The Flower Garden

by Ida D. Bennett

The most careful attention must now be given the hotbed. If the temperature rises above 75 degrees in the warmest part of the day the sash must be raised an inch or two. In doing this, if the wind is cold, it will be best to slip a strip of wood between the sash and frame on the windward side, or protect the opening on the windward side with a bit of carpet.

When the seeds in any particular plot show a single pair of leaves, remove the paper over that much of the bed, still shading from the sun during the hottest part of the day by a bit of paper on the glass directly over the plants. When the plants appear too thickly in the row, transplant them as soon as they have their second leaves into other rows between the first, or into another hotbed or cold-frame. Encourage vigorous growth by giving room to develop and as much air and light as possible.

As soon as the plants are of sufficient size and the weather is warm enough, remove the sash during the day, replacing it with screens made of lath. These screens are easily made by nailing strips of lath, the width of the hotbed, to strips of wood the length of the bed. The lath should be set its own width apart, and the nails, of which there should be two in each end, clinched on the under side. Such screens are a necessary part of the hotbed, and will last for years.

Before transplanting to the open ground these screens should be removed entirely and the plants left exposed to the weather for a few days to harden. Screens of chicken netting may be substituted, if protection from cats, dogs or chickens is needed. If, in the early stages of the hotbed, drops of moisture gather on the glass, the soil is too wet and the sash must be raised to allow the surplus moisture to pass off, avoiding always a cold draught across the bed.

The cold-frame is simply a frame of boards fitted with sash and placed over a prepared bed of earth. As the bed will be raised slightly above the surface of the soil, the frame should be set over it, shutting out the cold from the sides as well as the top. A covered bed, prepared without heating material, is a cold-frame; and one in which the heating material is spent is often used as a cold-frame after it has served its purpose as a hotbed earlier in the season, for growing Gloxinias and rooting cuttings during the summer, and in August for sowing Pansy seed for the next summer’s blooming. Cold-frames are useful to protect beds of such tender perennials as Tea-roses, Pansies, Canterbury-bells, Foxgloves and Violets. Violets may, by this means, be kept in bloom during the winter. They are also useful for bringing forward, early in spring, beds of Hyacinths and Narcissi. They should be protected by carpets or mattings at night and during the colder days, and exposed to the heat of the sun on bright days when the soil is not frozen. When it is, they must remain covered and thaw out in the dark, to be aired when the weather is above freezing, but draughts across the bed must be avoided, as they will certainly blast any buds there may be.

The cold-frame in winter must have good drainage, or much damage will ensue from water standing around the roots of plants. The surface of the bed must be above the level of the land outside and a trifle lower at one corner. From this corner a trench should be dug having an outlet, or a deep hole may be dug and filled with broken crockery and stones to carry off all surplus water.

The sand-box is a receptacle for the summer storage of plants which are not to be bedded out. It is also used to prepare plants for winter blooming, and for experiments with novelties in house-plants. It is, finally, the ideal place for rooting cuttings. I have never known a plant capable of being started from cuttings that would not take root in the sand-box. Any shallow box that may be reached across easily is suitable for this purpose; or a deep box may be cut down to six or eight inches and rendered available, the length depending on the plants to be accommodated and the room at disposal. The sand-box should be placed, if possible, in a convenient place on the east side of the house. Elevate on saw-horses, blocks, posts or a regular frame to a height easy to reach when sitting in a chair. Fill nearly full with clean white sand; in this bury the pots nearly to the brims and keep the sand constantly wet.

Plants that can stand full sunshine—as Geraniums, Crotons, Heliotropes, etc.—should be placed in front; those requiring more shade may be in the second row, and those needing the most against the wall. Vines, also, may be trained against the wall, and over the sides of the box, if it is desired to make it beautiful as well as useful. A wooden chair should be placed conveniently near, and the space underneath may be utilised for ferns, or the storage of tools and pots.

Once established, the sand-box will be found one of the most fascinating of spots. Cuttings of all kinds may be thrust into the sand between the pots—Geraniums, Carnations and Roses in front. Gloxinias and Begonias—with the leaves laid flat on the sand in the rear—will quickly take root in it. No one who cultivates a garden, or house-plants, should try to get along without a work table or bench, and this should be situated in some cool, shady spot out of doors. It may be either a large kitchen table or a large packing box, the latter being preferable, perhaps, as affording shelter for the various tools used in working. It should be high enough to work at conveniently when standing up, and a tall stool should be provided for sitting on when desired, to be pushed under the top of table when not in use. There should be a shelf underneath, sufficiently roomy to hold a supply of pots and flats, and, below it, a box of potting soil and one of fine white sand should be kept ready for use. If the potting soil lies on the ground it will keep moist in the dryest weather. A tin pail of pebbles, broken crockery and charcoal for drainage, and a supply of sphagnum moss should also be kept handy. A trowel, knife, shears, pencils and a stick—or, better still, a piece of a broken carving-steel—for pushing a plant out of the pot by inserting it in the drainage hole when, for any reason, it is not readily removed by tapping, will greatly lessen the labour of repotting and shifting house-plants in summer.

A shallow tray, with a bail of wood, large enough to hold a number of pots, will be useful to carry plants from the potting table to the sand-box, and will save many steps. With a well-equipped table to depend on and no litter around the house, one is much more likely to give plants necessary attention promptly. The work then becomes a pleasure instead of a labour to be dreaded. There, too, may be kept the supply for staking plants. The nicest stakes for house-plants are made of Cat-tail stems, any quantity of which may be gathered in the fall and stored away for future use, each stalk furnishing two or three stakes. Being round and smooth they are sightly and just what is needed for Carnations, Freesias and the like.