Snails and Slugs. Where they are numerous enough to do injury, get after them. I believe a hand to hand killing is the best remedy for all such pests. They are sluggish and cannot run away from one. They usually take a siesta during the heat of the day under Pansies or similar low matted plants. Some trap them by placing slices of cabbage or raw potato about. Others kill all the slugs in a bed, then make a ring of salt all about it to keep them out. Lime dust powdered over the plants helps to keep them away.
Worms Boring Into Plants. A couple of cases are reported of worms boring into the stalks of Asters, Dianthus and Carnations. Of course the tops die, and the damage is great. There is no insecticide that can be used against these canny worms which snugly hide themselves in the plant stalks where not a drop of liquor can reach them. The only remedy is to keep a sharp outlook for affected plants, cutting away each worm-infested top and burning it. This kills the worm and cuts off future crops of worms. It seems a hard method of ridding the plants of their enemies. However, the plants branch out again and develop a later crop of flowers.
How Annuals Run Out. "Last year I purchased the very best grade of seeds, and my flowers were lovely. I saved from these flowers, expecting a similar treat this year. But my Pansies, Carnations and Petunias are nothing near as large or as finely marked as they were last year, and the last two flowers are all single, not a double one in the lot. What is the cause of this?"
Deterioration in the quality of bloom is what our mothers used to call the "running out" of plants. There is no mystery about it. 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. 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. (1) Poor, hard ground. (2) Deep shade, as when grown under evergreens or behind thick shrubbery. (3) Spring planting in hot climates, or (4) clumps allowed to get too dry in droughty summers.
Brugmansia. I admire this plant when in bloom. Its magnificent ivory trumpets are a grand sight. It is a fine thing for piazza decoration during summer, and may be grown in a greenhouse or warm plant room in winter. It is not, however, suitable for ordinary window culture. It needs good care and freedom from dust, and moreover chills easily. If placed in the cellar in November it will winter there safely. Bring up as early as possible in the spring, water with moderation until new shoots start from the root, then give abundance of water.
Eucharis. This is a beautiful flower worth taking a little pains to grow. It is more often seen in greenhouse than in a window, as it is easier in the former to secure a warm, moist, even temperature. Shortly after New Year Eucharis grow very fast. Keep them warm and moist until through flowering when they can be kept ten to fifteen degrees cooler and watered less freely. This gives them the needed semi-rest to enable them to get ready for bloom again. In summer they need plenty of water again. When fall comes keep them pretty dry for the next three months, supplying only enough water to keep them from losing their leaves. Pot them in loam and sand, with a small quantity of old crumbled manure and leaf loam.
A Plague of Ants. A correspondent has suffered for years from annual raids of ants that literally swarm over everything and everywhere. "Last year," says this lady, "they killed ever so many plants, from Pansies to trees. All of our outdoor flowers were almost ruined by them. I have tried molasses and Paris green, but they only increase in numbers. They are everywhere, but I cannot find their holes or nest."
There is no use trying to depend on killing all these ants after they have taken possession. A bushel of pyrethrum powder would not pepper them all or a hogshead of kerosene emulsion last long enough to get them all. They must be killed at the fountain head, in their nesting places. A few years ago a certain set of our pear trees had their blossoms ruined year after year by hordes of ants. We could not kill them off, for there were always new ones to take their places. One day we found their nest, a very large one, but entirely underground. A speedy and therefore merciful death was decreed for them. Big pot, little pot, kettle and boiler were filled with water which was brought to the boiling point. We used it, every day, on that ant nest. That was 15 years ago, and there has been no recurrence of the trouble.
Holy Thistle. Some one asks about a curious plant of which no one knows the name. It blooms quickly from seed, making a plant several feet tall. It has long and wide leaves, waved along the margins, and very spiny. Along each vein is a wide milk-white band or mottling. The flowers are like a purple thistle. Strange how the wheels of time go round. This new (?) plant is so very old that hundreds of years ago it was a common garden ornament. It is Carduus Maritima, a near relative of the common thistle. Everyone notices it because of its odd milky splashes, and it every now and then enjoys a brief popularity again. Our superstitious forefathers believed that a drop of the Virgin Mary's milk fell on its leaves, which ever after bore milk-white markings because of it. The old names for it were Milk Thistle and Holy Thistle. The peasantry used to eat its tops as greens, and cook the roots in stews. Like all thistles this will become a weed if not kept down with a firm hand.