The Culture of Flowers from Seeds 



sow seed saved from really good strains. The simplest greenhouse 

 culture suffices to raise Pelargoniums from seed. Some growers 

 sow in July or August ; others in January or February. The summer 

 sowing necessitates careful winter keeping, and the flowers appear 

 earlier than those from spring-sown seed. But the spring sowing 

 is the easier to manage, and is recommended to all beginners. Any 

 light, sandy loam will serve for these plants, and it is well to 

 flower the principal bulk of them in 48- and 32-sized pots, for if 

 grown to a great size the date of flowering is deferred without any 

 corresponding advantage. 



PENTSTEMON 



Hardy perennial 



PENTSTEMONS are treated as advised for herbaceous Lobelias. It is 

 not needful, therefore, to keep any of them through the winter, unless 

 they will take care of themselves in the open border. As a rule, the 

 seedling Pentstemons are hardy, and will scarcely feel the winter on 

 a comparatively dry soil. 



PETUNIA 



Half-hardy perennial 



THE PETUNIA affords another example of the immense strides accom- 

 plished in the art of seed-saving. Formerly the colours were few, 

 and the blossoms comparatively insignificant. Now the single strains 

 produce large flowers, varied in colour and beautiful in form. There 

 are striped, blotched, veined, and selfs in almost endless diversity. 

 Some are plain-edged, others elegantly fringed. The double varieties 

 also come so nearly true to their types that there is little necessity 

 for keeping a stock through the winter. Plants raised from seed 

 of the large-flowered strain embrace a wide range of resplendent 

 colours, and the doubles are perfect rosettes, exquisitely finished in 

 form and marking. 



The only way of obtaining double seedlings is to save seed from 

 the finest single blooms fertilised with pollen of good double flowers. 

 Plants raised from such seed may be relied on to produce a fair 

 proportion of double flowers of great beauty, and those which come 

 single will be of the large-flowered type. 



