CHAPTER II.. The Mantel-Piece Garden.

THE MANTEL-PIECE GARDEN.

Plants which will do for it.--Choice of Flower Bulbs.--Hyacinths blooming under the Water.--Disposition of the Vases for this Experiment.--Planting the Bulbs.--Hyacinths forced, in Water.--Jonquil.--Crocus.--Van Tholl Tulips.--Flower Pots for the Garden on the Mantel-piece.--Care of the Bulbs after Flowering.--Separating the Tufts of Crocus.--Vanilla Tussilago.--Hepaticas.

You have no idea, ladies, of the amount of instructive and agreeable hints I am to give you in this chapter: its title is not in the least deceptive; you can really make for yourself a garden, without any other place at your disposal than your mantel-piece. I take for granted, that you will begin in good time to kindle your fires, and that they will be kept up until spring has fully taken possession of the outer atmosphere.

On this condition, there will be no disappointment for you, in the resources that your garden on the mantel-piece will afford.

Choice of Flowering Bulbs.

By the end of September, the evenings in some of the states are cool; a little fire is indispensable after sunset. It is now time to procure good roots of hyacinths, crocuses, Van Tholl tulips, and jonquil. You must not choose the largest among these bulbs, which are not always the best by a great deal; but those of medium size of their species--firm, smooth, shining, free from spots or bruises, and from softness. Those which give premature signs of vegetation ought to be rejected.

A Hyacinth blooming under Water.

Having made your choice among the brightest shades of blue, red, and yellow, you must give your greatest care to a charming experiment which will be the source of a very agreeable amusement for you all the winter. You can procure, at a small expense, two vases of plain, clear, uncolored glass; both of the same form, except that one has no bottom, and is a little smaller than the other. They are to be used as follows: Put into the one that is open at both ends one of the finest of your hyacinth roots; suppose you take one of a fine red--a sultan Soliman for instance; place this bulb in a position inverse to its natural position, that is, with the bottom up, and the top, from which the leaves and flowers are to come, downwards, even with the orifice at the bottom of the vase. Then you must crumble a mixture of good garden earth and leaf mould over the bulb until the vase is three quarters full. A second bulb with a flower in strong contrast to the first, say a blue if the flower of the first is red, and vice versa, must be next placed in the vase, so that the top shall be even with the upper orifice. You have nothing more to do than to place the vase thus prepared upon the first vase, full of water.

Two similar couples look very well, placed upon the two ends of the mantel-piece of a room in which people habitually sit, and where, consequently, fire is constantly made while the cold season lasts. The earth in the upper vase should be moderately watered as soon as the bulbs are placed in it, and then kept constantly moist, avoiding excess, by renewed watering whenever you perceive that the earth is getting dry.

At the end of two days, the crowns of the two bulbs will both send out straight, white roots; those of the reversed bulb turn down in curves, but do not fulfil their functions worse for that. Very soon the two bulbs placed in a contrary position to each other put forth leaves--the one into the air, the other in the water; then you will see appear in the midst of the transparent liquid the buds on the floral stalk, and finally the flowers, as beautiful, as well formed, of as rich a color, surrounded by leaves of as fine a green as the corresponding parts possess, of the other flower planted in the ordinary manner, and vegetating and developing in the air, its natural element. It is true that time is necessary for all this to be accomplished: bulbs planted in October will flower fully in February or March; but is it not a pleasure to watch day by day the phases of their development, above all that of the hyacinth which ends by blooming in the water, head downwards?

Hyacinths forced in Water.

While these curious phenomena in vegetation are being accomplished, you should place other hyacinth roots in bulb glasses, either blue or colorless, of the form adapted to this purpose, which you must not fail to keep constantly filled with water, so that the liquid shall be even with the crown--that is, with the edge of the flat part of the bulb--without ever passing it. For filling these glasses, as for watering the earth where the bulbs grow one above the other, one upright and the other reversed,--remember that you must use only water of the temperature of your room. Without this precaution you will spoil all, and the bloom of your bulbs will be miserable.

Jonquil--Crocus.

The roots of the jonquil should be treated like the hyacinth roots,--using pure water. As you cannot count with certainty on the blooming of all roots, it is prudent to put at least three in the same glass--placing them on a flat, thin, round piece of wood with three holes cut in it. They bloom at the same time with the hyacinths. In the spaces between the glasses containing the bulbous plants nourished by nothing but water, place pots full of earth, mixed half and half with garden manure; leaf mould would not be strong enough. Plant in these crocus bulbs, taking care to group in the same pot the varieties of fine colors--pure white, white striped with violet, and plain violet. The flowers of these plants, which precede the development of their leaves, contrast agreeably, by the vividness of their colors, with the pale yellow of the jonquil.

Van Tholl Tulips.

Other pots like the first, and filled with the same mixture, must have in them roots of the Van Tholl tulips, a charming little tulip with a dwarf stem and petals of a bright red bordered with golden yellow. All these flowers develop at the same time, presenting a happy variety of forms and shades in the bloom of a mantel-piece garden, whilst Nature is at work without, preparing her more abundant supply of flowers in the open air.

Flower Pots for the Mantel-piece Garden.

Whatever may be your taste for elegance, believe in the experience of an old gardener, and never plant your crocuses and Van Tholl tulips on your mantel-piece in any thing else than the ordinary earthenware flower pots, which cost a few cents, varying in price according to their size. Conceal their coarse surfaces with coverings of glazed paper, folded and cut at their upper edge, and place under each pot a porcelain saucer; and this is the utmost extent you can be permitted to go in sacrifices to elegance. If you plant these poor bulbs in rich vases of varnished sheet iron or porcelain, painted and gilt, they will languish, and your hopes will be completely deceived; for they will bloom badly, or not bloom at all. The porous nature of the ordinary earthenware flower pots is perfectly well adapted to the vegetation of the roots of ornamental plants. If you place these roots in iron or porcelain, you will not obtain, however sedulous your care, any satisfactory result; no more in the garden on the mantel-piece than elsewhere.

Care of Bulbs after the Bloom is over.

Bulbs which have vegetated in water do not necessarily perish after blooming. Do not wait until their leaves turn yellow and fade before you take them out of the water. When you have done this, let them drip well; cut off the fibrous roots, the leaves, and the flower stalk, and place them in a drawer where they will be protected from moisture. The next year, those which have not turned soft should be planted in earth, out in the open air, that they may recover if they have strength enough to do so, or to give offsets or young bulbs to replace them in time. The bulbs which were planted in earth will not have suffered in any manner from having been forced in the mantel-piece garden. Before taking them out of the earth, you must wait until their leaves are half turned yellow after they have bloomed; then let them lose, by drying in the air, a part of the moisture they had while vegetating; after which clean them and put them away with the others; they will serve perfectly a second or third time for the same sort of culture.

If you like crocuses,--and if you do not, you are too hard to please, for there is not a spring flowering plant fresher or prettier than the crocus,--you must continue to water them after the bloom. Their leaves, of a fine green marked throughout their length with a white line, will not be amiss as part of the decoration of your mantel-piece garden. When the leaves begin to turn yellow, you must cease entirely to water them; but you must not take up the crocus roots. They must be left in the dry earth until next year. They will keep there very well, surrounded by their young family; for they produce every year a certain number of little ones, which will bloom in their first spring. These bulbs ought only to be taken up every three years, and then for the purpose of separating the clusters; without which the pots would be too full--there would not be nourishment for the whole family. When managed in this manner, the tufts of forced crocuses are more beautiful the second year than the first, and still more beautiful the third year; after which you must renew the plantings.

The very easy gardening, of which we have just described the process, will bring you to the fine weather; and then, if you go to the country to pass the summer, the mantel-piece may remain widowed of its garden until autumn. But if you remain, you may put upon the mantel-piece some of your prettiest flowers, whenever you have too many for your balcony. They will there require attentions of which we will tell you in the part of this work particularly devoted to the garden at the window.

Vanilla Tussilago--Hepaticas.

Has your mantel-piece room enough to admit of two or three supplementary pots? Then put there--if you are not afraid of sweet, penetrating perfumes, a pot of vanilla tussilago. The flower is ugly, but of an odor equal to that of the sweetest orchises, and it does not affect the head.

If you are afraid of odors, even the delicate and inoffensive, substitute for the vanilla tussilago rose-colored and blue hepaticas, which are charming in form and color, and have no perfume. With these resources there is abundant material to give you a taste for the culture of flowers in the mantel-piece garden. The vanilla tussilago and the hepatica are flowers of a most accommodating disposition; nothing more is necessary to them than half a glass of water every two days, and for the temperature of your chamber to be such as suits yourself.