THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



2U 



A House of Young American Beauty Roses. 



other methods of destroying them which 

 will be found under the article In 

 secticides. 



SALVIA. 



A large genus of plants of which few 

 are used by the florist. S. splendens 

 is one of our showiest flowering plants. 

 There are now several varieties or forms 

 of it. It is used as a mass where 

 brilliant colors are wanted. The plants 

 are often rather late in flowering, es 

 pecially in wet seasons, and should not 

 toe planted in too rich a soil or you will 

 get a large growth with late flowering, 

 so procure a strain that grows compactly 

 and is early to flower. 



Lifted before frost and potted, they 

 make showy plants for a month or two, 

 and we often find their flowers useful. 



They are easily raised from seed, and 

 there is now a hybrid strain that con 

 tains various colors, and is said to be 

 -early and free , flowering. 



A few plants lifted, and cut back 

 after New Year s, will give you an 

 abundance of cuttings that will make 

 fine plants for bedding out. The salvia 

 is troubled with aphis and if in a warm, 

 dry house and not syringed will soon 

 become attacked by red spider. It 

 should never be kept over 50 degrees. 

 It grows so fast and strong that it is 

 best to put off propagating till March. 



This common plant has become very 

 popular of late, and deservedly popu 

 lar. It is out of place in any formal 



flower gardening, but what is more beau 

 tiful than a mass in front of shrubbery 

 or in a border against a wall or house? 

 The bright scarlet blossoms have a 

 Avarmth and gaiety in keeping with the 

 scarlet and orange tints of our sumachs, 

 maples and oaks, and has a most pleas 

 ing effect after autumn s first chills have 

 shrivelled the coleus and other exotic 

 plants. Grow lots of it. 



S. patens we have not seen grown 

 here, but in the gardens of Europe it 

 is much used. It has very much the 

 same habit as splendens, with erect 

 spike, and the flower is slightly larger; 

 the color is of the most beautiful blue 

 of any flower that grows. Propagate 

 by cuttings same as S. splendens. 



Salvia officinalis, the variegated form 

 of this, the common sage, is used in 

 carpet and other flower-garden designs. 

 The coloring is not bright, but very 

 pleasing. Lift a few plants when the 

 flower garden is dismantled and in Jan 

 uary shorten back the shoots. You will 

 soon get any amount of cuttings that 

 root most easily. And when in 2-inch 

 or 2% -inch pots there is no place to 

 make nice little plants like the hotbed. 

 It is almost or quite hardy. 



SANTOLINA INCANA. 



This almost hardy little herb is of 

 great importance in the flower garden. 

 It can be clipped and cut to any form 

 or line. To design patterns in carpet 

 bedding or as an edging it is invalu 



able. Its small, dense foliage has a 

 gray or frosted appearance. Occasion 

 ally, when covered with snow, it comes 

 through the winter unharmed, but such 

 plants would not be useful for our 

 flower-gardening purposes. 



Lift some plants and pot, or put them 

 in a flat in a few inches of soil. In 

 February cut off two or three inches of 

 the tops and they will send out numerous 

 growths that root rapidly. This again 

 is a plant that quickly makes a nice, 

 compact and quick growth in a mild 

 hotbed far better than on a greenhouse 

 bench. 



SEDUM. 



These pretty, little, hardy peren 

 nials are known to all. But a few of 

 the species are useful to the florist, and 

 they are not cultivated so much as they 

 should be. Many of the species make 

 good plants for the hardy border. Some 

 are the very best of rock plants. And 

 a few are valuable to the florist for 

 vases and baskets. 



They are of the easiest possible cul 

 ture, thriving in any soil and needing 

 little of it. They are propagated from 

 seeds, or by pulling the plant to 

 pieces and replanting in early spring, 

 but for the florist s use are best propa 

 gated by cuttings in May. If wanted 

 in quantity the cuttings can be put in 

 the coldframe in May in the ground, and 

 when rooted remove the sashes and leave 

 the plants to grow all summer, protect 

 ing them with sashes in winter. As soon 



