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CULTURE OF FAVORITE PLANTS. 



(PETZ^KTUl. 



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jj^ASILY cultivatL-a fVoni seed, the Petunias arc halt"-hardy perennial 

 ' * plants, blooming the first season, and therefore usually grown as sum- 

 mer annuals. They run through many shades and markings, being 

 mottled, striped, clouded, feathered and in plain colors. The seeds are 

 very small, and should be sown on the sin-face and rubbed in with the 

 hand or be lightly covered. After the plants are up, they should be 

 out liberally, as each individual plant becomes quite large, and blooms the 

 better for having plenty of room. If the tip of the main branch is taken off, the 

 side branches will be more numerous, thereby giving a more liberal supply of 

 flowers. The double ones are more often grown from cuttings or slips than from 

 seeds. The seeds of double flowers in these plants are obtained by fructifying 

 the jjistils with the pollen from a single or semi-double flower; occasionally, however, this 

 process will jield single flowering plants. Petunias are grown in windows and conserva- 

 tories as well as gardens, especially the double varieties. A good soil for their growth 

 may be made up of equal parts of loam, leaf-mold, good manure and sand. Petunias 

 seed freely, and are largely self-propagating; but a few of the superior hybrids are liable 

 to prove defective in this respect; and, to insure success in raising these fancy kinds, the 

 simplest and best method is to invest a small amount in the seeds raised by some specialist. 

 They will appear earl\' in spring, but all the sooner if the beds he cleared of old flower- 

 stems and other rubbish. A few Petunia plants will in a short time cover an area of sev- 

 eral square yards, and they therefore furnish a cheap and easy way of floral ornamentation. 

 In thinning out, the strongest specimens should of course be retained, and left not less than 

 six inches apart. They bloom in the open air, in even northern latitudes, from June to 

 frost; and in warmer climes, or raised in hotbeds or under cold-frames, the season of bloom 

 is proportionably prolonged, being virtually all the year round. 



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petals 



RILLIANT red or flame color, is the significance of the scientific 

 of this genus of plants, which belongs to the Polemonium 

 _ . The Phlox is a native American plant of many species, 

 of them pretty, but perhaps none so desirable in every respect 

 the P. Drummondii, so named in honor of the distinguished 

 Scottish collector, Drummond, who discovered it in Texas, in 

 Much transformed and improved by cultivation, it has been reintro- 

 duced into its native America, and is yearly becoming more popular, one well- 

 known florist cultivating from five to ten acres every year with this plant alone. 

 There are several varieties, and the number is yearly increasing, with flowers 

 varving in color from the deepest crimson to the purest white; and the colored 

 ' svmmetricallv arranged around a common center, which itself invariably differs 



