74 THE PRACTICAL GARDEN -BOOK 



rose and yellow. The combs are often saved for winter 

 bouquets by cutting them off before thoroughly ripe and 

 drying them. The feathered section comprises tall -growing 

 plants with plumes of various colors which, with the colored 

 leaves of some varieties, make a striking feature in a 

 border. The Celosias, being tender, should be started in a 

 hotbed or frame, potted off when out of the seed-leaf, and 

 planted out in well enriched soil after danger of frost is 

 past. lX-2% ft. high. 



Coldframe. A Coldframe is a simple, low 

 structure, covered with glass or oiled paper or cloth, in 

 which plants are grown without artificial heat. It differs 

 from the hotbed in the fact that it has no bottom heat. The 

 atmosphere in the Coldframe is warmer than that outside, 

 because it is protected from the winds and because there 

 is more or less of the sun's heat stored up in the earth. 

 For the details of construction of the Coldframe, see 

 Hotbed. 



A Coldframe is ordinarily used for later work than the hot- 

 bed : that is, seeds may be sown in a Coldframe from two to 

 three and sometimes four weeks in advance of their sowing 

 in the open ; whereas in a hotbed the seeds may be started 

 from one to three months earlier than they may be out of 

 doors. Coldframes are sometimes used for the wintering 

 over of hardy plants which are started in the fall. For 

 example, cabbage seed may be sown in September in a 

 Coldframe and the young plants may be protected therein 

 during the winter. If they are properly grown and hard- 

 ened off, they will not be injured by the winter, even 

 though they freeze. Lettuce and sometimes cauliflowers are 

 carried over in the same way. Coldframes are also used to 

 receive plants which have outgrown the hotbed and must be 

 transplanted. Plants which need hardening off may also be 

 transplanted from the hotbed into the Coldframe. The 

 Coldframe in these cases is an intermediate stage between 

 the hotbed and the open field. 



