Everyone Should Grow Celery 
“pee end of July or the beginning of 
August is the time to put out 
celery plants and since there is usually 
plenty of available space as other crops 
mature even the smallest garden can grow 
a crop profitably. It will conveniently 
follow peas, for instance, or if you are renew- 
ing the strawberry bed the site of the old 
one will be an excellent place and it will 
give deep cultivation to soil which has not 
been turned over for a year or two. Get 
stocky plants that have been twice trans- 
planted, as they have a more compact and 
sturdy root system. If you are depending 
on purchasing the plants see that they are 
delivered in fresh condition and have the 
ground ready in advance. This means open 
up a trench about a foot deep and dig in some 
well decayed manure, mixing in a good 
portion of the soil which has been taken from 
the trench. Make it about sixteen inches’ 
wide in the portion where the plants are to 
go. This allows for a double row planted 
about ten inches apart either way. There 
should be four feet distance between the 
trenches. 
Choose a showery or cloudy day for plant- 
ing; but if these weather conditions are not 
to be had, endeavor to keep the plants from 
wilting by sprinkling them as soon as you 
have planted a few feet of row, and if possible 
shade them with newspapers or old pieces of 
burlap. When the whole row is planted, 
give a thorough soaking with water to settle 
the soil round the plants so that every 
rootlet is in contact with it, and put about 
two inches of lawn grass or some strawy 
litter over the plants as a mulch. After 
a fair amount of growth has been made a 
little weak liquid manure applied occasionally 
or some artificial manure sprinkled around 
the plants and well watered in will be very 
beneficial. 
For those who find it too much trouble 
to plant in trenches, or who may wish to 
try another method of culture, there is the 
flat or bed system. Plant in beds four 
feet wide, setting the plants ten inches apart 
either way, and when the plants are nearly 
full grown put boards down either side of 
the beds to help in the blanching of those 
on the outside. 
The most suitable varieties for the beds 
are self blanching kinds, such as White 
Plume, and Pink Plume, Golden Self- 
Blanching, etc., while for trenches the same, 
kinds are good, as are also Perfection ' 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
Hartwell, Boston Market, Major Clark’s 
Pink, Giant Pascal and Fin de Siécle. 
If at the time of planting there is any sign 
of leaf spot or rust, it would be well to dip 
the plants in a mixture of one part Bordeaux 
to twenty of water. This ensures a better 
covering of all the plant than any spraying 
could possibly do, and will be sure to check 
if not to entirely cure the disease. 
When it makes its appearance after plant- 
ing, the only way is to spray frequently with 
the same mixture. However, the best way 
to do is to avoid the disease by having ideal 
conditions, which are largely provided by 
the following, viz., a rich, well-drained soil, 
thorough waterings, mulching, and never 
to check or crowd the plants, allowing them 
at all times a free circulation of air and an 
abundance of light. 
Mass. 
E. JENKINS. 
Geraniums Raised From Seed 
NSTEAD of buying from a florist 
geraniums of known kinds, or grow- 
ing from slips, duplicates of what one has 
already had, why not try planting seed, 
thereby getting plants of more stocky 
and robust growth? It is really not a 
difficult undertaking, and I have raised a 
large number of healthy, insistently bloom- 
ing plants in an ordinary, well-sunned 
dwelling room. 
The first and most essential point is to 
secure seeds ofa good strain. Seedlings from 
mediocre flowers are so utterly despicable 
—is anything more forlorn than a thin- 
clustered, small-blossomed, purplish-pink 
geranium? —that one is not inclined to 
give labor, time, and space on a sunny shelf 
for six months, to plants that are likely to 
produce this 
particular kind 
of bloom. It is, 
I have found, 
difficult to ob- 
tain good seed. 
Because so few 
amateur gar- 
deners grow 
geraniums by 
this method 
the seedsmen 
OL fenvena mel 
very few or 
very cheap 
strains. Year 
after. year. I 
have bought 
Seedling geranium just potted 
hy up into thumb pot 
AvecustT, 1908 
mine from an English specialist who has 
houses devoted entirely to geranium culture, 
and the average of his “hand hybridized” 
seedlings produces a high grade of flowers. 
August and February are the two best 
months for planting the seed, and plants may 
be expected to flower within six months from 
the time of sowing. In my opinion February 
is the best time, for the seedlings may attain 
much of their growth in the open ground and, 
after flowering in August or September, 
be culled out before being potted up to bloom 
indoors all winter. On the other hand, an 
August sowing will bring your seedlings 
into flower the following February, which is 
usually a dull time, and will give a supply 
of excellent little blooming plants for bedding 
out in spring. 
Plant the seed, covering it lightly, in 
boxes of rather light, rich soil and if it is 
desirable to hurry germination, keep the 
temperature at about 65 degrees. From 
fresh seed, some plants may show themselves 
in five or six days, and they will continue to 
appear from the same sowing for weeks. 
I have had the seeds germinate from Feb- 
ruary 24th to June rath from a sowing made 
February roth. This last date, 113 days, is 
my record. By reason of this very irregular 
germination, it is best to sow the seed thinly, 
so that, if it is necessary, any one plant may 
be: removed without disturbing the other 
seeds. I have also found it a good plan to 
pot up into thumb pots seedlings as soon as 
they can be handled. If all the seeds have 
not germinated, the seedbox may be allowed 
to remain for a longer time in the dark and 
warmth. The large number of thumb 
pots may be easily handled by setting them 
in cigar boxes, one box being large enough 
to hold six pots. 
The little seedling plants cannot have 
Germination takes place in 
from five days to sixteen weeks 
A crop of seedlings. 
too much sun and it is amazing how rapidly 
they grow. ‘They are so persistently zonal 
that the seed-leaves themselves sometimes 
assume the characteristically colored stripe. 
With their bright green leaves and brilliant 
little bands of color, the plants are much 
more attractive than those raised from cut- 
tings. Although the record with me thus 
far for flowers has been trusses fifteen and 
one-half inches in circumference and pips 
two and three-quarters inches across, I think 
it is, after all, in their first months of exis- 
tence that I find them most irresistible. 
New York  witetist’ = L. S. B.S 
