200 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



tings that root most easily. And when 

 in 2 or 2 1-2-inch pots there is no 

 place to make nice little plants like 

 the hotbed. It is almost or quite 

 hardy. 



SANTOLINA INCANA. 



This almost hardy little herb is of 

 great importance in the flower garden. 

 It can be clipped and cut to any form 

 or line. To design patterns in carpet 

 bedding or as an edging it is invalu- 

 able. Its small, dense foliage has a 

 grey or frosted appearance. Occasion- 

 ally, when covered with snow, it 

 comes through the winter unharmed, 

 but such plants would not be useful 

 for our flower gardening purposes. 



Lift some plants and pot, or put 

 them in a flat in a few inches of soil. 

 In February cut off two or three inches 

 of the tops and they will send out 

 numerous growths that root rapidly. 

 This again is a plant that quickly 



thawed in the spring they should be 

 lifted and potted, when they will 

 make their growth, the appearance of 

 which is so useful in hanging baskets 

 or veranda boxes. 



Few plants will stand the hot sun, 

 dryness and neglect so well as the 

 sedums. For a border or rockery 

 there is of course no need of cold- 

 frame or pots. They can be divided 

 and planted at once in their perma- 

 nent position. 



S. speciosum, rose pink, good for 

 rockery, border or florist's use; S. 

 Sieboldii, pink, very good 'basket 

 plant; S. pulchellum, pink, dwarf, 

 fine for borders; S. Rhodiola, pink, 

 dwarf, fine for borders; S. ternatum, 

 white, vases or baskets; S. kamtscha- 

 ticum, yellow, very fine spades for 

 baskets or rockery; S. Maximowiczii, 

 yellow, handsome, fine stems with 

 greenish purple leaves. 



There are many species, but the 

 above can be relied on as some of the 

 best. 



in pairs, charging for boxes or baskets 

 and using bell glasses belong to 

 another continent and past age. But 

 this is about seeds and not cuttings. 



In the article on Asters I give in 

 detail a method of sowing them or 

 any other seeds of considerable size. 

 We are asked repeatedly how deep to 

 sow seeds. There is no rule, and out 

 of doors in the garden you would 

 cover much deeper than you would, in 

 the greenhouse. A very good rule 

 would be to cover the seeds their own 

 thickness, which would be with an 

 aster seed just out of sight, and with 

 a gloxinia so little that it would be 

 impossible to measure it or apply it. 

 Still, we are sure that a grain of wheat 

 or oats will struggle to the surface 

 when buried six inches, and a cabbage 

 seed will send up its leaves to the 

 light when covered an inch. And these 

 depths are one hundred times the 

 diameters of the seed. 



However, we are not considering the 

 seeds in the garden but how to raise 



makes a nice, compact and quick 

 growth in a mild hotbed far better 

 than on a greenhouse bench. 



SEDUM. 



These pretty little, hardy peren- 

 nials are known to all. But a few of 

 the species are useful to the florist, 

 and they are not cultivated as much 

 as they should be. Many of the species 

 make good plants for the hardy 

 border. Some are the very best of 

 rock plants. And a few are valuable 

 to the florist for vases and baskets. 



They are of the easiest possible cul- 

 ture, thriving in any soil andi needing 

 little of it. They are propagated from 

 seeds, or by pulling the plant to 

 pieces and replanting in early spring, 

 but for the florist's use are best propa- 

 gated by cuttings in May. If wanted 

 in quantity the cuttings can be put 

 in the cold-frame in May in the 

 ground, and when rooted remove the 

 sash and leave the plants to grow all 

 summer, protecting them with sash 

 in winter. As soon as the ground is 



A Range of Connected Rose Houses. 



SEED SOWING. 



By sowing seed is the only method 

 that we can get a new individual. A 

 cutting or layer is only a division of 

 the plant, and a graft and bud is not 

 a new plant, it is still the perpetua- 

 tion of the same individual with the 

 help of another plant's vigor and 

 strength. Still, cuttings are the only 

 way generally that we can increase 

 a hybrid or variety, and far more stock 

 is increased by cuttings than by seeds. 



I consider raising plants by seeds 

 a far more delicate and particular un- 

 dertaking than our usual method with 

 the cuttings and propagating bed. And 

 just let me say here that within thirty 

 or forty years we have wonderfully 

 simplified the cutting bed. There may 

 be, and is occasionally, the need of a 

 closed case or bell glass for propa- 

 gating some of the hard wooded plants, 

 but I can remember, and so can thous- 

 ands of gardeners, when verbenas and 

 petunias were put under a bell glass. 

 Just fancy how we have progressed 

 in this line. Selling carnation plants 



them without failure under glass. The 

 great Prof. Lindley in his "Introduc- 

 tion to Botany," says: "It is well 

 known seeds will not germinate in 

 the light." That we know to be per- 

 fect nonsense, for we have all seen 

 many kinds of seeds grow in the light. 

 The old seedsman's way of testing 

 seeds was to wrap a piece of wet flan- 

 nel round a bottle and sticking the 

 seeds in the flannel and keeping the 

 bottle full of hot water. Mustard seed 

 will grow in the light and so will an 

 acorn. 



With seeds larger than those of the 

 aster or verbena there is very little 

 need of failure, and no need of cover- 

 ing _them more than their depth be- 

 cause our seedlings are soon to be 

 handled. But with begonias, calceo- 

 larias, gloxinias and other very min- 

 ute seeds the operation is one of great 

 care. Mr. Fred L. Atkins gives the 

 correct method in an article on glox- 

 inias in The Florist's Review, March 

 3, 1898, page 569, all of which is ex- 

 cellent. 



The soil should be well baked or 



