CHAPTER VI 



GREENHOUSE PLANTS FROM SEEDS 



IN this chapter I propose dealing with the most 

 popular of those greenhouse plants, the principal, and 

 in most cases the only, method of raising which is 

 by sowing seeds. They include annual, biennial and 

 perennial plants, but may all be classed together, as 

 their common end, when once they have flowered, is to 

 be thrown away to make room for other seedlings in their 

 turn. As each differs from the other in essential details, 

 the general remarks on them will be few, but most of 

 them agree in liking a tolerably rich, loamy soil, with 

 plenty of grit in it to keep it open and free working for 

 the roots, and do not like it made firmer, when potting, 

 than can be done under pressure of the fingers. The 

 root action in most cases is vigorous and free, and until 

 they reach their flowering pots they should never be 

 allowed to become pot-bound, i.e. their roots should 

 not mat together round the sides of the pots, as this 

 gives the plants a check from which they rarely recover. 

 By judicious selection and treatment and by the enlistment 

 of the services of the garden frame during the summer, 

 an all-the-year-round display of flowers may be had from 

 this section of plants alone. A word of advice may be 

 given which is applicable to all these plants, and that is 

 to be sure in all cases that a good "strain" of seeds is 

 selected for sowing. It takes no more skill or attention 

 to grow a good plant than to grow a bad one, and there 

 are both good and bad seeds on the market. All the 



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