Hardy and Half-hardy Plants 



45 



The best method of cultiva- 

 tion is to raise seedlings each 

 year, planting out an acre, or 

 what you will, in moderately 

 good soil, so soon as large 

 enough. By sowing seeds in 

 February, and subsequently 

 potting the seedlings singly 

 in small pots, the young plants 

 will be ready for garden or 

 field by the middle or end of 

 May, where, good growth en- 

 suing, they will be capable of 

 an abundant flowering the fol- 

 lowing summer. 



The flowering in these 

 plants is very profuse, and it 

 is this fact which renders their 

 cultivation profitable. It is a 

 "cut and come again" crop for 

 weeks on end, and, despite low 

 prices, quantity must tell. The 

 great secret of success, however, 

 is in the early start we have 

 indicated. To sow the seeds in 

 July and August means small 

 weakly plants incapable of flower- 

 ing, and practically the loss of a 

 whole year. G. g. maxima is one of 

 the handsomest of named varieties. 



[E. H. j.] 



Galanthus (SNOWDROP). The 

 bulbs and flowers of the Snowdrop 

 are both good market commodities. 

 In autumn the trade consists in sell- 

 ing thousands of bulbs, and in early 

 spring thousands of bunches of the 

 common single and double Snow- 

 drop (G. nivalis) find their way to 

 the markets, and then to the street 

 sellers and florists' shops. The choicer 

 kinds of Snowdrops, such as Alleni, 

 cilicicus (fig. 201), Elwesi, Ikarice, 

 globosus, latifolius, and plicatus, sell 

 chiefly in bulbs in autumn. They 

 have larger blooms than the com- 



I 



Fig. 200. Gaillardias (J) 



Fig. 201. Galanthus ciliticus 



