VINGAS IN FIELD AND GREENHOUSE 549 



'Mums is just the thing; add a little bonemeal to it, and it will come 

 in handy again later on. The plants are placed in a Carnation house 

 temperature up to the early part of March, when they go to a Rose 

 house after having had a shift into 4s. They may not need a 

 shift just at that time, but this move saves handling later on. 



THE BEST HOUSE FOR VINCAS 



Along the edge of the Rose benches is the ideal place for Vincas 

 from the middle of March on. The plants here will make a rank 

 growth and if kept wet enough and given a dose of liquid cow manure 

 every two or three weeks after the plants are potbound, they will 

 develop those desirable thick, heavy, large leaves. 



The next best place, if a Rose house can't be had, is the Gar- 

 nation house. Good results can be had here, only they take a little 

 longer. Many growers prefer to pot up their field-grown stock in 

 Fall, claiming that they get better results and that the plants have 

 a better chance to start root growth. That may be so, but what counts 

 most are the months of February, March and April. It is during these 

 months that the plants make their growth. You cannot grow a good 

 Vinca on a dry bench or in a 40-deg. house during Spring You must 

 supply heat, moisture and good soil and then some more moisture if 

 you want fat vines. Nothing is more pitiful than a starved Vinca. 



There are florists who carry their plants in 3^-in. pots and 

 plunge the pots into the soil of the Rose or Carnation bench. The 

 roots of the plants will in time grow through the bottom of the pots 

 and feed in the bench. This, of course, will result in wonderful 

 growth, but if you ever received such plants and used them in boxes, 

 you know what happened. No matter how much water such plants 

 get they will go back, for the reason that all of their live roots were 

 cut off when the pot was taken out of the soil. That is a mighty 

 poor way to do things. 



Even the florist with cool houses only can grow on at least a 

 part of his requirements, but the plants may not be at their best 

 much before the early part of June. In that case it is best to pur- 

 chase the stock needed for filling early orders. Usually there is 

 no trouble in obtaining all the Vincas wanted up to Memorial 

 Day. With enough orders ahead one is justified in reserving his 

 own stock to draw on for late use and in buying to fill early orders. 



VINCA ROSEA 



If you want to plant a border or formal bed with something 

 that will be a mass of bloom from May until November, plant 

 Vinca rosea or V. alba. The individual flowers don't amount to 

 much, but there are so many of them on each plant that they 

 make up for it. In order to have plants in S^s well branched 



