Various

“ Well, a well grown Rubra in full bloom is a gorgeous sight, but the President Carnot is more beautiful, is a more robust and more rapid grower. The foliage is beautiful, showing a sheen like changeable silk. Ours is now in a three-gallon pail, has four stems, one 27 inches high from top of bucket, has five large panicles of bloom, as large as man's hand, and has not been without bloom since the 20th of June. One bunch of bloom will hang on in fine condition for six weeks, if the plant is not disturbed. It is the admiration of all who see it. ”

“ When the world looks as if it were at the mercy of the wind and cold in winter. Sad indeed would be these hopeless days only we know that always, and always, it will be spring again. While the flowers are asleep under their blanket of snow we have a period for rest and reflection, and by thinking over the mistakes in the past we may improve. Of all times of the year spring is the season when everything seems to require attention at the same time. ”

“ House-cleaning, sewing and gardening crowd upon us, when the bright days come, and one of the three is sure to be neglected by the busy women if plans are not made for each work beforehand. Let me beg all our flower-loving women not to deny themselves the comfort, rest and happiness that flowers alone will bring them throughout the long summer days because they feel the time cannot be spared to attend to the planting in early spring. ”

“ Although it is what some might call a coarse flower yet its color is fine and very showy, and i know of no plant that blossoms so continuously as the Golden Glow, and it is a plant that never tires of growing and sending out new blossoms from early summer until autumn. ”

“ It is confined to those favorite flowers that have been highly bred and hybridized. Everyone knows highly bred stock, be it animal or vegetable, will not stand roughing it. If the flower grower would use the nerve of the seed-grower and pull up every inferior plant or poor flowered one; if she would keep the ground as clean as a market garden; if she would allow only the finest flowers to go to seed, cutting the others off as they fade, she would have good seed for next year's flowers. Petunias are artificially hybridized to get a double strain of seed, and this the amateur cannot well do. ”

“ A correspondent wants a companion Rose to a Crimson Rambler, which she enthusiastically declares is the grandest Rose in the world. Side by side with her letter is one from an artist. "I don't like Ramblers," writes he. "An artistic Rose to my mind is like a jewel in a right setting. Too many jewels denote vulgarity." Every class of Rose has its enthusiastic devotees. The best Hybrid Teas come nearer combining all merits of a Rose, and nearer pleasing all standards of taste than any other; yet any florist will tell you that they are by no means the Roses most freely purchased. ”

“ My own method is to get a helper, and, taking one plant at a time, knock the beetles off and kill them with a stick. It is a joy to look upon the heaps of slain when all is done. Whenever the plant upon which it is is jarred in the slightest, this beetle falls to the ground exactly as though it were dead. ”

“ Can anything be more fair? What sensible person, no matter how prejudiced he or she may be, who desires a cure and is willing to pay for it, would hesitate to try Vitae-Ore on this liberal offer? One package is usually sufficient to cure ordinary cases; two or three for chronic, obstinate cases. We mean just what we say in this announcement and will do just as we agree. Write to-day for a package at our risk and expense, giving your age and ailments, and mention The Mayflower, so we may know that you are entitled to this liberal offer. ”

“ What if the house is left a little disordered while one works in the garden? It can be put to rights after the precious roots and seeds have been placed under ground to begin their work of beauty. We must all sew I suppose, but let us wear the last year shirt waists awhile, and take the time to plant flowers in the garden or window boxes, to cheer us when we are compelled to run the machine. By leaving off some of the trimmings, or doing without some things altogether, the money will be forthcoming to purchase the plants we long for. ”

“ It is a great shock to a growing plant to lose half or more of its wood. It sometimes kills it, particularly if injudiciously watered. If severe cutting is required do it while the pot shrubbery is nearest at rest, and a little before renewed growth may be expected again. Usually this is about the close of mid-winter. Such shrubs as Rubber Plants, that bleed profusely, should have grafting wax or paint daubed on the end of cut branches. If nothing better is at hand paste a jacket of clay over the cut end until the wound can heal. Water with much moderation until new growth appears. ”

“ A well-grown Carnation cannot, in my opinion, be surpassed in elegance, beauty, or odor, by any other flower, yet we scarcely ever see it in perfection. Our summers here are too dry and hot for the full development of its beauties, but the young plants [Pg 19] sent me from The Mayflower headquarters early this spring have so successfully overcome all difficulties that I cannot refrain from telling your readers that I think my success was due, first, to healthy young plants, and secondly, to ordering them early in the season. ”

“ Often flowers will be spotted. The foliage is very beautiful, being variegated, with different shades of green, and helps to show off the flowers which rise above it, to a remarkable degree. In fact, a plant in bloom always looks like a tastily arranged vase of flowers and foliage. We offer bulbs for blooming at once, and seed which soon makes flowering plants. ”

“ Stakes should be used that when driven will be about two-thirds the height of the plants. Tie with soft string, with a sort of a slip-knot so that a half dozen of the main branches have a band supporting them, yet are not drawn up so hard and tight as to cut into the branch.
If a display of Asters are wanted for a flower show make the ground as wet as mud. Then lift each plant with a spade or mattock slowly and skillfully. The roots, dirt and all, will come up in a solid mass. Pot at once, before any of the earth is shaken off. ”

“ Most people prefer more flowers and less size.
There are generally a few promising late Asters that are not yet in bloom when frosts come. Lift these in the same careful manner for the house. They do not do well in hot rooms. In cool rooms, not above 60 to 65 degrees by day, they thrive. They like some sunshine, but will get along with little of it if they have good light beside. They do finely in halls and bedrooms where the temperature is almost to the frost line at night, and no fire heat at all during the day. An Aster will not bloom all winter. ”

“ I use broken bones for drainage, a mixture of leaf mold and sand for soil, plant one bulb in a keg, and after the weather becomes warm I place the kegs on a bench which stands in an angle of the house, said angle being open to the north and east and gets the sun till 11 o'clock. I keep the soil moist and shower the leaves when I think they need it. And those plants do grow and bloom, the foliage is immense, some of the leaves measuring 8 by 12 or 14 inches, and the blossoms measure from 2 to 4 inches across. I have counted fifteen such blossoms on one plant at one time. ”

“ Insect Foes of Asters
The red spider and aphis have no special fondness for the Aster. They get after it when it comes in their way, as they do anything else. But the Aster has two implacable enemies that by their ravages have done more to discourage people from growing these plants than all other causes combined. These two foes are blister beetles and root lice.
Red spider bothers in hot dry weather. Water is their foe. When the familiar thin, half-dying foliage appears, grey on the under-side and showing a few fine webs underneath, there is no mistaking the signs. It is the red spider. ”

“ Amateurs cannot make up elaborate floral pieces like florists, and it is not wise to attempt it. But it is well enough for us all to remember that a simple spray of white Asters in a setting of green Ferns, or of lace-like Asparagus plumosus, is a gift of remembrance that no loving hand need be ashamed of placing on the coffin of a friend. A loose, careless nosegay of Asters, bright with its pretty pinks and blues, and a deep crimson one or two to bear its white companions company, will cheer up a sick friend. Always remember the touch of color in flowers for the sick. ”

“ It is the marvel of the century for curing such diseases as—Rheumatism, Bright's Disease, Blood Poisoning, Heart Trouble, Dropsy, Catarrh and Throat Affections, Liver, Kidney and Bladder Ailments, Stomach and Female Disorders, La Grippe, Malarial Fever, Nervous Prostration and General Debility as thousands testify, and as no one, answering this, writing for a package, will deny after using. ”

“ An August sowing will give late winter and early spring flowers.
Asters are easily transplanted and should never be allowed to become cramped for room, or to be grown in the shade of other plants. If carefully done, an Aster in almost full bloom can be taken up and replanted without injuring it in the least. So there is no excuse for letting them be crowded in either seed-box or seed-bed.
Preparing an Aster Bed
There is no use trying to get good Asters from plants in poor ground. They are gross feeders. They dislike sandy soil the most of all. ”

“ Plants, and particularly pot shrubs, ought never to be allowed to get in bad shape. It is an easy enough matter to correct a bad or awkward tendency at the first. It is a difficult matter to remedy it later. When a plant begins to grows coxcomby, or develops a long, switchy growth, or twists about in an ugly crook, begin at once to overcome it. One-sidedness is usually arrested by turning that side away from the light. A crooked, knotted limb can be straightened by tying to a stout support or trellis, tying it every two or three inches to take the kinks out. ”

“ The taller Asters are fine to cut for vases and for pulpit bouquets, if the longest stems are chosen. Use plenty of pretty greenery, and arrange the flowers so that each stands out airily by itself, [Pg 12] not wedged between its neighbors. Asters can be over-crowded in a bouquet until heavy and clumsy looking. It is the one fault to avoid. The remedy is to use more foliage with them, and to put fewer flowers in the bouquet. Enough is better than a surplus in arranging cut-flowers.
ASTER AS A POT PLANT LEADING VARIETIES OF ASTERS
New Rose. ”

“ Zinnias are easily grown. Make a bed of good rich soil and the last of April or the first of May plant your seed, then keep the weeds out, water in the dry season, and you will have a nice bed of flowers until frost. They are among the hardiest annual plants raised and any flower lover can raise them with but little care.—Sunflower. ”

“ While the rough or hairy leaved varieties will not stand hot sunshine they will do much better and be more sure to bloom if they stand where the early morning or late afternoon sun can shine upon them. B. Vernon and two or three other varieties will stand as much hot sunshine as Portulaca if given plenty of water at the roots and an overhead showering every day after the sun is gone, in dry weather. No Begonia will do well here on the prairie if bedded out, and plunging in pot is worse. I don't like earthen pots for them any way—the plants do better in wood or tin. ”

“ Like James Vick, I would emphasize the importance of never letting the plants get a check if the finest flowers are wanted. Now the Aster is not naturally a hothouse plant. It needs in its young stage plenty of fresh air. Without it, or without sufficient light, or in too warm an atmosphere, the young Aster plants become tall and spindling, or, as florists express it, are drawn. A drawn Aster invariably makes a weak, sickly plant, and never bears large or handsome flowers. Sow the seed thinly and cover lightly. ”

“ It pays most of us better to buy Pansy, Petunia, Carnation and Ten Weeks Stocks seed than to try to save it ourselves.
Failure of Peonies To Bloom. Everyone says the Peony will endure anything, heat, cold, rain or dry weather or any kind of soil. It is true the plant is tenacious of life. It is just as true that it knows when it is not well treated. It evens up matters many times by refusing to bloom. Any one of the following reasons may cause it to be barren of bloom. ”

“ Root-lice, blue aphis, etc., is one of the most common enemies of the Aster. When the plants are almost at their best the tops turn a peculiar sickly green, or they wilt, or become brown. They die quickly unless something is at once done. Pull one up and the roots are found alive with a little insect that looks like a plant louse. Insecticides poured on the soil rarely kill the pests. ”

“ Let me give you a peep at my flowers this cold day in January, with the mercury so far below zero as not to be neighborly and the wind blowing and snow flying as only new hampshire snows do fly, making necessary constant intercourse with the stove, to replenish fuel, as on farms wood is used for that purpose and farmers have no dread of a "coal famine." ”

“ In the young plants, the blue "bloom" is very striking, and if the Palm is grown in the sun in sandy soil the "bloom" will always remain, but a shaded position and heavy soil destroys that beautiful color. ”

“ Most of our articles are finely illustrated, and all in all The Mayflower is the greatest help that any lover of flowers and gardening can have, keeping one abreast of the times on methods of culture, new varieties and scores of topics of general usefulness.
Knowing that The Mayflower is the greatest help any one can have in the successful cultivation of flowers and gardens we have made the price so very low that it is easily within the reach of all. ”