot be 
wintered with certainty in a temperature of 
less than 45°, and if some degrees liigher so 
much the better. 
GESNERA. 
“I want a Gesnera. What one had I bet¬ 
ter get and how treat if? I have nice, south¬ 
facing window's and w'arm rooms.” 
Get Gesnera exoniensis. Treat as you w'ould 
an Achinienes, only keep it a little w'anner 
in winter, and in sunmier keep it aw'.ay 
from strong sunshine. It rests in win¬ 
ter, starts to gi-ow in spring, and blossoms, 
according to treatment, from .July till the 
month of October. 
GERAXIU.M.S. 
“L.ast winter I h.ad Geraniums in bloom in 
the house from November till .siiring. They 
w'ere raised from (aittingsin .fune and grown 
in tin cans, and they blossomed better than 
any I ever before h.-ul grow-n. In the fall I 
lifted anti potted some other Geraniums as 
carefidly as 1 could, and grew them in w'in- 
ter in the same window's as 1 did the .June- 
.struck cuttings, and they did not have a sign 
of bloom till the end of March. Ilereaftx'r 
I ahvays .shall start my cuttings in .June for 
winter flowers.” 
Wc who have greenhouses do nearly tlie 
same thing. _ \vm. Kai.ooner. 
heliotropes foe winter blooming, 
llcliotrojies are largriy useil for cutting in 
winter, and when properly grown are exceed¬ 
ingly productive. My method for produc¬ 
ing Heliotrope flowers in winter is did'erent 
from that Kenerally pnmticed, and as if is 
partnadarly adapted to the use of those who 
have little room, 1 will give ji, |„ (i,.|,.|j| 
Kor plants which are wanted to bloom in 
December, ! usually begin by putting h, 
good sujiply of cuttings early h, Auirus 
In a cool, sliuded house, if tlie eniii, ^ 
soft, thrifty shoots, they will reel, readily", q 
tins season, and by the latter part , , 
rmmth should be I-oUed Into tvvo-hieh „ " 
using a compost of .Iceomposed sod and ’ 
mire As soon as they start into vigorous 
growth pinch out the tips, which will make 
rhpm ffi'ow bushy. 
As soon as the small pots .are well-filled 
with roots, shift the plants into four-inch 
Dots- place them close to the glass and in 
full sunlight, and give plenty of air to avoid 
having the plants draivn, and give a night 
temperature of 60° to 65°. Pay strict atten¬ 
tion to watering, and keeping down red spider 
and green fly. Heliotropes will not stand 
strong fumigation, and it is better, therefore, 
to use a decoction of tobacco for syringing 
to keep down the aphis. If well treated, 
these phants ought to be in full bloom by 
December Ist. 
When the main part of the flowers have 
been cut .and the plants appear enfeebled, 
cut them down to within three inches of the 
pot, sh.ake them out of the old soil, and re¬ 
pot in same pots with new compost. They 
will soon start into a fresh growth and give 
another profuse crop of flowers by Febru¬ 
ary. After this bloom is over, cut the plants 
back, but do not shake them out, .and the re¬ 
sult is that by bedding-out time they are 
compact little bushes ready to go out and 
bloom all summer. 
To follow up the plants which bloom early 
in December, I put in another batch of cut¬ 
tings about September 1st, so as to have them 
bloom when the first ones have been cut 
down. By this method I always have an 
abundance of flowers. It will be seen that 
our Heliotropes never get into a larger pot 
than the four-inch size, and the quantity of 
bloom that can be t.aken from them is a sur¬ 
prise to anj'one who has never tried it. 
For this method it is important to use va¬ 
rieties which are naturally dwarf in habit. 
The most profuse bloomer I have ever tried 
is the Snow Wreath, but the best flowers are 
liroduced b}' a dark variety raised here in 
Baltimore, c.alled Lizzie Cook. Baltimore 
florists use it almost exclusively. AVith this 
variety and Snow lyreath I have produced 
over 6,000 heads of flowers, on a table four 
feet by 16, during the months of frost. 
AVm. F. Massey. 
SOWING CINERARIAS AND CALCEOLARIAS. 
There is no great difllculty in starting 
tliese beautiful plants. Prepare a pan of 
liglit soil, on tlie top of which spread about 
onc-eightli of an inch of linely sifted Sphag¬ 
num Moss. Old, dry AIoss rubbed through 
a No. 4 sieve is best. After watering copi- 
onsly, sow tlie seed on the top, and cover 
the pan with a pane of glass; place in a 
shaded greenliouse and no more water 
will generally be needed until the seed¬ 
lings^ appear. Seed sown during August 
and Septeinher will make grand plants for 
spring blooming. 
ASPARAGUS TENUISSIMUS. 
Nol lilng can exceed the featliery graei 
foliage of tliis most beautiful of all vines 
pot culture, and it grows up a string nei 
as I'list as Smllax. It keeps fre.sh so longa 
cutting (hat it is iiartieularly desirable a 
green tor bouquet making. One of then 
handsomeaml unique liridal houquets woe 
saw was composed of Nlplietos Kosi'-b 
.inst sliadowed over wltli a (limy veil of 
downy foliage of .As/xmif/ns tmuissin 
this iilant grows so readily from euttl 
that It will soon become plentiful. 
