THE GARDEN CALENDAR 107 



Freesia planting may be continued and a beginning should be made 

 with other bulbs of fall and winter bloom. Wet and dig the soil deeply 

 and keep reasonably moist until the rains do it for you. 



Amaryllids are ready to be helped into bloom with a little water to 

 be increased as the flower stems break through. 



Asters need water and liquid manure to show grand flowers, but 

 when these appear, water the roots only to get perfect flowers. 



Pansy seed should be sown under cover for several shifts before 

 planting out. 



Chrysanthemums must be protected from leaf lice with tobacco tea 

 or tobacco dust thrown into the leaf clusters where they usually first 

 appear. The plants also need staking if they are to be grown for single, 

 heavy blooms. 



Cineraria seeds should be sown for winter blooming. Although they 

 require the most careful treatment described for fine seed in the 

 chapters on propagation, the plants volunteer freely when self sown on 

 the garden surface by the old plants. The cineraria in bloom in Cali- 

 fornia winter gives the tourist his keenest appreciation of our ''green- 

 house in the open air." 



Chinese primrose seedlings should be started for winter house- 

 blooms. 



SEPTEMBER. 



And now comes the second springtime in the California year which 

 has been anticipated in previous monthly comments, and, wonderful to 

 relate, the vernal September exerts opposite influences in the two chief 

 natural divisions of California. These chief divisions are not north 

 and south, for latitude has little to do with climate in California: they 

 are coast and interior valley and topography is the divisor. The in- 

 terior valley regions, which extend disconnectedly from Imperial to 

 the head of the Sacramento valley through about five hundred miles of 

 distance, become cooler as the shortening days, less direct rays, and 

 fleeting cloud-veils reduce solar fervor. 



The coast regions, through a similar distance, become warmer as the 

 westerly winds of midsummer cease to spread ocean temperatures and 

 fogs over the coast slopes and valleys which lie in clear sunshine west- 

 ward of, and among the ridges of the Coast range. Thus the Septem- 

 ber springtime cools one great district and warms another, and brings 

 both into better condition for growth of plants which will quickly 

 attain usefulness or beauty before the winter frosts, or are by their 

 nature so little affected by them that they can mature in the following 

 winter or later. And it is not only the September heat which has a 

 vernal character: the early rains often bring a delicious moisture to the 

 air, which delights the garden and the gardener. 



