Part 14

The seeds should be sown in the spring, either where they are to remain or in a cold-frame; the location matters little so that favourable conditions of the soil are secured. Plants started after the seed ripens in the summer, even when protected by a cold-frame, do not make sufficient growth to endure a very severe winter. The new Alleghany Hollyhocks are hardier, and a fair proportion of plants from August-sown seeds may be expected to survive the winter. When the plants run up their blossom stalks the second season they must be securely staked to prevent injury by high winds. If the borer appears apply the Paris-green solution about the roots. The Hollyhock is subject to attack very early in the season by a variety of red spider which feeds on out-of-door plants. The Paris-green solution may be used for this, or a kerosene emulsion, or the plants may simply be showered with hot water at about 145°. The remedy should be applied promptly. The Hollyhock blight is a fungous disease of a most destructive nature. Its ravages almost drove the Hollyhock out of our gardens some years ago. Infected plants should be burned. Though hardy the second year, they should be hilled up sufficiently to shed water and given a shelter of corn fodder or evergreen boughs during the winter.

When the trees are in bloom Nasturtiums may be planted in the open ground where they are to remain. They should have fairly rich soil and a sunny situation, as they will not bloom well in the shade. The dwarf varieties make very attractive borders for Canna beds, the colour and texture of the foliage harmonising better with the Canna than that of the Coleus and many other plants commonly employed, while the brightness of the blossoms makes a very attractive whole.

The tall varieties make effective beds when pegged down, as the plants root wherever they touch the ground and send up flower shoots. Usually, however, they are grown on strings or trellises. The latter is a troublesome method, as they must be fastened to their support with strings. They are not climbers, but trailers, and have no tendrils or other means of attaching themselves to their support.

The finest bed of Nasturtiums I have seen is an elevated one built around a pipe which brings water from a distance. Some of the water—not much—reaches them, and they are given little, if any, attention, but in their elevated bed they grow luxuriantly, trailing over the sides of the ground and showing a brilliant mass of flowers until cut down by frost. Usually the Nasturtium receives too much water, and produces quantities of rank, lush foliage instead of flowers.

The new Nasturtium, Sunlight, is one of the finest varieties brought out in years—a pure, clear, golden yellow without any markings and of fine size. Its companion, Moonlight, is a pale cream, almost white, showing wine-coloured markings in the throat. For mixed varieties the hybrids of Madame Gunther are the most desirable, and the new Chameleon shows a variety of different coloured flowers on the same stem.

The Pansy Bed

To obtain the best results seed should be sown by the middle of August, using fresh seed of the year if procurable. Rather than delay planting, however, it is better to risk the lessened vitality of last year’s seed—sowing somewhat more generously as an offset. Sow as thinly as possible in the cold-frame or a spent hotbed, in drills two inches apart, drawing the earth from the sides of the drills and pressing it down with the board. The drills should run lengthwise of the bed from east to west, and each variety should be distinctly labelled with name and date of sowing. After sowing water well with the rubber sprinkler, cover with newspapers, and protect the bed with lath screens. Pansy seed germinates in from eight to ten days. When the plants have their second leaves thin out by setting some between the rows, and encourage growth by giving sunshine and water as needed and liquid manure once a month. The aim should be to get a sturdy rather than a quick growth to fit them for the winter. The soil in the frame should stand well above the soil outside, and a trench or hole, filled with stone or broken crockery, should be made in one corner, corresponding to the lowest level of the earth outside, to carry off any surplus moisture that may gather in the bed. When cold weather comes place the sash in position and, if it remains steadily cold—below freezing—leave the bed undisturbed until spring. The best results usually follow such a condition. If the winter is an open one, and the ground free from frost much of the time, the Pansies may be exposed to the sun and, on mild days, to the air. In this way considerable winter growth will be secured. Should the temperature fall sufficiently to freeze the ground inside the frame, the sash should remain closed and be protected with mattings, old carpet, or the like, and the plants allowed to thaw out in the dark. Never expose to the sun when frozen, but thaw out under cover.

As soon as the ground can be worked in the spring prepare a bed in an open, sunny situation by removing the soil to a depth of six or eight inches and spading in a generous amount of old, well-rotted cow manure—a wheel-barrow load to every fifteen square feet is not too much if it is old and thoroughly spaded into the soil. Replace the surface soil, or, better still, fill up the beds with leaf-mould or earth from the compost heap. Instead of the cow manure, old, well-rotted hen manure and chip dirt in equal quantities, with a liberal sprinkling of soot, may be substituted. Dig it well into the subsoil and cover with fine loam or leaf-mould, raking this fine and even and free from stones. Leave it to settle for a few days and then transplant the Pansies, setting them nine inches apart each way. Where several strains of Pansies are grown it is an advantage to plant each variety by itself, marking the line of separation by two or more rows of some distinct colour; such as pure white, clear yellow, or black. This enables one to compare the varieties at a glance and form a better estimate of their qualities than would be possible in a mixed bed.

During hot, dry weather the Pansy bed should be watered twice a day—at night and at noon. Watering the garden in the middle of the day may seem a reckless innovation to many, especially to the professional gardener, but years of experience have taught me the value of giving a plant water when it most needs it—and that is when it is parched with heat. Of course all plants will not stand water under a hot sun, but Pansies are not injured by it in any way. Pansies do not send their roots as deeply into the ground as most plants, but make many surface roots (hence we place the fertilisers well below the surface to induce a deeper growth), which even a temporary drying out of the top-soil will injure. A good soaking of the soil at night will last until ten or eleven o’clock the next day, according to exposure, and if another good wetting is then given with water fresh from the hydrant or well it will remain cool and moist throughout the twenty-four hours. The rapid evaporation caused by the hot sun will create a moist atmosphere around the plants, producing much finer flowers than would be possible in the dry air resulting from withholding water until night. Always plant Pansies in an open, airy situation, where the wind can have full sweep over them. There is no more mistaken idea than that Pansies should be grown in the shade. The aim should be to get stocky, upright plants with the flowers borne well above the foliage on stiff stems. This is impossible when plants are grown in the shade, where long, straggly branches will invariably be produced, with flowers at the extreme end. Then, too, plants grown by the side of the house, or in protected positions, where the wind cannot sweep over them, are much more liable to disease than plants grown in the open.

Fungoid disease and mildew often attack the Pansy in hot, muggy weather. The remedy for the former is to spray with the Bordeaux mixture, and for the latter to dust with sulphur. It will be better still—if the disease appear in August, as is usual—to remove all the old growth, cutting or breaking it off close to the crown, care being taken not to injure the tender new shoots, which will have started by this time. Burn the old tops. The new growth, being open to the air, will probably be free from disease, and will quickly fill the bed, giving an abundance of fine flowers throughout the cool days of fall. From a bed so treated I gathered five hundred blossoms the day before Thanksgiving with no apparent diminution of bloom. After removing the old growth the earth between the plants should be thoroughly cleaned and worked over with the trowel.

From the blooming of the first Pansy until frost the bed must be gone over every day and all faded flowers removed. This is absolutely necessary to insure free blooming. The formation of a single pod of seed lessens the blooming capacity of the plant and reduces the size of succeeding flowers.

To maintain a high standard it is best to purchase fresh seed each year, buying the best to be obtained. Special mixtures sent out by the leading florists are made up of the best strains of the Pansy specialists in this country and Europe. One must not expect to purchase these collections for the price of ordinary seed, from twenty-five cents to fifty cents being the usual range of price. A packet of such fine strains as Giant Cassier and Giant Trimardeau should be included; and such special colours as may be wanted in larger quantities than the mixed packages furnish. Snow Queen is the best pure white, and the bed should contain a liberal number of these plants. Aurora is considerably larger than the Snow Queen, but shows purple markings in the centre, and is not so fine in shape and texture. With the exception of size, Snow Queen is an ideal Pansy. If it is desired to carry the Pansy bed through the winter it may be done by using pieces of board, half a yard long, with notches cut in one end and the other end pointed. Put these through the centre of the bed a few feet apart, hammering the sharp end into the ground. Place long poles lengthwise of the bed, resting them on the notches. This forms a support on which the evergreen boughs, corn fodder, boards, bark, or anything that will shed water and protect from sun and wind. Leaves and litter are not suitable protection for Pansies, as they settle around the plants, freezing and causing them to decay.

When there is a large garden to be cared for it is not always expedient to carry the Pansy bed through the summer, as the daily labour of removing the withered flowers is very great. In that case it will be better to let the Pansies go when hot weather reduces the size and quantity of the flowers, replacing them with plants grown for the purpose, Petunias, bedding Begonias, Heliotropes, and the like.

Sow Poppy seed freely wherever there is a corner to spare, especially if it is a corner that would otherwise be neglected and grow up to weeds. It is surprising how many places may be found to sow them. A barren angle of a fence, a vacant strip behind or at the side of some outbuilding, an exposed spot among trees where nothing else will grow, a foot of ground here and there, in the perennial border and among late flowering plants, where the Poppies will have danced through their brief season of bloom and passed on before the former have discovered that they need the room. Use all these odds and ends of room, but, if possible, have a long, narrow bed of them—single and double, the deep blood red, the gorgeous scarlet, the wonderful Shirleys, whose delicate cups like crinkled silk seem to flush and pale with the tremulous colour of an opal as you look at them. Plant Eschscholtzias as a border, but sow Iceland and the Oriental Poppies, which are hardy perennials, by themselves; otherwise they are easily destroyed in the clearing-up time which comes after blossoming. There is a fine yellow Poppy, Hunnemannia fumariæfolia, which should not be overlooked. Poppy seed sown in August gives richer coloured flowers than spring-sown seed. Seeds of Eschscholtzia and Hunnemannia should always be sown in May. Sow broadcast as thinly as possible on soil that has been worked mellow and fine, pressing it into the ground with a board. As it is difficult to sow the seed thinly enough it is a good plan to mix it with fine sand—a teaspoonful or less of seed to a teacup of sand—and scatter that as thinly as possible. It will, even then, be found that the plants will come up too thickly and will need to be thinned to stand a foot apart each way. Poppies grown too closely will throw up one or two slender stems with only a few blossoms, while, given plenty of room, they will branch freely, producing dozens of flowers and remaining in bloom for weeks. Mark the finest blossoms on the plant from which you wish to save seed, removing all others as they fade, that they may not self-sow or check the bloom. If self-sown they are apt to come up so quickly as to be troublesome. Pull up the plants as soon as they have done blooming to add to the compost heap, and prepare the ground, if not needed for other plants, for the fresh seed. When there is sufficient shade to grow them the blue of Myosotis and of Anchusa capensis is lovely among the Poppies.

Phlox Drummondi

Try a border of the dwarf Phlox Drummondi, sown to make a colour scheme. Set six to eight inches apart, in the form of scallops, the point coming between every other plant of the tall, perennial Phlox. Make the rows two or three plants wide at the centre, narrowing to a single plant at the point, using scarlet or pink, and filling in the space between the scallops and the straight edge of the bed with solid white. Or a double scallop, one beginning in the centre of the other, may be made of scarlet and buff, or pink and buff, filling in the large spaces between with white and the small spaces with Cope’s Favourite Ageratum. The dwarf Ageratums grow very evenly and are admirably adapted for carpet bedding. Seed of the dwarf Phlox germinates very slowly. It should be sown where it will have bottom heat and be given plenty of time, frequently three weeks or more. The common Phlox Drummondi germinates more freely, and may be sown where it is to remain, thinning to six inches apart in the rows, or it may be sown and transplanted, which insures more even rows.

Salvias (Flowering Sage)

It is surprising how seldom one sees the Salvia grown to any considerable extent outside the public gardens and parks, though no other flower can compare with it in richness of colour and freedom of bloom, but there seems to be an impression that it must be purchased from a florist or grown from cuttings. Salvia is much more desirable for bedding than for any other purpose. In the house it is subject to attacks of red spider, which make it more trouble to care for than it is worth, while in the open ground it is remarkably healthy and free from insect pests.

Seed should be started early in flats or hotbed, and plants set out where they are to remain, when all danger of frost is past, as they are very sensitive to cold. Muck or marsh earth seems the most congenial soil in which to grow the Salvias, and if this is supplied they will need little care beyond watering during the summer.

I have grown the Salvia splendens—the usual height of which is about two and a half feet—to a uniform height of five feet in a bed of marsh earth, with a supply of water from a pipe, keeping it constantly moist. They will do well in the hottest situation if well supplied with water, and even better in partial shade—the foliage being a deeper green and the colour of the blossoms richer and more velvety than when exposed to full sunlight. For years I have grown them around a twelve-foot bed of Ricinus and Cannas, and notice that the plants are always much finer on the north side.

Try them as a border to a bed of Cannas or Ricinus, edging them with white Sweet Alyssum or dwarf Ageratum. They root readily in wet sand in a warm situation, and if a house-plant is available it may be used for cuttings instead of sowing seed.

Seed may be saved without injury to the plants as it ripens, and must be gathered before the flowers entirely fade. The corolla or lip of the flower falls out, leaving four white seeds an eighth of an inch long at the base of the calyx, which remains fresh until the seeds have ripened, when they may be shaken out. By going over the plants daily one soon saves a fine lot of seed, which may be depended upon to germinate. The Salvia seed germinates in about five days. But less vigorous seed will continue to appear for two or three weeks after sowing, and the soil should not be disturbed until all have had time to appear. They require considerable heat to germinate freely, and when this is supplied will give very satisfactory returns. Bonfire, Clara Bedman, and S. splendens are the best of the scarlet-flowered variety. The white-flowered Salvias would be desirable if the blossoms were more closely massed on the spray; as it is they are too scattered to have any value. S. patens, however, when brought to perfection is magnificent, the individual flowers being double the size of the scarlet and of the most wonderful shade of blue. It is seldom seen, but should have a place in every garden, as it is a colour rare among flowers, the nearest approach to it being the Monkshood. It is a tender perennial, but may be wintered in a warm, dry cellar, dying down to the ground usually, but starting up from the root in the spring.

Sweet Alyssum and Golden Saxatile are both desirable for edging or for rockwork, and may either be sown in the open ground where they are to remain, or in a seed-bed and transplanted.

Sweet-peas

So much has been written on this subject that the culture of Sweet-peas might, without much exaggeration, be called a cult. Though blooming with its head in the sun, the Sweet-pea loves to plunge its roots deep in the cool, moist earth, and the seed should be planted as early in the spring as the ground can be worked, or, better yet, in the fall. This late fall planting has much to recommend it, as there is more leisure and the work is apt to be better done than in the hurried days of spring when everything seems to call for immediate attention.

The seed should be planted deep in two rows a foot apart, running, if possible, north and south, that the plants may receive the maximum amount of sunshine. Placed in this way, they receive both morning and afternoon sun. A strip of wire netting five feet high should be stretched between the rows and securely fastened to stout posts driven into the ground. Six-foot netting is even better than five, as the Sweet-pea loves to climb, and blooms better if not thwarted. Dig on each side of the netting, as close as may be without breaking the space between, a trench a foot or eighteen inches deep and as wide as is necessary to work conveniently. Place in the bottom about six inches, when trodden down, of old, well-rotted cow manure, fill in about six inches of the removed soil, making it fine and mellow; sow the seed and cover with two or three inches of soil and press firmly down. If planted in the fall protect with several inches of rough manure, removing it in the spring that the soil may get the benefit of the sun’s warmth. When the plants are two or three inches high thin to six inches apart in the rows, and draw up part of the soil removed from the trench. Add more as the plants grow until it is all banked up against them, leaving a slight trench between the ridges and the surface of the ground.

The wire should come close to the ground that the plants may have support from the start. Do not water until necessary, then sufficient water should be poured into the trench to thoroughly soak the ground at the bottom of the roots, but do not turn it on the foliage or stems. Thorough and frequent cultivation should be given during the blooming season. Should it become necessary to shower the foliage during dusty weather it would better be done early in the morning or sufficiently early in the evening to allow the foliage to dry before the chill of night. This guards against the blight and mildew, so prevalent in Sweet-pea culture.

When for any reason it is not convenient to cultivate frequently, a mulch of lawn clippings will keep the ground about the vines cool and moist. To insure freedom of bloom all faded flowers should be removed each day. If the flowers are cut as fast as they open the quality will be improved. Under no circumstances should seed be allowed to form, as the ripening of the seed is fatal to the flowers.