1882.] 



121 



arden. 



THE HERBACEOUS CALCEOLARIA. 



Among the many varieties of plants under 

 the title of florists' flowers, perhaps none 

 is more strikingly handsome than the Her- 

 baceous Calceolaria. Yet, outside of the 

 green-house of professional florists, or at ex- 

 hibitions, they are seldom seen. The fol- 

 lowing directions, given in Carter's Practical 

 Gardener, are useful and timely, and should 

 enable any one having a green-house to 

 grow these beautiful flowers. 



The seed should be sown in July or Au- 

 gust in well drained pans, the drainage 

 being covered with some rough sittings of 

 loamandpeat, filled 

 up with prepared 

 soil, finishing the 

 surface with a fine- 

 ly-sifted compost of 

 peat and loam, in 

 equal parts, with 

 plenty of silver- 

 sand. Water the 

 pans with a fine 

 rose-can. Sow the 

 seed immediately, 

 by scattering it over 

 the surface of the 

 soil, which should 

 be half an inch from 

 the rim of the pan ; 

 place the pans, cov- 

 ered with squares 

 of glass, in a shady 

 position, the north 

 side of a wall being 

 a good situation. 

 Care should be 

 taken to keep the 

 sun from them, and 

 the soil must be 

 constantly moist, 

 as, if allowed to 

 dry, even for an 

 hour or two, fail- 

 ure will ensue, 

 even with the best 

 quality of the seed, 

 which with care 

 would have ger- 

 minated well. As 

 soon as the seeds 

 show signs of ger- 

 minating, the pans 

 must be placed in 

 a cold frame or 

 under a hand-light, 

 and should be 



closely watched and not allowed to get dry. 

 As soon as the seedlings are large enough 

 they must be pricked off about two inches 

 apart, in pans prepared in accordance with 

 the instructions already given. If not spe- 

 cially attended to now, the young plants are 

 apt to damp off, sometimes so rapidly as to 

 be beyond recovery before the damage is 

 noticed. As soon as the plants touch each 

 other, pot them off in small pots, using good, 

 light loam and decayed manure, from an old 

 hot-bed, and a liberal sprinkling of coarse 

 silver -sand. Many use leaf -mold; this 

 cannot be recommended, as it often turns 

 sour and causes the plants to grow weakly 

 and ultimately die. They should be re- 



moved into larger pots as their growth re- 

 quires, and on no account must they be al- 

 lowed to get root-bound, or they will soon 

 become infested with the green fly, a very 

 troublesome insect and very injurious to the 

 plants. In fact, if the earth is permitted to 

 become infested with aphides, all attention 

 as to soil, timely potting, regular watering, 

 and ventilation will avail little, for it is utterly 

 impossible to grow good plants and green-fly 

 too. Fumigations, therefore, must be fre- 

 quent. It is far better, safer, and more 

 economical to fumigate very lightly, to pre- 

 vent insects, than to permit them to increase, 

 and then fumigate strongly to destroy them. 

 The latter plan, which is far too common, is 

 the greatest mistake that can be made in 

 gardening practice. 



The most suitable place for plants during 



advantage. Cultivation and selection, has 

 now rendered the best strains of this plant so 

 dwarf that little staking is necessary, only 

 such as will enable the branches to be tied 

 out, to afford room for the expanding flowers. 



The above instructions, communicated by 

 a skilled and successful cultivator, cannot 

 fail to be of service to the amateur who de- 

 sires to have a rich and satisfactory display 

 of Calceolarias. They are, indeed, indis- 

 pensable for early summer decoration, and 

 no green-house or conservatory can be satis- 

 factorily furnished without a number of these 

 easily grown and chaste, yet gorgeous flow- 

 ers. For the home stage and exhibition pur- 

 poses they are equally suitable ; in fact, no 

 group of plants, staged at the principal early 

 summer shows, attract more attention than 

 those of well grown Calceolarias. Almost 

 everybody can grow 

 the plants, and 

 when seen in good 

 condition it is cer- 

 tain that everybody 

 will admire them. 

 We commend them, 

 therefore, with con- 

 fidence to all lov- 

 ers of beautiful 

 flowers. 



HYBRID CALCEOLARIA. 



the winter months is a pit where there is 

 sufficient heat to keep out the frost ; but in 

 no case must artificial heat be resorted to 

 unless it is absolutely necessary. They 

 flourish very well on shelves in an ordinary 

 green-house during the flowering season. 

 Great care should be given to the manner 

 of admitting air ; many plants are killed 

 through inattention to this point. Hot sun, 

 as well as cold, dry winds, cause great de- 

 struction, therefore they must be kept from 

 the plants. 



Watering, too, is another important fea- 

 ture. During the flowering period, when the 

 pots are, or should be, well filled with roots, 

 some weak, liquid manure can be given with 



MIGNONETTE. 



(Iieseela odorata.) 



This delightfully 

 fragrant, modest 

 little flower, al- 

 though generally 

 treated as an an- 

 nual, is in reality 

 a shrub, and may, 

 with proper man- 

 agement, be kept 

 for several years in 

 nearly perpetual 

 bloom. To have 

 flowers during the 

 greater part of win- 

 ter, seeds should 

 be sown' in pots 

 during July and 

 August. At the 

 approach of cold 

 weather, the pots 

 should be brought 

 to a cool room, 

 from which they 

 are to be removed 

 to a warmer one as 

 soon as flower-buds 

 are forming. All 

 flowers past their 

 prime should be 

 removed at once, and not be allowed to go to 

 seed. 



Mignonette trained in tree-form makes a 

 most desirable house-plant. To produce a 

 Tree Mignonette, only one plant must be 

 left in a pot. All side-shoots and flower- 

 buds have to be pinched off as soon as they 

 appear, and the stem trained to a stake. At 

 the desired height the main stem is pinched 

 off, and the three or four upper branches are 

 left to grow, and have to be pinched in from 

 time to time to produce side-shoots and the 

 head of the miniature tree. They have to 

 be kept well watered, and must be shitted 

 into larger pots whenever the old ones 

 become filled with roots. 



