Salpiglossis. Very fine half-hardy annuals. The flowers, which are borne in profusion, are of many colors, and rival in markings most other annuals. The flowers are short-lived if left on the plant, but will hold well if cut and placed in water. Seed should be sown in heat in February or March, the seedlings grown along until May, when they may be planted out. It is usually best to pinch out the centers of the plants at this time to cause them to branch.
Salsify
Salsify, or Vegetable Oyster. Salsify is one of the best of winter and early spring vegetables, and should be grown in every garden. It may be cooked in several different ways. The seed should be sown as early in the spring as possible. Handle the same as parsnips in every way. The roots, like parsnips, are the better for the winter freeze, but part of the crop should be dug in the fall, and stored in soil or moss in a cellar for winter use.
Salvia coccinea
Salvia. The Scarlet Salvia (or Sage) is a well known tender perennial, blooming late in the fall and making a fine effect in beds or borders. It is easily transplanted, and large plants removed to the house continue in bloom for some time. The blue and white species are both desirable summer flowering plants, and the low-growing Silver Leaf Sage is well adapted for edging. Propagated from seed, cuttings, or by division. Height 2 to 3 feet.
San José Scale has now become a wide-spread pest. It has been introduced into the eastern states from the Pacific slope. It is a minute scale insect the size of a small pinhead, shield-shaped, with a raised center. There are various native and comparatively harmless scales which look very much like it, and an expert is usually needed to distinguish them. The San José Scale can usually be distinguished, however, by its very serious results. In favorable seasons it spreads with enormous rapidity, covering the branches of many kinds of plants, sapping their juices, and either killing or reducing them to such a low state of vitality as to render them useless; or they are killed by the winter. The indications are that the scale will never be so serious in the moist, cool climates of the northeastern states as it is in the hotter and drier climates of the West. It has been found by careful experiments that it can be killed by a spray of kerosene and water ([see Kerosene]) in a proportion of one part of kerosene to four or five of water. This material is applied with a mechanical pump mixer, and the application should be made on a sunny day so that evaporation soon takes place. Spraying with kerosene in cloudy weather is very likely to result in injury to the plants. Some experimenters have found crude petroleum to be a specific for the San José Scale.
It is not to be expected that the San José Scale can be exterminated any more than the tent caterpillar or apple scab can. It follows, therefore, that we should spray for the San José Scale as we do for other pests. It is such a serious pest, however, that the state or province should take measures to hold it in check. Some system of inspection should be inaugurated, and it is probably best that nursery stock be fumigated with hydrocyanic gas before it is sold. This gas is exceedingly poisonous, however, and should never be handled by the inexperienced. Whenever it is used, it should be under the control of experts. Plants or plantations which are badly infested with the scale would better be destroyed.
Scabiosa. Mourning Bride. A useful annual, producing a profusion of bloom through the greater part of the summer if not allowed to go to seed. The flowers range in color from white to rich purple, are borne on long stems, and are very lasting. The seed may be sown where the plants are wanted, or to hasten the season of bloom may be sown in boxes in February and grown along to be planted out in April.