The Winter Flowers

Winter is a good time to add sawdust to your compost pile. Add a little complete fertilizer to hasten decomposition. Mix well with the leaves and other material. Any kind of sawdust will do. Shredded twigs from line clearance crews may be used for this or for top dressing garden paths.

A glass covered box over your Christmas rose will protect the flowers from the weather and give you boutonnieres that are wonderful conversation pieces. Incidentally put plenty of peat in the soil when planting. Once they are planted, leave them alone. I can hardly wait to see how many of the hundred and some Lenten roses I planted under the Norway maple are going to bloom. They usually start the last week of February. They are two-year-old that I grew from seed. Some had ten or 12 leaves. This year's crop did not grow nearly as well because it was so wet.

For Garden Color

The old chimney pot I bought last fall for a base of my homemade sundial looks quite antique at the end of the brick walk that goes to the back of the garden. It needs a plant or two of box or evergreen barberry to set it off properly in winter. Last fall the pastel colors of some selected plants of coleus around it really made a lovely picture. After all, that is part of the fun of gardening, trying to make interesting patches of color here and there around the garden to tempt you to photograph them. I admit I am always scheming to get such effects. Since I am a little impatient, it is sometimes necessary to move plants in full leaf or even in bloom to get the effect immediately.

In starting to plan next summer's plants, regardless of the method of moving, should be braced against wind. The alignment of many trees is disturbed and the root system loosened in the soil by winds. This can easily endanger the plant's chances of survival.

Rose planting is best if begun the last of this month and carried over into February. If your rose order arrives, of course, it it better to go ahead and plant the bushes. if the garden, I find I'll need to add to the summer effects.

Coneflowers or rudbeckies are made to order for hot summer climates since they are all of native origin. ven the wild black-eyed Susan is worth using. And in the seed catalogs you will find one or more annual and biennial coneflowers including daisies.