Have you ever come home from work dog-tired on a cool evening and smelled fried potatoes and onions? In my book, they belong alongside freshly baked bread as a “welcome-homer.”

If you, too, are a confirmed onion eater, no matter what anyone says then you might like to know what varieties are best suited to the many. different uses of onion.

There are hundreds of varieties of onions, but we seldom use more than four or five.

Here are some facts that will help you “know your onions.”

“Bunch” onions are those which are used green. They may be used in salads and relishes.

There are many varieties of the “dry” onion type. Any of these can also be used green. Some are better winter keepers than others.

Some are excellent keepers and good for general use.

A small, mild variety is good for creaming and for glace onions. They are best when used before fully mature.

Spanish onions are a good all-around variety but cannot be kept too long. They are good fried or creamed.

Of course, if you are a real, honest-to-goodness onion eater, you’ll want to grow a few red ones. Now, there’s a real onion!

Like hundreds of other plant lovers, spend many happy days in their flower garden. But, always when the last chrysanthemum had been cut down by killing frost there was the dreary time, between late fall and spring, when all growing things were withered and no flower bloomed.

After one of these ruthless frosts, which snuffed all color from the world and made it sad, Mrs. Preston decided to build a winter window garden in her home.

Since then she has had twelve months of color. A scarlet amaryllis, almost hidden by the foliage of an Easter lily, glows in the window. A novelty in gloxinias, called Lady Slipper, blooms year after year in the same pot with only a short rest period between flowering. Several potted geraniums bloom in their sea son and two of them (Nutmeg and Rose) have fragrant, spicy leaves which add greatly to their desirability and lend an interest even when the plants are no longer in bloom.

A Gloriosa lily, with strange flowers, has climbed 6 feet to the top of the window to crown it with its gold and crimson beauty. There are orchids, some of which bloom during the winter holidays to furnish corsages for friends.

Layering is a safe, sure, simple way to increase many types of plants, and particularly the climbers and danglers with which this book is concerned. The first requirement is that the plant have long, lax or drooping stems – which vining plants do. The rest is easy, because the stem is not severed from the parent until the new plant is well rooted and can survive on its own. Humidifying devices, bottom heat, and close protection are seldom called for.

Garden plants layer readily, sometimes even spontaneously. And layering is equally easy for indoor or greenhouse vines. A wandering stem or runner is simply pinned down on the soil in a nearby pot, and severed when it is securely rooted.

Ground layering in the garden takes place at the base of the parent plant. Loosen and lighten a small section of soil, and mix in some peat or other humus to help hold moisture. Select a firm, semiwoody stem, and open the thick skin in one of several ways to speed up rooting. The stem can be nicked underneath with a sharp knife, or split and held open by a small piece of toothpick or match, or simply twisted just enough to break the outside skin and separate a few of the inside tissues. Some plants insist on rooting at or near a node, others don’t care where. And some softer stems don’t even need to be nicked.

Although winter weather does not permit gardening outdoors in December, the Northern gardener does have a few opportunities to actively practice his hobby. For example, it is during this month (December) that he can clean and store the tender summer flowering bulbs and tubers until they can be used again for the garden next year.

The dahlias that were dug after hard frosts ended their season’s growth need a little attention now. Tubers that have a great deal of soil clinging to them because they were dug when the ground was very moist or because they were growing in a very heavy soil which tends to stick to the roots, should be cleaned by gently rubbing away the dried earth or washing it off.

Some dahlia growers object greatly to the washing method, but others practice it regularly. If they are cleaned with water they should he allowed to dry off before packing them for the winter.

For years, vermiculite has become a favored packing material for dahlia tubers and the bulbs, roots and tubers of other plant materials that have to be dug and stored for the winter. Dahlia tubers must be handled with great care so that the individual tubers do not break off at the main stalk without possessing a part of the latter and the growth “eyes” that will produce a new plant next year.

Most Enthusiastic gardeners agree that gardening is a grand adventure with thrilling experiences at almost every turn. Yet as I look around among my gardening acquaintances. I am amazed to find that many miss much of the joy of their hobby by limiting their activities to the few short months of summer.

There are many ways the hobby of gardening can be an absorbing enterprise the entire year, and one of them is by allowing the seed and nursery catalogs to carry you through strange and exciting adventures during the winter.

There is an idea abroad among matter-of-fact gardeners that a seed or nursery catalog is merely sales literature for ordering plant materials. Their catalogs are discarded after their needs are ordered so as not to clutter up the house. They miss the pleasure and instruction which can be theirs from the correct use of catalogs.

To make clear what one gardener thinks is correct use, let me recount a few of the exciting adventures that have come my way during the years in which I have let seed and nursery catalogs be a part of my year-round living, but please overlook the perpendicular pronoun if it becomes too prominent!

Home gardeners find that rooting scented-leaved geraniums is not always easy. Often they have a favorite plant they want to propagate and after several attempts meet with failure. Among the many kinds, some root very easily, while others are very tricky.

Of the popular scented-leaved geraniums, the lemon-scented and the rose-scented varieties root easily and quickly under common propagating methods.

The lemon-scented (Pelargonium crispum) is a small stemmed plant, with tiny crinkled leaves, which requires considerably more water than most geraniums. Take cuttings about 3-3/4 inches long and trim off all leaves from the bottom up to 1-1/4 inches. Make a clean cut beneath an eye, dip the end into 3X rooting powder and insert the cuttings in clean sand, deep enough so that the lower leaves do not touch the sand. Shade until signs of growth are evident. Then remove shade and keep plants a little drier.

Oak-leaved varieties (Pelargonium quercifolium) are not too difficult. Take tender cuttings, but if they are hardened, root them under drier conditions. A 1X rooting powder is best. Practically all hardy and easy-to-root as well are the flowering scented varieties, none of which demand anything beyond normal cultural conditions. Here again water well, and allow the sand to become rather dry, but not arid, before watering again.

Young or newly transplanted vines are more likely to survive their first winter in a cold climate if they receive some special protection. Questionably hardy vines, or those planted in exposed areas, may need protection every year of their life. In any case, a vigorous, well-grown plant has the greatest chance to resist winter damage.

All vines in general, and evergreens in particular, need plentiful moisture in the soil until it freezes. This is your best insurance against late winter and early spring “burning,” in which warmth and sunlight draw moisture from the leaves before the soil is thawed and the roots are ready to send up moisture from below.

For extra protection, mulch the soil over the vine’s roots with several inches of buckwheat or cottonseed hulls, salt hay or straw, ground corncobs or sugar cane, or similar material. Snow is an excellent mulch, while it lasts.

Or make an eight-inch mound of soil over the roots and around the base of the stems, and wrap the rest of the stems in burlap. In extreme climates, loosen the roots on one side of a deciduous vine, lay its trunk or stems down in a trench dug out from the other side, and cover the whole with soil until early spring.

Whether the container garden consists of a single tub or window box, a set of matched urns, or many modular units grouped in various ways, the container is an integral part of the decorative design. It should, of course, be pleasing to the eye, but not so striking that it becomes the main object of interest at the expense of its plants. Its design – line, size, shape, color, texture – should be in harmony with both plants and setting. It should have an air of “belonging,” not of having been placed willy-nilly simply because a plant needed something to grow in.

Tall, tapering plants often look well in tall containers. Round, bushy plants are suitable for squat, square containers. Horizontal lines or bands around a container will make it seem lower, and vertical lines the reverse. Sometimes architectural style dictates the design of a container, sometimes an outstanding container will lead you to create or locate a setting for it. The theme can be antique or contemporary, simple or ornate, rural or urban.

English children chant the phrase “Remember, remember the 5th of November” – Guy Fawkes Day to them – but we could change that to “Remember, remember the chrysanthemums in November.” At any rate my greenhouse is full of bloom right now and I hope yours is, too, for they bring much warm color to an otherwise drab month.

I have built up a stock of chrysanthemum varieties that starts blooming late in October and continues until past Christmas. Why don’t you do the same? As the various varieties come into bloom this year, note the date so that another year you also can arrange for continuous bloom lasting over several months.

Standards or True Chrysanthemums make fine house decorations but the cuttings should be started right now for blooming next November. Standard chrysanthemums are treated in the same manner as other standard plants. Other chrysanthemum cuttings are taken in March. When the plants finish blooming store the rootstocks in a coldframe. Put a heavy mulch of leaves around the outside of the frame and in severe weather use the additional protection of mats over the sash.

Soil for foliage plants falls into three chief types. Ordinary potting soil should be porous and well drained. It contains approximately equal parts of good topsoil, coarse sand and organic matter (leafmold, humus or peatmoss) with about an eighth part by bulk of dried cow manure and bonemeal – a pint to each bushel of the mixture. Woodsy soils, for plants that need more organic matter, are similar but contain about twice as much leafmold, humus or peat-moss. Very porous soils that are useful for snake plants and other semi-succulent and succulent plants are simply the ordinary soil mixture with the addition of half-inch pieces of broken brick or flower pots equal to the amount of sand used.

Potting and repotting should be done, if needed, at the beginning of the growing season, which is usually late winter or early spring. Many plants need this attention once a year. Large specimens and smaller examples of slow-growing plants may go several years without repotting. In intervening years they are top-dressed by removing as much of the surface soil as can be taken off without damaging the roots and replacing it with a new, rich mixture. Small-sized, young plants of fast-growing kinds may need a second potting in summer, early enough for them to fill their new containers with roots before winter.