J52 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



in the broad sun, well covering their 

 pots, and in the hot weather don t let 

 them suffer for water. In July or 

 earlier mulch the surface of the pots 

 with an inch of half-decomposed cow 

 manure; this will add greatly to their 

 robustness. Bring in before any dan 

 ger of frost and keep in a temperature 

 of 45 degrees; warmer if you want them 

 earlier than Easter.. These will be far 

 better plants and be much more satis 

 factory to the purchaser than the newly 

 imported. 



MIGNONETTE Reseda Odorata. 



It is doubtful if there is any plant so 

 universally known or better liked than 

 the mignonette. 



The florist sows it in Ms garden as 

 soon as the ground is dry, and makes 

 another sowing later, in shallow drills in 

 deep, rich soil. If continuous cutting 

 is expected the plants should be thinned 

 out to a few inches apart and watered 

 in dry weather. 



As a cut flower in winter it is a staple 

 article and for that purpose is grown, 

 good, bad and indifferent. To obtain 

 fine spikes that sell by the dozen or hun 

 dred it must have a suitable place and 

 room to grow. 



A solid bed in a light house would 

 without doubt be the best place, but it 

 can be grown very well on a bench in 

 five or six inches of soil. The soil should 

 be a heavy loam with a fourth of rotten 

 cow manure. A bench where the heat of 

 the pipes would be felt would not be 

 good, as the roots like a cool bottom. 



Sow early in August. We put a few 

 seeds in a spot, about one foot apart, and 

 when an inch high thin out to the strong 

 est plant. When a few inches high they 

 will branch from the bottom and four or 

 five of the strongest side shoots can be 

 selected; after that keep lateral growths 

 off both the main spike and the side 

 growths. If grown cool it will not want 

 any staking, but if it should it is easily 

 done, as one small stake would support 

 several spikes. 



This mignonette, whether grown for 

 cutting or for pots, must have the fullest 

 possible light and air on all permissible 

 occasions. Light and air and a cool 

 temperature will just make the difference 

 between stout, heavy spikes and thin, 

 spindling ones. You ought to get a good 

 cutting at the holidays and another at 

 Easter. In fact, after Christmas you can 

 always cut good spikes. The night tem 

 perature should never be over 50 degrees, 

 and I should prefer it when heavy firing 

 is going on to be only 45 degrees. 



There are few plants that will fill the 

 bill more acceptably for an inexpensive 

 Easter gift than a well-grown mignon 

 ette. A 4-inch pot will grow a nice 

 plant, but a 5-inch is much better. For 

 this purpose sow not later than the end 

 of August. Sow in the same pots that 

 they are to be sold in. I have been quite 

 successful shifting them from a small 

 pot, and also unsuccessful. The former is 

 much the safer plan. 



Put a crock and a piece of green moss 

 in the bottom of the pot and fill up sol 

 idly with good, fresh loam with a fourth 

 of cow manure; make the soil quite 



solid. Sow a number of seeds on the 

 surface and cover lightly. When well 

 up thin out to three strong plants equal 

 distances apart. We pinch the leading 

 shoot out of these plants, which will 

 give you nine or ten nice spikes, which 

 is better than three or four large ones. 

 Keep them in just such a house as you do 

 those growing for cutting, and if any 

 preference keep in the cooler end. 



If showing flower too soon stop them, 

 but they should not be pinched for twelve 

 weeks before you want to sell them. A 

 neat stake would be needed for these 



which will, if unmolested, soon chew up 

 your young mignonette. 



This green worm, the larva of the sul 

 phur butterfly, is so identically the color 

 of the mignonette foliage that it is 

 really difficult to discover it, and it will 

 do great damage to the small plants that 

 are intended for your winter crop. A 

 dusting of the plants with hellebore or 

 a teaspoonful of Paris green in a com 

 mon pail of water, sprayed over the 

 plants will quickly destroy the worms, so 

 there is little excuse to let them thrive. 



I have never noticed that tobacco 



Bench of Mignonette. 



pots, and perhaps three small stakes is 

 better, just to hold the branches from 

 breaking. Don t attempt to grow mig 

 nonette in a dark, ill ventilated house; 

 you will only get weak, spindling stuff. 

 Like many other plants, the more perfect 

 the light and the more you can give air 

 the less you will hurt with a higher tem 

 perature. 



Mignonettes do not like transplanting; 

 that is why they are sown on the bench 

 where they are to grow, and in pots in 

 which they are to flower. 



Simple as this plant is to sow outside 

 as a hardy annual, we always sell a good 

 many plants with other summer flowering 

 plants. For this purpose we sow a num 

 ber of seeds in 3-inch pots on some light 

 bench in early March. Later we thin 

 out to three or four of the strongest and 

 in April plunge them in a mild hotbed, 

 where by the middle of May they are 

 strong, thrifty plants. 



When the mignonette plants are quite 

 small you must watch out for slugs and 

 wood-lice, both of which relish them as 

 fine salad. If you see the small yellow 

 butterfly in your mignonette house in 

 August or September get your double- 

 barreled, hammerless Parker shotgun, or 

 your hat, and annihilate him, or rather 

 her. She flits over the plants depositing 

 a small green egg, which quickly evolves 

 into the green worm, the cabbage worm, 



smoke did any harm to the mignonette, 

 nor does it need it much. If it gets 

 over the slugs, wood-lice and worms there 

 is no trouble ahead. 



You ought to select the finest spikes 

 and save your own seed. The strain we 

 grow was obtained from Mr. John N. 

 May some years ago, and by selection it 

 is better than when first obtained. But 

 mignonette is very like asparagus; it is 

 the growing and rich, heavy soil that 

 make the giant or colossal qualities ; 

 any of the strains are good when well 

 grown. Besides new advertised strains, 

 some standard ones are: Bird s Mam 

 moth, Miles Hybrid Spiral, Machet, 

 Golden Queen and Machet s Perfection. 



MIMULUS. 



As a boy I thought there were very 

 few plants so beautiful as M. luteus 

 (monkey flower). I don t think so now, 

 but its yellow and spotted flower is very 

 attractive. Our hot summers do not suit 

 it planted out. It is often treated as an 

 annual and can be raised from seed 

 sown in early spring. Or it can be kept 

 over winter and propagated by cuttings. 

 In a shaded, moist place it will do well 

 planted out, and in a liberal size of pot 

 in a cool house it would thrive, and 

 when well grown its showy flowers will 

 sell it. 



