96 CALIFORNIA GARDEN FLOWERS. 



from seed or from transplanted seedlings or roots. Even the winter 

 flowering bulbs may still be planted with bulbs kept dormant by the 

 dealers, and the summer flowering bulbs, such as gladioli, anemonies, 

 ranunculus, etc., may be started for the early summer bloom, wherever 

 the soil is warm and not too wet. Roses are as nearly dormant as they 

 ever become and may be freely planted, under similar conditions of 

 soil. The same is true of nearly all deciduous shrubs, trees and roots 

 from the nurseries. In Southern California particularly, January plant- 

 ing is rewarded by a good establishment of transplants for thrifty 

 growth and bloom later. In the greenhouse or in the frames both 

 hard and soft wood cuttings can well be started and hard wood cuttings 

 of roses, etc., in the open ground will find fine conditions for rooting. 



FEBRUARY. 



Viewing California as a whole, February is the greatest month of 

 the year for sowing and planting, which is quite a distinction in a state 

 within whose borders every other month of the year also sees seeds 

 sown and plants set. February is greatest because it lies midway 

 between the beginning of the California springtime in October and 

 the end of the California springtime in May and is, therefore, the 

 average time; it is also greatest because it looks forward to increasing 

 temperature and decreasing rains, while October looks forward to de- 

 creasing temperature and increasing rains. The October springtime 

 is for the sowing of hardy plants; the February springtime also favors 

 these and adds to them a host more which need higher heat and a 

 longer duration of it. But even February does not offer complete 

 freedom from frost in all places and so there comes in California a 

 third beginning of spring in May, when the most tender things are 

 safe everywhere except on the high mountains, where each little valley 

 has a springtime of its own, while harvesting is in progress in the 

 greatest valleys below. Such is the infinite variety of California. 



In view of these facts how difficult it is, as has been previously sug- 

 gested, to tell all Californians what to do in their gardens at a certain 

 date! In February, however, in the average California valley location 

 and in the wide district surrounding San Francisco bay, the lengthening 

 days bring increasing heat to the soil which is also prepared by escape 

 of surplus water, which sometimes falls in January, to welcome the 

 touch of the gardening tools and to bring to quick activity the seeds 

 which are sown. The deciduous fruit trees begin to blossom, the weeds 

 grow riotously; the gardening-fever which is a May epidemic in wintry 

 climates, burns in the veins of the California amateur in February and 

 he is irresistibly impelled to sniff the fragrance of the warm, moist soil 

 and to scatter the seed, although no garden calendar for similar latitude 

 in any other part of the continent advises him to do so. 



