Seed sown in the open ground during the summer months will readily germinate, and the seedlings need no attention beyond thinning to about six inches apart until they are ready for transferring to their proper positions, where they will produce a mass of bloom in the following spring.
The Pansy puts forth its buds very early in the year. Whether they are particularly tasty, or the scarcity of young vegetable growth gives them undue prominence, we know not, but certain it is that sparrows show a marked partiality for them. And having once acquired a taste for the buds, these impudent marauders will not leave them alone; they evidently regard Pansies as the perfection of a winter salad. Their depredations can be prevented by an application of water flavoured with quassia or paraffin oil, which must be repeated after rain.
Greenhouse perennial
All kinds of Pelargonium may be raised from seed with the certainty of giving satisfaction if the work be well done. An amateur, who contributed to the production of symmetrical flowers in the Zonal section, found that under ordinary treatment Zonals began to bloom in one hundred days from the date of sowing the seed, and some of those that flowered earliest proved to be the finest. The cultivator will soon discover that one rule is important, and that is to sow seed saved from really good strains. The simplest greenhouse culture suffices to raise Pelargoniums from seed. Some growers sow in July or August; others in January or February. The summer sowing necessitates careful winter keeping, and the flowers appear earlier than those from spring-sown seed. But the spring sowing is the easier to manage, and is recommended to all beginners. Any light, sandy loam will serve for these plants, and it is well to flower the principal bulk of them in 48-and 32-sized pots, for if grown to a great size the date of flowering is deferred without any corresponding advantage.
PENTSTEMON
Hardy perennial
Penstemons when grown as half-hardy annuals are a valuable addition to beds and borders, where they produce a brilliant effect in summer. In borders it is not advisable to plant singly, but they should be employed in groups of not less than one dozen. It is also important to sow a strain consisting principally of scarlet and pink shades with white markings, as well as white flowers; under fair conditions there will be a profusion of richly coloured blooms on stately spikes about two feet high. Sow in heat during February or March and plant out in genial weather. It is not necessary to keep them after flowering has finished, although seedling Pentstemons on comparatively dry soil in favourable districts scarcely feel the winter. Seed may also be sown in June, in the manner usual with hardy perennials, and the plants will bloom in advance of those which are spring-sown.
Half-hardy perennial