Home › Food Products Of Commerce › Pansies

Pansies

MOSS PINK. (PHLOX SUBULATA.) so crowded as to detract much from their beauty. This is why, in the country, so much attention is paid to perennials, that is to say, the plants or flowers that live from year to year. If the directions here given are followed, the cultivation of annuals will cost less labor, they will come much earlier to perfection, and be, in every respect, better than if sown in the open ground. All that is necessary is to prepare, about the time field plowing begins, a small hot-bed, as described in the chapter on Vegetable Gardening; or a cold frame (a bed covered with sashes), in which latter case, the seeds should not be sown therein, until just after the time for planting spring wheat.

Having prepared the bed and put in six inches of clean, fine mold, sow the flower seeds in lines four inches apart between rows, putting down a peg marked with the name of each variety sown. When large enough to transplant, pick the plants out into another frame, place them two inches apart, and here let them stand until they are ready to go out of doors. Take up with earth about the roots, lay on trays, and they are easily and safely carried to where they are to grow. There are but few annuals that, treated in this way, will not transplant kindly. Sweet peas, candytuft, etc., should, however, be sown where they are to stand. The larkspurs, poppies, mignonette, heliotrope and cypress vine, which are somewhat difficult to transplant, may be pricked out in troughs, similar to those described in the chapter on Vegetable Gardening, each trough having a pasteboard, or other division, thrust down along the middle, to separate it into two parts. Plants difficult of removal may be grown in these simple troughs, and be quickly and easily transplanted. This may be done at any time in the evening, unless the soil is too wet to work. If so, wait until it is dry enough. To transplant in dry weather, give the plants in the bed a good soaking the morning before transplanting, which, as stated, had best be done at night.