RAISING PI A NTS — RIGHT AND WRONG METHODS. 



i93 



frames or rough pits, affording all the light and 

 air possible when the weather is favourable, giving 

 littlo water, and protecting from severe frosts. 

 Directly the spring weather permits transfer to 

 the beds, when the plants will quickly produce a 

 mass of red, white, or purple sweet-scented flowers, 

 according to variety. The other half of the plants 

 may be left where they are, and if they survive 

 the winter a good display of flowers will be pro- 

 duced. Stocks prove the hardiest when planted 

 in firm soil in moderately dry beds or borders. 



The London Intermediate and East Lothian 

 types are sometimes raised in the spring, but 

 more frequently in July, subsequently potting 

 and wintering the plants in frames. These 

 moderate-sized plants endure more frost than 

 those which are larger and more succulent, and 

 are in great demand for window-sill decora- 



tion as well as for planting in beds. For econo- 

 mising space, many thousands are raised early in 

 August, transplanted two or three inches apart in 

 boxes, stored in frames for the winter, and placed 

 in beds or borders in the spring. This method is 

 extensively adopted in some of the London parks 

 with satisfactory results, the Lothians flowering 

 throughout the summer. Stocks succeed well in 

 town gardens. 

 Single Wallflowers. — These delightful flowers are 

 indispensable for spring bedding, and large 

 numbers of the best strains are raised from seed 

 yearly. If partial failures occur, this, in most 

 cases, is mainly due to either sowing the seed 

 too late or too thickly. The method of over- 

 crowding the seedlings, and the results of it, aro 

 shown in Fig. 92 as examples to be avoided. Firm, 

 bushy, hardy plants are just as easily obtained ; 



Fig. 93. Seedling Wallflowers. 

 d, Eaising plants thinly ; e, the same shortly after transplantation in the " reserve garden " (see page 19G). 



but thej r can only be had by starting with sturdy 

 seedlings (see Fig. 93), the result of thin sow- 

 ing ; and this applies not to wallflowers alone, but 

 equally to many other seedlings. Wallflowers 

 should be raised and grown as there represented. 

 This is not done by sowing in pans or boxes, but 

 in an open position in the garden early in May ; 

 some good growers sow still earlier. Open shallow 

 drills G inches apart, water if at all dry, and sow 

 the seed so thinly that, when the plants appear, 

 they are at least half an inch apart. If the rule 

 as to thin sowing is disregarded, the least that 

 can be done is to transplant the seedlings before 

 they become drawn and spoiled, in the first 

 instance, 6 inches asunder, eventually moving 

 every other row and every second plant in the 

 reserved rows elsewhere. This second removal 



checks exuberance, promotes hardiness, and in- 

 cites the most fibrous roots. Pinching out the 

 points of early-raised plants, as marked at g, in 

 Fig. 94, tends to promote a stocky free-flowering 

 habit of growth, especially in firm soil. 

 German Wallflowers. — These grow from 12 to 18 

 inches in height, form few or no side shoots, 

 and produce extra fine spikes of apparently 

 double flowers. They are raised from seed in 

 precisely the same manner as ordinary wall- 

 flowers, and, if early, may also be topped, each 

 plant so treated producing three to five good 

 spikes of bloom. Late-raised plants ought not 

 to be headed back. Perfectly double wall- 

 flowers cannot produce seed, so must bo raised 

 from slips or cuttings as described on page 

 186. 



VOL. I. 



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