78 GARDENING FoR ALL. 
suits rhubarb admirably. It may be forced a little in a 
cellar, and a mushroom house at work is a most admirable 
place for forcing it. 
SEAKALE.—(Crambe maritima). 
Seakale is a hardy perennial, growing naturally on the 
coasts of England and Scotland, as well as France and the 
shores of the Baltic. 
The people on the western shores of England have, from 
time immemorial, been in the practice of watching when the 
shoots begin to push up the sand or gravel in March and 
April, then cutting off the young shoots while still blanched 
and tender, and boiling them for food. 
When cultivated in gardens the young shoots are 
blanched by being grown in a dark shed, cellar, or mushroom 
house; or by covering with pots or boxes; or by drawing 
soil over the crowns. 
Unfortunately this plant is only cultivated in large 
private gardens and in market gardens, but it merits a wider 
culture, especially by amateurs. Its culture is extremely 
simple although it requires to be blanched ; and seakale pots 
are unnecessary. 
It requires rich and well-manured soil, and very strong 
plants may be grown from root-cuttings or ‘‘ whips"’ in one 
year; indeed, I never grow seakale more than one year, 
and therefore raise a new stock of plants every year from 
root-cuttings. 
Where root cuttings are not available a stock of plants 
may easily be raised from seed. Sow the seed in March or 
April where it is to remain. Sow in drills twenty-two inches 
apart and thin out the plants, when they appear above the 
soil, to twelve or fifteen inches apart. These seedlings may 
be allowed to grow a second year, at the end of which they 
will be very strong and suitable either for forcing, or for 
blanching and cutting where they stand. 
Culture from root cuttings consists in selecting clean, 
straight cuttings, about five inches long and half-an-inch or 
five-eighths of an inch across, from the older roots, either 
during winter when roots are lifted for forcing, or from the 
old plants as they are dug up to be thrown away after their 
heads are cut in March and April from the open ground. 
