804 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



what has been done for the Mignonette may be done for nearly if not 

 quite all the flowering plants grown; especially does this apply to 

 annuals. At i)resent the Mignonette is the most popular aunual 

 grown for cut flowers, and the commercial value has been raised from 

 a dollar per hundred twenty-five years ago, to fifty dollars per hun- 

 dred, the latter price being realized at Chistmas time a few years ago. 

 Though at the present time, 1 r(3gret to say, so high price is not main- 

 Jained even for the very select because the high grade has become 

 more plentiful. 



To find out just when to sow the seed of annuals to have them at a 

 given time, at Christmas for instance, some experimenting will have 

 to be resorted to and careful observations made and notes re- 

 corded. Mignonette for winter blooming is generally sown the 

 latter part of July and the beginning of August, and as it is a diffi- 

 cult plant to transplant successfully, the seed is recommended 

 to be sown where the plants are expected to grow and bloom; if in a 

 bed under glass, after the soil is carefully prepared the bed is checked 

 off a foot or so apart each way, a few seeds are dropped at the junc- 

 tion, exactly the same as is the general practice when planting corn. 

 Other growers sow a few seeds in a three-inch pot. In all cases only 

 one plant is left, and the thinning out is done as soon as possible 

 after the plants become large enough so that the most promising 

 one may be selected, thus giving same every opportunity to develop 

 into a strong and vigorous specimen. And the plan adopted in the 

 growing of Mignonette may with more or less modifications be car- 

 ried out with other annuals. The methods of culture will have to 

 conform according to the use to which the plant when fully grown 

 is to be put. For instance, the Mignonette is not grown to any great 

 extent as a pot plant, it not being sufficiently showy for that purpose, 

 as it is grown principally for cut flowers. It is generally grown in a 

 solid bed especially prepared inside the greenhouse, though we oc- 

 casionally see some excellent specimens grown in pots. 



Among other annuals that are successfully grown for winter flow- 

 ering are the different varieties of Sweet Peas, and so far these are 

 grown exclusively for cut flowers. The dwarf or Cupid varieties 

 might be grown as pot plants, but the climbing varieties, to make 

 presentable specimens, would have to be grown in large pots with the 

 top of a birch tree or some other equally twigy bush to climb upon. 

 All the varieties of Nasturtiums might be tried, both dwarf and 

 climbing varieties. Some varieties would be found, after a test pos- 

 sibly, to answer the purpose for winter blooming better than others. 

 In England such selections have already been made suitable to the 

 existing conditions there. Whether the dwarf varieties would pro- 

 duce flowers with sufficiently long stems to be of any practical value 

 in America for cut flowers can only be known by experimenting. Cer- 



