PANSIES 457 



What will, however, mean far more to the average retail grower, 

 is having Pansies to cut from under glass during the Winter and 

 Spring months. Properly handled they will flower as freely as 

 the single Violets (to which they belong), and where is anyone to be 

 found who doesn't like Pansies, especially if they are good Pansies ? 



Of as great importance are Pansies during Easter Week. There 

 is no other small flowering plant that wiU give more attractive 

 made-up pans than Pansies. A customer can't resist a well-filled 

 pan of solid giant Pansies, either yellow, blue or white; it makes a 

 stunning Easter favor and needs but little trimming. 



Consider for a moment what it takes to grow on a Lily, a 

 Genista, a Rambler Rose, an Hydrangea or an Azalea and then 

 figure out the cost to you of a $3 pan of Pansies. 



For Early Outdoor Bedding 



To begin with, Pansies like a rather heavy loam in order to 

 do best, and a liberal dose of well decomposed manure and sand 

 will help to obtain good results. Good Pansies will make fair flowers 

 even in poor soil but cheap Pansies, no matter how weU you treat 

 them, will produce cheap flowers. 



AU Violas like a deeply cultivated soil, moisture and a cool 

 temperature in order to produce a healthy growth and the largest 

 flowers. If you want plants to start to flower by the middle of 

 April sow seed in early August outdoors. The seed wiU come up 

 almost anywhere. If you buy expensive seed you want every 

 possible one to germinate and produce a plant. For that reason, 

 prepare a nice bed for them, making use of a coldframe. Have the 

 surface of the bed level and mellow; sow thinly in rows about four 

 inches apart, barely covering the seeds after they have been pressed 

 down gently into the soil; give a good watering and place shade 

 frames over the bed. Except in very dry, hot weather, no watering 

 is needed until the seedlings are up ; if you have but a smaU amount 

 of space sown it wiU pay to remove the shade frames (except for 

 three hours or so during the middle of the day) and in about ten 

 days remove them for good. By that time, every good seed is up 

 and the plants when once estabUshed don't want any shade. The 

 only reaison you place it over the seeds is that you want to do what 

 you can to give every seed a chance. 



By the end of September or thereabouts transplant to Winter 

 quarter^, or where they are to remain until sold, allowing about 

 three and one-half to four inches between them. The latter is not 

 too much for good-sized plants, and if you intend using some for 

 Winter, Spring or Easter flowering indoors, select the strongest 

 plants and place them apart from the rest where you can get at 

 them any time during the Winter months. 



