FERNS FOR MARKET AND DECORATIVE PURPOSES.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2065, 6 October 1880, Page 3

FERNS FOR MARKET AND DECORATIVE PURPOSES.

The varieties which are in demand in the market, says a writer in an English paper, may be taken as representing a group of considerable value for general furnishing and decorating purposes. Of these we make special mention of Pteris serrulata, oristata, P. argyrea, oretica, and cretica albo-lineata, Nephrodium mollo corymbiferum, Adiantum cuneatum, scutum, trapeziforme, formoaum, and gracillimum, Lomaria gibba, Phlebcdium aureum, Blechnum Brasiliense and coroovadenee, and Nephrolepsis exaltata. This does not exhaust the list, but it suffices to intimate the leading ferns in demand. All the foregoing are raised from seed, and in enormous quantities. The seed is sown in September and October, in fine light soil and plenty of heat, and, as might bo expected, the pots are well supplied with drainage. The seed is laid on the top of the soil, and bell glasses are then placed over tho pots, as it is found the seeds germinate better when covered in this way, and it keeps the soil moist without the necessity of sprinkling the seeds. When there are signs of germination taking place, and the plants become large enough, the tiny plants are pricked out into other pots in little lumps, so as to give them more room to grow, and these again are potted off singly into small pots and grown on into size. Some of the Gymnogrammas are also grown for market, but they are bad doers in winter, and require to be managed with great care in the seedling state. A great many are sent to market in thumb pots about the month of April, when the plants are about three inches in height, and the remainder are grown on into size and sent to market in the months of June and July, firmly established in 5-inch pots. That truly regal Maidenhair fern, Adiantum Farleyense, not being a fertile plant, does not produce seeds, and the plants are increased by division, breaking up a large plant into as many pieces likely to make plants as possible. This work of division is done at the end of the winter and in spring, as tho pieces grow so much better then. This fine fern is marketed almost all through the year, so long as the stock is available for this purpose, and the plants always have a ready sale.