Gardening in California 



inch deep. Should the seeds germinate too thickly, thin the 

 young plants, when two inches high, to three or four inches 

 apart and they will require no further attention. 



GLADIOLUS. 



This genus contains about ninety species which are among 

 our most popular garden flowers, their stately habit and gorgeous 

 spikes of handsome flowers making them indispensable in all 

 gardens. While some are pure white, they contain a great va- 

 riety of color, ranging through all shades of pink and red to dark 

 crimson, and also including yellows and purples. Some varieties 

 are beautifully flaked and striped. The Gladioli should have a 

 deep rich soil and a sunny situation and should be generously sup- 

 plied with water during the growing season, while a heavy 

 mulching of old cow-manure about the roots assists them to per- 

 fect their flowers. Each flower-stalk should be tied to a light 

 wooden stake to keep it from being moved or blown about by 

 winds. As soon as the leaves begin to turn yellow in the Fall, 

 the corms should be taken up with their tips intact, and laid in 

 a cool dry shed to become ripened, when the tops may be cut off 

 close to the bulb, and the corms placed in boxes, covered with 

 dry soil and kept dry and cool until planting time. Plant the first 

 lot of bulbs in February and the next lot in May; plant them 

 about three inches deep, and one foot apart. 



Propagate by seeds sown in early Spring and covered to the 

 depth of a quarter of an inch, or by the small corms or bulbs 

 which form around the old corms or on the ends of the roots. 

 These small corms should be planted in Spring in a nursery bed 

 and grown on for a year before being planted in the flower-border. 



HELIANTHUS (Sunflower}. 



This genus includes the common Sunflower and about eighty 

 other species. The tall-growing annual species thrive in any good 



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