FAILURE OF PEONIES TO BLOOM. Everyone says the Peony will endure anything, heat, cold, rain or dry weather or any kind of soil. It is true the plant is tenacious of life. It is just as true that it knows when it is not well treated. It evens up matters many times by refusing to bloom. Any one of the following reasons may cause it to be barren of bloom. (1) Poor, hard ground. (2) Deep shade, as when grown under evergreens or behind thick shrubbery. (3) Spring planting in hot climates, or (4) clumps allowed to get too dry in droughty summers.
BRUGMANSIA. I admire this plant when in bloom. Its magnificent ivory trumpets are a grand sight. It is a fine thing for piazza decoration during summer, and may be grown in a greenhouse or warm plant room in winter. It is not, however, suitable for ordinary window culture. It needs good care and freedom from dust, and moreover chills easily. If placed in the cellar in November it will winter there safely. Bring up as early as possible in the spring, water with moderation until new shoots start from the root, then give abundance of water.
EUCHARIS. This is a beautiful flower worth taking a little pains to grow. It is more often seen in greenhouse than in a window, as it is easier in the former to secure a warm, moist, even temperature. Shortly after New Year Eucharis grow very fast. Keep them warm and moist until through flowering when they can be kept ten to fifteen degrees cooler and watered less freely. This gives them the needed semi-rest to enable them to get ready for bloom again. In summer they need plenty of water again. When fall comes keep them pretty dry for the next three months, supplying only enough water to keep them from losing their leaves. Pot them in loam and sand, with a small quantity of old crumbled manure and leaf loam.
A PLAGUE OF ANTS. A correspondent has suffered for years from annual raids of ants that literally swarm over everything and everywhere. "Last year," says this lady, "they killed ever so many plants, from Pansies to trees. All of our outdoor flowers were almost ruined by them. I have tried molasses and Paris green, but they only increase in numbers. They are everywhere, but I cannot find their holes or nest."