THE FLORISTS* MANUAL. 



PANSY- Viola Tiicolor. 



Next to the geranium perhaps the 

 pansy is more universally known among 

 rich and poor than any flower we grow. 

 It is a favorite with all children. My 

 little boy wants some pansies, we hear 

 continually every spring. And the old 

 boy and girl must be made of queer stuff 

 if they are not fascinated with the 

 pretty faces of the heartsease. A 

 doctor of our city has written some very 

 pretty verses in which he claims that in 

 the varied markings of the pansy he 

 sees the faces of the German, French, 

 English, Scotch, Irish and Italian girl, 

 and other nationalities which I forget. 

 He failed to find one that reflected the 

 bronze features of our Pocahontas-likt 

 Indian maiden, the real American 

 girl, although there is every shade 

 of flower and girl from white to 

 sooty black. His verses were too 

 early for him to include the latest 

 American beauties, the Filipino and 

 the brown senorita of the Gem of 

 the Antilles. As there are several types 

 4 of our American girls he has taken a 

 large pale blue to impersonate the Bos 

 ton type, and a large, ragged-edged yel 

 low with a black eye for Chicago. 



Poets have attended to the pansy 

 thousands of times, and the modern 

 sentimental song writer says : Only a 

 pansy blossom, only a faded flower. I 

 think this song has something in allu 

 sion to a lamented maternal parent. 

 Now did you ever notice, good reader, 

 that the youth who seldom or never 

 works but who holds down a chair in 

 some third-class drinking place all day, 

 where a stray treat or two fall to his 

 lot, and toward closing time a sufficient 

 number of treats have excited his vocal 

 powers and then with a squeak, or a 

 rasp, with sloppy eyes and expression 

 we are edified with a few verses, and it 

 is not a song for the occasion, such as 

 &quot;We won t go home till morning,&quot; or 

 something appropriate, but it is sure to 

 be something about dear mother. 

 The gist of the song is sure to be how 

 he loves and cherishes and works for 

 mother, and admonishes all to do like 

 wise. Nothing is said about father, but 

 the motto of the house that this young 

 man staggers home to is : &quot; Do not 

 worry father ; mother s working. 



The pansy has been cultivated in the 

 gardens of Europe for ages. If its ex 

 pressive features could speak it could tell 

 you that its ancestors saw the dreadful 

 deeds of the dark ages, the chivalry but 

 barbarism of the feudal system, the op 

 pression and torture of bigotry, the fight 

 for liberty, the emancipation by educa 

 tion of the masses, and now at the close 

 of this nineteenth century, in this &quot;age 

 of reason&quot; and humanity, you see the 

 humble but free citizen taking home his 

 basket of pansies to make his little gar 

 den prettier and to please the children. 



The cooler climate of Northern. Eu 

 rope is much more favorable for pansies 

 in the summer months than our hot and 

 often dry summers. But I have seen 

 beds of pansies here on the north side 

 of buildings, with the seed pods picked 

 off and an occasional good watering, 

 look fine the entire summer. Whether 



Pansies. 



they last longer than July or not there 

 will always be a demand for them, not 

 only in the cities, but the farmers and 

 residents of our villages buy them for 

 their dooryards and there is where you 

 often sec them well taken care of. I 

 have frequently heard Mrs. Buckwheat 

 exclaim, I guess, Mariah, you didn t 

 wet them ere pansies last night. I 

 see they be a drupen. 



They are raised in large quanti 

 ties by some farmer-gardeners and sent 

 to our cities in small baskets holding 

 one dozen plants, and usually sold al 

 the popular price of 25 cents per dozen. 



For this purpose the seed is sown in 

 beds out of doors at the end of July. A 

 very successful and large grower of 

 pansies has told me that he finds about 

 July 20 the most suitable date for seed 

 sowing. 



The first part of pansy growing is sow 

 ing the seed. We once thought the seed 

 beds must be shaded. This is a mistake 

 and the farmer-gardener alluded to who 

 perhaps needs 100,000 seedlings, never 

 bothers with shade. Prepare your seed 

 beds by raking off all sticks or stones 

 and coarse lumps of earth, leaving only 

 a fine friable loam to receive the seed. 

 Sow either in very shallow drills or sow 

 broadcast and cover by raking in the 

 seed. The latter is much the more expe 

 ditious plan. Now those seedbeds can 

 and should be in the broad sun, and 

 watering must be never neglected. In 

 two weeks the little plants will be up 

 and so close attention will not be neces 

 sary, but from time of sowing till the 

 little seed leaves are expanded you may 

 have to water the beds ten times a day. 

 The surface of the beds must be con 

 stantly moist. The advantage of hav 

 ing these seedbeds in the fullest light 

 is that the plants from their earliest in 

 fancy are stout and stocky, which raised 

 under shade it is almost impossible to 

 produce. Kept watered they come along 

 all right and make showy little plants. 

 At the end of August or early Septem 



ber they are transplanted into beds four 

 or five feet across and as long as you 

 like, and the plants three or four inches 

 apart. Usually with plenty of snow dur 

 ing our coldest months these strong 

 plants (for they are strong plants in 

 flower before winter comes) come 

 through all fight, and a warm rain or 

 two and a few fine days in April and 

 they are gay again and quickly start to 

 grow, and are mostly sold in May. 



When you get two weeks zero and be 

 low on bare ground it goes hard with 

 these little plants; thousands perish. 

 Some straw, very thinly laid between 

 the plants will help a great deal. It will 

 catch the fast driving, drifting snow 

 that otherwise would fly along to join 

 the other particles at the fence row. 

 Hemlock boughs with their arching 

 sterns upwards are an excellent covering ; 

 they do not lie heavily on the plants. 

 Whatever you use don t put them on 

 early; there is never any harm done till 

 the middle of November. 



Florists who have a demand for some 

 good pansies by the end of April, either 

 for those who have the good sense to 

 plant early or for vases in our ceme 

 teries, should sow not later than the mid 

 dle of August. You can sow in cold- 

 frame and shade the seedbed, but un 

 cover as soon as well up or the little 

 plants will be drawn. 



At the middle of September trans 

 plant into a coldframe four or five inches 

 apart, and after one good watering sel 

 dom anything more is needed till the 

 first of December, or even later if win 

 ter keeps off. Then cover with glazed 

 sashes, and on mild days in winter, which 

 we do occasionally get, give ventilation. 

 Be sure in March to give air on sunny 

 days or your pansies will draw up and 

 be useless. In fact, on mild, sunny days 

 it is better to remove the sashes, and as 

 soon as frost is out of the ground re 

 move them entirely. 



The above method is only commended 

 for those who can get a good price for 



