The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-04-08
Window Gardens.

room, anu gives ~ Wnat mirror anu picture
and artistic furniture cannot with all their
elaboration of form or color afford, so the
vines give to our window gardens their
overshadowing air Of protection and com
fort and brooding persuasiveness-some-
thing like the effect in sacred pictures Of
kindly lowering wings. Our first thought
then, In ornamenting our windows may
well be for the vines, and they reward
care more readily, perhaps, than any other
house plant. AT any rate, their luxuri.
ance is sufficiently sympathetic to give
answer, and quickly too, to the tending
touch. Shall we choose for ourselves q
variety of these overarching and daintily
clambering greoneries? First of all, then,
is the ivy, which hardly needs a word in
its praise, since il speaks so frankly for
itself. Only for beginners in its culture
need advice be offered; and to those not
yet beginners, to whom We say:-Do moi
let your house, do not let your sitting
room at least, be without this unexacting
but generous little friend Ivy is readily
grown from cuttings. All we have to dc
is to cut from the parent plant little
branches about three inches in length and
immerse them in vials of water, or plant
them in shallow boxes filed with sand wet,
tened to the consistency Of mud, and kept
so fully moistened until the roots have
sprouted from the ivy stems. Ivy already
potted out Of doors should be brought into
the house in November, and by degrees
accustomed to the heat of the sitting.room
so as TO flourish all winter You mus
wash its dusty leaves, and once week
give tiny stimulant of guano and nip of
with sympathetic judgment the termina
shoots, so as to duplicate the upreaching
effort Of new leaves, and your ivy will
gratefully respond and domesticate itself
aud you will ask little of it that it will moi
perform. Of Towering vines there are 0
hundred beauties, and selections must bC
made from the tempting florists list with
reference to the temperature of our room,
and the exposure of our windows. II
windows facing the south, and with room,
of warm temperature, we may have the
variegated kinds of the Mexican vine
named after the priest who brought it from
the wilds, the CoJea scdndeas, with it:
bell-shaped flowers, and the Passion flower
| (Pdssijforo ceralia and Rernusind, J which
needs also for profuse blooming much sun
light and temperature of from sixty tc
seyenty-fve degrees. And the assus dis.
color, close dependent upon heat and
light. For shadier windows there are the
ipome-thc morning glories-in many
varieties and colors, from sky-blue to scar
let, generous rcwarders of care, and SC
rapid in growth that they will blossom 81,
weeks after the seeds are planted, and tn,
Vinca, the charming little perpenche o.
the French, with its leaves glossy like myth
and its starry blossoms, lavender.coloreC
and blue. And again, in this temperature
too warm for ivies, one may have for foil
age vines and smilax, an exotic from Soutl
Africa, plant requiring a rich sandy sol
and plenty of watering, and sometimes, i
attacked by its mortal enemy, the rec
spider, dusting with cayenne pepper
And for the same condition of CROWN,
there is a new vine, wonderful fern
called the walking fern, just now appear
ing in the conservatories-a vine so grace
full, so novel, the smilax has hardly a hop,
to remain the reigning belle among tn
festoon plants of the window basket or tn
winters beauty in the cpergne.-Neu
York Mail.