GETTING READY FOR WINTER

A supply of good potting-soil should be put into the cellar for use during the winter if needed. Often a plant will have outgrown its pot, thus making immediate repotting necessary in order to continue the healthy condition of it, but if there is no good soil at hand it will be obliged to do the best it can until spring comes, and by that time it will have received a check from which it will be a long time in recovering, and quite often it will die as the result of failure to give it proper attention when it was in most need of it. If you have a supply of potting-soil in stock there will be no excuse for not caring for your plants promptly when the advisability of repotting is indicated.

A very satisfactory potting-soil is composed of garden loam, two parts; leaf-mold or its substitute, one part; and clean, coarse sand, one part. To this should be added some well-rotted cow manure, if obtainable. Work the compost over until all its ingredients are thoroughly mixed. The quantity of manure required to make the compost sufficiently rich to suit all kinds of plants will depend on the quality of the loam used. If that is quite rich, do not add much manure to it. If only of moderate richness, more can be used. This is a matter which will have to be decided largely by results. If the plants you put into the compost make a strong, healthy growth, the soil is rich enough. If the growth does not seem strong, more plant food is required.

A good substitute for cow manure is fine bone-meal in the proportion of a pound to a bushel of soil. A good substitute for leaf-mold will be found in that portion of old sward from pasture or roadside which contains fine grass roots. Turn the sward over and cut away this part of it, to mix with the loam and sand. These roots will be found almost as rich in vegetable matter as pure leaf-mold.

Some persons may wonder why I advise the liberal use of sand, which is not supposed to contain much nutriment. I do it because I have found from long experience in growing plants that sand not only facilitates good drainage, but enables air to get to the roots of the plants as it never can do when the soil is not light and porous. And sand is a sweetener of soil, as is charcoal. Of course not all plants are alike in their requirements. Roses, for instance, like a rather heavy, compact soil. In growing them use the loam without sand. If I had to choose between sand and manure in making potting-soil for nearly all plants adapted to window culture, I would take the sand.

It is not too late to set out seedling plants of such perennials as phlox and hollyhock if care is taken to lift enough soil with them to insure against disturbance of their roots. Work of this kind can be done to better advantage now than in spring.

Now is a good time to go over the shrubs and give such pruning as may seem necessary. As a general thing, the less pruning given a shrub the better, for if left to itself it will do a much better job of training than we are capable of doing for it. But it is advisable that all shrubs should have the old, weak wood cut away each season. This is pruning for health—not for symmetry. Nature has a keener eye for the symmetrical than we have, therefore we are justified in leaving the training of our shrubs to her, or to the shrubs, acting under her advice.

Oleanders, fuchsias, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums—in fact, all hard-wooded plants that are summer and autumn bloomers—should be wintered in the cellar. Here, if the temperature is kept low, they will be practically dormant for several months, thus getting the same kind of a resting-spell that comes to deciduous plants out of doors during winter. Give just enough water to prevent the soil from becoming dust-dry. Do not be frightened if some of them shed their foliage while in cold storage; outdoor plants do that. If the place in which they are kept can be made dark, all the better.

Dahlia roots should be spread out on swinging-shelves of wire netting when stored away. Never heap them together, and never put them on the cellar-bottom, for it is likely to be too damp there. Mold, which is largely the result of dampness, must be guarded against, hence the advantage of hanging-shelves which will allow a free circulation of air about the roots spread out on them. Look them over at least every week. If you find any that show signs of mold or decay, separate them immediately from the healthy ones. If allowed to remain, the diseased condition will surely be communicated to the entire mass of roots.

All plants that seem to need repotting should be attended to before winter sets in. This will give them plenty of time to become thoroughly re-established before the winter campaign is on, and it will not be necessary to disturb them in the middle of the busy season.

All the windows at which plants are kept should be looked over before cold weather comes, and made proof against cracks and crevices that will let in cold air. It is a good plan to provide these windows with storm-sash. If this is done, the plants can be allowed to stand with their leaves against the glass, as the air space between window and storm-sash will prevent frost from forming on the inner panes.

Gladiolus roots should be stored in boxes of perfectly dry sawdust or buckwheat hulls and kept in a dry and rather cool place. Never put them in the cellar. Be careful to see that no frost gets to them. Or they can be wrapped in paper and put into paper bags and hung in a closet. If kept in a very warm place over winter they frequently become so dry that there is little vitality left in them by spring.

Tuberous begonias and gloxinias will most likely have ended their flowering season by this time. Allow the soil in their pots to become dry. Then set them away in a dark closet without in any way disturbing the tubers. Treated in this manner, they winter much more satisfactorily than when the roots are taken out of the soil. In spring, when the plants are brought to the light and water is given, they will soon send up new sprouts. Then the roots should be shaken out of the old soil and supplied with fresh earth.

In covering roses do not make use of leaves if there happens to be anything else at hand that will afford the necessary protection. Leaves would make an ideal covering were it not for the fact that it is almost impossible to keep mice from working in them. Last season I lost every rose-bush that was covered with leaves. The mice had gnawed all the bark from them. Covering the bushes with dry earth is preferable.