THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



231 



A Bed of Vinca Rosea. 



grow very fast, and quickly get rooted 

 in the soil of the bed, which will delay 

 their flowering, particularly the seed 

 lings, and for that reason they should be 

 lifted, the roots rubbed off, and put back 

 in the same spot. That will check their 

 growth and induce them to flower. Most 

 of our customers want to see the colors, 

 so it is important to get them into 

 flower. 



Verbenas are much troubled with 

 greenfly, and they should be perfectly 

 clean when they go into the hotbed. If 

 affected with the rust so troublesome to 

 the verbena when we grew named varie 

 ties, throw them away; it is much 

 cheaper to buy clean stock. 



Verbena venosa is a true species and 

 is always raised from seed. It can be 

 sown in February and grown along in 

 flats. Its beautiful and abundant blue 

 flowers make a fine bed either alone or in 

 combination with a silver-leaved gera 

 nium. 



Verbenas can be planted out early in 

 May. A slight frost will do them no 

 harm, but our customers seldom look for 

 them till the end of May. 



VINCA. 



The trailing V. major with its varie 

 gated form, is one of our most useful 

 trailing or drooping plants. The long 

 drooping growths seldom flower, but the 

 short, erect growths do. The flower is, 

 however, of little consequence. Plant out 

 a sufficient stock of young plants in the 

 spring. They make a great growth in 

 any good soil. 



Put in cuttings in September. The 

 cuttings should not be made of the hard 

 est part of the stems, and should always 



be of two eyes, as we depend on growths 

 from the bottom eye. We like the propa 

 gating bed for these cuttings. They root 

 rather slowly, but surely. Keep in 2-inch 

 pots till January in any cool house and 

 then shift into 3-inch. As they grow 

 they will need the edge of the bench, or 

 the edge of a rose or carnation bench, so 

 that their long growths can hang down. 



Some growers lift up the plants from 

 the field in October and stand on the 

 edge of the benches. They make fine 

 decorative plants for some occasions, as 

 their numerous growths will be several 

 feet long. In February the large plants 

 are divided and potted into 3-inch or 

 4-inch pots. 



The young growths are troubled with 

 greenfly. Any soil and any cool house 

 will grow them, and they need little light 

 till they begin to make their growth in 

 early spring. Use good rich soil when 

 shifting from 2-inch to 3-inch, as you 

 want them to grow fast. 



Vincas are most useful and popular 

 vase and veranda-box droopers, and 

 plants in 3-inch or 4-inch pots with sev 

 eral long drooping growths are always in 

 demand in late spring. I should say the 

 demand for them is always in excess of 

 the supply. Another plan to give you 

 for these desirable plants is to plant out 

 a number of plants from 2-inch pots. 

 They propagate most easily in spring; the 

 end of June is early enough to plant out, 

 and you can put them six inches apart. 

 1 n ( )ctober lift them, cutting off the tops 

 to within three or four inches of the 

 ground and pull to pieces or divide the 

 plants till you can get each division into 

 :i H L &amp;gt;-inch pot. These will winter on 

 any cool light bench, and in February 



will be sending up a number of strong 

 shoots from the roots. They can then 

 be shifted into 3-inch or 3% -inch pots 

 and given a place on the edge of a bench. 

 These will make splendid useful plants 

 for your vases. A large effective growth 

 in the smallest possible pot is the desired 

 object witn a vinca. 



Vinca minor, often strangely called 

 myrtle by our people, is perfectly hardy. 

 Where grass won t grow in shady city 

 lots it covers the ground finely. It can 

 be divided and planted either in spring 

 or fall and will quickly cover the ground. 



Vinca rosea is a very different plant 

 and requires a warm house in winter. It 

 makes a pretty greenhouse plant, but its 

 chief use with us is in the flower garden, 

 where it makes a very pretty bed, and a 

 change from the high colored geraniums. 

 It can be easily raised from seed sown 

 in January and grown on in a light, 

 warm house, and needs an occasional 

 pinching to make the plants bushy. 



Plants can also be lifted and after 

 New Year s cut back, when you will get 

 young growths which root freely. Don t 

 plant out till frost is surely past. 



VIOLET. 



The violets we grow are varieties of 

 Viola odorata. There is ever an increasing 

 love of the violet, and it seems that the 

 last three or four years the quantity 

 grown and sold is enormous. Violets are 

 rather a precarious crop here; if you 

 fail you fail entirely. In milder climates 

 where only the protection of a coldframe 

 is needed there is not so much fear of 

 failure. South of Baltimore violets are 

 grown in coldframes and covered with 



