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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1876)
8 THE WEST SHORE. M; fay. A Twelve Page Monthly Mutinied Paper, published L. bAMUKL, s Washington-it. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION, llDcludinf Pottage to any part of the United Stain:) Oo copy, one ytt, . . . fi 50 Single Number, - 10 cent. Printed by fan. H. HiMEl, cor. Frcnt h Waahinttion TO LOVERS OF FLOWERS. We should be pleased to receive short communications from all flower-lovers on subjects of floriculture, giving their ex perience, successes and failures. We also desire to engiave all our native flowera and should be pleased with descriptions and drawings of them or if drawing cannot be made, a flower and leaf pressed will do. HOMK MADE BKALTIFUI.. Every home should smile with beauty. But few realize the magic power of a yard of (lowers upon the household. Men can not easily be sour and morose, women arc not often heard to fret and scold, neither arc children prone to seek pleasure with bad associates, when favored with beauti fied yards for recreation at their homes. When whole families become interested in cultivating flowers, they feci a sweet blending symothy and aspiration for the richer beauties that adorn the character and secure the esteem of the virtuous and the good. Who can love flowers and not love the morally beautiful? Or who can contemplate Ihem as the creations of a beneficent Deity and not feel the more de vout and thankful? Secure seeds of at least a few of the choicest flowers. Such as make a brilliant show and arc a long time in the blossom ing stage arc most desirable. For the benefit of the more inexperienced, I would name the following, a part or all of which may lie secured for a trifling sum : For white flowers, Sweet Alyssum and Candytuft; for red, l'hlox, I'ortulaca, Fe lunias, Pinks and Zinnias; for blue, Cam panula, Gila, and Larkspur: and for yel low, the Marigold and Calliopsis. Add to these Mignonette for fragrance, Everlasting Flowers for winter bouquets, and the large Fancy (iennan Pannes for exquisite heauty and a rich diversity of coloring. As it is never w ise to undertake loo much at once, thesewill hcstiflicicnuo be gin with. Then add every season to the list, until the yard on alt sides smile with beamy. PLANTING SWF.F.T VKH.KTS. Double flowering sweet violets are cap ital plants for edgings to beds, borders and walks. The best time to plant them is in the Spring, when the beds are sjiadcd up and got into sh.ie for the season. Have a strong soil made rich with fowl manure, give them plenty of water mornings, not loo much sun, and keep them in a cool place. Diaw a line where it is desirable to form the edging, and after scjtarating the plants into small pieces plant them firmly about six indies apirt, along after the line. In a short time they will present an unbroken line of edge, and the next season they will give an abundance oftheir acceptable, fragrant flowers. The double Russian is the variety best adapted fot this purpose. The animals and other flower ing plants can be planted quite close to the violets, as some shade will he found beneficial to them. MaM'rk ro ins Rose. Take two parts fowl or pigeon manure, four parts burned luri or earth, and four iorts cow manure. Especially are the above beneficial in the spring. The rose should be watered often hile growing, with a mixture of two pounds of hen or pigeon manure to every jus gallons of water; the best time to wa ler is in the evening or on a cloudv dav. Of all the flowers that delight the eye, none are so grandly beautiful as the rose. Obstinacy and lehcmcncy of opinion are me surest proofs ol stupnlity. POT PLANTS. HEXM Mli.l.EK. About the first of May most plants in pots can be set out doors ; they also look very pretty distributed amongst the flower bed's. The pots should be sunk into the ground up to the rim, and a handful of ashes put under to keep angleworms out. ft will do no harm if the roots run through, the plant will in fact in such cases grow much stronger, and in taking it up in the fall if the whole root cannot be saved it can be cut off; but the plant mustbeshortcned in the top in proHrtion. Plains set out in this manner should be watered daily. Abutilons, Lemon Verbena, Century plant, Cactus, Hydrangea, Lantana, Heliotrope Oleander, Fuchsia, &c, will be much benefited, by planting out; it gives them a new start and in the fall they can mostly be potted in the same pots by reducing the ball some. In potting plants a mistake is often made by using pots entirely too large ; it is safe to remember a plant cramped in lis roots will bloom much sooner and letter, than those in pots they don't fill with roots. Now is a good time to shift plants into larger pots, if necessary. One inch post and will require watering only once or tw ice a week. All the Seadums or mosses, so called.J are calculated for rockwork. Verbenas in the sunniest place well watered and Pansy in the shadiest will give bloom all summer. Flam Gladiolos or Flaglilics among the Verbenas, the low Verbena partly hiding the long stocked Gladiolos and both will thereby'be improved. Plant an old fashioned crimson Peona under a Snow-ball and the) contrast is pleasing as they bloom at same time. A Good Fertilizer. A good liquid fertilizer and one that will show its effects quickly may be made simply of wood-soot and ashes in proportion of one pint of soot to two gallons of water. Mix these ingre dients together in the evening, andletstand till next evening, then apply by means of a sprinkler. Those who have never tried this fertilizer will be surprised at the pow er which it seems to possess. To Remove; Plants from the Pot. To turn out intact the contents of a flower pot, dampen the soilthroughout, place the open palm upon the top, covering as much as possible; invert the' pot, give a little jar against a table or door, and that, with the lifting up of the pot, insures you the con tents in hand uninjured. N THE CdU-MllIA RIVED, NEAR THE BLOCK HOUSE. larger than the former size is all that is required. It no repotting is rcouired clean off the upper soil to the roots and fill w ith fresli rich soil, or shake the plant out of the pot, reduce the lull an inch or so flroiin.. ami set in same put and fill up with fresh soil, lots, when set out doors, sli.ml.l i, placed where they can receive the morning sun tit) to 10 or 1 1 o'clock, but !.... where the noon or the afternoon can strike them, which would be sure to burn them. If plants have been kct in a very warm place or in a cellar thev sli.ml.1 not at once be cxioscd cither to the hot sun or cold nights but gradually kmli off by setting them in a cool room for a while or by placing them on the wrch in day time and taking in at night for about two weeks. Camellias. lUmni.. , i Daphna arc better kept in a liehi mnm . conservatory all summer, and fmii,. sprinkled over head and well watered. Keep Calla-Lillics growinc all iheiim it,. drying off process is a mkut r,. make line foliage plants i n, w .! ifimnlh t,aW. Ccmun- nlant. if! large, nukes a Cite ornament on a gate Ot r Fki it axn Ve.iktaw.fs. In these days, when nearly all the good things in the vegetable world are fast becoming cos moiliiaii, it is interesting to trace the iiauoiiauiy 01 some of the most familiar things in our daily fare. Seldom, while muucinng our matutinal radish, do .- laiise to conjure an imaginary bed of buried crimson and white in ih..r.r i,.t r r Chou and Piys-Wampi ; yet from China japan were me first Radishes intro duced to the outside barbarians of Europe. Neither, at supper, in meeting with a peculiarly flavorous morsel in our cake, do we inwardly thank the horn. nr n thenes for the luxury ; vet the earliest Utron-grovcs breathed their perfume on the sunny Grecian ether. Our Quinces hanging from crooked, crowded limbs, the most neglected of all our luxuries, may be forced to stand in drunken rows along broken-down fences, or act as outposts to barns and outhouses ; but the great-grcat-grandinother of all the Quinces was a plucky little tree of high station, looked up to by sweet-scented shrubs in the Island of 1 rete. Fennel grew wild along the banks rf European rivers long before the first enta. tainment of the "Arabian Nights" n dreamed of ; and Celery, once known "Smallage," was munched by many ancient Druid, let us believe, plucking it during his solitary walks along the gu British coast. Even then, it may be, the ducks of an unknown continent were munching it too, lqr it grows wild ln our Chesapeake and Delaware bays, mi our canvas-backs and their friends love dine upon it. But the British, as usuji have all the credit, as it is down in their books. Garlic came from Sicily, where, for mr part, I wish it had staid. The Caulo-rd,, an affiliated cross between the turnip mj cabbage, claims the Faterland for its own. Beans blossomed first within sight of em bryo mummies, in the land of the Sphinr and the Egg-plant first, laid its glossy treasures under an Aincan sun. Peru and Chili were the first coumriet enlivened by the dazzling hues of tht Nasturtianvine ; and Southern Europe gate us the Artichoke and the Beet. To Persia we stand indebted for Peaches, Walnuts, Mulberries, and a score of every day luxuries and necessities ; to Arabia ire owe the cultivation of Spinage ; and to Southern Europe we must bow in tearful gratitude for the Horse-radish. At Siberia the victims of modem intem perance ' may shake their gory locks for- r for from that cold, unsocial land came Rye, the father of the great fire-water river which has floated so many jolly souls on its treacherous tides, and engulfed so much ol humanity's treasure. The Chestnut, dear to squirrels and young America, first dropped its burrs on Italian soil, while its giant cousin, yclept the "Horse," is a native of Thibet. Who ever dreams, while enjoying his "Bartlett," his "Flemish Beauty," or his "Jargonelle," that the first Pear-blossoms opened within sight of the Pyramids ? and what fair school-girl of all the pickle-eating tribe, dreams of thanking the East Indies for her Cucumbers? Aprojios of this, I once was told by a worthy old lady, a sin gular item in regard to the last-named edible. She said that in its wild state it grew on very luxuriant vines that trailed in every direction over the ground, tangling themselves among the bushes at such a rate that the progress of grazing animals was thereby much impeded ; hence, she as sured me, the name, cow-cumber. The old lady's learning, I admit, was generally not of the most reliable order, but I give her suggestion for what it may be worth. Pro bably she was in some way akin to that other worthy old lady who, when asked by her city nephew, why in the world she called a certain vegetable "Sparrow-grass." replied, innocently : "Well, child, I can't say where these names come from gen'rally, but certain it's as plain as the nose on your face that sparrow-grass must get its name from the sparrows feedin' on it so plentiful when it's in seed." The nephew chuckled inwardly, of course. But he, poor fellow, was ignorant in his turn ; for hi didn't know that Asparagus was first found in Russia and Poland; and that in its wild state, u gathered along the shores of Long Island Sound and elsewhere, it is a most delicious edible. ariegateo Leaves. Among favorite objects of cultivation in green-houses anil v......""" gaiucns, 01 laie yeais, v nUnl I.,..! : J. . . J -n i'ini3 nawiiy vancgaica leaves , aim AtTnrt In... 1. ...... 1 .l. . ucvu ajurcu 10 secure uie est possible variety. Any plant may, it ii said, be variegated by innoculating into it the sap of one already variegated by means of ingrafting. The cause of this phenom enon, according to Mr, Morrcn, consists in the existence of minute corpuscles which have no green color like the ordinary corpuscles, presenting an analogy to albin ism in the animal kingdom. L
