SWEET VIOLETS 59 



flowers in autumn, and give a wealth of bloom in spring, but 

 to maintain a continuous supply throughout the winter the 

 plants must be lifted in September and planted in the warmest 

 and most sunny spot in the garden, such as at the foot of a 

 south wall, or in frames. Thus while the plants require shade 

 and moisture during summer, all the sun possible should 

 reach them throughout the winter months. 



Raising Young Plants. Violets should be propagated 

 annually. It is natural for the plants to increase rapidly, 

 the same as the strawberry, by means of runners. When 

 strawberry plants grow at will, the beds the second year 

 are one mass of foliage crowded together, so thickly do 

 the runners appear and spread, and there is little or no 

 fruit. So it is with Violets, and instead of the beds being 

 an entangled mass of side shoots, each plant should be 

 grown separately and quite a foot or more apart. Then by 

 nipping off the runners during summer strong individual 

 crowns or clumps are formed, which not only produce fine 

 flowers abundantly and on long stems, but which are more 

 valuable for arrangement when cut. A limited number of the 

 plants, however, should be reserved for stock purposes, allow- 

 ing these to form runners, which become rooted in the 

 ground. The desired number should be severed from the 

 parent plants, with a lot of roots attached, and transplanted 

 in properly prepared beds. If these are to flower in the open, 

 plant fifteen inches apart each way. Water and syringe 

 frequently if the weather is dry after planting. Keep the soil 

 hoed, and then they will soon become established. 



New plantations should be made in autumn for the follow- 

 ing reasons : First, the plants are more easily and quickly 

 established in September than is possible say in March, when 

 there are often trying winds and a bright sun. Then, again, the 

 plants should be in full flower in the latter month, and one is 

 reluctant to disturb them for increasing the stock, while if 

 propagation be delayed until after the flowering period, the 

 season is too far advanced, and the weather generally too hot 

 for the divisions or offsets to make any progress, and they 

 either remain stunted during the summer, or, what is worse, 

 many may fail to grow at all. Some growers simply pull the 

 old plants to pieces in spring, and dibble out the divisions. 

 Many of these have hard woody stems and few fibres, and 

 unless the weather is mild and showery such divisions fail to 

 start. How much better then must it be to have a reserve of 

 young, clean, and well-rooted autumn-struck plants. If it is 

 necessary to transplant these in spring there will be no risk, as 

 each plant can be lifted with a good ball of earth, and they 



