8o The Flower Garden [Chapter 



be lifted, wrapped in cotton-wool or tissue-paper, and 

 stored in a dry, fairly warm place during the winter. 



Heliotropes 



ARE more easily raised from seed than from cut- 

 tings, which require special care. Several of 

 the new varieties, like Lemoine's seedlings, give ex- 

 ceptionally large and early flowers, ranging in colour 

 from pure white through all the shades of lavender, 

 purple, and blue to deep indigo. If wanted for win- 

 ter blooming the seed may be sown any time during 

 the spring, but for bedding out it should be sown in 

 February or March, and the plants duly potted off 

 and plunged in a box of sand in a warm, sunny win- 

 dow, or a hotbed, until it is time to bed them out 

 in the open ground. The compost should contain a 

 large proportion of leaf-mould three- fourths mould 

 and one-fourth loam and sharp sand. 



The seeds of Heliotrope must be kept merely moist, 

 never wet and never allowed to dry out, or they will 

 not sprout; keeping the soil just on the verge of dry- 

 ing out, yet never allowing it to do so, is the whole 

 secret of starting Heliotrope from seeds. It is best 

 to sow the seed in moist soil to avoid the necessity 

 of watering afterward, as is done with other seeds; 

 if the soil is just wet enough to be crumbly, neither 

 wet nor sticky, and can be kept so, they will prosper. 

 Cover the seed lightly with white sand and remove 



