148 



GARDENING. 



Feb. I 



pots, pans or boxes filled with sand or 

 sandy soil, or on a bench filled with the 

 same. The sand should be moist and 

 packed quite firm. Then take a smooth 

 wooden peg a little thicker than the stem 

 ot the cutting and dibble a hole into the 

 sand as deep as j'ou wish to plant the 

 cutting. Now set in the cutting, and 

 with the peg pack the soil or sand quite 

 firmly against it, but not so as to bruise 

 it. The cuttingshould be set so firm that 

 by catching a leaf j'ou cannot pull it out 

 of the ground without breaking the leaf. 

 When the cuttings are put in water them 

 gently from a rose so as to settle the sand 

 about them. Until thej' are rooted they 

 should be shaded from sunshine and pro- 

 tected from draughts or currents of air be 

 they warm or cold. But don't keep them 

 so close that a mould will attack them 

 and rot them off. '^hemoment you notice 

 this mould pull up all thecuttings in that 

 patch where it is, remove the sand and 

 replace with fresh, clean the mould off of 

 the cuttings even if you wash them and 

 reinsert them. Look over the cuttings 

 every day and remove every bit of decay- 

 ing leaf you may observe. And as soon 

 as the cuttings are rooted pot them off or 

 box them off. The greatest danger with 

 a cutting is just before it should begin to 

 root. Geraniums are an exception, they 

 dislike to be coddled. 



RAISING FLflNTS FROM SEED. 



We find February the best month in the 

 year to raise seedlings of many plants, 

 especially of slow growing kinds like be- 

 gonias; and we also like to get up all the 

 perennials now we can, so as to get the 

 work done; even if it does seem early we 

 can transfer the seedlings to a cold frame 

 about the end of March or first of April. 

 To raise seedlings now we want a tem- 

 perature o'f 60° at night for most any- 

 thing, and 65° or 70° for tender plants. 

 We want light earth and pots or shallow 

 boxes to sow in, a place near the glass to 

 set the seed pots up on, but we must 

 shade them from sunshine and shelter 

 them from draughts till the seedlings 

 appear. Then the little seedhngs should 

 be pricked off into other pots, pans or 

 boxes, kept near the light and have more 

 sunshine. 



Ageratum.— Get Imperial dwarf blue, 

 When the seedlings are up and pricked off 

 select those of the best and most even 

 habit and discard the rest. Very easily 

 raised from seed. 



Alyssum sa.xatile compactum is a yel- 

 low flowered perennial, easily raised, and 

 when pricked off in March can be set in a 

 frame the end of the month. 



Antirrhinum or snapdragon if sown 

 early blooms fine the first summer; later 

 sowings give a succession of flowers. 



St. Brigid Anemones don't all come up 

 at once, but by sowing earlj'and pricking 

 them off as they appear we get lots of 

 them before the end of next month. 



Aubretia purpurea and others are 

 evergreen carpeting hardy perennials that 

 we hke to sow early because as the plants 

 are so very small we can take better care 

 of them than we could later on. 



Bego.nias. — Tuberous begonias should 

 be sown early, in fact Mr. Griffin of West- 

 bury always sows them in January. So 

 too should the Vernon and other fibrous- 

 rooted sorts. 



Carnations.— Sow Marguerite and all 

 other sorts as early as possible, so that 

 we may get them into bloom early. 



Centaurea candidissima and C. g}-m- 

 iiocarpa should be sown early in order 

 to get fair sized even plants for the flower 

 garden in May. 



Celosias and Cockscombs.— It is bet- 

 ter to sow now and give them a little 

 time to harden up in May than to delay 

 later and then hurry the plants. They 

 are a little slow at first. 



CoB.^EA grows very rapidly from seed, 

 but after it is up we remove it to a mod- 

 erately cool place, stake it and pinch it 

 and when we set it out in .May the plants 

 are big and sturdy and make a show right 

 off. But they are all right if not sown 

 for a month yet, 



Chinese Pinks may be sown now to 

 get them off of our hands, or delayed for 

 a month. They all flower the first suni- 



ECHEVERIA AND SEMPERVIVUM should 



be sown at once, for the seeds are very 

 small and the seedlings grow slowly at 

 first. 



Eucalyptus is verj' easily raised from 

 seed. By sowing now we can get plants 

 two to three feet high to plant out in 

 May, and these plants will grow to may- 

 be ten or twelve feet high before next 

 November. 



Ferdinandia and Wigandia although 

 thej- grow to be large robust plants are 

 very tiny to begin with, hence the neces- 

 sity of early sowing. 



Gaillardias. — Don't sow any of the 

 annual ones yet, but the sooner one can 

 get up the perennial kinds the earlier they 

 will bloom. They all blossom the first 

 summer. 



Gaura Lindheimeri is the only one 

 worth growing. It is easily gotten up 

 from seed, and being almost hardj- we 

 can remove the plants to a frame in April. 



Globe Amaranths are so slow grow- 

 ing at first that we always sow them in 

 February. If you want something for a 

 warm dry place in summer try these. 



Grevillea robusta isveryeasilyraised 

 from seed. It is a big tree in its native 

 country, but we grow it for its beauty as 

 a small fern-leaved bush in the open gar- 

 den in summer or as a decorative pot 

 plant in winter. Sow it now and have 

 plants six or ten inches high in May. 



Heliotrope is easily raised from seed, 

 but sometimes the plants are very rough 

 and disappointing. 



Impatiens Sultani does well out of 

 doors. We sow it in February and get 

 four or five inch plants by May. 



Lavender if sown early will often 

 bloom the first year; if sown late it isn't 

 likely to bloom, and the winter mav 

 kill it. 



Lobelia although so wee at first has 

 great vitality. Sow early. 



Mignonette.— Sow some seeds of 

 Machet, and when the seedlings appear 

 pot them off singly into smallest pots 

 and plant them out in the open garden in 

 April and see how far ahead of the out- 

 door sowings you will get it. 



MiMULUS, like lobeha, is wee to begin 

 with but it makes great headway after 

 it starts, and is in bloom in June. 



Nicotiana affinis.— It is simply a case 

 of the earlier sown the sooner the bloom. 



Pansies should be sown in August to 

 get the best good of them, but earlv 

 spring sowings bloom nicely Irom April 

 or May through June. 



Poppies.— .\ll annual kinds are sown 

 out of doors as soon as the weather 

 opens, but perennial sorts such as nudi- 

 caule we raise indoors and prick off into 

 boxes, then out of doors in early spring. 

 They bloom the first year from seed. 



Pentstemons.— The florists' varieties 

 if raised early bloom nicely in summer; if 

 raised late the hot weather overtakes the 

 half grown plants and cripples them. 

 They are not (|uite hardy. 



Petunhs.— We like to'raise the double 



ones early, but the common single ones 

 are better delayed for a month yet. If 

 you want something to bloom every day 

 during the summer try striped petunias. 



Polyanthuses are perennials, but we 

 find they are healthier and better when 

 treated as annuals. We sow the seed in 

 February or March, box off the seedlings 

 into good loam, and in due time plant 

 them out in a north-facing cold frame 

 over summer and in fall lift and plant 

 them in a warm cold frame where they 

 can bloom prettilj' in April and May. 



Pyrethrums if sown early will bloom 

 nicely the first year. The single varieties 

 are very beautiful and charming as cut 

 flowers. 



Ten-week stocks if sown now and 

 kept potted or boxed on as they need it 

 will be in good bloom Decoration Day. 

 It is better to delay the main sowing, 

 however, till March. 



ToRENiA Fournieri.— Sow itcarly. The 

 plants are a little slow to begin with, 

 then quite vigorous. It is perpetually in 

 bloom from June till frost destroys it. 

 The White Wings form is as easy to grow 

 as the other and quite pretty. 



Verbenas.— By sowing now the plants 

 will be in bloom in May. Many growers 

 sow verbenas in January, but we prefer 

 February. 



ViNCA should be sown early. Get the 

 pure white, and the white with red eye 

 varieties. They need heat. Although 

 slow at first they grow quite freely as the 

 days get warm. 



While it may be convenient to raise a 

 lot of plants from seed in February we 

 shouldn't overdo the thing; never raise a 

 plant more than you can take good care 

 of. Young plants grow so quickly and 

 take up so much room that our quarters 

 soon get congested, and the plants suffer. 

 If we were to raise China asters, salvia, 

 balsams, single dahlias, candytuft, sweet 

 scabios, zinnias and the like as soon as 

 this we could not give them anything 

 like the root room and top room they 

 would need, and to deny them either 

 would be to spoil them, spindle them and 

 starve them, and render them an easy 

 prey to red spider, and when they would 

 be planted out they would never recover 

 enough to be as good as younger and 

 sturdier stock. 



FLOWER GARDEN QUESTIONS. 



.\n Ontario subscriber asks: 1. What 

 will do as well for edging a bed of scarlet 

 geraniums as candytuft, i. e., in white? 

 Candytuft is fine while it lasts but is so 

 soon over. 



2. Is Torenia Fournieri a good annual 

 for an edging or is it too tall? 



3. My beds are on the northwest side 

 of the house and are in a rather hot and 

 dry situation, and v/ater is not plentiful; 

 the soil is rather heavy and inclined to 

 cake. Can I expect any success with car- 

 nations there? I have succeeded well with 

 asters and stocks early sown, but all 

 annuals sown late, whether in the open 

 ground or the house, and planted out 

 have now been a failure for two seasons, 

 especially mignonette. Give me some sug- 

 gestions. 



-i. How about heliotrope? I want per- 

 fume as well as color if i 



1. If from seed, dwarf sweet alyssum, 

 white Drummond phlox, or white flow- 

 ered vinca ( V. rosea var. alba). 



2. It is fine for edgings and not too 

 tall. And the variety White Wings might 

 answer as a border for vour geranium 

 bed. 



