PETER HENDERSON & CO.— INTRODUCTORY. 



ON THE SOWING OF FLOWER SEEDS. 



With such an extended and varied list of Flower Seeds as we offer, we can here only give space for a few 

 general suggestions as to their sowing and after-treatment. More specific cultural instructions will be found 

 printed on every packet of Flower Seeds that we send out. At the same time the following practical directions, 

 taken from Peter Henderson's " Practical Floriculture,'' we believe cannot fail to prove of value to amateur 

 cultivators : 



" Xature provides abundantly for the reproduction of plants, and the difficulty of multiplying by one method 

 is compensated by the ease with which it may be done in another. "Whenever we find a plant takes root with 

 difficulty from ' slips ' or cuttings, in nine cases out of ten we find that it seeds freely, and gives us a ready means 

 of increase. Thus we find the much-admired Centaureas, one kind of the ' Dusty Millers,' the white-leaved 

 plants now so much used in massing and for baskets, are exceedingly difficult and slow to root from cuttings, but 

 are readily raised from seeds. Our fine strains of blotched Petunias are also troublesome as cuttings, but make 

 plants quickly from seeds. The Cyclamen, with its tumip-like stem or bulb, could only be propagated by 

 cutting in pieces, disfiguring its shape, and requiring years to form a circular bulb again, but here we have seed 

 coming to our help which germinate freely, and making a flourishing plant in one year. The Apple Geranium 

 never affords proper cuttings from which to make a plant, but it seeds freely, from which splendid plants can be 

 produced in a few months. So the Primulas and Cinerarias, both slow and uncertain from cuttings, seed freely. 

 And so with hundreds of other plants, to which our space will not permit us to refer. There is no rule by which 

 we can designate what plants are best propagated by seeds, and what by cuttings, experience being the only 

 teacher, and even the experience of a lifetime is too short for those of us that have had the largest practice. 



"Seedling plants can be nearly as well raised in the window of a sitting-room or parlor, provided the 

 temperature is right, as in a greenhouse, for seeds do not need a strong direct light while germinating — in fact 

 that is often a difficulty in a greenhouse, as the surface of the seed-bed dries up too quickly in the direct sunshine, 

 necessitating watering, which bakes the surface. The best thing wherein to sow seeds is shallow boxes ; these 

 need not be more than two or three inches deep, with open seams at the bottom through which water will drain 

 quickly. Fill the boxes within half an inch of the top with light, rich earth : if it can be procured, nothing is 

 better than black leaf mold from the woods, or light sandy soil, mixed with an equal bulk of stable manure, so 

 rotted as to resemble leaf mold ; it will not answer unless rotted as fine as dust. In the absence of either of these, 

 sweepings from a paved street are excellent, mixed with light sandy soil, the object in all cases being lightness of 

 the soil or mold in which the seed is to be sown ; for if tiny seeds, as many of our flower-seeds are. are embedded in a 

 stiff soil, the germ in mapy of them is too weak to push its way to the light. "When the proper soil has been 

 secured, pat it down with a smooth board until it is as smooth and level as it well can be, then sow the seed 

 over the surface, distributing it evenly ; then take a common kitchen .sieve and sift just so much earth evenly 

 over the seed as will cover it, and no more ; then take a watering-pot with the fiuest kind of a rose, aud shower 

 the earth with spray. Keep the box at a temperature as near sixty degrees as possible, taking care to give it a 

 shower of spray only when the surface appears to be dry; but few seeds will fail to germinate under such condi- 

 tions. But after the seeds have 'brairded,' as the Scotch gardeners say. comes another difficulty: in quite a 

 number of plants, particularly if sown in the house, just as soon as the seed leaf has developed, aud before the first 

 rough or true leaves have formed, the seedling is attacked by a minute fungus, that will often sweep off the whole 

 crop in forty-eight hours if not attended to. The required attention is, that as soon as there are indications 

 of the 'damping off' of these tiny seedlings, they must be carefully taken up aud planted out in similar 

 boxes, prepared exactly as the seed-boxes have been ; they may be planted quite closely, not more than half an 

 inch apart, and let their further treatment be exactly as in germinating the seeds. In the course of a few weeks 

 they wili have grown freely, and they may then be lifted and be placed iu similar boxes, but wider apart, say 

 three or four inches, or potted singly in two and a half or three inch pots, as most convenient, until such a time 

 as they are to be planted out in the opeu ground, or to be used otherwise. '' 



