56 minute read
Children take naturally to gardening, and few occupations count so much for their development,—mental, moral and physical. Ideas of industry and thrift, too, are at the same time inculcated without words, and habits formed that affect their character for life. A well-known New York City Public School superintendent once said to me that she had a flower bed every year in the children's gardens, where a troublesome boy could always be controlled by giving to him the honor of its care and keeping. The love of nature, whether inborn or acquired, is one of the greatest sources of pleasure, and any scientific knowledge connected with it of inestimable satisfaction. Carlyle's lament was, "Would that some one had taught me in childhood the names of the stars and the grasses." It is with the hope of helping both mothers and children that this little book has been most lovingly prepared....
20 minute read
As the desire is to give the widest possible range of information about the plants and flowers mentioned herein, and space forbids going into details in each case, the writer has endeavored to mention all the colors, extremes of height, and entire season of bloom of each kind. But the grower must find out the particular variety obtained, and NOT expect a shrubby clematis to climb, or a fall rose to blossom in the spring!...
6 minute read
And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air. If you want a flower garden, you can begin work as early as March. Does that sound strange,—with cold winds and occasional snow? Ah, but the plans should all be laid then, and many things started in the house. Four steps must be taken before starting actual work: First. —Find out what space you can have for your garden. Second. —Consider the soil, situation, surroundings. Third. —Make a list of seeds, bulbs, etc., desired. Fourth. —Decide on planting with view to height and color. As to the first step, find out positively where you can have your garden. It makes considerable...
7 minute read
While the snow is on the ground, you can be deciding on the best place for your garden, and finding out the kind of flowers and vegetables best suited to your soil and locality. Write to your Representative at Washington, requesting the seeds he may have to give away. Write to two or three prominent seed firms for catalogues, and look over the garden books at your Public Library. Then if you do not quickly find yourself suffering from a violent attack of Garden Fever, you might as well give up, and not attempt to have a garden, for you will be lacking the real love and enthusiasm that count for success. Did you ever realize that gardens differ as much as people? "No two gardens, no two human faces, were ever quite alike," says one writer, and you want to make yours expressive of yourself. So before taking another...
9 minute read
And 'tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes. "Plant thickly," says one writer. "It is easier and more profitable to grow flowers than weeds." The following annuals can be sown outdoors late in April, as far North as New York, in ordinary seasons,—only remember that those marked with a * do not like to be transplanted:— Have the soil in your flower bed made fine and light with sand and fertilizer, and entirely free from sticks and stones. If it should happen to be already too sandy, add black loam or leaf mold. (Either father or brother will probably have time to help you get this right.) Plant your seeds evenly, and rather sparingly if you do not want to pull up a lot later on account of being crowded. And you can plant either in lines or scatter in patches in bed or border, as...
4 minute read
Between the flowers that we have to plant every year,—the annuals,—and those that after once being started continue to greet us summer after summer,—the perennials,—comes a little group of old favorites that has to be planted one summer (and then generally protected from the cold), in order to bring them to their full beauty the second year. And as few of them self-sow, it is necessary to plant and carry over every season. The biennial seeds are best sown in the seed nursery, where they can be watched and protected. In the late summer the young plants will be big and strong enough to set out in the border, although you must give them a light covering of leaves and litter. The seeds started in July and August, however, better be left protected in the nursery and moved in the early spring. The dainty blue forget-me-not, or myosotis, is one...
9 minute read
That big word ARISTOCRACY simply means "those who rise above the rest of the community in any important respect,"—and rightly, indeed, are the perennials called "the aristocrats of the garden." They are strong and sturdy (good points in both people and flowers), and can be depended on to appear about a certain time, make us a nice visit with all their loveliest clothes, and show their appreciation of our attention and care by returning every season with increased beauty and grace. A few of the perennials, such as the peony and the iris, grow so slowly that generally people haven't the patience to wait for them to flower from seed, and instead try to get some roots from their more fortunate friends, or buy from a florist. But I will tell you more about this class in connection with the bulb and tuber families. While a small number of these...
9 minute read
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If you are going to be a really-truly gardener, you will want to know something about the plants and flowers that you try to grow, so let's have a few words right here about the difference between the bulb and tuber families. They can be classed together because they both spring from what is in fact a storehouse filled one season with food to help them through the next season's bloom! Hyacinths and daffodils, for example, come from BULBS, which are built up, layer on layer, exactly like an onion. Dahlias and Cannas, however, grow from a TUBER, which is an underground knob on the stem, quite a little like a sweet potato, and...
10 minute read
Every one longs for roses, the most highly prized of all the flowers; and roses today can be grown almost anywhere. Rose growers have finally succeeded in budding the tender tea rose on to the hardy briar and also on to the more recent Manetti stock, and in crossing the teas with the hybrid perpetuals,—developed from the old June favorites. The result is ideal roses, that are hardy and bloom all season, with the desired lovely coloring and fragrance. Many of the so-called June roses also have been coaxed to bloom all season, while all those that I draw to your attention are among the loveliest and most easily grown. With even three or four, well taken care of, you should be able,—as far north as New York,—to cut a bud any time you wish from May to November. These hybrid teas and hybrid perpetuals are the most satisfactory for...
5 minute read
They shall sit every man under his vine and under his figtree. Everybody likes a pretty vine, and there is sure to be some place where you will want to plant at least one. Where? Why, at one corner of the porch where you like to play; round the pillar at the front door, where you read, or by the window where you sit to sew; in the backyard to cover the clothespoles, hide the chicken fence, or screen some old, ugly building. The common annual vines you probably know pretty well,—the climbing nasturtium, morning glory, moonflower, cypress vine, scarlet runner, hyacinth bean, wild cucumber, gourds and hops. They are treated very much alike, grow with little care if they only have something to climb on, and spread rapidly. The hardy vines are not so easily disposed of. For instance, the clematis (with accent on the clem ,) numbers throughout...
2 minute read
"Every yard should be a picture. The observer should catch the entire effect and purpose, without analyzing its parts." Of course you want to know something about shrubs. For what? Possibly just to make a tiny hedge around your garden, or a taller one to shut out the view of some neighbor's untidy backyard. More likely for a lovely specimen plant for your own grounds. In that case, don't, oh, don't! set it out in the middle of the lawn! And two or three thus dotted around (in "spotty planting," so called) are the acme of bad taste, and violate the fundamental principles of landscape gardening. Our grandmothers all loved the tall syringa, honeysuckle, snowball, strawberry shrub, weigela, rose of Sharon and lilac, while they hedged both their yards and gardens with box, privet and evergreens. Today we use a good deal of the Japanese barberry, while Uncle Sam's recent...
9 minute read
The life of the husbandman,—a life fed by the bounty of earth, and sweetened by the airs of heaven. It is predicted that this year,—1917,—will be the greatest year for gardening that the country ever has known! The high cost of living first stimulated interest. Then after war was declared, the slogan, "Food as important as men or munitions," stirred young and old. Garden clubs sprang up everywhere, and in free lectures people were instructed how to prepare, plant and cultivate whatever ground they could get, from small backyards to vacant lots. In our neighborhood last year a man with a plot of ground less than half the size of a tennis court, grew $50.00 worth of vegetables,—enough to supply his whole family! He got his planting down to a science, however,—what he called "intensive gardening," so that every foot of the soil was kept busy the whole summer. He...
7 minute read
A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden. Your garden's friends and foes,—have you ever thought about them as such? You go to a lot of trouble to raise fine flowers and vegetables, and then, if you are not on the lookout, before you know it something has happened! Your rose leaves are discovered full of holes, and your potato vines almost destroyed; your tomato plants are being eaten up by the big, ugly "tomato worm," while your choicest flowers are dying from the inroads of green or brown insects so tiny that at first you do not notice them; and strong plants of all kinds are found cut off close to the ground. What further proof do you need that your beloved garden has its enemies? Here indeed "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." If you would be...
4 minute read
You children love a playhouse, don't you? Yet it isn't always easy to get one. A morning glory bower, however, is a perfect delight, and very easy to make. Persuade some big brother to drive a few long stakes in the ground so as to mark out either a square or a circle, as you prefer. Then ask him to fasten some heavy cord from the bottom of one stake to the top of the next nearest, and then across the top, leaving only a place at one side for an entrance. Soak your morning glory seeds over night, so that they will germinate more quickly, and then plant them along the line of the circle or square marked on the ground. As soon as they begin to grow, train the vines on the cords, and if necessary tie in a few more strings near the bottom, to help the...
7 minute read
I am ever being taught new lessons in my garden: patience and industry by my friends the birds, humility by the great trees that will long outlive me, and vigilance by the little flowers that need my constant care. Did you ever see the boy or girl that did not want to get up a club? I never did; and the reason is that people, young and old, like to both work and play together. Now a garden club is really worth while, and although I might simply TELL you how to proceed after getting your friends to meet and agree on the purpose, you probably will get a much clearer idea if I relate what a certain group of little folks actually did accomplish. Fifteen boys and girls living in old Greenwich Village,—today one of the poor, crowded sections of New York City, where even the streets are darkened...
14 minute read
" If you are one of those people who love flowers and can make them grow," said a Fifth Avenue florist to me recently, "you can do almost anything you please with them, and they will thrive." "So, then," I laughed, "you think love has a great deal to do with the matter?" And he replied, "I most certainly do!" Therefore, if you love to see "the green things growing," enough to give them the least bit of intelligent care, you can reasonably hope to raise all you have room for. The main points to bear in mind are light, heat and moisture. Flowering plants need sunlight at least part of the day, and generally do best in a south window. Most of the decorative or foliage plants, on the other hand, will keep looking well with only a reasonable amount of light, as when near a north or east...
6 minute read
Christmas giving to the flower lover is a matter of delight, for if you stop to think you will know what the recipient will be sure to appreciate. Cut flowers always afford joy, from an inexpensive bunch of carnations to the choicest American Beauties. The Christmas blooming plants, however, last much longer, and the rich scarlet berries of the ardesia will survive the holiday season by several months. Poinsettia has been steadily increasing in popularity, and can be surrounded by ferns that will live on indefinitely. All the decorative foliage plants are sure to be welcomed, for with care they will last for years, and improve in size and beauty. The growing fad for winter-blooming bulbs affords another opportunity for pleasing. If you did not start in time to grow to flower yourself, give your friend one of the new flat lily bowls, procurable from fifty cents up, and with...
6 minute read
The above is almost literally true! You may be surprised to know that the arranging of flowers has not only long been considered an art, but that for centuries it has been closely connected with the whole life of a nation. Away back in 1400, a certain ruler of Japan became so interested in this fascinating subject that he resigned his throne in order to study that and the other fine arts! One of his friends,—a great painter,—worked out the scientific rules which are still generally accepted, and the study became the pastime of cultured people. Moreover, Japan's greatest military men have always practised the art, claiming that it calmed their minds so that they could make clearer decisions on going into battle! Briefly put, the Japanese ideas are as follows: First, to use very few flowers (preferably three, five, or seven, with their foliage), and but one kind together....