176 CALIFORNIA GARDEN FLOWERS 



enemies of the pansies. The foregoing has reference to experience 

 mainly in the coast district. That a similar method brings fine 

 results in the interior also is shown by the following explicit and 

 somewhat picturesque paragraphs written by Mr. W. M. Bristol of 

 Highlands, San Bernardino county: 



"Probably no place better adapted to the production of magnificent 

 pansies than Southern California. The weather from January to 

 July is more or less cool and moist, conditions favorable to the 

 growth of the pansy, and with proper management the plants will 

 produce an immense crop of blossoms of large size. 



"To have them come into bloom in January or February, the 

 seed must be started in August. Considerable care is necessary to 

 success at this stage, but after the plants are large enough to remove 

 from the seed bed, the directions for culture are simple, though 

 imperative. Don't believe the threadbare and absurd statement that 

 "pansies like a shady place." Set them where they will receive the 

 full sun but no reflected heat from the buildings. When the weather 

 begins to warm up in June, it is well enough to shade them with 

 light muslin. 



"Don't set the plants where you have to dig holes with a pick or 

 blast them with dynamite. Select a good gravelly loam, moderately 

 compact, excavate to the depth of a foot, and as the earth is replaced 

 mix in a goodly quantity of cleanings from the cowyard or chicken 

 house (not too much of the latter). Then thoroughly saturate the 

 mass, and as soon as dry enough to handle B work it over again with 

 spade, hoe and rake and set your plants about a foot apart. 



"Don't give them a shower bath with the hose every day or two. 

 It is folly. It hardens and packs the ground while the roots may be 

 suffering for moisture. Once in a week or two make holes or furrows 

 among the plants and keep water therein until the ground is thor- 

 oughly soaked. When sufficiently dry, cultivate and pulverize the 

 surface. Remove all blossoms as they begin to wilt. If these instruc- 

 tions are heeded, the rainbow will paint your pansy bed and make it 

 the envy of your neighbor and the delight of the wayfarer. If they 

 are not heeded, you will be heard in the doleful chorus: 'I never 

 had no success with pansies nohow/ " 



Penstemons. Few things are more satisfactory for a long bloom- 

 ing season and especially for winter hardiness and activity than the 

 penstemons, which grows readily from the seed started in the early 

 autumn in boxes and planted out a few weeks later or established 

 well from spring sowing for bloom within a year. The plant comes 

 readily also from soft stem cuttings in sand and hastens bloom 

 thereby. The stems are two feet or more, upright, carrying bell- 

 like flowers, suggesting the foxglove, but very delicately shaded 



