278 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



Fig. 107. TUBEROUS-ROOTED BEGONIAS. Four-inch pot plants ready for bedding 

 out the end of May. For this purpose you want short, stocky plants which, grown in 

 a 50-deg. house, have room to develop and harden off. You can also use these beau- 

 tiful Begonias in made-up pans for porch decorations or for the show house in Summer 



bedding purposes start about the early part of March and treat 

 the same way, but during April and May carry the plants in an airy 

 and rather cool house, to avoid a soft growth. Another batch can 

 be started about April first, and the plants, after being potted up, 

 brought to a hotbed where later on the sashes can be removed and 

 the plants hardened off. 



The best place for the plants outdoors is a spot where they can 

 get a little shade during the hot noon hours. They don't need any 

 in the early morning or late afternoon, and often one can select a 

 place where a certain tree will provide shade for three hours or so 

 during the middle of the day. This shade or protection means more 

 to them than the soil they are planted in. They will never do their 

 best in a very shady position, but if you have to fill a window box 

 for a spot too shady for other flowering plants you can use them and 

 get results. 



For Summer flowering indoors keep the plants inside and shift 

 the fours about June first into 5- or 6-in. bulb pans. Carry in an 

 airy, light house, with just a little shade, and they will be a mass of 

 blossoms until Fall. 



In colors we have white, light and deep yellow, daybreak, rose 

 and deep pink, orange, red and crimson, and in types, single and 

 double, crested and frilled no end of beautiful variations. The 

 tubers, of either the ones in pots or those grown outdoors, if dried 



