oo 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
os irs JAsvARY 18,1906 
There is another item in dahlia cultivatior 
which you can get ready to try—the raising 
of a little seed. This isa fairly simple opera- 
tion, and a very interesting one. Even though 
one knows that fully 90 per cent. of the seedlings 
will be of no value, there is a lot of pleasure to 
be had in tending and blooming a batch of un- 
certainties. If one could make a success of 
everything that one handled, life would be all 
too easy; it is the lot of failure and the little bit 
of success which makes the pleasure of plant 
raising so great. Ten losses make one gain all 
the greater. 
Begin your seed raising by selecting two 
flowers that are somewhAt similar in form, a 
little alike in colour, See that both are good 
growers, and be particular to only cross varieties 
that hold their flowers well up, instead of 
dropping them face downwards. Only the 
strong sorts are worthy of being propagated 
The timeto do the crossing is when the 
flowers are opening themselves right out. show- 
ing the yellow ‘button’ or centre which the 
show growers despise. It is on the small stamens 
in the yellow part that one finds the pollen 
which fertilises the flower, and makes the seed 
sure. Care and attention are necessary in this 
matter. First it is essential that no bee or in- 
sect of any sort should be allowed to make its 
way into the heart of the flower you have 
selected as a seed parent. To ensure this you 
zoust tie the flowers vpin afine muslin bag. 
- Do this lightly, and be careful not to break the 
stem of the bloom. The flowers you select as 
pollen bearers (the pollen bearer is the one you 
wish to use as a male flower: dahlias, you know 
have the power of fertilising their own seeds) 
you must cut from the plants when they are 
just about half open and before the centre is 
showing. Take these and run their stalks into 
long necked bottles, and place the bottles in a 
bucket about three parts filled with water. 
Cover it with a piece of the same muslin and 
let tle flowers remain in a cool rcom or shed 
until they have opened their hearts enough to 
exhibit and ripen their po len. Take the pollen 
grains from the centre of the plant on a camel’s 
hair brush, and then dust it lightly on the 
yellow centre of the flower ycu have been 
saving on the bush. A nice, dry stall morning is 
the ideal time for this hybridisirg. If you are 
not certain of the biush work, you might dust 
one flower over the top cf the cther and in this 
way get much the same result. Cover the 
flower up again with the muslin and allow it 
to die right down. 
Should damp weather ensue. xce that the 
petals are not left on long enough to get mil- 
‘dewed or rotten. Cut them off when they are 
dead or pull them out yery carefully. The sceds 
are ripe when the ovaries are yellow in colour. 
Great care must be exercised in your store seed 
‘that is damp—dry everything before ycu store 
it and make a note of the crosses to see how 
the influence of the parents is felt on the pro- 
geny, ; 
Should you not care to go to all this trouble 
Jet some of the flowersseed of their own sweet 
‘will, and collect the seed when it is ripe and 
ready. 
~ Dahlia seeds should not be sown until early 
in Spring. 
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‘Cinerarias. 
Tue following article preaches Cinerarias from 
our own text. Time and again we have advised 
friends to grow cinerarias for outdoor work. 
The only alteration is in the matter of the 
month for sowing the seed. It should be 
January instead of December, and then the 
article suits almost every situation on the 
Eastern coast. 
Some years ago the Cineraria was not consi- 
dered a plant suitable for outdoor culture, and 
consequently it was only found decorating the 
shade or the glasshouse. But this is altered 
and its usefulness for the open border fully 
realised. This season owing to the moist and 
dull character of the weather, they have been 
especially good both in the individual pip and 
the immense heads. There are not many plants 
that make such a grand show as the Cineraria 
either in the glasshouse or in an outside bed, 
and as its culture is easy there is little doubt 
tnat it is fated to become even a greater favor- 
ite than itisnow. . 
Position of Bed—The Cineraria delights in 
shade and it abhors the direct rays of the sun. 
It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that 
the position of the bed to contain them should 
be such that it gets as little as possible of direct 
light. The south side of a wall, or hedge, or 
fence is best, but if th.t be out of the question 
then an eastern aspect must do. 
Soil—Now the Cineraria likes a nice rich, 
deep and loose loam, and although it is not 
always possible to give them what they want 
you must. do your best to get as near it as pos- 
sible. 
Firstly, dig the soil of the selected bed ag 
deeply as you possibly can with a fork and 
break up the lumps of earth as small as possible 
so as tohaye t almost as fine as potting soil. 
Then spread over the bed a good thick sayer of 
very rotten cow dung. It one is going to grow 
these plants to perfection, one must get this 
cow manure in some months beforehand and 
keep it on purpose for the Cineraria bed, for I 
haye always noticed that the manure man can 
never supply a load of old rotted when it is 
wanted, but usually turns up with it three or 
four days after the bed is planted, too late. Dig 
the manure in and stir it with the soil so as to 
haye it evenly distributed throughout. This 
cbje tis best effected by digging the bed two or 
three times before planting time comes. There 
can be little doubt that this very thorough pre- 
paration of the soil has a great deal to do with 
the ultimate success of the bed, and if it is 
neglected or only attended to in a half-hearted 
manner no very striking results are likely to be 
secured, nor can they be expected 
Propagation. 
Now as to the raising of the plants. 
Cineraria are raised by seed and by cuttings, 
but most often by seed, which is no donbt the 
exsier method. 
Just here let meimpress on intending growers 
that the month of December is absolutely the 
best for raising seed for plants to flower in the 
open border, for this reason that they come into 
bloom in the dull, shady days of late winter and 
early spring, and they delight in such weather. 
Seed put in later will most likely have its 
blooming period cut short by the too bright rays 
ofthe sun. . 
The seed isione of the easiest to raise if it be 
fresh, and the yerieat novice will find it much 
cheaper to buy a packet of good seed, which will 
eae 
cost him half a crown, than to buy the seedlin s 
from a nurseryman. In the first case he will 
haye enough to enable him to keep a reserve 
fund, from which he may draw should slugs, 
snails, frost or cats make it necessary. 
For raising the seed I make up my soil of 
half sand and half soil taken from under the 
branches of some old tree. This I run through 
a sieve with a very small mesh, say one-eighth of 
an inch, and mix it with the sand. 
Use a seed pan for sowing the seed in, it is 
handiest and the cost of a suitable one is some- 
thing undera shilling. Cover the holes in the 
bottom with some broken pieces of pot, and 
then fill in for an inch deep or so drainage 
made of broken potsherds no larger than a York- 
shire Hero pea, and on this fill in the prepared 
soil to within half an inch of the rim. Level off 
the top, and with a fine rose-seed can give it a 
soaking, so that you may see the water running 
through the drainage holes at the bottom. It 
is too damp to sow in this state, and must be 
allowed to stand an hour at least to drain. At 
the end of that time the seed may be sprinkled 
over the surface, taking care to do it as thinly 
and evenly as possible. The seed must be covered 
very lightly either with some fine sandy soil or 
some sifted manure. I generally use the latter as 
being lighter and tending to keep the soil damp. 
Never sow the whole of the packet at one 
sowing, but reserve a portion of it for a second 
sowing a week or so later, in case the first misses 
fire. Cover the pan with a p n> of glass, and 
set itin ashady place where light is plentiful, 
but out of the sun’s direct rays. 
Good fresh seed should be showing up in’a 
week’s time and all of it should be up under a 
fortnight. Still keep the pan in the shade. but 
remove the pane of glass. See that the seedlings 
are watered judiciously, and don’t overdo it. 
Treatment of Seedlings. 
When the young seedlings are showing six 
leaves—that is, four leaves in addition to the 
first two, they are ready for their first potting. 
For this I use small three-inch pots, placing a” 
single plant in each. The pots, if not new, must 
be cleaned with scrubbing brush und water. 
Some amateurs may look on this as absurd, and 
a useless waste of time, but itis not, and a 
nurseryman would no moro think of potting into 
a dirty pot than of usiug no drainage. 
Use clean pots, and place in the bottom of 
each an inch of small drainage. A little piece of 
dry moss Wines costs very little, sixpenny 
worth would be enough to do a couple of hun- 
dred small pots) placed on top of the drainage, 
prevents it from clogging. Then fill in the soil, 
which must be richer than that used for the 
seed pan. The coinpost I use is leaf-mould and 
very old cow manure, loam and sand thoroughly 
well mixed together. 
“Oh yes,” [ can hear some one say, ‘ but 
where do you get your leaf-mould ?” Well, 
that’s no secret. I make it myself from mul- 
berry, apricot and peach leaves, and I find that 
the labor thus expended is amply paid for by 
the resulting soil, which I could, but don’t sell 
over and over again. 
gack Paings 
...Hairdresser and Tobacconist... 
UNLEY ROAD 
wy A CHOICE STOCK OF 
CIGARS. CIGARETTES AND TOBACCO 
To Select from. 
A Trial solicited. 
Agent for the Au#ralian Gardener, 
