Various

“ Nothing can be prettier around a small bed than a thick edging of these sparkling rich green plants, and yet I have never seen it used in this manner except in my own garden. The plants grow larger, more robust, coarser perhaps, when used in this way, but they form an unbroken edge of great richness. Sow the seeds in the house and transplant when danger of frost is over; shade for a few days from sun and wind, and do not let the ground dry out about the roots until the plants have started into growth again; after that an occasional watering is all they require. ”

“ She did not care to figure in charity functions where she would be praised of men, but she sought out the needy and tried faithfully to aid them. Her aid was given so unostentatiously, and with such humility and earnest sympathy, that the poor soon learned to love her, and her flowers bloomed not in vain, for they bloomed for the sick and sinning, for the poor and needy, and I trow that in sowing good seeds upon earth she will reap a heavenly harvest that will surprise her. ”

“ The ivy-leaved geraniums are excellent climbing or trailing plants adapted to hanging baskets. They have a fine, thick, glossy foliage, which of itself would warrant their cultivation, but they also have the charming attraction of possessing beautiful flowers as well as foliage. Any one who once succeeds in getting a good variety started in a basket will never allow their window garden to be without a plant of this kind, as they all bloom with the greatest freedom. ”

“ We seek to supplant alcoholic and fermented drinks by something more wholesome, more satisfying and refreshing—something embodying all the best principles of ripe grapes marred by nothing that would falsely stimulate or excite, and in the new era that is dawning, the life-giving principles of the grape, in their purest condition, will enter every home as a comfort and a blessing, instead of a delusion and a snare. ”

“ They will not bloom until their season, summer, no matter how early they are planted. The beautiful fall bloomer, cosmos, may be classed with them. Snapdragons, carnations and verbena do not bloom in early spring from seed, but require an early start to bloom in summer as their growth is not rapid. Sanvitalia, vinca, and a long list of annuals are beautiful and well worth raising. Annuals are cheap, but they subserve a purpose and nothing quite takes their place, and I confess to a liking for flowers which I have raised from seeds. ”

“ It makes all the difference between nice thrifty plants or scraggly looking ones whether we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest a floral magazine. In walking on the street, the appearance of the windows or front yards tells you whether the postman leaves a floral weekly or monthly. Six weeks ago I saw a row of empty pots right in the sun, and often an old man was poking up the soil with his penknife to see if his bulbs had started. ”

“ The inside is lined in the most delicate manner with soft substances; the outside is covered with moss, usually the color of the bough or twig to which the nest is attached, thus giving it the appearance of an excrescence. The delicacy and ingenuity of workmanship and skill could hardly be excelled by human art.
The humming bird is the “fairy of the feathered race”—the smallest and most beautiful—and they are found almost all over this continent. Most of them, however, dwell in the far South, where flowers are ever in bloom, and summer reigns all the year round. ”

“ The rich soil makes a good bottom heat for forcing gentle growth. My old colored mammy, who always saved the garden seeds and gave them out as needed and directed the gardening operations on the plantation, had the plant beds made on each side of the garden gate, one set of little beds for early vegetable plants, the other for flowers. The soil thoroughly pulverized, and the seeds planted thickly, it is surprising how they would spring into life, and the rapidity with which they would grow. Thick planting of seeds is only to be advised when they are intended for transplanting. ”

“ Treated in this fashion they grow riotously and yield a wealth of beautiful, cool looking foliage for bouquets and all kinds of cut flower work, which has the additional merit of keeping fresh a long time even under unfavorable circumstances. One can pick long sprays of this pretty greenery without it being missed from the plants in the least. A low glass dish filled with ice-plant, the sprays drooping over the edges gracefully, and a few pale pink flowers peeping out between the leaves, is an exceedingly pretty center-piece for the dinner table. ”

“ Catalogues from nurserymen, florists and seedsmen are pouring in upon us laden with good things. Some are really beautiful. I’ve been experimenting a little in window gardening, but—woe is me; some varieties have not responded well to my treatment, not from any fault of the plant I am confident, but through my ignorance of its needs.
Different plants require different treatment and temperature, but I find as a rule the majority treat them all alike and wonder why they do not have any “luck” with some kinds. ”

“ My rose bushes are almost as much admired for their beautiful foliage as for their lovely roses. “I never saw such handsome leaves, why they look exactly like wax.” This is an exclamation I am growing quite accustomed to hear from friends, and it is really true; but I think any one who grows roses as house plants may have just as handsome foliage if the proper care is taken of the plants. ”

“ This new variety of large podded, handsome Table Pea, introduced by us, jumped at a bound into instantaneous favor all over the United States.
The plants stand from three and a half feet to four feed high, and bear large, long pods, mostly in pairs, which are packed remarkably close with flattened, greenish-white, wrinkled peas, and these, when cooked, are of the finest flavor and color. The weight of the Pea compared to the pod is much greater than usual, producing more shelled peas than any other variety. ”

“ When on a long journey, as during migration, they pass through the air in long undulations, raising themselves to a considerable height and then falling so as to form a curve. When feeding on a flower they keep themselves poised in one position as steadily as if suspended on a bough—making a humming sound with the rapid motion of their wings. ”

“ Poverty had always been a rather pleasant thing in her mind where people were always holding some sort of meetings to relieve it, and where kind hearted women were taking chicken broth or cups of jelly to others who lay in bed; she never really thought that perhaps it would be pleasanter to make one’s own chicken broth or furnish one’s own jelly, or that perhaps the one who lay in bed might do something besides just simply lie there; she did not realize the tragedy of many of those lives where poverty binds and sickness holds with chains invincible beyond all human aiding. ”

“ The Madeira vine is so easily raised it is not necessary to be particularly careful of a plant which has already fulfilled its mission. The atmospheric and root conditions under house culture are not favorable to the blooming of this plant. If the tubers are placed in a rich, warm soil early in spring the plant will make a great growth and bloom in autumn. When the particular plant in question is to be moved, in the spring, a portion of its top growth can be cut away and then the whole plant slipped out of the pan into the open ground outside. ”

“ Most any “tyro” in gardening can grow a crop of onions from the sets where only failure would result if the seeds were used. There is hardly anything surer than making “sets” grow, whereas it is not always sure that one gets onion seeds that are good and of such a variety as will make a good crop in our Southern climate. So much by way of preface.
The Southern gardeners and truckers depend almost entirely upon the Middle and Northern States for their onion sets, although it is quite practicable for them to raise their own sets if they choose to do it. ”

“ When planting time arrives drain off the water and mix the seed with dry sand and sow it thinly in drills in good soil. When the plants are up hoe them and keep them clean or work them with a cultivator, if on a sufficiently large scale. The first season’s growth should make them large enough to set in a hedge. They can remain standing in the seed-bed until spring and then be lifted early to be planted. Cut back the tops and the roots so that each shall be about five inches in length. The ground where the hedge is to stand should be well prepared by deep plowing, and dragging fine and smooth. ”

“ We do not know what insect it is whose larva infests raspberries. If any of our readers can supply the information we trust they will give it.
Purchase the roots of violets, it is not practicable to raise them from seeds.
Cauliflower, like the strawberry, is good enough to be eaten when it is ready. It does not improve by keeping. The heads may be kept in a cool cellar for a considerable time if they are pulled up with some soil adhering to the roots, and set in rows in the cellar with the roots covered with soil. Tie the leaves together or turn them down over the heads. ”

“ They are really plants for everybody as they are entirely free from insect pests, and require but little care and attention to grow them to perfection. They succeed well in all kinds of weather, wet or dry, and are not injured in the least by the severe storms of wind and rain that we so often experience during the summer season.
They bloom without intermission from June until they are destroyed by frost; the spikes of large flowers somewhat resemble gladiolus but are really more effective and showy as their brilliant colors show so grandly against their tropical foliage. ”

“ In the wild and uncultivated parts they inhabit the magnificent forests overhung with rare plants, whose blossoms vie in beauty with the jewel-like brilliancy of these animate gems of the air. In the cultivated portions of the country they abound in the gardens and seem to delight in society. ”

“ It is something quite remarkable here, where the thermometer falls to 40° and 50° below zero, to see roses blooming outside of a conservatory, But mine have been doing beautifully in the bay window all winter, and small as the plants are they have flowered wonderfully well. At night the plants are moved away from the window to a place where they are secure from frost Queen’s Scarlet seems to make a special effort to surpass itself each time some other rose comes into bloom, and every rose it produces is, I think, more beautiful than its predecessor. ”

“ I have seen the cabbage bed so full of plants that it seemed as if two plants or more had sprung from every seed. Early and late cabbage, the rows labeled, can be planted in the same bed; lettuce, pepper grass, parsley and radishes in another, taking care to sow the radish seed thinly as the plants will not transplant well, and the radishes must be used for the table taken from the place where the seeds are sown. Cabbages grow better when the small plants are transplanted to the large bed where they are to stand for their season’s growth. ”

“ Some few were grown in pots an inch less, but I noted those in the larger pots were much better every way. Small pots do not afford sufficient scope for the roots, as these are freely made, and being very fibrous they absorb a quantity of moisture. A moderately rich compost is essential, the plants requiring a fair amount of stimulative food to enable them to continue longer in flower than they do when in a starved condition. To test these carnations I planted some in the kitchen garden, but I found that those in pots flowered much the best. ”

“ Why does such juice fail as a food? Simply because the antiseptic principle that preserves the juice in the bottle exerts a similar influence in the stomach, and prevents the natural action that is part of Nature’s plan for assimilating food. Our concentrated juice of the grape is absolutely free from all antiseptics, and is Nature’s best food and strength producer for weak and defective digestive organs. ”