Making Out the Flower Seed Order 



Connecti- 

 cut 



By F. F. Rockwell. 



A HELP TO THE BEGINNER IN STEERING HIS 

 WAY THROUGH THE CATALOGUES, POINTING 

 OUT WHAT ARE THE MOST EASILY GROWN 

 FLOWERS AND PARTICULAR MERITS OF EACH 



IN NINE cases out of ten, the order for 

 flower seeds is made out in one of the 

 two following ways. The first is to 

 sit down with a catalogue or two and 

 a pencil and paper, and beginning with the 

 novelty section pick out a packet of this 

 and a quarter-ounce of that, according as 

 we think we can find room: and then turn 

 over, a page at a time, the standard varie- 

 ties, picking out a package of this, that, and 

 the other which we feel we "must" have. 

 Then we add up the total, decide that it 

 is really too much, read the descriptions 

 over again, cross out a few of the higher 

 priced items and some of the others which 

 we feel we can sacrifice — and when planting 

 time comes we discover that we have enough 

 flower seeds for from two to six flower gar- 

 dens the size of the one we have to plant! 



The second method takes even less time 

 and worry. The would-be gardener goes 

 to the local store, selects packets almost 

 haphazard; after a confused half hour he 

 takes home a beautifully assorted collection 

 of gorgeous things which the salesman 

 thinks he should have in his garden, and 

 which in all probability the salesman has 

 never seen, has never so much as looked at 

 over the fence! Of course Garden Mag- 

 azine readers don't do this thing. They 

 always buy from established seedsmen who 

 know. The result in either of the cases 

 given is pretty sure not to be what was ex- 

 pected, even though there was nothing 

 very definite in mind. 



Now for the better way! The first step 

 to take toward improving your flower gar- 

 den is to abandon haphazard methods. 

 Everything is to be gained, even time, by 

 planning carefully and definitely just what 

 you would like to accomplish, before you 

 touch pencil to paper to order a packet of 

 seed. A garden that is not what you would 

 like to have it is expensive at any price; and 

 at a very reasonable price you can have as 

 beautiful a garden as you care to take time 

 to plan. Saving money on your flower 

 order is one advantage of carefully planning 

 your garden now; but far more important is 

 the fact that only by so doing can next 

 summer's garden be made what it should be. 

 It is not enough merely to select the flow- 

 ers which you love most: they should be 

 placed where conditions will suit them best, 

 in relation to light, shade, and soil, and in 

 regard to each other. 



Before you can decide intelligently just 

 what you want to put in the flower gar- 

 den and how to arrange them, you must 

 know exactly the size and shape of the 

 garden and of each bed in it. Have you 

 ever measured them? If not, do it now! 

 Sketch the areas roughly on a piece of 

 paper. Then at your first opportunity 

 sit down and with a ruler and a triangle or a 



T-square, mark them off, everything fairly 

 accurately, to scale. 



With this, then, we have a starting point 

 for our flower seed order. Next put down 

 a list of the flowers which you know you 

 will want — the good old favorites such as 

 sweet peas, asters, nasturtiums, poppies, 

 verbenas, balsam, cosmos, and, perhaps 

 salpiglossis, snapdragons, and the new 

 African daisies (Dimorphotheca). 



You often find on each of the beautifully 

 lithographed seed packages, that the seed 

 should be started in the fall or in February 

 under glass for summer flowers. If you 

 have a small greenhouse or hotbed available, 

 this is of course an easy matter, but you can 

 start a surprising number of little seedlings 

 in the kitchen winc'ow in time for trans- 

 planting into a coIdLame in March or 

 early April, preparatory to setting them in 

 their permanent places in the flower bed. 

 Cosmos, salvia, pansies for summer bloom, 

 moonflower vines, Phlox Drummondi, and 

 a number of other annuals and some peren- 

 nials can be utilized if handled in this way. 



Many of the old, favorite perennials 

 may now be had the first season from seeds, 

 in the distinct new classes which have been 

 developed. Perhaps the most remarkable 

 of these is the praecox gladiolus; last 

 fall, early in October, I saw blooms of this 

 remarkable strain of gladiolus as beautiful, 

 if not quite as large, as any I have ever seen 

 grown in the usual way (from bulbs). 

 These were produced from seed sown in 

 May. After the first season, the bulbs 

 which have been formed from seed may be 

 planted out in the usual way. The annual 

 strain of hollyhock will flower the first 

 season from seed sown in early May. A 

 few plants, however, should be sown earlier 

 and transplanted outside in May for earlier 

 blooms. Dahlias will produce fine blooms 

 the first summer from seed sown early 

 in the spring. The same is true of cannas; 

 for best results they should be started not 

 later than February, although March sown 

 seeds under good conditions will flower. 

 There is also a new hybrid Tritoma (the 

 red-hot poker plant) which will flower 

 the first year if started in February or 

 March. There is a particular fascination 

 in growing any of these things especially 

 the hybrids, from seeds: one is actually 

 producing new varieties of his own — and 

 although, of course, the great majority will 

 not be any better than the standard named 

 kinds, and most of them not as good, still 

 there frequently appear beautiful sorts 

 which may be kept and propagated. 



Having now before you just the amount 

 of space you would like to plant, and the 

 things you would like to put in it, apportion 

 the space to be given to each kind. Some 

 of them may be arranged in line, especially 



194 



plants for backgrounds and borders, and 

 things which are to be started early and 

 transplanted. But with most of the things 

 which are to be grown directly from seed, 

 by far the most effective results may be 

 had by sowing them in small patches. 

 After you have made your plan, indicating 

 where each variety is to go, you are likely 

 to find that the amount of space you have 

 for planting any one thing is quite limited. 



And now comes the hard part of making 

 out the order. Cut down your list instead 

 of cutting up your garden. The great secret 

 in making out a correct seed order for the 

 flower bed, and the one which unfortunately 

 cannot be communicated, is in deciding 

 what to strike out. It may be put down as 

 an axiom that "the fewer the things 

 planted the more effective your garden will 

 be." One can, of course, go to the other 

 extreme — but there is very little danger of 

 that while our seedsmen continue to get out 

 catalogues as attractive as those which one 

 now receives. 



This policy of retrenchment, be it under- 

 stood, applies to the effect of the garden as 

 a whole; by no means would I dissuade 

 any one from trying out anything which 

 looks interesting; but this can be done more 

 interestingly, with better results, and 

 without injuring the appearance of the 

 garden as a whole, by setting aside a bed 

 or two or by having a long border some- 

 where, inside or outside of the regular 

 garden, where the new things may be 

 grown together in a riot of color, each 

 little row or test of plants, marked with a 

 substantial label. 



WHAT TO GROW 



Giving advice about varieties of flowers 

 is even more risky than giving it about 

 vegetables. Our gustatory apperceptions 

 seem to be much more nearly standardized 

 than our aesthetic impressions. I mention 

 below, however, some varieties that have 

 seemed in actual trial particularly good. 



For the average sized garden, where a 

 considerable number of flowers is to be 

 grown, but the space limited to each is 

 rather small, a packet of each will in most 

 cases be sufficient. In the following list 

 an asterisk is put to the kinds of which more 

 than a packet is likely to be needed, either 

 for larger amounts or for succession sowing, 

 or because the number of seeds in a packet 

 is not large. Those printed in capitals 

 (such as Aster) are the more important 

 ones for average conditions. The figures 

 after the flowers indicate the usual distance 

 apart in inches at which they are planted. 

 If sown where they are to flower, the seed 

 should be put in from five to fifteen times 

 as thick as this — several seeds to an inch 

 of row for flowers with medium sized seeds. 



