THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 
315 
should be purchased in such quantities as required, 
potted and placed in a cold frame. Carnations may 
still be benched; selecting a dark day if possible for 
the work, otherwise shading the house with white- 
wash will be necessary, until the plants become re- 
established. 
Sweet peas for winter flowering should be sown 
now. Snap-dragons may be benched in a carnation 
house temperature. These subjects have become popu- 
lar winter flowers, and they do well under the same 
conditions as do carnations. 
Pot plants such as primulas, cyclamen, etc., that 
have been carried through the summer in a cold frame 
should be brought inside and repotted, if necessary. 
In most cases this will be the last potting. 
Stocks, Cinerarias, Schizanthus, that were sown 
early last month will now require pricking off into 
flats or potting up singly into thumb pots. 
Mignonette is a very desirable winter subject when 
well grown. It does well in a temperature of 50 per 
cent, and a rich mellow compost is essential. Sow 
seed now and carry the plants along in pots until they 
are finally benched. 
TREE AND SHRUB SEEDS. 
IMPATIENCE is characteristic of the American and it 
may be this has something to do with the fact that the 
American nurseryman imports such large quantities of 
small stock for lining out in preference to growing it 
himself, says The National Nurseryman. He likes to 
start with a tree or plant that has some size to it and is 
ready for lining out in nursery rows. There is some 
excuse for the nurseryman who has not the facilities for 
raising small stock that has to be grafted, enarched, 
layered or propagated by those methods which require 
special facilities, but there is no excuse for importing 
many of the native things which can just as readily be 
grown here as purchased from abroad. 
Collecting seed is quite a problem. It must be the re- 
sult of experience. Of course, anyone can go and gather 
up the acorns that fall from a tree or when they see ber- 
ries that are ripe go and gather them, but those who have 
made a practice of collecting their own seed realize that 
it is not quite so easy as it seems. The commoner things 
of course are always available, but the choicer and rarer 
shrubs have to be located maybe the year before and then 
the time of their ripening carefully watched. A day or 
two will make a great deal of difference. There are few 
berries or fruits that are not food for birds and it is very 
easy to be a day late and find every single berry gone, 
where the day before there was a full crop. 
The time of sowing the tree and shrub seeds is largely 
a matter of experience. Many seeds like the maples have 
to be sown as soon as ripe because they will not keep. 
Others ripen so late in the fall that the ground is frozen 
before they can be planted so it is necessary to keep them 
over until spring. 
There are no rules that can be given as to the proper 
time for sowing the seed. The most successful propaga- 
tor will lie the man who knows most about the plants and 
is best able to adapt his conditions to their requirements. 
For those without experience it may be suggested that 
fall is the best time for the large nuts with hard shells, 
Corniis of all kinds, Crataegus or Hawthorns, Beech, Ex- 
ochorda, Privets, Magnolias. Planes, Primus, Oak, Py- 
nts. Buckthorn, Sumach, Wild Roses and Viburnums. 
Seed that is very small and from trees and shrubs that 
are inclined to be tender, sowing in the spring is more 
likely to be successful. The Birch, Catalpa, Persimmon, 
Sweet Gum, Larch, Mulberry, Pauloicnia and Huckle- 
berry are the better sown in the spring largely because 
the seeds are so very small or of such a nature that they 
can hardly be kept in the ground over winter without 
either decaying or being washed away. 
This leads up to the question which is the best posi- 
tion for the seed beds ? Shelter is one of the prime essen- 
tials as nothing is so detrimental to successful seed grow- 
ing as exposure to dry winds, too much hot sun and 
those trying conditions that are sure to some some time 
of the year. The ground should be plowed deep and 
cleaned thoroughly so as to reduce the labor of keeping 
the beds free from weeds later in the summer to a 
minimum. The beds may be of indefinite length, but 
should be about three feet wide for convenience in weed- 
ing, shading and handling. Of course, if water is avail- 
able all the better, but it is really not an essential if the 
ground is properly prepared and facilities for shading 
are provided for. 
Good success can often be secured by sowing seed on 
the frozen ground, providing the ground has been pre- 
pared in advance. The seed may be spread on the ground 
and then covered with sand. This method has much to 
recommend it as the sand will check the first crop of 
weeds in early spring, giving the seedlings a chance to 
get ahead. Of course if the seed sowing can be done be- 
fore the ground freezes all the better, but very often as 
in the case of the wild roses the seed is not ready to 
gather before the frost and then it has to be cleaned and 
dried before it can be sown and it either means keeping 
it until the following spring or sowing it on the frozen 
ground. 
Many seeds remain in the ground an entire season be- 
fore coining up. The Hazel Nut will sometimes germin- 
ate in the early spring, but often the seed will remain 
in the ground coming up the following year. Ettonxmus, 
Chionanthus and some others take a long time to ger- 
minate, not coming up until the second season. Other 
kinds, while they germinate the first season, make so 
little growth that there is hardly enough vitality to carry 
them over the first winter. Their care at this period is 
often a problem. Euonymus alatus is a good sample of 
this type. The plants perhaps will not be more than two 
or three inches and very slender. If left out in the open 
ground the frost invariably lifts them and the plant is 
lost. They have to be protected in some way or lifted 
and put in pots and carried over in the greenhouse or 
frame where they can be protected from the severe 
winter. 
The deep rooted things of course take care of them- 
selves, but it is always well to have the seed beds so ar- 
ranged that a little covering can be put on when the win- 
ter is very severe to counteract the freezing and thawing 
of the plants and the soil, which is so detrimental to 
young plants. 
In sowing seeds of trees, such as Oaks, Catalpa, 
Maples, it requires quite a little experience before it can 
be done just right. Have the stand neither too thick nor 
too thin. Some kinds of seeds have very poor germinat- 
ing power. Liriodcudron iulipfera is a good illustration, 
the seed has to be sown thicker to insure a good stand. 
Of course, in large seeds tike the acorns nearly every one 
will germinate and it is easv to judge, and they should 
be sown just thick enough so that they can be allowed to 
stand in the beds for three or four years. This helps the 
tree and induces it to make a straight stem, making bet- 
ter stock for lining out than where there is too much 
room given to them, which has a tendency to make them 
grow stocky. This rule, however, does not apply to all 
the beds more than one or two years. 
