Show THE WINDOW GARDEN oy by EDEN EBEN E REXFORD it may not seem reasonable to the reader to treat of winter window g gardens ar in midsummer but a careful consideration of the subject from my point of view will convince the flower loving person I 1 feel quite sure that this article Is timely look over the window gardens of your neighbors in winter when they ought to be at their best beat to ito give the fullest degree of Batis satisfaction faction an and q I 1 think you will find the majority of them far from satisfactory the plants will bo be small much too small to be ornamental and if you keep an eye on them throughout the searon you will find that few of them reach the flowering stage before march which is to say that most specimens in the ordinary house col lection of plants give few or no flowers at the period when a window garden should afford us the greatest amount of pleasure what we aim at is flowers in winter not in the spring when the blossoms of the outdoor garden are at hand said a woman to me not long since 1 I dont see why it Is that I 1 cant have flowers in the winter minter some of my friends vave and they dont tako take half as goodcase good care of their plants as I 1 do why vo acme ie of them dont repot their plants at all still I 1 notice they have flowers from them and I 1 go over all my plants just before winter sets seta in and repot them and cut them back or start new ones and take pains to give them the best soil and am so careful about watering and fertilizing and airing but most of them will not blossom for me they look healthy and they grow well but one care tor for just leaves now this womans comans failure to obtain sowers bowers from her plants was explained by three words she made use of just before julura winter gvinter the attention she gave the plants at that period came several months too late the fact Is as anyone will readily see when they come to think the matter over a plant cannot be satisfactorily developed in two or three months not much can be expected from a plant that is not made ready for winter until that season is about upon us in order to secure a good collection of good sized plants for the winter one must begin to get ready during the summer surn mer by the term good sized I 1 do not mean large plants in the usual sense of the word but rather plants lof of sufficient development to justify one I 1 ain in expecting flowers from them for the holidays I 1 age is often a more important factor in plant culture than mere size young plants seldom bloom while development is taking place most rapidly they must get their growth so to speak before we can expect them to bend their energies to the production of flowers therefore I 1 advise the owner of a collection of house bouse plants from which she wishes to secure flowers all through the winter season to get tho the plants under way now it if some or of them aro are large cut them back and allow them to renew themselves wholly BS as to branches during the months between now and winter report now it necessary and shift such ouch as seem to need larger pots if young plants are to be used procure them at once and keep them going ahead steadily do not be so anxious to secure raped development that you fall into the error ot of overfeeding over feeding simply aim to bring about a strong healthy growth and as long as aa a plant seems to be making such growth do oot not make use of the fertilizers it Is one of the hardest things I 1 know of to make an enthusiastic amateur plant grower satisfied well enough alone she is constantly wanting to urge her pets peta on a little faster and tn in her efforts to do this she gives them more food than they can digest and the consequence Is a breakdown from nine times out of ten A plant that does not get as aa much food as it can make good use of will give vastly greater satisfaction in the long run th than anthe tha plant that gets geta BO 80 much food that it know what to do with it some person persons 9 are under tho impression that all plants for winter use must be ba young ones such Is not the case however year old plants as a general thing are much preferable to the young ones there are exceptions as in the case of chinese primroses prim roses primula ca and others of a habit similar la in some respects respect sto i to our annuals but for the majority of plants adapted to house culture like ilka geraniums hello tropes gonias begonias be asparagus in variety and carnations older plants should always be chosen this summer I 1 start the geraniums geran luma which I 1 intend to depend upon tor for winter flowers a year from the tha coming winter these will bloom some this winter if I 1 let them but I 1 shall hold them in check to a great extent for future service the person who preaches young plants for winter flowering to you does not take into consideration the tha fact that a plant started this season from a cutting will have but few branches by winter and a plant that has but few branches cannot give elvo many flowers because ample flowering surface means many branches therefore instead of letting the ge ga you start this summer blossom in the winter keep pinching them back to produce a sufficient number of branches to give the desired amount of flowering surface the more branches there aro are the more flowers you may expect cut your ferns apart now and use each division of the roots that has a piece 0 t crown attached as the basis of a new plant use leat leaf mold or loam tor for this class of plants it obtainable hanging baskets should receive attention at once al V 4 t P P Tube roia Plu mca |