Ida D. Bennett

“ It is of much more slender growth than the rest and inclined to be pendulous, or weeping. Its delightfully fragrant flowers are produced in round heads the size of a half-dollar at the axil of every leaf and show a lovely rosy-lilac hue. If planted in the open ground the Weeping Lantana quickly covers a considerable area, presenting a solid sheet of bloom throughout the summer. It will bloom freely in the house if given a warm, sunny window, abundant room, and showered daily to keep back the red spider, or dipped occasionally in hot water for that purpose. ”

“ Probably no greenhouse flower is as little known or repays acquaintance as royally as the Calceolaria. Of infinite variety, its showy purse-shaped flowers range from a rare pure white through all the shades of pale lemon, orange, and scarlet to a deep, rich, velvety cardinal. ”

“ A basket of three two-year-old seedlings is a thing of beauty, throwing off wonderful fronds—even in the dry air of a sitting-room heated with a coal-stove. They should be given a chance to rest during the summer by setting in a cool, shady place, watering sparingly. When the plant shows signs of renewed growth repot, giving a larger pot if necessary, or, if two or three plants have been growing in one basket they may be separated and given more room. An elongated tuber is formed on the roots, which stores nourishment—like the nodules on the Clematis and Clover roots. ”

“ If all the original soil is to be retained, remove the top-soil for top-dressing. Spade the manure into the subsoil and replace the surface-soil. In ground which has not been cultivated this surface-soil is rich in humus or leaf-mould, which furnishes food in its most available form for the young plant, and should, therefore, be left where the plant can use it and not be turned under as is usually done. Nature never turns the soil upside down; nor will the wise gardener, except when a richer and better soil is to be added or when it is necessary to work in manure. ”

“ Watering the garden in the middle of the day may seem a reckless innovation to many, especially to the professional gardener, but years of experience have taught me the value of giving a plant water when it most needs it—and that is when it is parched with heat. Of course all plants will not stand water under a hot sun, but Pansies are not injured by it in any way. ”

“ For this reason I like to grow them by themselves and use a mulch instead of cultivation. So much of the beauty of the plant depends upon the perfection of the foliage that every effort should be made to preserve it. In setting or potting Gloxinias the crown of the bulb should be above the earth, the soil should slope to the rim of the pot, that no water may settle about the crown and rot it. The plants may remain in the hotbed or other quarters until the approach of frost, when they must be shifted into larger pots and given a position in an east window with plenty of light. ”

“ As the foliage dies it becomes firm and hard again, the strength of the top has returned to the bulb from which it came, and it is at this period that it makes its own growth and prepares for another season of bloom, readiness for which it will announce by beginning to grow though water be withheld. The top earth—which should be dry at this time—should be removed as far as possible without disturbing the roots, and replaced with good, rich soil. Water freely, and when the buds appear give a little weak liquid manure once a week. ”

“ When through blooming in the spring, and the foliage has ripened, the bulbs may be lifted, dried, and stored away in a cool place until fall. All these bulbs increase rapidly, both by multiplying and by seed. Neglected beds of Tulips seem to multiply and perpetuate themselves indefinitely, but the new plants will be found to be all from seed, as the Tulip forms its new bulbs at the base of the old, and if they were not frequently taken up and reset they would grow so deep in the ground that all the strength of the plant would be exhausted reaching the surface, and there would be no bloom. ”

“ Sow Poppy seed freely wherever there is a corner to spare, especially if it is a corner that would otherwise be neglected and grow up to weeds. It is surprising how many places may be found to sow them. A barren angle of a fence, a vacant strip behind or at the side of some outbuilding, an exposed spot among trees where nothing else will grow, a foot of ground here and there, in the perennial border and among late flowering plants, where the Poppies will have danced through their brief season of bloom and passed on before the former have discovered that they need the room. ”

“ When the first enthusiasm passes, and one becomes a careful and successful worker, all that is superfluous is gradually dropped, and one realises that it is brains and not tools that make the successful gardener. A hotbed, a cold-frame or two, a work-table in some convenient place, a trowel, wheel-barrow, spade, pitchfork, rake, hoe, a few yards of stout cord, a hatchet to sharpen stakes, a watering-pot, rubber sprinkler, rubber gloves, a good supply of pots and wire-netting, and a couple of good mole-traps cover the real necessaries. ”

“ Soil containing a good proportion of sand is warm, while a preponderance of clay makes what is known as cold or wet soil.
If there is good drainage, cold soil can be rendered lighter, sandier and more friable by the liberal application of manure, which in two or three years will quite change its character. But this is a long time to wait, and to get quick results it will be necessary, after laying out the garden and outlining the beds, to remove the earth to a depth of twenty inches or more, filling in with soil suitable for the class of plants to be grown in each bed. ”

“ The utmost care must be taken to guard against aphides or green plant-lice, which are absolutely fatal if allowed to gain any foothold. The prevention is plenty of fresh air and tobacco-dust sprinkled on the leaves, which mars their beauty. The remedy—dipping in water heated to about 135 degrees, or brushing off the lice and killing them.
Carnations are the most easily grown of all desirable house-plants. If planted in drills in the hotbed in April, or in the open ground when the trees are in leaf, they will bloom in about four months. ”

“ With unsuitable soil there must be many failures, resulting in loss of both plants and seeds, and this in itself is no small expense. The labour of caring for such a garden is many times greater, for the top-dressing of manure required produces an incessant crop of weeds, which must be removed, not once, but many times during the summer, while beds filled with leaf-mould or muck need but one or two weedings. The weeds which grow naturally in these soils do not flourish in the open ground. ”

“ For effective grouping, to fill in a corner, to serve as a screen to unsightly objects, to catch the eye and carry it on from point to point, there is no finer flower than the Hollyhock. The double flowers, of course, are more attractive at close range, but at a distance the single are rather more effective. Everyone who grows plants should find at least one corner for a big clump of this gorgeous flower. ”

“ The variegated Japanese Hop is another summer vine that should be extensively grown. Its large, handsome foliage, freely splashed with white, is very showy and effective, and it thrives in almost any situation and soil, though paying well for extra care or attention in the way of cultivation, watering, and food. The vines are not hardy, but, as they self-sow, once established they are practically permanent. Several plants should be set near each other, as only the female plant bears seed. The leaves of this are smaller and the vine more slender. The great-leaved, robust vine bears no seed. ”

“ Don’t forget to water the window-boxes every day, and to keep the sand in the sand-box wet all the time.
Don’t forget to go over the Pansies and Sweet-peas every day, and remove all withered flowers. Don’t let them suffer for want of water at any period of their bloom.
Don’t try to raise more plants than you have room for, or strength and time to cultivate. A few plants well cared for are better than a neglected garden—a most discouraging sight. The gardener will find enough real difficulty without inviting disaster. ”

“ The root when cooked is like a potato. It is better to start separately in pots an inch larger than the bulbs, setting the top of the bulb just above the surface of the soil. Pot with muck or good compost and keep moist and warm. They respond to heat and moisture the most readily of all dormant bulbs, beginning to grow at once and making steady progress, the root growth keeping step with the top much more uniformly than is usual with bulbs that are wintered dry. It is an ideal plant for the amateur, as easily grown as a hill of corn. ”

“ A small plant obtained from the florist in spring and potted in a four-inch pot, with good compost, will be ready to bloom by November, and will remain in bloom from that time until spring, when it should be repotted in a six-inch pot and plunged in the sand-box to grow for winter blooming. The only precaution necessary is to keep it in a small pot, as it blooms more freely when pot-bound. Cut back if not branching freely, as the bloom comes at the ends of the new growth. ”

“ Don’t be wheedled into spoiling your plants by saving seed for one who is perfectly able to buy; instead, give the address of the dealer from whom you purchased, and suggest that he will be glad to fill orders. Don’t rob your plant of cuttings that are necessary to its symmetry; this, too, is a case for the florist. There are people who seem to feel it an injustice for any one to possess a plant with more than one branch so long as they are not supplied with that particular variety. ”

“ Peat, or a compost of two parts loam, two parts leaf-mould, and one part each of sand and old, well-rotted manure suits all varieties of Begonias. In setting out the tuberous Begonia it is well to mulch the bed with lawn clippings. Water thoroughly once a day, and, if very dry, or at all exposed to the sun, twice a day. So really wonderful are their blossoms, and so long and freely do they bloom, that they well repay a little extra care and protection. When frosty nights come the tuberous Begonias must be lifted, potted and kept indoors until they have completed their season of growth. ”

“ Salvia is much more desirable for bedding than for any other purpose. In the house it is subject to attacks of red spider, which make it more trouble to care for than it is worth, while in the open ground it is remarkably healthy and free from insect pests.
Seed should be started early in flats or hotbed, and plants set out where they are to remain, when all danger of frost is past, as they are very sensitive to cold. Muck or marsh earth seems the most congenial soil in which to grow the Salvias, and if this is supplied they will need little care beyond watering during the summer. ”

“ Like the summer bloomers, they increase rapidly and need considerable root room. The Bermuda Oxalis is lovely in a gourd hanging-basket; indeed, a hanging-basket, or bracket, is the only suitable arrangement for it, as it loves to droop and spread itself, and requires abundant room for its wealth of golden flowers. When through blooming it should be allowed to ripen its foliage. It may then be set in the cellar, or a cool place, until September, when the bulbs should be shaken out of the pot and repotted; one bulb to a four-inch pot. ”

“ Pansies growing in a mixed bed never come true from seed and deteriorate rapidly. Growing Pansy seed is work for the Pansy specialist, but if it must be saved a few plants should be grown in a bed by themselves and covered with a netting to keep off the bees, which work incessantly over the Pansy bed. Not more than two or three of the finest flowers on a plant should be allowed to seed, all other buds being removed as they form, and the plants kept in a high state of cultivation and supplied with liquid manure at least once a week during the season of seeding. ”

“ Roses, especially the old hardy kinds, will often refuse to bloom, though well cared for and sufficiently pruned. In such cases root-pruning may be resorted to by cutting down on two sides of the plant with the spade and severing a part of the roots. This will often induce bloom when all other methods fail. Plants occasionally run to roots as well to tops.
So many and varied are the insect enemies that a hardy Rose, with even fair foliage, is rare during the season of bloom, unless ceaseless warfare has been waged from the first swelling of the buds. ”

“ Shifting may be done at any time, even though the plant be in full bloom, while repotting should be done when the plant is dormant, as it is likely to cause the buds to blast and the foliage to droop. Plants less than a year old are better shifted than repotted—especially such as have neither bloomed nor shown any decided tendency to rest. After blooming and resting, if they are in as large a pot as you care to handle, they may be repotted in fresh soil, care being taken not to injure the roots, while dead roots should be removed with the shears. ”