Talks about Flowers

Talks about Flowers by Mrs. M. D. Wellcome

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881

CONTENTS
Dexter Smith Poem
Preface.
Introduction.
Chapter 1. A Talk to Farmers’ Wives.
Chapter 2. A Talk About “The Wild Garden.”
The Wild Garden.
Chapter 3. Make Home Beautiful.
Chapter 4. A Talk About Stocking the Garden.
Chapter 5. The Phlox Drummondii.
Verbenas.
Petunias.
Chapter 6. Pansies.
Chapter 7. A Talk About Pansies.
Mode of Culture.
Asters.
Balsams.
Chapter 8. A Talk About Geraniums.
Chapter 9. A Talk About Begonias.
Begonias, Not Rex.
Tuberous Rooted Begonia.
Gloxinia.
Tuberose.
Chapter 10. A Talk About Gladiolus.
New Hybrid Gladiolus.
Gladiolus Purpureo-Auratus.
Gladiolus Gandavensis.
Mode of Culture.
Chapter 11. The Use of Flowers.
Chapter 12. A Talk About Pelargoniums.
Regal Pelargoniums
Fringed and Striped Pelargoniums.
Hybrid Perpetual Pelargoniums.
Mode of Culture.
Chapter 13. The Rhodora.
Chapter 14. A Talk About Fuchsias.
Its History and Culture.
Fuchsias in the Isle of Man.
Propagating Fuchsias.
Chapter 15. A Talk About Coleuses.
Chapter 16. Ornamental Foliage Plants.
Crotons.
Fancy Caladiums.
Caladium Esculentum.
Eranthemums.
Marantas.
Cannas.
Dracæna.
Dracæna Goldiana.
Chapter 17. A Talk About Primroses.
Carnations and Picotees.
Perpetual Bloomers.
The Origin of the Florist’s Pink.
Dianthus.
Chapter 18. A Talk About Climbers.
Honeysuckle.
Canary Bird Flower.
Coboea Scandens.
Clematis.
Wistaria.
Chinese Wistaria as a Standard.
Chapter 19. Thoughts in My Garden.
Chapter 20. A Talk About Several Things.
Chapter 21. The Love of Flowers.
Last Words of the Poet Heine.
The Old Man and the Flowers.
Chapter 22. A Talk About Abutilons.
Chapter 23. A Talk About Dahlias.
Single Dahlias.
Amaryllis.
Hoya Carnosa, or Wax Plant.
Chapter 24. Among My Flowers.
Heliotrope.
Chapter 25. A Talk About Cyclamens and Oxalis.
Oxalis.
Chapter 26. A Talk About Lilies.
Longiflorum Lilies.
Double White Bouvardia, “Alfred Neuner.”
Camellia Japonica.
Chapter 27. The Ingathering of the Flowers.
My Window Box.
Hyacinths.
Insects.

Preface.

To all Flower Lovers who may read these pages, we come with kindly greetings. To you we dedicate our Work.

Encouraged by the many testimonials of favor with which our Flower Sketches have been received, which have appeared in the Boston Journal, Portland Transcript, and the leading Floricultural journals, we were induced to prepare this volume, intending it to be made up chiefly of those articles revised and enlarged for this purpose; but after entering upon this work, we found so little that was adapted for use, nearly every page has been written while the sheets were passing through the press.

Before we were aware, the printed matter had exceeded our proposed limits, and we were obliged to enlarge the work by additional pages, and even then omit our chapter of “Floricultural Notes,” for we wished to put the book at a low price, that it might reach the masses. As it is, we are sure that we have given you a great amount of valuable information, and just such as amateurs need, respecting the habits and requirements of those flowers which are best adapted for general cultivation, and in a form specially new and attractive, combining the history and literature of flowers, with description and mode of culture.

It may be deemed strange that we should omit from a work of this character a “Talk” about the Queen of Flowers, but the subject was so full that we thought best to devote the space to other varieties and refer our readers to our recently published “Essay on Roses,”--advertised in another part of this work--in which they will find the subject fully treated.

We would here acknowledge our obligation to Mr. James Vick for the beautiful Bouquet of Flowers which constitutes our Frontispiece.

MRS. M. D. WELLCOME.

Yarmouth, Me., June 9, 1881.