A STOCK PLANT OP LOBKLIA 



TENDER BEDDING PLANTS 333 



still used. Gardeners find it useful for putting round the edges 



of beds, and they employ it for window-boxes also. 



Seedsmen sold, and still sell, seed of bedding Lobelias, but 



flower gardeners who find a variety which 



they like generally propagate it by means of 



cuttings, as they can thus keep it quite true, 



both in habit and colour. 



Mid-May is a good time for planting. 



The Lobelia will be in bloom then, probably, 



but that is no bar to planting. The plants 



form a mass of fibrous roots, and if the soil 



is moistened and pressed firmly round them 



they can be shifted at any time. They are 



best planted in tufts about two inches thick, the clumps about 



three inches apart; they will then fill out and make a continuous 



line of colour. They will not spread, how- 

 ever, in a poor, dry soil. The ground 

 should be moist and fertile. Given good 

 land, the plants will remain in bloom until 

 autumn. At that season they may be 

 cropped in, lifted, and potted, or packed 

 closely together in boxes, with the object of 

 wintering them on a greenhouse shelf. 



They will not make much progress in 



CUTTINGS OF LOBELIA * 



A shows a bad cutting, it is weakly early winter, but if the house is heated 

 r s ttn7cut7nI^^h B ou!dL s they will begin to grow before the close of 



moved - 



the y un g shoots can be taken 



off as cuttings when a couple of inches long, 

 and struck in sandy soil. As soon as they are fairly rooted their 

 tops can be removed and struck in turn. Thus from a few old 

 "stock" plants a nice lot of young ones is quickly provided. 



The following are good varieties of dwarf Lobelia: 



Swanley Blue. One of the best blues. 



