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Show House Plants in Summer. When the hot weather of summer is at hand, we must not permit our out-of-door activities to cause us to neglect neg-lect our house plants. The best place for grown folks, children chil-dren and all living things during the-summer the-summer is outdoors, where the sunshine sun-shine and the fresh air can strengthen and heal, making ready for the next winter season. Of course, the closer to natural conditions con-ditions they are during the normal growing season, the better growth the plants will secure and the finer plants-we plants-we will have for the house next winter. win-ter. When danger from late frosts haa surely passed, take less expensive plants, the geranium, the foliage-plants foliage-plants and others of their kind, and transplant them. Put them in good, rich, deep, loamy beds if you can, or in window boxes if the beds are unavailable. una-vailable. Give them lots of sunshine, so that the stalks and foliage will grow rank and strong. In transplanting, spade up the bed to a depth of at least a foot, pulverize the soil finely, mixing in fine, well-rotted well-rotted stable manure, and set the plants in the ground half an Inch deeper than they were In the pots. Pack the earth firmly about them after setting. It will do no harm to remove some of the old earth, but- the roots cannot be pruned or broken off to any great extent, unless you prune back the foliage to an equal extent. Water the plants as soon as they are set, and wrater them every other day, at least doing the watering when, the sun Is not hot. If it is desired to have the flowering plants bloom early and profusely, pinch off the ends of half the branches, so that the energy of the plant will go to the flowers. Most people prefer to postpone the blooming bloom-ing period until winter, however, and this can be accomplished by pinching off the flower buds during the summer, sum-mer, as Boon as they appear. The result re-sult will be a heavy growth of stalk and leaf during the growing season, and profuse blooms during the winter indoors. Tropical and semi-tropical plants, such as palms, cacti and rubber plants, usually are too expensive to risk on. the lawn, and it is well to change the earth in their pots and place them la a sunny position on the porch. Ferns should have a cool, shady damp location loca-tion during the summer. If your plants have to be kept In the house, water frequently and beware of plant lice and red spider. The former attach themselves to the stems and under the surface of the leaves. Spray them with tobacco water. Plain water wa-ter sprayed on daily will help the plant and drive the red spiders away m a very short length of time. |