Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-04-05
FLOWERS OF SPRING.
The Biggest Plant Propagating Gar
den in the Country.
HOW THE CITY Is DECORATED
hea"tifn1 Blossoms Turned Ont BY
Millions From the Gardens Near the
Recommendations Buds by tho Cart
Load-The Proper Care of Plants.

beauty Of this most admired of
cities-namely the horticultural garden near
| the Washington monument And vet this es-
adjustment for the propagation of plants, a
STAR reporter learned, is the biggest and most
complete in this country and one of the finest
in the world. Under the conduct of the pres
ent director-Mr. Brown-it has come to
afford wonderful illustration Of system as
applied to the growing of whatever is
beautiful in the vegetable kingdom. Three
| hundred and fifty thousand plants il turns
out each year of a towering and otherwise
| ornamental description. for the decoration OF
the national capital. Next month these prod
ucts of earth-born loneliness will be contribut-
| ing their rainbow tints and varied perfumes to
the breathing places of the city. At present
they occupy myriads of pots or garden space
In and about the huge green houses back of the
Bureau OF Engraving and Printing At this
season, when things are beginning to grow it
ought to be of interest not only to amateur
horticulturists but to every one, to know how
plants are turned out on scientific principles.
DECORATIONS FOR THE WHITE HOUSE.
One important part of the business Of the
propagating establishment is to provide plants
for the adornment of the White House, and for
| this purpose alone a great space is appropri-
ated under glass-one huge green house being
given up exclusively to palms and other trop-
lcal and semi-tropical exotics. When the Pres
ldent gives reception or on other occasions
OF festvty these things and all sorts of other
beautiful vegetable products are loaded, in
their pots, into great closed express vans of
the kind used for moving furniture and con-
veyed In this way to the executive mansion.
The east room is transformed into scene from
the tropics. the enormous height of the ceiling
giving space for trees of considerable size,
lesser ones and plants of smaller growth bank
ing the walls, SO that the whole great apart
ment Is mass OF green, festoons Of smilax
lending dellcacy to the effect.
On Decoration day it is no unusual thing for
the head gardener to send up to Arlington a
| cart load-think OF it!-of rose buds. To pro-
duce
THESE LovELIEsT OF BLOOMS
| at such rate, not only are great rose houses
and gardens necessary, but also there is re-
| quired most elaborate method, a part of
| which consists in disposing of half the stock
OF rose bushes each spring to make room for
new ones. In no case Is rose plant kept
| longer than two years after it is planted as a
| slip, for the reason that the bush always does
| its best bearing during the first twenty-four
months of its existence, when it has its most
active vigor. Then the most profitable thing
| Is to dispense with ii at the end of its second
| blooming season to make space for the bush
| that YOU have been raising meanwhile from
| the slip for that purpose. In this way you will
| get the greatest quantity of blooms for a given
! number Of plants The entire stock of rose
bushes depended upon for years supply Of
blossoms in the Washington gardens is at
| present arranged on a narrow shelf perhaps 80
| feet long, filed with little thumb pots each Of
| which holds small but promising slip. Next
| April those slips will be bushes three feet
| high, ready to take the place of the two-year-
old stock. which will be disposed of. Very
| few people are successful in growing roses.
| but that is merely because they don't under
stand the simple principles involved.
SUCCESS AND FAILURE.
| They should have a soil that is half rich loam
| a quarter sand and a fourth part manure
Plenty of light is necessary for them and also
| plenty Of water. But plenty of water does not
mean deluge Amateurs in gardening usually
kill their plants by Overwhelmingly fact
| more plants are destroyed in that way than in
! all others put together. Watering twice a week
ought to be enough for plant in the house in
! stead of every day; but the pot that is prop
| erly watered can always be distinguished by
| slight moisture on the outside-if it is dry the
| plant needs drink. The saucers beneath the
| pots must be emptled once in every twenty
| four hours, else the earth will get sodden and
sour. As for bugs it must not be question Of
| getting them of OF the rose bushes; they must
never be permitted to get on them. If they
| get start you may well throw away the
| plant. You can easily prevent the bugs from
coming by applying freely mixture of strained
tobacco solution and whale oil soap diluted
| the Oldest of cultivated flowers.
THE METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SOIL
employed by gardeners is rather interesting.
To begin with, the loan is obtained from sods
cut just two inches deep on fertile land and
| then permitted to rot, the final result being a
rich powdery substance agreeable to the feel.
| pleasant to the smell and full of suggestion of
the good things of which il contains the ele-
| ments. But all plants, like some people, do
not thrive on too rich food, and a portion of
sand is usually mixed with the loan. The lat
ter is composed chiefly of vegetable matter,
with more or less proportion of minerals.
The soil was originally formed by the disinte-
grafton OF rock. Scraplngs thus made produced
certain low forms of vegetable growth. which,
by their decay. added to this Beginning of
soil, which was thus enabled to produce forms
of vegetation q little higher. These in turn de-
cayed and thus the soil went on getting deeper
and deeper until it could support trees.
PRoPAaArINd IN VARIOUS WAYS.
The propagating of plants in the Washing
ton gardens. however, is done without the aid
Of soil at all. Coarse sand is used for the pur-
pose and nothing else. save only plenty of
water and heat. The sand is placed in wide
and shallow troughs running the whole
length OF big green house with a passage
way between. Beneath the sand run steam
pipes and the sand itself is plentifully sprin-
Killed. with water twice day TO keep il moist.
lHlS one mouse Is capaple OF producing l,UUU,-
900 plants year. The workman engaged in the
| task of propagating makes a little gutter an
| inch deep across the trough in the level sand
surface and fills it with a line of fire. sh cut
| slips OF geranium, sey. Then after
| filling in this gutter with sand and
| smoothing it down he makes another gutter
| parallel with the first, and SO on until he has
| planted as many slips as he wants. Take one
| small geranium slip, for instance, and let us
| pursue its history. Upon being stuck into the
| sand its sap runs down to the end where it was
| cut off, heals the wound and makes from its
| own substance tiny fibers that project this way
| and that through the sand in search of life
/ giving moisture. During this period, just as il
the case with baby or a chicken for the first
plant requires no food. But before long the
| fbers referred to will have developed suii-
| GENTLY to
| FORM A SUSTAINING ROOT
and then the youthful geranium is ready to be
| transplanted to a mite of a thumb pot and to
be supplied with solid diet in the shape Of good
| loan. though some gardeners believe in mixing
| a large proportion of sand with the soil at this
| stage, Just as babys bottle milk is diluted
| with water. Subsequently the plant, as it
! grows, is transferred progressively to bigger
| and bigger pots, as ii needs more room. But
| the pots must never be too big; the most COM
| mon reason why the plants kept by amateurs
! do not bloom is that their pots are too large,
| so that they expend their superfuous strength
| in extending roots instead OF producing bios
! sons Flowers do not bloom while they are
| doing much growing. but rather during inter
| walls of arrested growth, during which their