6 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
* : June 1, 1908 
» =< eo) Secs 3 All the leading varieties, half-standards, 1s, each 
FA wuit Trees 3 Orange, Lemon, Peach, Apple, Pear, ]?lum, etc 
HARDY SHRUBS, Trees, Climbers, etc. 
BULBS, Hyacinth, 
Gladiolus. 
Daffodil, Anemone, Tuberose, 
es FE EE p DB) =) 3 Vegetable and Flower. Agricultural, Horticultural Sundries in great up selon 
E. & W. HACKETT, 
Seedsmen, Nurserymen, &c., 
: 73 Rundle Street, Adelaide. — 
The Flower. Garden. : 
MINIATURE SUNFLOWER $ STELLA., 
The Sunflower. 
[By J. Cronin.] 
Helianthus—the Sunflower—is a genus 
containing about fifty species of annual 
and perennial herbaceous plants, found 
native in America, the majority occurring 
in North America. Most of the species 
and their varieties are tall growing plants, 
producing large flowers yellow in color 
in their ray florets, the disc florets vary- 
ing in the different species. The annual 
kinds are well known and popular garden 
plants of easy culture and ornamental 
value; among them are many improved 
forms, of which the miniature sunflowers 
are possibly of most value, producing as 
they do quantities of flowers of moderate 
or small size that are very effective in the 
garden beds and useful for decorative 
purposes as cut flowers. Among the 
perennial kinds are many that are worthy 
of cultivation in any garden, the later 
raised florists’ varieties being especially 
fine. Double and single forms exist in 
both the annual and perennial types, and 
‘although the color of the flowers is uni- 
formly ysllow there is a dea. of variation 
in the different groups or varieties. 
‘The common sunflower (Helianthus 
annuus) is a plant of considerable eco- 
nomic importance and is largely culti- 
vated in Europe, Asia, and America for 
its seeds. According to The Agricultural 
Ledger,’ 1907, No. 1, an area of 216,000 
acres is devoted to sunflower culture in 
Europe alone, the average return being 
ronndly stated at about 50 bushels of 
seeds per acre. In Russia where the sun- 
flower is most extensively cultivated the 
seeds are eaten, raw or cooked, or used 
for the extraction of oil which is said to 
be excellent for table use, and may be 
substituted for salad or olive oil for all 
domestic purposes. The seeds are also of ' 
considerable value as food for birds, and 
are largely used in America for fattening 
poultry. The oil cake which remains after 
expression of the oil forms a valuable 
cattle food, being of great nutritive value 
and easily digested, while the leaves and 
stalks also possess highly nutritious pro- 
perties, 
From data derived from experiments 
and analyses of the plant it is evidsnt 
that the sunflower requires a fertile soil, 
and that during cultivation it is elso 
necessary to maintain the fertility of the 
soil upon which the plant makes consider- 
able drain. > 
Any fair garden soil is suitable, if well 
and deeply worked and manured. Although 
he sunflower is a plant that wiil thrivet 
_to theis height—about two feet. 
Telephone 350 
fairly in poor soils, and with limited 
supply of moisture, it is found that a 
moderate supply of manure and either. 
good cultivation, to conserve moisture, or 
irrigation. is necessary to obtain maximum 
results. The soil for the reception of the 
annual kinds should be prepared some 
time prior to the season for sowing seeds 
in spring. September is the most suitable 
month for such sowing, eerly or late, 
according to liability to frost. The soil 
should be finely broken and divided 
before sowing and the seeds sown at a 
depth of about 2-ins The tall varieties 
' HELIANTHUS GLOBULOUS FISTULOSUS., 
are suitable for growing in masses at the 
back of large borders, while the miniature 
kinds should be allotted positions suited 
Seeds 
of the miniature sunflowers may be sowh 
in clumps, allowing six inches for each 
plant, but the larger varieties should 
receive much more room—one foot be- 
tween the plants at least. 3 
The herbaceous kinds are propagated 
from divisions of the old planta and from 
seeds. Seeds should be sown in spring 
and the young plants set out as soonag 
ready te handle, to insure a fair season 
of growth before the blooming scason, 
Divisions should also be planted in spring, 
the plants blooming so late into autumn 
