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Flower Gardening (Garden Loam or leaf mould)
in the garden. Loam, or leaf mould, with half as much manure, and a little fine sand, will do the best. Roses which require to be taken up and kept in house for the winter should be well pruned at that time. Do not water roses so as to make the soil sodden around the roots. A little broken charcoal about them will aid the brilliancy of their blooming.
Roses are chiefly of the China, Tea, and Bourbon varieties. Of the first these are much admired: Agrippina (crimson), Eel's Blush (a great bloomer), Common Daily, White Daily, Madame Bosanquet, Sanguinea (crimson), Louis Philippe (dark crimson), Eugene Hardy (nearly white), and Eugene Beauharnois (fragrant).
Tea Roses are more delicate. The following are preferred: Odorata, Devoniensis, Caroline, Triomphe de Luxembourg, Safrano (beautiful buds), Clara Sylvain (pure white), Bougère, Madame Desprez (white), and Pactole (lemon yellow). Bourbon Roses are hardy in our Middle and Southern States. Of them we would choose Gloire de Dijon, Souvenir de la Malmaison, Hermosa, and Paul Joseph; though there are many other fine kinds.
Pinks.
Carnations and picotees are most admired, but the double crimson Indian pink is very pretty and easily raised. The pinks do best in a soil of three parts loam, one part cow manure, and sandy peat one part, with a little old plaster, sifted.
Pinks do not bear a great deal of moisture. They are raised either from layers or pipings, or from seed. Pipings are superfluous shoots cut off and potted in compost surrounded by moist sand. The seeds may be sown in spring, in similar pots or pans, or in open beds. In the Northern States they need potting for the winter as early as October. Geraniums.
These require a strong loam for soil; the top of a pasture will do, with a little sand and charcoal.
Geraniums require a good deal of light and air, and should not be crowded. They bloom in spring and summer, not often flowering in winter even in pots. Horseshoe or scarlet geranium is very popular; so are the rose, oak, and nutmeg geraniums. They all bear pruning very well. Large-flowered geraniums (pelargoniums) are beset by the green fly. Once in a week or two in warm weather they should be smoked, to get rid of the flies, and syringed every day or two. Verbenas.
These repay care well: having variety of color, blooming freely, and being easily cultivated. It is easy to raise new varieties from seed. All colors but blue ard a handsome yellow have been produced. They are often raised from cuttings.
The soil for verbenas should be about two parts loam, two leaf mould, and a little sand. Cuttings of young shoots may be taken from old plants early in February. After rooting for a few weeks in sandy loam, they may be potted; bedded out when warm weather comes, and repotted in September. You may take cuttings from choice plants in August, root them for two weeks, then pot, and repot them when the roots touch the sides of the pot. This is, by the way, proper as a rule with any plants.
Verbenas are native to dry, hilly ground, and need but moderate watering. Favorites are, Giant of Battles, Admiral Dundas, General Simpson, Celestial, Defiance, Lord Raglan, Glory of America. Heliotrope.
This gives a delightful fragrance, and is not hard to cultivate. It may be managed just as the verbena, but should be repotted often, and allowed to grow large, being trimmed for shape only.
What is called the lemon verbena is another plant, a half-hardy shrub, grown for the sweet scent of its leaves. It should be kept in a cellar all winter and planted out in the spring.
Of biennial and perennial flowering plants there are many of great beauty for the garden, of which we have no room to give more than the names.
They require little care beyond loosening the earth round them in the spring. The spring is the time for transplanting them. In the summer prune away weak stems; in the fall cover them with coarse manure; if evergreen, shelter with cedar or pine boughs. They may be propagated by division of the root early in the spring or after the summer bloom is over. The following are choice kinds: Lily of the Valley, Larkspur (Delphinum Formosum), Phlox (Phlox Drummondii is a beautiful annual), Canterbury Bell, Foxglove, Hemerocallis, Iris or Flag, Everlasting Pea, Spiræa (several varieties are very beautiful), Sweet William, Alyssum.
If one has a greenhouse, large or small, he may enjoy also, with good management, in winter as well as summer, the following: Camellias, Orange and Lemon trees, Daphne, Azalea, Oleander, Erica, Fuchsia, Salvia, Tropæolum (common nasturtium is Tropæolum majus), Abutilon, Cactus, Calla, Cuphæa, Achænia, Maranta, Pittosporum, Jasmines (white and yellow, very sweet), Calceolaria, Chinese Primrose, Laurestinus, Wax-plant, Begonia, Chrysanthemums (good garden bloomers in autumn), and the various bulbous plants, namely, Oxalis, Hyacinths, Tulips (grown beautifully in beds), Crocuses, Snowdrops, Jonquils, Narcissus. The Tuberose, and the Gladiolus are universally admired. The latter is gaining recently especially in favor. There are twenty or thirty varieties, which may be bought for three or four dollars a dozen. When grown from seed they bloom the third year. Finest varieties of Gladiolus are, Penelope, Brenchleyensis, Count de Morny, Vesta, Calypso.
Though not here exactly in place, we may name the periwinkles, larger and smaller, as beautiful in leaf and flower, for the border of a bed or about the fence of a garden; and Ivy as the most permanently beautiful of vines for a wall. The Parlor Ivy is a great grower, in baskets or elsewhere, and a pretty plant; not a true ivy, however, neither is the Kenilworth Ivy. Annuals.
These are either hardy or half-hardy. The former may be sown in the fall to bloom the next summer, or early in spring. The latter are sown early in spring to bloom in the summer. These are also either for the hot-bed only, or for the garden. Many plants which are annual in the open air, in a temperate climate, may become perennial in a conservatory. Tuberous annuals, kept through the winter to plant out again, are the Four-o-clock, Scarlet Bean, etc.
The following must be sown where they are to remain: Annual Larkspurs, Poppy, Mignonette, Lupin, Sweet Pea. They may be started in pots, however.
In sowing annuals, let the depth be according to the size of the seed; very shallow for the small. kinds. Thin out the weakest as they come up.
August or April will do to sow the hardy kinds; the beginning of May for the other sorts. In the fall pull up the old stalks.
Besides those named above, desirable annuals are, Asters, Coreopsis, Sweet Alyssum, Escholt- | ging over a piece of ground, it is a common praczia, Portulacca (a fine bloomer in a good place), Canna Indica, Zinnia, and Cypress Vine. The last should have a light frame for it to climb on.
Lilies and tiger-lilies have, in the above outline of garden-culture, been overlooked. They can only be named as having great beauty and variety.
Dahlias are going out of fashion; they are not fragrant, and not superior in beauty in proportion to the pains formerly taken with them.
For artificial heating, the structures in use are: the Stove, where the temperature is from 70° to 120° Fahr., with copious moisture; the Hot-house being a more common name for the same; the Green-house, of glass, kept at from 40° to 70°, for care and rearing of plants; and the Conservatory, used more for their display when in perfection. A Pit is an excavation of six or eight feet in depth, covered with a glass roof. This is very useful, and not costly.
On a small scale, all that can be done in a green-house may be accomplished in a parlor or chamber, with a Ward Case or a Walton Case.
The Hanging Basket and the Aquarium are also delightful sources of enjoyment to those who acquire skill in their management. Insects.
Red spider is killed by water; syringing will dispose of it. Mealy bug and scale are to be searched for and destroyed by hand; but sponging, especially with soap-suds, may suffice. The green fly is best gotten rid of by smoking. Put the plant under a barrel in which tobacco is burning; or burn tobacco-leaves or smoking tobacco under the plant in its place.
Soil for Window Gardening.
Loam, or common garden earth, brown or black, got from old pastures, left to crumble; peat, or black earth from damp woods or meadows; leafmould, the top soil of old woods; manure, well rotted by time, as in an old hot-bed; and common or silver sand, free from salt; these, in different proportions will do for all plants. For potting, good authority (C. S. Rand, Parlor and Garden) recommends two parts leaf-mould, one part manure, one-half part loam, one-half part peat, and one part sand.
Potted plants seldom need manure. Liquid manure or guano should, if used for them, be diluted and not often applied.