SOWING FLOWER SEEDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 December 1938, Page 2

SOWING FLOWER SEEDS

TIME AND METHOD. The time and method of sowing flower seeds must be regulated by their natures. Seeds Of tender plants are usually sown in pots or pans and placed □n a moderate hotbed or in a propagating house early in spring, and ih this case the plants have greenhouse cultivation until the time arrives for hardening them off preparatory to final planting. Seeds of many hardy flowers may be treated in the same way when a long season of growth is necessary for their development. Phlox, verbenas and hollyhocks—plants that differ immensely in habit and constitution—may be sown in August and put side by side in the same pit or vinery, or in the warmest corner of any greenhouse. The same treatment will suit them equally well.

Soil should be principally loam and sand, with well-rotted mantife from a hotbed of compost heap. Light, air and moisture must be regulated with a view to ensuring a free, vigorous growth from the first, With the least possible amount of artificial heat. Sometimes the sowing should be deferred to September or October. The result Will be far more satisfactory than gl’owth made under the stimulus of artificial heat earlier in the season. However, . the plants must always have sufficient time, for, although the rapid system has been developed, the constitution of the plants remains unchanged and those which have been classed as biennials and perennials iieed a long season when treated as annuals.

Many of the finest flowers may be raised from seed by the aid of a frame and a little careful mahagetnent. Take as an example a restricted garden. Here is a small frame and some packets of seed. It is the month of August or September.

Pans and pots are made ready with sweet, sandy compost and the seeds are sown and labelled. Pots and pans ate

packed together in the frame on a bed of clean coal ashes,' slates, tiles or brick; laid on the soil to promote warmth and cleanliness and to prevent intrusion of worms. By simple management, almost as quick a growth of seeds can bfe ensured in this frame as with tide aid of a hotbed. The secret consists in careful storage of the sun’s heat. Lay over the seedpans sheets of glass to prevent eVripoffitiOfi, and let siinshihe' ftill tipdn them. He careful ad td fhb'istufd; they must never be wet, nor dry; Wafer ihUst hot be slopped abciiit carelessly. It is a good rule to immerse the pots arid pans in “soft” water, slightly tepid. When thd seddlirigs begin to appear, give them a little air arid lay Sheets of paper over thefn when the Run i§ Rhiri ; ifig brightly. A few old mats or light loppirigs Of trees laid over the’ frame froffi s'ufl 4 down to surifise will be suffleldrlt pi’6 a tection. Turning to large gardens, it will be obvious that “the advantages of transference of labour from the old systerii to the new are immense. To gardeners the advantages are of importance; the propagation of bedders by cuttings and of florists’ flowers by suckers, divisions, layers and pipings, will not be completely abolished. For ordinary purposes the ends ih View may be accomplished more simply; expeditiously and cheaply than before. Pits appropriated to bedders and the like may be liberated; there will be no difficulty in finding for them more profitable occupants.