FLORICULTURE 
give a quicker return of bloom, or offer 
such a variety to choose from as do the 
phloxes. There are few desirable colors 
beyond their range, and if given good soil 
and plenty of water they furnish a sup- 
ply of delicate flowers for cutting through- 
out the season. The phloxes are also use- 
ful as window garden plants, and may 
be used as an undergrowth for tall, bare- 
stemmed plants. The first sowing of seed 
should be made as soon as the frost is 
out of the ground in the spring; later 
ones in May, either where the plants are 
to bloom or in a seed bed, as the phlox 
transplants readily. In transplanting set 
the taller Kinds about a foot apart; if 
planted too thickly they suffer from mil- 
dew. The removal of flowers and seed- 
pods makes the plants more bushy and 
compact and lengthens their blooming 
period. .-The average height of the plant 
is about a foot. 
Pinks 
Dianthus 
The large and varied genus of Dian- 
thus contains some of our most beautiful 
and most profitable flowers. The most of 
them are hardy perennials that bloom 
freely the first season, the plants remain- 
ing green all winter and blossoming the 
next year also if lightly protected by a 
mulch of straw, cut fodder, or leaves. 
Old plants flower the earliest, but as 
young ones give the largest, finest flow- 
ers, sowings are made every year. Seed 
can be sown under glass or in an open 
sheltered bed in March. The seedlings are 
easily transplanted and should stand 8 
to 12 inches apart: dwarf ones, about six 
inches. If especially large brilliant flow- 
ers are desired, a bed of well mixed turfy 
loam, leaf mold, and well decayed manure 
should be prepared for them. Good drain- 
age should be provided, as the plants are 
impatient of too much moisture and are 
more liable to winter-kill in moist than 
in well drained situations. In fact, the 
plant is hardy to severe cold, but suc- 
cumbs when exposed to low temperatures 
in wet places. 
The Carnation Pink 
Dianthus caryophyllus 
This plant, which is the forcing carna- 
997 
tion of the American florist, can be grown 
from seeds sown early in the season in 
hotbeds, the young plants being given fre- 
quent shifts to pots of increased size as 
they grow until all danger of frost is 
past and the growing season is well on, 
when they may be transferred to the 
border where they are to bloom. If they 
are given a rich soil and an abundance 
of moisture, the bloom will more than re- 
pay the extra trouble taken. Seedling 
plants are more variable in character than 
plants propagated from cuttings, and for 
that reason are not well suited for com- 
mercial purposes. 
On the continent of Europe this type of 
dianthus is more commonly used as a gar- 
den annual than in America. The form 
known as “Marguerite carnation,” which 
has recently come into popular favor, is 
well adapted to cultivation as an annual. 
The majority of its flowers come double, 
and it has a pleasing habit of growth. 
Poppy 
Papaver 
In the spring, even before the tulips 
are fairly gone, old gardens begin to be 
gay with poppies, which, in some one or 
other of their many forms, continue a 
procession of bright blooms until frost. 
No other piants possess so bold and bril- 
liant a flower, coupled with the same 
grace of stem, airiness of poise and del- 
icacy of tissue as the poppy. For beds 
and borders, with a background of green, 
there is nothing which will produce a 
more striking contrast. Some sorts are 
admirable for naturalizing in open wood- 
ed grounds: others, like the Shirley, are 
beautiful for cutting. A sandy loam suits 
poppies best, and as their strong tap roots 
are difficult to transplant it is well to 
sow seeds where the plants are to bloom. 
Seed sowings made in the autumn and at 
intervals in spring will provide a long 
succession of flowers. The seeds should 
be sown thinly and covered very lightly, 
as the seed is quite small. As soon as 
the young seedlings are well established 
thin the plants to stand about a foot 
apart. The plants which bloom most pro- 
fusely are those grown from fall or early 
spring sowings while the earth is cool and 
moist. 
