The Flower Garden

by Ida D. Bennett

Ricinus, or Castor-oil Bean

Probably the most effective and tropical-looking plant in cultivation to-day is the Ricinus, and fortunately it is within the reach of everyone. It is usually seen as a solitary specimen on the lawn, or as the centre of a bed of other plants, or probably in a long row; it is more effective, however, in a group, and thus grown makes a good background for low plants. Seed should be started early in house or hotbeds. It germinates in twelve to fifteen days. The best results will be obtained when started in the house by planting in three-or four-inch pots. Put two or three seeds in a pot and remove all but one if more come up. Before filling the pots with earth mixed with good compost, a piece of shard, or flat stone, should be placed over the drainage hole to confine the roots, as they make a very rapid growth. Shift into larger pots as required, and plant out when all danger of frost is past in a deep, rich soil. Marsh earth is best, but where this is not available any good garden soil will answer if heavily manured and well watered. The young plants are somewhat backward after transplanting and frequently refuse to grow at all, so that it is well to have a few plants in reserve against a possible emergency. After the plants are a foot high, little if any trouble will be experienced. The newer Zanzibar varieties are the most desirable, being very fine both in colour and development, growing under favourable conditions from eight to ten feet tall with leaves three feet in diameter.

SHIFT INTO LARGER POTS AS REQUIRED

Banana plants are very showy and attractive and in the North are more or less of a novelty. They may be planted out in the open ground or in tubs when all danger of frost is over. Though less sensitive to root disturbance than the Ricinus, they are very impatient of the immediate presence of other plants, and young plants should be grown by themselves. Robust two-year-old plants, however, may be used as centres for beds of Cannas or similar plants with fine effect. When obtainable they should be given a compost of muck and old manure and supplied with a very liberal amount of water; the water from the laundry and kitchen should be saved for them, as one can scarcely overfeed them. Give a warm, sunny situation, protected from rough winds, which whip and tear the broad leaves, rendering them most unsightly. A southeast angle of building or shrubbery furnishes an ideal location. In the fall the plants may be removed to the cellar in the tubs in which they have been grown, or they may be lifted, if grown in the open ground, and planted in suitable tubs for the adornment of the conservatory or living-room. Grown indoors they are very ornamental, the foliage being perfect, which is rarely the case out of doors. It is also much easier to carry the plants through the winter in this way; as they are very sensitive to cold and damp when dormant and cannot be carried successfully in a cellar where these conditions exist, even though it be free from frost. In the South—and the same method may be employed in the North, provided the cellar conditions are right—the plants are dug up, the soil removed, and the roots wrapped in gunny-sacks and laid on a shelf in the cellar, all the leaves being removed except the central one, which must be carefully protected from all injury.

Chapter THIRTEEN
Bulbous and Tuberous-rooted Plants

Cannas may be started any time in April or May. The old-fashioned tall-growing varieties may be put in the open ground early in May. Cover with three or four inches of soil and protect the bed with a little rough manure if the nights are cold, the finest of the manure being left to enrich the soil when the plants are up.

The large-flowering French and Orchid-flowered Cannas are delicate and very sensitive to cold and damp and should be started in the house with heat. Divide the roots into points and pot separately in leaf-mould, or they may be placed in baskets of sand set in a warm, sunny place and kept constantly moist; this is the simplest and best way of handling them. Cannas are less likely to mould or decay in sand than in soil, and it is easier to keep a uniform degree of moisture in the baskets than in the small pots. The baskets should be partly filled with fine white sand and the roots laid in place, points up, as closely as convenient, and sufficient sand added to cover them. They must not be planted out until all danger of frost is past and the nights are warm, and they should then be handled very carefully to avoid injuring the tender roots. Give them a soil of muck or heavily manured loam and abundance of water. The most convenient place for starting bulbs of all kinds is a warm upstairs room, over a kitchen or elsewhere, with a south or west light. A wide shelf may be arranged under the windows and one’s entire supply of bulbs started there in pots and baskets out of the way. Seeds of flowers and vegetables may also be started there to advantage.

Dahlias are best started in the baskets of sand, putting the bunches in whole, with the crown just below the surface of the sand. When they have sprouted and the weather is warm they should be removed from the sand and carefully divided. A number of tubers will have failed to start, while others will have thrown several shoots. If the number of plants is not sufficient more may be secured by grafting part of the green shoots into the dormant toes. Remove a shoot, cut the end to a wedge shape, remove a corresponding wedge from the crown of a toe and insert the shoot; it should rest in the toe an inch or more and be placed in the ground at once—drawing the earth around it snugly that the scion may be in no danger of separating from the toe before it has formed a union. Only one shoot should be left on a tuber, and the removal of the extra ones for grafting is a distinct gain. Whenever it is necessary to divide the roots a portion of the stem with a well-defined eye must be given to each division, otherwise there will be no top growth; the toes will root, but they will not grow. For further directions see chapter on growing Dahlias from seed.

Caladium esculentum, or Elephant’s Ears, is a native of the Sandwich Islands, where it furnishes a staple article of food called Poa. The root when cooked is like a potato. It is better to start separately in pots an inch larger than the bulbs, setting the top of the bulb just above the surface of the soil. Pot with muck or good compost and keep moist and warm. They respond to heat and moisture the most readily of all dormant bulbs, beginning to grow at once and making steady progress, the root growth keeping step with the top much more uniformly than is usual with bulbs that are wintered dry. It is an ideal plant for the amateur, as easily grown as a hill of corn. If fine plants are desired only those bulbs showing a live centre-shoot should be used. If the winter conditions have been favourable the bulbs will show a strong centre-shoot or rolled-up leaf; where this has decayed or dried off there will frequently be side-shoots which are worth saving when the supply of bulbs is small, and which will produce fair results, but for really good plants the centre-shoot is necessary.

Plant out when all danger of frost is past, in muck if possible, or in heavily manured loam; the more freely they are watered the finer will be the growth. Old bulbs should give leaves three feet or more in length and correspondingly wide.

Single specimens are fine in pots, vases, or tiles, but they are really seen at their best in large clumps on the lawn, or edging beds of Cannas or other subtropical plants.

They are easily wintered and multiply very rapidly; and, as much better effects can be obtained by planting largely of one variety, an effort should be made to have a generous supply. Aim for a tropical luxuriance of effect—whether the plants used are Cannas, Caladiums, Ricinus, or all three.

Tuberous Begonias should be started at the same time as the Caladiums, Cannas, and other tuberous plants. Pot singly in small pots of leaf-mould, setting the tuber level with the surface of the earth, but shaping the soil away from it toward the edge of the pot that water may not settle around it. The side showing a slight depression is the top. Often it is difficult to determine this, in which case the bulb may be laid on the surface until growth begins and the fact can be determined, when it may be potted. Do not keep too warm, as that induces a leggy growth; a temperature of about 60° is right.

Bed out, when all danger of frost is past, in partial shade. In England it is claimed that they will stand the hottest sun, but the atmosphere of England is very different from our dry air, and the tuberous Begonia does better with us if shaded. Where there is no natural shade an awning of cotton cloth during the hottest part of the day answers every purpose. Gloxinias are started the same as tuberous Begonias and require practically the same treatment, but more heat. Fuller cultural directions are given in the chapter on growing from seed.

Fancy-leaved Caladiums, though belonging to the same family as C. esculentum, bear little resemblance to that sturdier branch, being small in growth, gorgeous in colouring, and exceedingly delicate. Unlike the Crotons and Coleus, which revel in full sunshine, they develop their beautiful colours best in partial or complete shade. They do, however, love a warm atmosphere and must be guarded against sudden chills and draughts. They are very desirable for window-boxes on the north side of the house, for growing in sheltered nooks, and for warm, sheltered positions on porches. Several may be grouped together in a ten-inch pot very effectively, as they require but little room. They may be brought inside in the fall, and kept growing until they show signs of resting, when water should be gradually withheld until the leaves have ripened. The pots should then be set away in a warm, dry place—as a shelf in a closet—until wanted the following spring.

Such wonderful things have been accomplished in Gladiolus culture that one scarcely recognises the old favourite. All along the line, size, colour, texture, markings show the effect of a high state of cultivation and careful hybridising. The Childsi are, perhaps, the finest; while several of the strains of giant Gladiolus show wonderful size and colour. They increase rapidly, and one should buy a few bulbs each year so as to maintain a high standard.

When ready to plant, remove all loose husks, dead roots, and stalks, leaving the bulb clean and fair. Plant directly in the open ground, sufficiently late for frost to have gone by the time they are up. Plant the bulbs eight inches deep in fine leaf-mould, or a mixture of muck, loam and old manure, or even well-enriched garden loam. Planted deeply they will not need staking—an important point in growing Gladioli; nor will they be so much affected by cold, heat, or draught as in the case of shallow planting, and may be planted earlier and left much later in the fall, giving the bulbs more time to ripen.

They should be cultivated frequently during the summer or well mulched and supplied with water as needed. No seed should be allowed to form, as the plants make new bulbs each year, sometimes several, and that, with the production of flowers, is enough for one plant. A plant that seeds freely will not produce as many or as good bulbs. Take up in the fall before the ground begins to freeze, and put in a warm, sunny place for a few days to dry. Remove the stems by cutting off six or eight inches above the bulb, but do not attempt to pull or break them, as that will injure the new shoot which lies just inside the old stalk. Tie in bunches and hang in a dry, cool place, free from frost, or store in paper sacks.

Montbretias resemble the Gladioli in flower and foliage, but are very slender of growth. They throw long, graceful sprays of brilliant scarlet, orange, and lemon, very desirable for cut flowers. The flowers open successively, as do the Gladioli, and are in bloom a long time. They may be grown in the corners of the Gladiolus bed with good effect. The culture is the same, except that the Montbretias are not planted so deeply—about three inches. They multiply very rapidly—about fourfold, and are as easily cared for as the Gladioli.

Tigridias (Shell Flowers) are beautiful in colour, and odd in shape, and rather gorgeous in effect whether set singly or in groups. The colours are a pure white, white with lilac, purple and white, yellow and orange with dark spots, white with a brownish spot on a yellow ground, and rose colour. The flower remains open for only a day, but as there is always another to take its place it is not missed. They would better be started in the house in pots and bedded out when frost is past, as, planted in the open ground, they sometimes fail to appear. Lift and dry in fall and store in a dry, warm place during winter, examining occasionally for mould or grey lice. The leaf much resembles that of the date-palm, being ribbed and pointed at either end.

Summer-blooming Oxalis are very desirable plants for borders. They are extensively grown in parks and public gardens, but are little seen in private grounds. They are the most easily raised of all the bulbous plants and increase in a manner quite alarming, each bulb forming a long tuber resembling a white radish in general appearance, and covered with small bulbs—probably fifty—the top being crowned with one large bulb, the source of the season’s florescence. These bulbs are not a solid body, as would appear at first glance, but are made up of hundreds of minute scales like a lily bulb. Added to its interesting character below ground is its rather remarkable performance above ground. It comes into leaf and blossom two weeks after planting, about the time the first tiny tips of other bulbs appear.

One great advantage of this precocity of growth is that Oxalis may be substituted when for any reason other border plants have failed to come up and it is necessary to replace them in a hurry. Often a hardy border plant winter-kills and one keeps waiting for it to start until it is too late to get plants from seed, then the little Oxalis comes to the rescue.

Buy them by the hundred and set about three inches apart and about two inches deep. Take up in the fall and put in a sunny place to dry, turning often; when dry remove from the centre tuber and sort, saving the largest bulbs.