CALENDULA 293 



three and four times the size of outdoor stock, contrast happily 

 with the usual white, pink, and few red flowers available. Here, 

 again, we have an ideal coldhouse crop which always appeals to 

 many. Calendulas, from Thanksgiving on — which usuaUy means 

 the beginning of the end of the Chrysanthemum season — find a 

 ready sale with the retailer and keep it up aU Winter and Spring. 

 They can even be made to pay as early started plants in a frame 

 which wiU come into flower during May and June, and up to the 

 time they begin to flower in your customer's own garden. While 

 consideral^e bench space is today devoted to ' their culture by 

 specialists or wholesale growers, the man who grows them and retails 

 the flowers makes the most out of them. 



For An Extra Early Crop 



Calendulas can be grown equaUy weU on a bench or solid 

 bed, but delight especially in a 45-deg. house, with their roots in a 

 deep, cool soil. When on benches you want to keep heating pipes 

 away from the bottom. For November flowering, seed should be 

 sown not later than the first of August. If you make use of soUd 

 beds, sow the seed in rows about 1 ft. apart and later on thin the 

 plants to about 6 in. in the rows. If they are to be benched sow out- 

 doors or in flats and transplant the seedlings into 2j/^-in. pots to 

 be benched not later than September fifth, about 1 ft. apart. They 

 require a rich, weU-drained soil, and for best results should never 

 be stunted. 



The first buds usually come on short stems and rather than 

 use them (which, in order to obtain a 10-in. stem, would mean to 

 sacrifice two or three more buds), pinch out the first and second 

 buds before they open. Whether you always have use for the flowers 

 or not, they shouldn't be allowed to go to seed. Keep the plants 

 clean, the soil cultivated, and, when you once begin to cut large, 

 long-stemmed flowers, a dose or two of liquid cow manure will do the 

 plants good. Green and white fly often attack, especiaUy the Mid- 

 winter flowering plants, but regular spraying will keep them down. 

 There is hardly ever occasion to stake the plants, unless you have 

 an extra fine lot, and grown at 45 deg. the plants hardly ever become 

 too tall. But there are growers who claim they pay better, have 

 longer stems and larger flowers when grown in extra rich, heavy soil, 

 and with a night temperature of 50 deg. 



To Follow Chrysanthemums 

 Calendulas to follow Chrysanthemums should be sown about 

 September tenth, which will give you heavy 2j^-in. pot plants 

 ready to be planted out by the middle of November. The sofl in 

 the Chrysanthemum benches or beds is just what they want, even 

 if heavily manured. Plants benched about November fifteenth 

 should, if not kept too warm, keep in good shape all Winter. 



