20 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



February, 1912 



in handling it if one is susceptible. Others, 

 of whom T am one, are not affected. 



P. Forbesii (the Baby Primrose). Shades 

 of lavender, fading to almost white is the 

 freest flowering primrose known. Plants 

 of only three inches high will blossom if 

 allowed, but it is best to pinch off the 

 flowers from the seedling plants during 

 the summer if blossoms are wanted for 

 the entire winter and spring. 



P. floribunda, resembling the obconica 

 type, but yellow. Very free in bloom, and 

 satisfactory. This, and the following are 

 the best, and most reliable of the yellow 

 forms for the amateur to grow. 



P. Kewensis. A new hybrid, that adds 



fragrance to the list. Flowers quite freely 

 produced, in shades of yellow, with a bluish 

 or lavender reverse to the petals. The 

 fragrance is rather faint, but a number of 

 the plants grown together will pleasingly 

 scent a small conservatory. 



IMPATIENS 



Of this old-time favorite for house 

 culture, there are now a number of ex- 

 tremely beautiful hybrids. While none 

 of these are as free in bloom as the original 

 magenta-pink variety, they are much 

 more satisfactory. Of the varieties I have 

 grown, the following are the best. 



Light-leaved salmon-pink. So distin- 



guished, as there is a dark-leaved variety 

 that is very scanty in blossom. The 

 light-leaved, however, can be bought in 

 all shades, and is very free in blossom. 



White. This has a maroon eye, and is 

 not particularly free in bloom. Should 

 be included in a collection, however, as 

 the flowers are very beautiful. 



Scarlet. A new hybrid, the exact color 

 of a holly berry. Very free-flowering, and 

 generally satisfactory. These plants are 

 extremely beautiful in the conservatory 

 in winter, when there is snow on the ground 

 outside. 



A complete calendar of the year's work 

 in the greenhouse is given on page 30. 



Starting Dahlias Early — By e. s. Johnson, 



Penn- 

 sylvania 



GROWING "GREEN PLANTS" FROM TUBERS, READY TO PLANT OUT WHEN THE GROUND IS WARM — IN- 

 CREASING YOUR STOCK OF FAVORITE VARIETIES AND SOME PLAIN TALK ABOUT AFTER MANAGEMENT 



THE "green plants only ready in April," 

 of the dahlia growers' lists may be 

 made at home during February and March 

 by anybody who has a sunny windowsill 

 to spare in an ordinary living room. In 

 England many amateurs and their gar- 

 deners grow all their dahlias from early 

 spring cuttings; so that English lists fre- 

 quently print a rate for these, ready to 

 root, the prices being about half that 

 charged for dormant pot roots. (Field 

 grown tubers are not in favor with the 

 English dahlia growing public, and are 

 not sold except for propagation; i. e., the 

 growing of shoots from the " collar," which 

 shoots are rubbed off carefully and dibbled 

 into sand to root, like a stem of coleus or 

 salvia or geranium.) 



The use of green plants, instead of 

 dormant pot roots or field tubers, is espe- 

 cially favored by fanciers who want 

 mammoth blooms for exhibitions held 

 during the month of September. Possibly 

 the coincidence that green plants are set 

 in the ground in May with a very limited 

 root-system to feed from, and so come into 

 flower for the first time during the last ten 

 days of August or later, favors the general 

 belief that "green plants are what you 

 want for big prize flowers." Personally 

 I can see no difference in flower or habit 

 in pairs of plants (first rate English 

 novelties which I procured last season in 

 dormant pot roots) one put in the ground 

 a rooted cutting with six leaves, and the 

 other, alongside, growing from the pot 

 root. Had either plant been trained to 

 the crown bud style of flowering, that 

 plant would have shown the one or two 

 or three mammoth flowers beloved of the 

 exhibitor. 



My own use of the "green plants in 

 April" is penny-saving rather than vision- 

 ary. If I buy one field tuber or one 

 dormant pot root of a new or rare variety, 

 I order it early and multiply it at once, 

 without waiting a year for increase, or 

 wasting my substance on half dozens of 



imported roots with accrued postage, 

 duty, etc. 



In a bulb-pan, a deep cigar box, or in 

 4-inch pots, I firmly press down the dor- 

 mant roots into light, friable garden soil, 

 cover with a sprinkle of soil (and if the 

 roots are in the least mouldy a dusting 

 of sulphur and air-slaked lime). Water 

 well, make sure that the labels are firmly 

 inserted each to its own root, and place 

 over the boxes a pane of glass apiece. 



An inverted glass tumbler is easier to 

 use on 4-inch pots than small flat panes, 

 and gives more air. The pots and boxes 

 should then be set in a warm window in 

 full light. Even in February or the first 



Gondola, a irte-nowering pink cactus in pillar form 

 with flowers coming on new root-shoots at the bot- 

 tom. Inflorescence wholly axillary, never terminal, 

 becoming short stalked on older branches 



of March, heat and light will sprout the 

 small dormant pot roots, which would not 

 of their own accord start before the mid- 

 dle of April. Field tubers start more 

 readily, as they have been dry longer; 

 and whole field clumps, should you desire 

 to propagate plants from them, need only 

 be set in earth or ashes in the furnace 

 ceUar, with one good watering and little 

 light, to produce splendid shoots. 



After five days, some of your choice 

 pot roots will show white or pinkish sprouts 

 pricking through the ground. Others take 

 two or three weeks to make any growth. 

 Some pot roots, too, seem to have very 

 little "collar" and cannot develop any 

 second sprout if the first and only one is 

 picked off. In such a case, you have only 

 your sprout to depend upon; your dor- 

 mant root will be dormant forever, and 

 even if the cutting roots satisfactorily, 

 you are no better off than at first. 



In view of this risk, it is worth while 

 to be cautious in removing the young 

 tops. If a root has one visible shoot, let 

 it grow an inch long; then remove the 

 cover glass, drip a gentle stream of water 

 on the soil so as to wash the top of the 

 dahlia root clean, and examine it very 

 carefully. (Do not confuse the white 

 hoary feeding roots, that grow out from the 

 sides and extremities of the tubers, with the 

 white shiny, scale-clad stem sprouts that 

 proceed from the neck or "collar.") 



If a tiny, pinkish, shiny eye shows at 

 one side of the inch-long sprout, or one or 

 two secondary sprouts are plainly under 

 way, remove the inch-long sprout, tearing 

 it carefully away from the corky base on 

 which it grows. But if no other sprouts 

 or eyes show on your original root, sift 

 on a new covering of soil, replace the glass, 

 and leave it for a second examination after 

 a week. The first may be the only sprout: 

 in this case let it grow naturally to six 

 or seven inches, then pinch out three inches 

 of the top for a cutting, just as you would 

 take a geranium slip, and your original 



