FLORISTS FLOWERS : PHLOXES AND PRIMULAS. 85 



bloom. The white petunia and its hybrids have the 

 flowers scented. 



The Phloxes are gay useful plants, of various heights, 

 flowering almost incessantly. They are all perennials, 

 except P. Drummondi, an animal which is very pretty 

 either for the flower beds or for growing in pots. Its 

 seed must be sown in April, in gentle heat, and the plants 

 may be planted out of doors in May. Many of the phloxes 

 are good as bedding plants. Seed may be grown out of 

 doors in April or May. "When seed does not ripen, cut- 

 tings may be struck in August, and kept through the 

 winter. 



Many of the recently grown phloxes are very beau- 

 tiful, and these gay flowers have the merit of blooming 

 very freely, the different kinds in continuous succession 

 almost through the year. They are increased by division 

 of the root, and by cuttings taken in summer, and struck 

 under a hand glass, in a shady spot. Sandy loam and leaf- 

 mould is the soil. 



P.pilosa amcena, with pink flowers, P. nivalis, with 

 white flowers, P. setacea, with flesh-coloured flowers, 

 and P. subulata, with dark purple flowers, are quite dwarf 

 in their habit ; and to them may be added P.procumbens, 

 with flesh-coloured flowers, and P. reptans, with blue 

 and purple ; and from these there are all heights, up to 

 five and six feet, and all colours purple of all shades, 

 pink, rose, red, blue of different tints, lilac, white, and 

 flesh-coloured. "Whether it be to cultivate them as 

 choice flowers, or to ornament the garden, no lover of 

 flowers should be without a nice collection of the supe- 

 rior kinds of phloxes. 



The Primula, or Primrose kind, yields three favourite 

 florists' flowers the auricula, the polyanthus, and the 

 primrose. Auriculas must have a rich soil, and what- 

 ever manure is used to make it so should be so 

 thoroughly rotted before it is applied as to be in fine 

 powdery mould: such manure may be mixed in equal 

 parts with good light garden earth, and if for pot cul- 

 ture add about a sixth of coarse sand. As florists' 

 flowers, auriculas are grown and bloomed in pots. 



