164 CALIFORNIA GARDEN FLOWERS 



Cultivation and Care. All these plants have been mentioned as 

 easy to grow if one makes the proper seasonal start and as requiring 

 less care than most other plants,, still it must be insisted that the 

 quality and duration of bloom depend largely on the cultivation. For 

 instance, according to Shirley Hibbard, one plant of Virginia stock, 

 allowed to attain complete development, will cover more than a 

 square foot of surface, lasting in blossom two months, while twenty 

 in the same space will be spindling with flowers all over within three 

 weeks at the utmost. Then by carefully removing all seedpods the 

 moment the flowers wither, the blossoming season may be prolonged 

 almost indefinitely. Sweet peas thus cared for may be in bloom 

 nearly a year, if moisture is available. By bestowing care and atten- 

 tion, a plant may be kept in blossom for a long season, giving double 

 the number that would be given if left to themselves. 



All this, however, is more or less dependent upon giving the plants 

 plenty of room. Always remember to thin out seedlings to ample 

 spacing and to give space when transplanting. Over-crowding the 

 plants destroys all rules for satisfaction with them. 



Exposure. Sun and shade are relative terms; for instance, full 

 sunshine on the coast may sometimes be cooler than shade in the 

 interior. For this reason one .has to read prescriptions of sun and 

 shade for different plants, with some reference to his local conditions 

 thereof. Still there are some distinctions which may be widely true, 

 but realized in different places at different times. Many plants which 

 enjoy full summer sunshine near the coast, resent its heat in the 

 interior, but do enjoy the interior winter sunshine. It is a very 

 simple deduction, then, that summer growth of many herbaceous 

 plants in the hot valleys must be undertaken in partially shaded 

 places, while in cooler situations they may need contrivances for 

 concentrating sun heat in the place they occupy. These are things 

 one has to learn by local experience or observation. 



HERBACEOUS PLANTS CHIEFLY COMMENDED IN 

 CALIFORNIA 



The proper way for the amateur to arrive at a conclusion as to 

 which herbaceous plants he should grow in his place and for his 

 own taste, is to try all of which the seed is offered by the seedsmen. 

 They do not list a seed unless it is good somewhere and meets the 

 taste of a good many people therefore the catalogues should be 

 secured each year and carefully studied. It is not advised, of course, 

 that the amateur plant all their offering at once; take a dozen or a 

 score at a time and in that way work down the list until you get 

 enough to occupy your available space or to fill your heart with joy 

 all through the year. Watch the habit of the plant under your condi- 



