98 
House & Garden 
Must You Stop Ironing 
When Lights Are Needed? 
The G-E Twin Con¬ 
venience Outlet af¬ 
fords double service 
from a single outlet . 
Y OU are ironing. It grows dark. What 
happens? Must you stop ironing because 
you cannot have light and run your iron at 
the same time? Or do you have to move the 
ironing board to another room? 
\ ou can use any number of electrical appli¬ 
ances at the same time if you have real electrical 
convenience in your home. 
I he time to insist upon this kind of wiring is 
—NOW. Whether you are buying, building, 
or renting, insist upon sufficient convenience 
outlets for the many appliances now available 
to lighten housework and add to comfort — 
vacuum cleaners, washing machines, toasters, 
portable lamps, etc. 
Plenty of conveniently located switches are 
another essential to real electrical convenience 
— so that you never need grope through the 
dark to turn on a light. 
Even in the oldest house, complete electrical 
convenience can be installed at surprisingly 
little cost with little muss or confusion. 
A New Booklet for Home Lovers 
How to secure this electrical convenience 
in each room of your house is told in detail 
in a booklet prepared for you. This booklet 
will be sent you free, together with tne 
name of a nearby electrical contractor quali¬ 
fied to assist you in planning adequate elec¬ 
trical convenience for your home. And if 
you now own your home you can have the 
work done on an easy payment plan, just 
as you buy a piano or phonograph. 
If you own or rent a home, or ever expect 
to, you will find this booklet well worth 
reading. Address Section J, Merchandise 
Department, General Electric Company, 
Bridgeport, Conn. 
Delphiniums for American Gardens 
( Continued, from page 94) 
second crop of bloom which comes lat¬ 
er, when the atmosphere is cooler, that 
the best seed is produced. Seed sown 
in the house in February and the young 
seedlings pricked off in flats an inch 
apart as soon as the first pair of leaves 
appear, and transplanted to the garden 
after danger from hard frost is past, 
will bloom freely the first season. 
Raising from Seed 
I am sure a joyful surprise is in store 
for anyone who, for the first time, raises 
delphiniums from seed, for there will be 
every possible shade of blue and all 
manner of forms;—some of the single 
flowerets as large as a silver dollar, the 
blooming portion of the spike sometimes 
more than 2' in length. The second 
year, if the plants are properly fed and 
in good soil, the height and number of 
spikes of bloom will be doubled, and 
the size of the flowers increased. The 
third year the plants should be divided. 
This should be done in the spring at the 
first appearance of growth. Every piece 
of root, with an eye or shoot attached, 
will form a blooming plant. 
If one wishes still further to increase 
a particularly fine seedling, cuttings can 
be made at this time of the young 
shoots 2" or 3" long. These should be 
cut so as to leave a small heel of the 
fleshy part of the root at the base of 
the cuttings. This is important; as the 
soft stems of the shoots being hollow, 
only a very small percentage of them 
can be rooted if the heel is omitted. 
Cuttings can be rooted in sand under 
glass in a frame outside, shaded with 
white muslin, or in shallow boxes of 
sand in the house. Bottom heat is not 
necessary, but the greatest care must 
be used in watering. The cuttings must 
not be allowed to wilt, but if the water 
given is more than enough to prevent 
wilting, the cuttings will rot or damp 
off. As soon as roots are formed, which 
will be in about three weeks, they should 
be planted into shallow boxes of soil, 
or small 2" pots and thereafter treated 
in the same manner as seedlings. 
It is of vital importance that fresh 
seed be secured, as delphinium seeds 
soon deteriorate and after six months 
the percentage of germination rapdly 
decreases. For mid-summer and early 
autumn planting, unless you can save 
your own seed, it is difficult to get seed 
that will germinate, as, at that season 
most of the seed obtainable is old and 
worthless. The new crop of the cur¬ 
rent year does not reach the seed houses 
in time for early distribution. 
This spring I have raised and planted 
out upwards of one hundred thousand 
seedlings. As a list of the best named 
varieties may be of interest to many I 
will name here the varieties I selected as 
parents to my seedlings, and I think th's 
may be considered a fairly comprehen¬ 
sive list of the very best varieties and 
colors, all of which I have previously 
grown here, and have seen in bloom. 
They are as follows: 
Amos Perry, Corry, Hugo Poortman, 
K. T. Caron, Zuster Lugten, Andrew 
Carnegie, De Ruyter, Josef Israels, Rev. 
E. Lascelles, Chamud, Dusky Monarch, 
King of Delphiniums, Salland, Francis 
F. Fox, Lize Van Veen, Queen Wil- 
helmina, Statuaire Rude. 
All but the last four are double or 
semi-double. It is a matter of personal 
taste whether single or double flowers 
are most to be desired. My reason for 
using double varieties as seed parents, is 
that from them one gets both single and 
double forms, while from single varie¬ 
ties only singles will be produced. Gen¬ 
erally these single forms are better and 
stronger growers, the bloom spikes long¬ 
er and the individual flowers larger. 
Most of the named varieties and particu¬ 
larly the single ones, will reproduce 
themselves in a fair percentage of the 
seedlings, but the greater number will 
break into many shades and forms. 
Delphinium Belladonna is an old fa¬ 
vorite, with medium sized single flowers 
of a beautiful soft shade of forget-me- 
not blue. It does not grow as tall as 
the English hybrids. Its habit is more 
branching, the foliage more finely cut, 
and it blooms profusely and continu¬ 
ously the entire season. It should find 
a place in every garden. The true Bel¬ 
ladonna does not produce seed, but 
within recent years a seed bearing strain 
has been developed, the seedlings of 
which will come 90% true. The rest 
of them will come a dark gentian blue 
with an occasional deep violet. There 
are several hybrids of Belladonna all 
desirable: Mrs. Brunton, a very bright 
dark blue; Capri, deep corn flower blue, 
and Moerheimii, a lovely white, which is 
the only really satisfactory white del¬ 
phinium except Chinensis Alba. The 
Belladonna hybrids can only be in¬ 
creased by division, as none of them pro¬ 
duce seeds. 
Delphinium Sinense or Chinese lark¬ 
spur, blue and white, is a distinct species 
with smaller flowers borne in the great¬ 
est profusion. They are easily grown, 
very hardy, and fine for massing, re¬ 
producing themselves freely from self- 
sown seed. 
Delphinium Formosum or “bee” lark¬ 
spur is an old garden favorite, the har¬ 
diest and most permanent of all. The 
flowers are very dark blue with white 
centers and violet spurs. It seems to be 
more susceptible than any of the others 
to the attacks of a fungus which black¬ 
ens the leaves and flower buds. Fre¬ 
quent spraying with bordeaux mixture 
is recommended to control this. 
All delphiniums are subject to a 
fungus disease which attacks the roots 
of strong plants in bloom, which sud¬ 
denly wilt and die from this cause. A 
mixture of equal parts of hydrated lime, 
flower of sulphur and tobacco dust, 
mixed with water and poured around 
the roots is said to be effective in check¬ 
ing this disease. 
The Proper Soil 
Delphiniums thrive best in a sandy 
loam deeply worked and well drained. 
As they are strong growers, feeding is 
necessary to produce the largest spikes. 
Most growers recommend an abundance 
of manure. I believe great care should 
be exercised in the use of fresh stable 
manure, as I am of the opinion that this 
often causes the root fungus previously 
referred to. Any manure used should be 
well rotted and not applied directly to 
the crown of the plant. I think a mod¬ 
erate use of pulverized sheep manure or 
bone meal worked into the soil around 
the plants a few inches away from the 
crown will be safer and more effective. 
Delphiniums are perfectly hardy and 
it is not considered necessary to protect 
them in winter. Where slugs are present, 
a sprinkling of coal ashes over the 
crowns will be beneficial, and in ex¬ 
tremely cold latitudes an inch of loose 
straw or any light material may be used 
as a protection. Any thick covering of 
heavy wet material will cause them to 
rot. In fact delphiniums cannot endure 
an over-wet soil at any time, but should 
not be allowed to suffer for want of 
water during a period of drought. 
