660 



PB ACTIO AL GUIDE TO GARDEN PLANTS 



PHLOX 



a shelf. About the first week in February 

 it may be sown in pots or pans and 

 placed in gentle heat. When large 

 enough to handle the seedlings may be 

 pricked out into good soil in boxes or pans 

 and kept close and warm for a time, and 

 afterwards placed near the glass to become 

 sturdy. By May they will be fit for 

 planting out like the rooted cuttings, and 

 may be treated like them. They will 

 flower not very well the first season, but 

 will become quite established by the 

 second. Eaising Phloxes from seed is 

 very interesting, and it is by this means 

 that many of the very fine garden 

 varieties now so much grown have been 

 raised. Any specially fine varieties can 

 be increased and kept true by cuttings or 

 division. 



The foUowing is a description of the 

 typical species best known, after which 

 will be found a rather full list of the best 

 early and late flowering garden varieties 

 for the flower garden. 



P. amoena (P. pilosa amoena). — A 

 pretty, softly hairy species 6-15 in. high, 

 native of Virginia to Florida, with simple 

 ascending stems. Leaves slightly erect, 

 oblong or linear lauoe-shaped, acutish or 

 obtuse. Flowers in June, purple or pink, 

 rarely white, in compact corymbs, and 

 having obovate entire, rarely emarginate, 

 coroUa lobes. 



Culture dc. as above. Useful for the 

 rockery or border in good garden soil. 

 Increased by division and cuttings. 



P. divaricata (P. canadensis). — A 

 beautiful N. American species, 9-16 in. 

 high, with downy spreading stems, and 

 intermediate between the dwarf and tall 

 kinds. Leaves clammy, oval lance-shaped, 

 lower ones opposite, about li in. long, 

 tipper ones alternate. Flowers in spring 

 and early summer, pale lilac or bluish, in 

 forked corymbs ; lobes of the corolla 

 obcordate, notched at the end, or some- 

 times entire, very much resembling those 

 of the Periwinkle (Vinca, p. 645). There 

 is a white-flowered variety alba. 



Culture dc. as above. Borders and 

 the rookery. Increased by division and 

 cuttings. 



P. Drummondi. — A beautiful and weU- 

 . known half-hardy annual, native of the 

 United States (Texas ,&c.), with erect, 

 hairy stems, simple at the base, but 



branched a little at the top. Leaves 

 ovate lance-shaped, half stem-clasping, 

 mucronate and downy, lower ones oppo' 

 site, upper ones alternate. Flowers in 

 summer, varying in colour from red to 

 rose, purple, or white, with a darker 

 centre, each on very short pedicels on 

 3-forked corymbose panicles. 



There are a vast number of varieties 

 or more correctly seed variations, with a 

 great range of colour in the flowers, pure- 

 white, scarlet, pink, crimson, sahnon, rose, 

 purple &c., with intermediate shades and 

 mixtures, being represented, and nearly all 

 obtainable from a packet of mixed seeds. 

 Most of the flowers are rounded in shape, 

 but there are forms in which the petals- 

 are beautifully cut and fringed, some 

 having the central tooth of the petal 

 greatly prolonged, thus forming a star as 

 in the variety cuspidata. The double- 

 flowered forms are an interesting race 

 which produce masses of double or semi- 

 double flowers, white and scarlet. Some 

 varieties are also much dwarfer than 

 others, the range being from about 9 to 24 

 in. in height. 



Culture dc. as above. P. Drum- 

 mondi and its numerous varieties are 

 easily raised from seeds sovra about the 

 first week of March in shallow pans or 

 boxes in light, rich soil in gentle heat and 

 moisture. The seedlings in due course 

 are pricked into similar boxes and after a 

 few days are gradually given more air and 

 light to make them sturdy. WTien the 

 plants are 3-4 in. high the tip of the shoot 

 may be pinched out. This will induce the 

 latent buds in the axils of the lower leaves 

 to develop into shoots, and by this means 

 fine bushy plants full of blossom can be 

 obtained. By the end of May the plants 

 can be put into the open border and may 

 be used in a variety of ways such as form- 

 ing carpets for taller plants like Standard 

 Boses, in groups by themselves, in patches 

 in the border &c. If there is no conveni- 

 ence for raising the plants under glass, the 

 seeds sown in April and May in the open 

 border, or wherever the plants are intended 

 to bloom, will do equally well, thimiing 

 the seedlings out to about 6 in. apart, and 

 pinching the tops out. 



P. glaberrima. — A native of the United 

 States from Ohio to Florida, 1-2 ft. high, 

 with slender erect stems, and more or less 

 linear lance-shaped leaves, bright green 

 and glossy above, often with revolute 



