August, igit 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



187 



Planning for Future Flowers 



STANDING in the nursery at the 

 end of a walk, on both sides are 

 a group of the plant commonly 

 called Scotch thistle, botanically Ono- 

 pordon acanthifolia. They are fully six 

 feet high and in full bloom and certainly 

 are showy plants. With silvery gray, 

 prickly leaves, they make good sentinels 

 and guard the path well, for who en- 

 ters there must be mindful how they' 

 pass these Scotch gentlemen, or they 

 will get a prick for their carelessness. 

 These plants are self-sown, a true bien- 

 nial, and are worthy of a place in any 

 garden for the effect they create. 



This leads us to remember how many 

 of the very showiest of our garden flow- 

 ers may be now sown to grow plants for 

 next summer. It is w^ell said that a 

 gardener's work is always six months 

 ahead of him, rather let us say twelve 

 months in many cases and sometimes 

 years where the best results are aimed 

 at, but the wise flower enthusiast is now 

 getting ready to sow his or her garden 

 favorites. 



THE RIGHT TIME 



The proper time to raise plants from 

 seeds of both perennials and biennials 

 is as soon as the seeds of this season's 

 flowers ripen. With an almost avaric- 

 ious pleasure the keen gardener waters 

 the ripening pods of some choice flow- 

 ers in order that he may be ready to 

 gather and dry them on paper in some 

 safe place to sow at the first opportunity. 



.Some of the showiest flowers we have 

 are thus easily grown and with so little 

 trouble in the doing that it amounts to 

 a pleasure to the doer. The most prom- 

 inent varieties which occur to our mind 

 are delphiniums, foxglove, canterbury 

 bells, columbine, gaillardia, lychnis, 

 gyphsophila, (baby's bueath), ; arabis, 

 (rockeress) ; .achillea. Oriental poppy, 

 phlox and hollyhocks. There are many 

 more desirable kinds of the larger flow- 

 ers, but the foregoing just makes a doz- 

 en, let us say, indispensable garden fav- 

 orites. 



SELECT YOUR SOIL 



The best soil to sow these in is a sandy 

 loam well enriched, and so situated that 

 it will have, if possible, partial shade at 

 the hottest time of the day. Poppy, fox- 

 glove and Canterbury bell seeds are ex- 

 ceedingly fine, and should be covered 

 with but a dusting of fine soil, which 

 should be firmed with the foot or back 

 of the spade. Hollyhock and larkspur 

 seeds, being coarser, can have more 

 covering. The delphiniums grow slowly 

 but the hollyhocks soon come up. 



After all the seeds have been properly 

 .sown and a neat label with the name and 

 date of sowing has l)cen stuck in the 

 row, water the rows carefully with a fine 

 rose on your watering pot. The only 



J. McPharson Ross, Toronto, Ont. 



thing to mind, and it is the main point 

 till the plants appear, is not to allow the 

 surface soil to dry out at any time. Do 

 not keep the bed too wet but just damp. 



When your plants are large enough to 

 transplant, have a nice clean bed in 

 which to prick them off in rows at least 

 twenty inches apart and a foot in the 

 rows for plants like foxglove and holly- 

 hocks. Keep the soil loose by frequent 

 hoeings and you will have by fall plenty 

 of plants for next summer's flowering. 



A bed, or more properly speaking, a 

 border of flowers I passed frequently 

 this past month, gave me great delight. 

 It consisted, as nearly as I could make 

 out in the limited time the fast speeding 

 trolley allowed me, of purple, white and 

 yellow iris, foxglove, campanulas and 

 one continuous row of valerian. The 

 plants were grouped in masses, but the 

 valerian was a continuous row, and 

 looked fine. 



We have just done cutting paeonia 

 blooms, and really the beauty, the size, 

 the color and the perfume of most of the 



varieties added to the hardiness of the 

 plant, its easiness of growth in all kinds 

 of soils, its beauty of foliage, and its 

 freedom from insects, entitle the paeony 

 to be designated the "King of Flowers," 

 if the rose is the queen. Again, you can 

 transplant a paeony root any time ex- 

 c-epting in winter. 



.August and September are the months 

 to plant paeonies. If you have old plants 

 and wish to renew and divide them, 

 this is the time of the year to do it. 

 This advice applies also to that other 

 garden favorite, the phlox, in variety. 

 From this on they are the glory of the 

 garden. The phlox particularly needs 

 dividing every three or four years, or 

 else it runs out. 



To have the best results from the 

 paeonia and the phlox, the soil should be 

 trenched — a gardening term for digging 

 the soil two feet deep, with liberal man- 

 uring — and be sure it is well drained. In 

 fact, all our herbaceous plants may be 

 thus divided and replanted in August 

 and September, particualrly the Oriental 



Tha Transfiguration of a City— No. 2 



This city sarden has transformed an ugly baroHpot. with the results here shown, 

 in oitiee should be taxed and forced into use. 



Waste spots 



