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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1952-03-13, Page 7Tuberous Begonias Lovely, Easy to Grow Any gardener can grow tuber- ous rooted begonias to rival the Barest orchid or camellia. The ex- quisite blossoms, with brisk petals and a satin -like substance, are em- phasized by a background of al- most equally attractive foliage. Colors range frons purest white through deepest reds, which are effective in the garden or as rut flowers, Tuberous begonias, thanks to the relentless search of the hybridizer, have surprising hardiness and dis- ease resistance, as well as a wide range of color and flower .size. Many are characterized by differ- ent habits of growth, and there is an .increasing variation in flower form, too. The most popular of the double -flowering kinds is the cam- ellia type. Although the tuberous begonia is not well known by the average gar- dener, this sloes not mean it is difficult to grow. It is .started from a tuber, of course, which is best purchased from a reliable dealer. The various, grades vary from three-fourths of an inch to three inches in diameter. The smaller tubers grow and bloom in propor- tion to their size, but best results are obtained with medium or larger tubers. One to two-inch tubers are satisfactory for use in beds; larger ones are preferred for the produc- tion of exhibition specimens to be grown in pots or flower boxes. This is the time to order them. If they are sent through the mail, immediate. inspection should be made to determine whether any damage has been caused by low temperatures in transit. If they have been frozen, they become mushy and will not grow, and should be returned. In late March or April, the tub- ers are started in wooden 'flats or other containers, which can be con- veniently placed on window sills. The growing medium should con- sist of equal parts of screened woods, soil and. sand. A two to four -inch layer of this mixture is placed in the container. The top of the tuber is concave, and most of the hairlike roots come from this hollow. It is most important, then, that the tubers he set with the con- cave side up. Into the Pot They are spaced two inches apart and pressed firmly into the soil and sand, and covered with not more than a half-inch of the pot- ting mixture. A deeper covering will cause the tubers to rot. The container is then placed in a warm location and watered sparingly up- til growth has started., The soil, however, must always be kept moist. Top growth of four to six inches indicates adequate size for transplanting to their p ermanent garden location—if danger of frost has passed. This is done on a cloudy day, when possible. Successful growth and bloom thereafter depend on shade, proper soil and adequate moisture. An ideal location will have part shade, such as is found on the north side of a wall or structure, or under a tree. Although the begonia is con- sidered a plant for shade, it must receive adequate sun or the result will be tall, ungainly plants with sparse foliage and few blossoms. Dense shade, therefore, is not de- sirable. Most gardens have a northern exposure, which provides adequate sunlight in the early morning and late afternoon. If begonias are planted under a tree, the gardener should make certain that the lowest branches are not less than five feet above the ground. The site should also provide protection from strong winds and driving rains. The sprouted tubers are planted to the same depth they were in the pots. Deeper planting results in rotting at the base of the stem. If medium-sized tubers have been purchased for bedding purposes, the started tubers should be•placed twelve to eighteen inches .apart. This will provide enough space for development and allow for circula- tion of air to prevent stens rot. Also, plants are always watered after transplanting. If the gardener wants to pot the begonias, they are moved to ten, to twelve -inch glazed pots. There are used to fill in vacant spots in the garden. Whdn this method is fol- lowed, ollowed, the problem of moisture re- tention is simplified because the pots and sunk up to their rims in the soil. K Model With A Model: Pretty Ann Martin of Montreal takes time out to pose with a seven -foot, nine - inch model of a deHavilland jet aircraft which will go into service on Copedian.Pacific Airlines° trans -Pacific service this year. After being displayed at the Windsor 'Station in Montreal the $15,000 -model will go on tour to Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Honolulu, in addition to ap- pearing at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto this year. Of plastic and metal construction, it has a wingspan of nine feet seven inches, with rubber -tired wheels on q retractable undercarriage which can be operated by hand tofold into the belly of the aircraft. A removeable panel in the side displays the interior of the model which consists of crew compartment, showing pilot and co- pilot seat in front of a detailed control panel. The wireless operators dials and range sets are align- ed in one corner while the navigators working table is shown in the other. The next section shows lounge room. The lounge section which accomodates two sets of four chairs has table with folding leaves, while the body contains 28 reclining chairs, with the hand luggage rack overhead. The sec- tional view of the rear compartments discloses ladies' and men's washrooms, and the service com- partment of the stewardesses which is located in the rear of the aircraft. Was Queen A Believer In Spiritualism? Did John Brown Act As A Medium? It is not generally known that seances have been held in Buck- ingham Palace and Windsor Castle, or that several members of our Royal Fancily are interested in Spiritualism. The full story can- not be told at present; but I can mention, without disclosing names, that not long ago, one member of the Royal Family attended a voice seance in Brighton and received spirit messages, writes Maurice .Barbanell, in "Tit -Bits." Another member has frequently sat with a leading London med- ium. An intimate friend of the highest Court circles has related to them the remarkable spirit proofs from a loved.. one that he has obtained through another Lon- don medium. Princess Louise, elder sister of King George V, regularly receiv- ed spirit .communications from her husband, the Duke of Fife. The medium was Miss Elisabeth' Gor- don, her companion -secretary. Here are her own words: "I regularly gave the Princess, who died in 1931, messages from her husband. For two years I was the Princess Royal's inseparable companion." Queen Alexandra once held a seance in Windsor Castle. She was attracted seriously to Spiritual- ism. A very close friend of hers, who died a few years ago, left a private record to her family. Mysterious Music In it she described' how Queen Alexandra, one evening in her dressing room at the Castle, saw the spirit form of a tall woman r in a black and white dress stand- ing• at the doorway. The Queen also maintained afterwards that during the night she often hear music and singing for which there was no explanation. Shortly before King Edward VII's passing, and unknown to the King, a London medium was in- vited to Windsor Castle by Queen Alexandra, The seance, held in one of the ante -rooms, was at- tended by about a dozen people, including the Queen. Sonie remarkable spirit mes- sages were received. One foretold the early death of the King in the house of his birth. When Queen Alexandra was having a holiday in Corfu, the following year, intimation reached her that the King was "not feeling so well • as usual." Despite official assurance that the matter was not, in the least serious, the Queen left imme- diately for London. She arrived in time to see King Edward breathe his last at Buckingham Palace. The King communioated many times after his death to his friend, Lady Warwick, who caused a sen- sation by becoming a • Socialist. She told me the story of his spirit return when I interviewed her in her Essex home. King Edward's Voice She had invited Mrs, Etta Wriedt, a well-known American voice medium, to visit Warwick Castle. When she arrived she was shown to her room. While waiting for, her outside the room, Lady Warwick noticed a trumpet. standing on the floor. A trumpet is frequently used 'tit seances to intensify the sound • of the spirit voices, fulfilling a function similar to that of a megaphWarw4ck ne. Out of curiosity, Lady picked up the trumpet. "Immediate - is 1 heard the voice of any old, Mead, Xing .Edward, talking in "He sayak,We gotta make 01A a �Irilhdrawal Op." QUEEN VICTORIA 1837 -1901 VICTORIA 1819 - 1901 ALBERT 1819-1861 towanO VU 1841 - 1910 GEORGE V 1865 -1936 PRINCESS ALEXANDRA OF DENMARK TIPRINCESS MARV OF TECK EDWARD VIII Born - 1894 BECAME KING- JAN.20.1956 ABDICATED • DEC. 11.1956 GEORGE VI 1895 - 1952 11 PRINCESS MARGARET 1950 - - LADY ELIZABETH BOWES -LYON PRINCESS ALICE PRINCE LOUIS 1842 - 1878 OF 11ESSE (PRINCESS VICTORIA PRINCE LOUIS OF HESSE T OF BA.TTENBURG LORD LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN MARQUISof MILFORD HAVEN PRINCESS' 'ALICE PRINCE ANDREW OF BATTENBURG Of GREECE PRINCE CHARLES NOV. 14.1948 QUEEN ELIZABETH 1952 - German," she told me. You can imagine her surprise as the medi- um Was not even present! "Whenever I sat with Mrs. Wriedt," she added, "I always heard King Edward's voice, always speaking in German. He was so persistent that I got no other re- sults, so I left off sitting." In a glass -covered case at the South Kensington headquarters of the London Spiritualist Alliance there is a gold watch which was presented to a medium by Queen Victoria. It bears an engraved inscription stating that it was pre- sented by Her Majesty in July, 1846, to Miss Georgina Eagle "for her meritorious and extraordinary clairvoyance produced at Osborne House, Isle of Wight." It is believed that on thedeath of Miss Eagle the watch was re- turned to the Queen, who asked W. T. Stead, the famous journal- ist and spiritualist, to present it to another mediums. The watch has a second inscription which re- cords that Stead presented it to Etta Wriedt, "through whose mediumship Queen Victoria's direct voice was heard in London in July, 1911," ata seance. As the Queen was born in 1819, the watch is evidence of her in- terest in,psychic: matters at the early agof twenty-seven. This was nine years after she ascended the throne, and six years after her marriage to Prince Albert. The story of her association with Spiritualism did not end at the Isle of Wight. She derived great comfort from seances held in Buckingham Palace with two med- iums through whom the Prince Consort communicated after his passing in 1861. ' Evidence of Survival The first was R. J. Lees, a remarkable Leicester medium who began to receive spirit tnessages front, Prince Albert when he was still tinder twenty. These cons- tnunications were brought to the TllpA2MFRoNT Jok This isn't the first time I've writ- ten about the dangers of carbon monoxide in this column. Nor will it be, in all probability, the last. For, as somebody once put it, "The care you took yesterday isn't going to keep you safe today"; and we all need constant warnings about the hazards so common in every- day modern life. * Carbon monoxide strikes with- out warning. It is a colorless, odor- less and tasteless gas. Carbon mon- oxide gets in its deadly work be- fore you know what is happening. * * * * * * ° Experts say that you can avoid carbon monoxide poisoning easily by following a few simple rules: 1' * * 1, Never run the motor of a car in a closed garage. It takes only 3 minutes for the air to become dangerously poisonous in a small garage. * * * 2, Keep the muffler and tail pipe on your car in good repair, and be be sure the manifold is tight. * * * 3, Check for gas leaks in your furnace and see that the smoke pipe is sound and tightly connected to furnace and chimney. * '5* 4, 1f you burn coal, don't cover the entire fire bed with coal. Heap the coal to one side, being sure a flame is always visible. * * * That line of long icicles hanging from the eaves may be very pic- turesque and give your house an artistic Christmas card look, but can wreak a lot of damage if al- lowed to remain. * * * Where icicles form at the roof edge there will be an area of ice on the shingles just behind them that may reach up six inches or more. It is very solid ice and melts slowly. The snow above it melts when rain comes or a rise in temperature brings a thaw, but the run-off is impeded by the ridge that still holds firm. This re- veals itself as a leak around the window casing or through the ceil- ing. * Roofs which are really sound for all ordinary purposes will leak notice of the Queen, who sum- moned Lees to the Palace, and a long series of seances ensued. Gui- dance, evidence of survival after death and consolation, came to the Queen ,in these messages. She offered Lees a post in her employ so that he could be in close attendance upon her, but his spirit guide would not. permit him to accept the offer. For, he said, the medium had a great task to complete—the writing, under in- spiration, of accounts of life in the world beyond death. This task was fulfilled in the compilation of three bookswhich became best-sellers. Lee's guide revealed •that the Queen had another medium nearer at hand. This was John Brown, one of her Scottish gillies. The guide promised that should John Brown at any time be unable to give her a seance he would allow his mediums to help her. It was Lees, rather than the Queen, who insisted, because of his retiring nature and dislike of publicity, that these seances should be kept secret. He asked for his visit to Buckingham Palace to be so arranged that the Press should not give the Matter, any publicity. The guide of Lees kept his pro- mise. After the death of John Brown, seances were held for the Queen with Lees as the medium. People have always wondered at the. mystery of the close asso- ciation between Queen Victoria and John Brown. The simple explana- tion is that he was for ,many years the medium 'for her husband's coo- munications. When Brown died, the Queen herself ordered an in- scription for ' the tombstone in which she referred to him as hav- ing represented "God's blessing" to her. Court Consternation The Queen wrote a monograph on '`Brown in which she paid tri., bute to the help she received through his tnediitmship, She dedi- cated it "to the memory of my under such conditions. So, being careful not to injure the shingles, ]mock those icicles and ice -ridge off. * * * There is another way in which icicles and roof snow can cause damage around the home. Where ornamental shrubs or trees are planted close to the walls, melting snow and ice drops down con- tinuously from the eaves to freeze again and festoon them with icy wreaths. Broken icicles will shat- ter down on them. Or sheets of snow may slide from the roof breaking off branches and bending others until the bush is half buried by the mass. * * * This alternated freezing and thawing with consequent bombard- ments is a potent destroyer of suf- fering shrubs and small trees. Be- cause they do not show the injury for two or three months after it happens, their owners are puzzled to account for the burned appear- ance they present at leafing -out time. Storms and snow have now passed from mind, so no one re- lates it to the winter conditions these plantings had to endure. * * * Valuable trees and shrubs plant- ed close to the house should have a protective casing of stray or evergreen branches. A wide, pro- jecting roof will, of course, take the line of icicles beyond the dam- age point. But best results for larger varieties are had when they are planted away from the house in more favorable spots on the home grounds. GIRL IN SLACKS (After Lewis Carroll) "You've grown up, little Audrey," her mother exclaimed, "And your form is all wavy and scalloped, Yet you put on men's pants and you don't seem ashamed: Don't you think you deserve to be walloped?" "In my hose," said the child, get- ing into a wax, "There are several holes and a ladder, And even a mother might see that these slacks Are a choice 'twixt the bad and the badder." devoted personal attendant and faithful friend." When she expressed her desire for the monograph to be published there was consternation in Court circles, and Lord Davidson, Dean of Windsor, threatened to resign. The Queen sent her monograph to Sir Henry Ponsonby, her private secretary for twenty-five years. She mentioned that she would also like John Brown's private diary to be printed. Ponsonby, in what he describes as "the most delicate and difficult" of his interventions, advised the Queen against publication. He ex- pressed a doubt whether "this record of Your Majesty's inner- most and most sacred feelings should be made public to the world." Ponsonby's advice prevailed. The Queen's papers were destroyed and . the project was abandoned. More- over Ponsonby impounded Brown's private diary which was also des- troyed. When Brown passed on, Ponsonby records that "the Queen's grief at the loss of one on whom she depended for daily and almost hourly attendance was very deep.... She is utterly crush- ed. . The shock she has sus- tained has made her very weak." It was the closing chapter in one of the most dramatic stories in British history. "Plug Cut"—If an animal like a poodle can qualify to have a hairdo named in its honor, why not a horse? Sun Glow takes a few minutes from intensive training at Hialeah Park in Miami to demonstrate the "plug cut" suitably topped with a stun- ning chapeau. The fashion - conscious thoroughbred belongs to Mrs. Isabel Dodge Sloan. BY - HAROLD ARNETT LOCATE THE SOURCE OI= ANNOYING STATIC INTER'RUP'TING YOUR RADIO ENJOYMENT BY SWITCHING Ot4 A PORTABLE RADIO AND ROTATING IT UNTIL STATIC 15 AT ITS LOUDEST, SOURCE Of: STATIC 16 SOMEWHERE ALONG INE LATERAL AXIS OF THS RADIO, MOVE ABOUT 50O FT. AND AGAIN ROTATETTHRRADIO TO OBTAIN LOUDEST' STATIC, -THE MINT AT WHICH ItAL A5 CFtr75S I5 -TME SOURCE OF INE STATIC.