466 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



they open and place them in a cooler, they will last for days and you 

 will find many uses for them. I am sure that if you work up a stock 

 of them and if your patrons have a chance to see the flowers, you will 

 have plenty of calls for them. There is a long list of named varieties 

 of these single sorts with Japanese names as easy to spell and pro- 

 nounce as those of the Japanese Irises. What you are most interested 

 in, however, is a good white, a few good pinks and a red or two. 



PENTSTEMON (BEARD'S TONGUE) 



Penststemon, while not hardy everywhere, is nevertheless 

 useful and a most showy border plant. You can obtain a good strain 

 of seed which, if sown about October and if the little plants are 

 carried along with your bedding stock in a 50-deg. house and planted 

 out in early May, will give you a great display of flowers during 

 Midsummer. The spikes are loaded with miniature Gloxinia-shaped 

 blooms ranging in color from soft rose and lilac to deep crimson. 

 The variety I have reference to is Pentstemon gloxinioides Sensa- 

 tion, but there are other good ones. The plants may be lifted in 

 late Fall and carried over in a frame, or shoots from cut down plants 

 may be rooted in Fall and the young plants carried along in a cool 

 house over Winter. But if you don't want too many and are not 

 particular as to the exact colors, you are, as stated above, just as 

 well off sowing seed. 



PERILLA NANKINENSIS 



Those who have use for Coleus, Achyranthes, or other border 

 plants can always use Perillas to good effect. Their bright-colored 

 leaves always form a good contrast with those of other plants and 

 they can stand more rough handling and are less affected by a dry 

 or a wet spell than almost any other foliage plant we have for bed- 

 ding. A few plants lifted in Fall and carried in a 55-deg. house will 

 give you many cuttings from the end of February on; they can also 

 be grown from seed sown in January. 



PERIWINKLE 



See Vinca 



PETUNIAS 



ONLY of late years have Petunias come to the front, but they 

 occupy today a place beside our most desirable bedding 

 plants all over the country, in beds, borders, vases, etc. The pro- 

 gressive retail grower will find that his patrons will prefer, even 

 to Geraniums, plants of the ruffled monsters of American origin in 

 4-in. pots grown on from seed. Also it is far more profitable for 

 him to handle them. 



