l62 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 30, 1S88. 



a packet of white, one of yellow, one of dark crimson and one 

 of spotted. This gives us a fine assortment, and among hun- 

 dreds of plants, especially of the dark-colored ones, barely two 

 are alike. Never buy inferior seeds, no matter how cheap 

 tliey may be. If your oljject is to have fine flowers pay a good 

 price for seed, and get the very best obtainable. The care in 

 sowing, growing, wintering and blooming poor Polyanthuses 



lath shading. But it is better to delay planting into frames ' 

 until August, as the crowns are apt to grow too large to admit 

 of blooming them at the regular distance — nine inches apart. 

 And it is only as a matter of practical convenience that they 

 are sown in spring ; it is better to sow in June, and from the 

 time the seedhngs come up till winter sets in to keep tliem in 

 active growth. They make just as good blooming plants for 



Fi^. 31. — Heliconia Choconiana. 



is just as great as that required with the very choicest strain. 

 Sow Polyanthuses in boxes in a warm green-house in March 

 or April ; when they are up nicely prick them off into other 

 flats, and about the end of April remove these to a cold-frame. 

 After spring planting is over, say early in June, replant them 

 into other boxes, and summer these in a cool, somewhat shadv, 

 place, or transplant at once into a cold-frame, and shade wiili 



next spring as do earlier sown seed, and they escape red 

 spider, the inveterate enemy of old plants in summer. 



Polyanthuses love a rich, friable, loamy soil, with a free supply 

 of rotted cow manure, and during their whole life they should 

 be liberally watered.. During the winter months protect them 

 in the frames with sashes and a little straw shaken over the 

 glass. It is better to have the ground frozen about an inch 



