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.
DUSTING WITH SULPHUR
SPRAYING WITH BORDEAUX MIXTURE
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.
SOW POPPIES IN THE PERENNIAL BORDER AMONG THE LATE FLOWERING PLANTS
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.