582 



HORTICULTU RE 



May 5, 1906 



illustration is from a photograph of a seedling of this 

 type. My predecessor, the late F. L. Harris, crossed 

 a number of them but they did not bloom until my 

 time. Since then we have raised another batch from 

 carefully crossed selected seedlings. Still another will 

 bloom next season and seedlings, just up. in two years' 

 time. We are continually selecting and discarding 

 inferior varieties. 



No wonder they were expensive. It would take a 

 lifetime to work up a stock from offsets, and from 

 manv varieties it would be impossible, as they do nut 

 make any. We never think now of bothering with 

 offsets when giving them their annual overhauling, 

 unless the variety be an exceptionally fine one. And, 

 even so. we would ratlin- cross this with another good 

 one or two — crossing the separate flowers with different 

 kinds, tagging them to note results liter. 



Kaising seedling amaryllis is most fascinating work. 

 You can nearly always tell what you will get. They 

 rarely cross themselves. There is no seed unless they 

 are artificially fertilized: and when one notes the way 

 tbe flowers develop it is easy to see that this is so. The 

 anthers always open uid shed their pollen, or it stays 

 on and becomes old U fore the stigmas unfold. No 

 doubt this is nature's way of. ensuring cross-fertiliza- 

 tion. 1 have never tried fertilizing the stigmas with 

 their own pollen. It was so plain (to me) nature in- 

 tended otherwise, and besides. 1 would rather cross 

 them with others, believing for one thing, the constitu- 

 tion would be improved and by proper selection, bet- 

 ter form and color obtained. No brush is used. The 

 lung filaments answer well as a means of conveying the 

 anthers to the flowers we wish to cross, by just pinching 

 tin-in off and lightly rubbing the stigmas with the 

 anthers. A brush, however soft is liable to injure the 

 stigmas of any flowers. In crossing other flowers I 

 would rather take a whole flower, or part of it and 

 either shake the pollen in, or lay the flower on it. It is 

 not until the stigmas are unfolded and become covered 

 with a viscid substance that pollenizing can be success- 

 fully done. 



The seed capsules ripen in about six weeks, and have 

 Li he carefully watched when the sutures begin to part, 

 as the large winged seed quickly scatter. It is recom- 

 mended to sew them soon after being ripe, but we have 

 found seed two years ..Id to germinate quite readily. 



We have been told that s Is must be planted edge 



down. This advice, also, we have disregarded, and 

 found it made no difference. Seeds sown in light 

 loam, in a warm house, ...me up in about a month and 

 may be pricked oil' in aboul another month and make 

 good plants the first season. We prick them into deep 

 flats (4 inches), and keep them in a warm house until 

 well established or until the summer season comes, and 

 then place them in a good light airy house. Probably 

 they would do as well I hen. outdoors, if the narcissus 

 grub did not trouble them. They are kept growing, 

 or at least, kept watered and green all winter. When 



March comes, they are not disturbed more than to take 

 the flats carefully apart and move the contents bodily 

 into larger flats, using good rich soil on the bottom 

 and s],les. with a top-dressing of Clay's fertilizer. 

 Placed in a warm house they grow very fast. Later in 

 i he season ihe\ are moved into a light airy house to 

 ii pen. and we expect to bloom the majority the follow- 

 ing spring — less than two years from seed. They will 

 be rested enough to get almost dry, though still retain- 

 ing their foliage. 



Mature bulbs — old bulbs — are usually stored quite 

 dry — dry enough to wither up the leaves. I have 

 become convinced, however, from experience that this 

 severe drying is wrong and shall do it no more. They 

 will lie watered about once a week or enough to keep 

 them slightly moist, even though they hold their leaves 

 all winter. 



In starting old bulbs into growth, a month or five 

 weeks before flowers are wanted, they are given a good 

 soaking and allowed to dry out. A little now and 

 again only wets the surface and does no good, and with- 

 out a good soaking aftei a plant in a pot once gets 

 quite dry, it never takes water properly. After they 

 are started, we clean off the old soil as deeply as we 

 can, without disturbing the roots, and give them a top- 

 dressing of good rich soil, and this with a little liquid 

 manure will see them through the season. 



Our Supplement 



The beautiful lobelia, which is the subject of our 

 supplement this week, is a variety of Lobelia speciosa 

 originating in a chance seedling. As will be seen, the 

 flowers are very large and full double, and in color the 

 variety is entirely distinct from all others. It produces 

 no seed, but propagates readily from cuttings. 



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