338 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



have been considered absolutely wrong in former years. I learned 

 the business where Cyclamens were made a specialty, have grown 

 them by the thousands here and have shown blue ribbon stock, 

 hut of late years we have found it advantageous to buy our require- 

 ments. Such plants as we have seen in the past six or eight years— 

 that is, specimens — were way ahead of anything I have ever seen 

 here or abroad. 



Growing Plants from Seed 



It takes from sixteen to eighteen months to grow a Cyclamen. 

 You want it at its best for Christmas, and you should have that 

 date in mind if you grow them. No matter how you plan and figure 

 and how fine your plants may be, you wiU always have some which 

 won't be in flower by that time. Let them come in later, but 

 remember that one plant in full bloom in December is worth two 

 in January. 



If you grow only a few hundred plants sow the seeds in, rows 

 in flats in any mellow, sandy soil. The seedlings come up rather 

 irregularly, but in a month after sowing you may be able to carefully 

 lift the first one; the sharp end of a wooden label is as good as 

 anything to do this with. Have another flat ready, and transplant 

 into it, in rows, allowing an inch or so between the plants. You 

 will keep on removing seedlings from the seed flats for two months 

 to come, but those first ready for transplanting wiU always be the 

 strongest. The young plants in the flats can get along nicely in a 

 house where your Primulas and Cinerarias do weU, for they want a 

 bench shaded just a little, a lot of moisture and plenty of fresh air 

 and ventilation. 



You cannot ever grow Cyclamens in a dry house, and if there 

 is a secret about growing them at all, it is not to stunt the plants 

 at any time when they are once under way; that is the whole thing 

 in a nutsheU. You must find out for yourself what suits them best, 

 so as to keep them growing uninterruptedly. Once stunted, the 

 best grower will never be able to make anything out of them. On 

 hot days wet the walk and below the benches. The plants will 

 delight in that sort of atmosphere but it doesn't do to have it musty 

 or sour under the benches. Keep things clean and sweet, but always 

 moist during the first as well as the second Summer and Fall. 



Favorable Conditions for Cyclamen 



I claim that the atmospheric conditions surrounding a Cyclamen 

 have far more to do with success or failure than the soil it happens 

 to be in. Make use of the finest kind of leafmold and give proper 

 drainage, an even temperature and careful watering. But if you don't 

 provide the necessary moisture you will have trouble. A house 



