Geranium seeds come up very irregularly, so that it is well not to disturb the ground for some time after the proper season of germination has passed. In this way many extra plants are secured.
Gloxinias
Like all fine seeds the Gloxinias often give a surprising number of plants from a single packet. The seed is sown on the surface of small flats in the house and the plants appear in about ten days. They are very tender at first and must be protected from undue heat, moisture, cold or draughts. They may be potted when large enough and plunged in the shady side of the sand-box, in a cold-frame, on the east side of the house, or in a shady corner in the open ground, where they will be protected from the sun during the hottest part of the day. Keep the soil constantly moist; a light mulch of sphagnum moss or lawn clippings will keep it in proper condition. Avoid wetting the foliage and as far as possible touching it. The stems of both leaf and blossom are very brittle and the slightest blow may deprive one of a cherished blossom. For this reason I like to grow them by themselves and use a mulch instead of cultivation. So much of the beauty of the plant depends upon the perfection of the foliage that every effort should be made to preserve it. In setting or potting Gloxinias the crown of the bulb should be above the earth, the soil should slope to the rim of the pot, that no water may settle about the crown and rot it. The plants may remain in the hotbed or other quarters until the approach of frost, when they must be shifted into larger pots and given a position in an east window with plenty of light. Gloxinias, if kept growing vigorously and shifted frequently, should bloom the following season. Some florists advise resting the bulb the first winter, but this, I think, is a mistake; the plant has done nothing to require a rest, nor has the bulb gained sufficient size to live without nourishment for any length of time, so that drying off is likely to result disastrously. After the Gloxinia has completed its period of bloom water should be gradually withheld and the foliage allowed to ripen. The bulbs may then be set away in their pots in a warm, dry place, until the following spring; or, if grown in hotbeds, they may be dried off by withholding water until the foliage ripens, when they may be lifted, wrapped in cotton-wool or tissue-paper, and stored in a dry, fairly warm place during the winter.
Heliotropes
Are more easily raised from seed than from cuttings, which require special care. Several of the new varieties, like Lemoine’s seedlings, give exceptionally large and early flowers, ranging in colour from pure white through all the shades of lavender, purple, and blue to deep indigo. If wanted for winter blooming the seed may be sown any time during the spring, but for bedding out it should be sown in February or March, and the plants duly potted off and plunged in a box of sand in a warm, sunny window, or a hotbed, until it is time to bed them out in the open ground. The compost should contain a large proportion of leaf-mould—three-fourths mould and one-fourth loam and sharp sand.
The seeds of Heliotrope must be kept merely moist, never wet and never allowed to dry out, or they will not sprout; keeping the soil just on the verge of drying out, yet never allowing it to do so, is the whole secret of starting Heliotrope from seeds. It is best to sow the seed in moist soil to avoid the necessity of watering afterward, as is done with other seeds; if the soil is just wet enough to be crumbly, neither wet nor sticky, and can be kept so, they will prosper. Cover the seed lightly with white sand and remove the glass if any appreciable moisture appears—anything more than a fine mist. It germinates in from fifteen to twenty days, and the plants require no special care beyond good soil, warmth, and plenty of sunshine with frequent waterings. When grown as house-plants they should be showered once or twice a day to prevent the inroads of the red spider—their worst enemy.
There is no more desirable bedding plant than the Heliotrope, and the more freely it is cut by removing generous portions of stem with the blossom the more freely it will bloom. It is admirable for replacing Pansies and may be grown on in the hotbed until the Pansy’s day is past. Where there is not enough Heliotrope for large bedding operations, purple Ageratum may be combined with the Heliotrope with excellent effect; this is a method often employed in the city parks, and when judiciously done one scarcely notices that the beds are not all Heliotrope. Plants may be taken up in the fall and cut back for winter blooming. Blossoms always form on the terminals of the branches.
Lantanas
Are hard-wooded, shrubby plants, the leaves more or less rough and prickly. The colours range from pure white through various shades of lemon to orange, red, a new bright scarlet, and the rosy lavender of the Weeping Lantana. The seed in its immature state is incased in a green pulp or berry, changing to blue as it ripens, and consists of a little nut with several kernels, so that one is sometimes surprised with two or more plants from what seems to be a single seed. The seed may be started in the house, or in the hotbed early in the spring; sowing in drills one-quarter of an inch deep. It germinates in from twelve to fifteen days, but soaking in warm water, for a few hours before planting, will hasten its appearance. They require about the same treatment as Geraniums, but should be shifted oftener and given plenty of water. As soon as the plants are four or five inches high transplant them to a tobacco pail, or some large wooden receptacle containing a compost of muck, loam, and old manure, or muck alone, and place in full morning sunshine, out of doors. Thus managed I have grown, from seed sown in March, plants that measured nine feet or more in circumference by September and were a mass of bloom all summer long, the blossoms defying all efforts at counting.
Grown in this way, with an abundance of roots and top room, rich soil, sun, and water, no better ornament could be desired for the porch or steps; but I do not think it a desirable plant for the house, as the hot, dry air causes it to drop its leaves, and it is almost sure to be attacked by the red spider. It is better to start fresh plants each spring and let them go when frost comes.