46 PRACTICAL GARDEXING. 



and kitchen gardens is, the great extent of varieties in the 

 one as compared with the other ; but the great variety of 

 flowers does not require a great variety of treatment ; what is 

 good for the wallflower and sweetwilHam, both perennial 

 flowers, is also good for the polyanthus, the pink, the stock, 

 columbine, carnation, and all other hardy or moderately hardy 

 plants. The sowiug is the same, the pricking out the same, 

 the transplanting the same ; and, in fact, all other operations, 

 until we come to the growing any of them in pots, of which 

 we intend to speak in another place. There are, however, 

 dehcate plants which require different treatment ; for the 

 tomato, chili, and capsicum of the kitchen-garden are as tender 

 as the balsam, coxcomb, and egg-plant of the flower-garden ; 

 and up to a certain point, that is to say, until the warm wea- 

 ther of June, they may not be trusted out. 



Flower and Kitchen Gardening Compared. — The sowing 

 of delicate seeds requires great care, and, generally speaking, 

 even if the plant be hardy, valuable seeds are sown in pans, 

 pots, or boxes ; not for the sake of being protected, so much 

 as for the sake of preventing waste. The princi^Dle, however, 

 of sowing is the same : the seed has to be sown and covered, 

 which covering is always best done with a small sieve and 

 some fine compost. Some flower-seeds are exceedingly deli- 

 cate, but scarcely any can be more so than celery, nor are 

 there many that come up weaker. These undergo fully as 

 tender a treatment as flowers ; they are pricked out, two or 

 three inches apaii;, while the plants are very young. They 

 are even begun for the earliest season by sowing the seeds in 

 a pot, and placing it in heat. ^Tien they are pricked out, it 

 is generally under a frame, and it is not until they are tole- 

 rably strong that they are ever put into their final place of 

 abode. The only diiference with flowers is tliis, their final 

 destination : a hundred or two cauliflowers, or celery, or 

 brocoli, are placed in a formal manner, as a crop ; and a hun- 

 dred or two flowers get pushed about into every part of the 

 borders and beds, and are mixed with a hundred other kinds 

 of plants. 



Sowing Flower-seeds. — The sowing of flower-seeds in 

 borders is common enough, although it is far better to sow in 

 pots, and turn them out into borders. Flower-seeds are sown 

 in patches, and when they come up, the number of plants to 

 be left is often not so much as a tenth of the number that 



