Growing Peonies and Gladioli from Seed 



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ON ACCOUNT of the short period 

 of reproduction in annijals, it is 

 possible b> selection of the seed 

 to fix color and other variations so that 

 they come reasonably true from seed, 

 but with perennials the case is entirely 

 different. A person does not want, as a 

 rule, very many specimens of any in- 

 dividual species of this class and those 

 desired can usually be obtained by split- 

 ting the original plant and one may 

 thus procure blooming plants in a much 

 shorter time than if they were raised 

 from seed. Sometimes this is objection- 

 able, as, for instance, in the case of the 

 peonies, which are very apt to sulk if 

 divided, unless perhaps the plant is taken 

 up and thoroughly divided into small 

 fractions. 



PEONIES FROM SEED 



If one undertakes to raise peonies 

 Irom seed he is appalled by the amount 

 of time required before bloom is obtain- 

 ed, but if one owns his garden and exr 

 pects to remain long the very novelty of 

 the procedure has a charm and the fact 

 that few of the seedlings may be ex- 

 pected to resemble the parent very close- 

 ly, adds interest to the experiment. The 

 young plants are easily cared for, and 

 do not take up a great deal of room and, 

 after they have once bloomed, they may 

 be thrown- out or transplanted to per- 

 manent quarters as preferred. 



This year I have flowered my first 

 seedling peonies, one five years old and 

 the other three. It chanced that . one 

 plant bore a very pretty flower which I 

 was quite glad to get, but the other one 

 has earned its discharge. I am inclined 

 to believe that one will not, as a rule, 

 obtain good flowers from half of his 

 seedling peonies; but one thing the 

 grower is nearly sure to get, and that is 

 a good variety of single-flowered plants 

 which are very beautiful but which are, 

 at present, in very few gardens. 



RAIblNG GLADIOLUS SEEDLINGS 



The most interesting perennial that I 

 have raised from seed is the gladiolus. 

 It is popularly supposed that these take 

 a long time to bloom, namely from three 

 to five years, but such is not the case. In 

 spite of the fact that I have never yet 

 treated my seedlings as well as I thought 

 they should have been treated, I have 

 had quite a number of flowers the sec- 

 ond year. To begin at the beginning, 

 my plan of operation is as follows : First, 

 to carefully select the parent, using only 

 a vigorous plant with a good flower. Al- 

 most invariably I hybridize this by rub- 

 bing a stamen of some other selected 

 variety across the pistil of the one from 

 which I wish to raise the seed. With- 

 out this precaution the plants very often 



W. E. Saunders, London, Ontario 



fail to produce seed and, when one goes 

 through the hybridizing process the 

 chance of obtaining something desirable 

 is good. 



When the seeds are nearly ripe, the 

 stems may be picked and placed in a 

 box with others where it will dry and the 

 pods will open and shed their seed. The 

 following spring these should be planted 

 in a rather light, rich soil where there 

 is no recently added manure whatever. 



seed, one has the opportunity of extend- 

 ing his collection in the colors which he 

 prefers. It happens that I want flesh 

 and salmon tinted varieties, and these 

 are exceedingly hard to buy, there being 

 only two or three varieties that I know 

 of whose colors please me, but I have 

 raised one or two seedlings that are very 

 handsome and I hope that I have more 

 on the way. There seems to be little or 

 no tendency towards depreciation in size 



Cbr; santhemums at Ontario Agricult 



as the gladiolus is well known to be in- 

 tolerant of manure, even if well rotted. 

 The seeds should be covered with one- 

 half to one inch of earth and after that, 

 weeding and possibly watering is all they 

 require. They winter just as readily as 

 the larger bulbs and under the same con- 

 ditions. 



When one comes to plant them the fol- 

 lowing spring there is a severe tendency 

 to give them too little room. One hardly 

 realizes that a bulb one-half inch in di- 

 ameter is likely to flower, but even a 

 three-eighth inch bulb will often flower 

 if given the best conditions. It seems 

 absurd to put these little things three 

 inches apart. "One inch, surely, is far 

 enough for a quarter inch bulb," says 

 one's gardening mind, but this is not 

 true. At this distance few of them will 

 flower, but if planted with two or three 

 inches between, the grower \\\\] be sur- 

 prised to see how many wil' reward his 

 efforts with bloom. The yearlings pro- 

 duce a large number of bulblets. I do 

 not know how soon this character is 

 lost, but I am inclined to think that it 

 persists for some time and, by planting 

 them, one can readily multiply any de- 

 sirable form which he may have pro- 

 duced. 



Thus in growing these bulbs from 



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lural College, Guelph See next page 



but rather the reverse. I have seedlings 

 which are five and one-half inches across, 

 grown under the same conditions as 

 Groff's "Peace," which does not reach 

 four and one-half inches in my garden, 

 my location being too dry and sandy to 

 suit it very well. 



There are also other plants from which 

 the gardener may obtain a great deal 

 of pleasure during the process of growth 

 from seed, but it is necessary that the 

 plant should produce variety in order to 

 give that interest to the operation which 

 peonies and gladioli yield. 



It may interest the readers of The 

 Canadian Horticulturist to know that 

 in 1890 there was not a single flowering 

 or other foreign shrub know or grown in 

 the whole of the then three territories of 

 Assiniboia, Saskatchewan and Alberta, 

 while to-day we have no less than forty 

 families, with 230 varieties, that are quite 

 hardy or nearly so. The mountain ash, 

 which does so well in the east, killed 

 back to the ground for years, but to-day 

 is one of our most beautiful flowering 

 trees.— Angus MacKay, Indian Head. 



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