io8 Commercial Gardening 



the plants that they will yield small blooms and short spikes, and rapidly 

 pass out of flower. [c. H. c.] 



Sweet Sultan. This is botanically known as Centaurea or Amberboa 

 moschata. It is a Persian annual 1J-2 ft. high, having deeply and coarsely 

 toothed leaves and large musk-scented heads of purple or white flowers. 

 The yellow-flowered Sweet Sultan is derived from Centaurea suaveolens 

 (Amberboa odorata), and has citron-yellow, sweet-scented flower heads. 

 There are, however, many different varieties now grown, including light 

 blue, pure white, rose, lilac, purple, and other shades. They are all useful 

 for cut flowers for market, and may be grown as catch crops between rows 

 of fruit trees, or in other convenient spaces. The seeds should be sown 

 thinly in shallow drills 12-15 in. apart, from early April to the end of May 

 for a succession, and the seedlings should be thinned out to 9 in. or 1 ft. 

 apart. Relatives of the Sweet Sultan are dealt with under the genus 

 Centaurea (see p. 18). 



Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus). The Sweet William is one of the 

 best known and most admired of hardy garden flowers, having been grown 

 for centuries in English gardens. The present fine race has been evolved 

 from Dianthus barbatus, which, in the wild state, is native of Europe and 

 of comparative insignificance to-day. Perennial by nature and distinctly 

 so, the improved races we have now in mind, and for commercial gardening 

 more particularly, are best regarded as of biennial duration only. Hence 

 the periodical raising of the plants from seeds becomes virtually a necessity. 



The seeds should be sown early in April in a well-prepared bed of soil 

 in the open, or in pans or boxes in frames, or in the cool greenhouse in the 

 case of a particularly good strain. Indeed there is much to be said in 

 favour of the latter method generally, such as quicker and more certain 

 vegetation of the seeds, and freedom from the attacks of slugs and other 

 pests. 



Like other members of the Carnation family the seeds of the Sweet 

 William vegetate promptly, and in cool greenhouse or frame, sown at the 

 time named, they will be above ground in from fourteen to twenty-one 

 days. Thin sowing and early transplanting are essential, and upon a full 

 appreciation of these a full measure of success depends. The Sweet William 

 is so perfectly hardy that no coddling of any kind under glass should be 

 permitted. Plant out in August or September in open quarters, or earlier 

 if a good watering can be given. Grown for the sale of their roots alone, 

 8 in. apart will be a sufficient distance. If grown for seed-saving purposes 

 and the best strains are highly desirable from this point of view not 

 less than 18 in. from plant to plant should be given. The Sweet William 

 may also be raised from cuttings inserted in a cold frame in August or 

 thereabouts. Indeed novelties of merit, until the seed strain is fixed, must 

 be so treated, and so, too, the double-flowered varieties, of which D. b. mag- 

 nificus is the most desirable. (For other kinds of Dianthus see p. 35.) 



Of varieties, Pink Beauty and the Auricula-eyed are among the more 

 distinct. There are others, too, in scarlet, white, and crimson. [E. H. J.] 



