THE FLORIST. 
185 
ON THE RAISING OF PANSIES FROM SEED. 
I am persuaded that no one has fully tasted the pleasures which are 
to be found in the cultivation of flowers who has not tried his hand 
at raising seedlings. I will venture to assert, from personal experi¬ 
ence, that there are few floricultural pursuits which afford greater 
interest than that of raising new varieties from seed of one's own 
saving. The seedling-bed is a constant source of pleasure and amuse¬ 
ment,—I may add, occasionally of satisfaction,—when some new or 
striking varieties reward one for the trouble taken, and the time 
spent upon them. I say, then, to every cultivator of flowers, raise 
some one or other of your favourites yearly from seed. 
As many amateurs cannot find time to attend to the improvement 
of more than one sort of flower, I shall perhaps be doing such per¬ 
sons a kindness in recommending to their notice my pet flower, the 
Pansy. 
One advantage which this flower possesses over many others is 
this, that one twelvemonth will save the seed, sow the seed, plant 
out the seedlings, and exhibit to the raiser the quality of the offspring 
of his old favourites. Many sorts of flowers take two years, some 
more, before the perseverance of the raisers is rewarded by the 
unfolding of the beauties of their infant progeny. The Pansy has 
another advantage, it is very hardy; the seed may be sown in the 
open ground, the young plants put out in the same, and their cha¬ 
racter declared, without the least fear of losing them from the effects 
of exposure. 
The propagation, too, of new seedling varieties by cuttings is 
very easy; Mr. Turner’s practice of sticking them round the edge 
of pots is decidedly the best, though I would extend the period for 
thus treating them to the summer, as well as the spring and autumn; 
plunging the pots to the rims, during the hottest weather, under a 
north wall, to prevent the cuttings from drying up. 
I have now grown seedlings for several years, and, as we all learn 
something by experience, what I have learnt may prove useful to 
beginners. 
Mr. Edwards, in his article “ On Raising Seedlings,” in your first 
Number, advises that one large seed-bed should be formed, to con¬ 
tain Pansies, Pinks, Carnations, and Picotees. 
I would say, grow each in separate beds; but as I only wish to 
speak of Pansies, I leave the rest, and merely observe that it will, in 
my opinion, be much more for the interest of a raiser of Pansy seed¬ 
lings, to have his seed-plants all close together in a small bed, than 
to have them put out, as Mr. Edwards proposes, in patches along 
the front of a bed forty or fifty feet in length. 
One of the great complaints made against new varieties is, their 
sameness : now, in order to increase the chance of cross-fertilisation, 
with a view to novelty of colour and character, no better plan can, 
in my opinion, be adopted, than to put all the seed-plants together 
o 
