THE GROWING OF THE ORNAMENTAL PLANTS
INSTRUCTIONS ON PARTICULAR KINDS - Continued
Century plants or agaves are popular plants for the window-garden
or conservatory, requiring little care and growing slowly, thus needing
repotting only at long intervals. When the plants have outgrown their
usefulness as house-plants, they are still valuable as porch
decorations, for plunging in rock-work, or about rustic nooks. The
striped-leaved variety is the most desirable, but the normal type, with
its blue-gray leaves, is highly ornamental.
There are a number of dwarf species of agave that are not so common,
although they may be grown with ease. Such plants add novelty to a
collection, and may be used through the summer as noted above or plunged
with cactus in a bed of tropical plants. All succeed well in loam and
sand in equal parts, with a little leafmold in the case of the small
varieties.
The more common species are propagated by suckers from around the base
of the established plants. A few kinds having no suckers must be grown
from seed.
As to watering, they demand no special care. Agaves will not stand frost
to any extent.
When the head throws up its great stem and blooms, it may exhaust itself
and die; but this may be far short of a century. Some species bloom more
than once.
Chrysanthemums are of many kinds, some being annual flower-garden
plants, some perennial border subjects, and one form is the universal
florists' plant. In chrysanthemums are now included the pyrethrums.
The annual chrysanthemums must not be confounded with the well-known
fall-flowering kinds, as they will prove a disappointment if one expects
large flowers of all colors and shapes. The annuals are mostly
coarse-growing plants, with an abundance of bloom and a rank smell. The
flowers are single in most cases, and not very lasting. They are useful
for massing and also for cut-flowers. They are among the easiest of
hardy annuals to grow. The stoniest part of the garden will usually suit
them. Colors white and shades of yellow, the flowers daisy-like; 1-3 ft.
Amongst perennial kinds, Chrysanthemum frutescens is the well-known
Paris daisy or marguerite, one of the most popular of the genus. This
makes a good pot-plant for the window-garden, blooming throughout the
winter and spring months. It is usually propagated by cuttings, which,
if taken in spring, will give large blooming plants for the next winter.
Gradually transfer to larger pots or boxes, until the plants finally
stand in 6-inch or 8-inch pots or in small soap boxes. There is a fine
yellow-flowered variety. The marguerite daisy is much grown out-of-doors
in California.
The hardy perennial kinds are small-flowered, late-blooming plants,
known to many old people as "artemisias." They have been improved of
late years, and they are very satisfactory plants of easy culture. The
plants should be renewed from seed every year or two.
In variety of form and color, and in size of bloom, the florists'
chrysanthemum is one of the most wonderful of plants. It is a late
autumn flower, and it needs little artificial heat to bring it to
perfection. The great blooms of the exhibitions are produced by growing
only one flower to a plant and by feeding the plant heavily. It is
hardly possible for the amateur to grow such specimen flowers as the
professional florist or gardener does; neither is it necessary. A
well-grown plant with fourteen to twenty flowers is far more
satisfactory as a window-plant than a long, stiff stem with only one
immense flower at the apex. The culture is simple, much more so than
that of many of the plants commonly grown for house decoration. Although
the season of bloom is short, the satisfaction of having a fall display
of flowers before the geraniums, begonias, and other house-plants have
recovered from their removal from out of doors, repays all efforts. Very
good plants can be grown under a temporary shed cover, as shown in Fig.
268. The roof need not necessarily be of glass. Under such a cover,
also, potted plants, in bloom, may be set for protection when the
weather becomes too cold.
Cuttings taken in March or April, planted out in the border in May, well
tended through the summer and lifted before frost in September, will
bloom in October or November. The ground in which the plants are to
bloom should be moderately rich and moist. The plants may be tied to
stakes. When the buds show, all but the center one of each cluster on
the leading shoots should be picked off, as also the small lateral
branches. A thrifty bushy plant thus treated will usually have flowers
large enough to show the character of the variety, also numbers enough
to make a fine display.
After blooming, the plants are lifted from the border. As to the
receptacle into which to put them, it need not be a flower-pot. A pail
or soap-box, with holes bored for drainage, will suit the plant just as
well, and by covering the box with cloth or paper the difference will
not be noticed.
If cuttings are not to be had, young plants may be bought of the
florists and treated in the manner described. Buy them in midsummer
or earlier.
It is best not to attempt to flower the same plant two seasons. After
the plant has bloomed, the top may be cut down, and the box set in a
cellar and kept moderately dry. In February or March, bring the plant to
the sitting-room window and let the shoots start from the root. These
shoots are taken for cuttings to grow plants for the fall bloom.
Cineraria is a tender greenhouse subject, but it may be grown as a
house-plant, although the conditions necessary to the best results are
difficult to secure outside a glasshouse.
The conditions for cinerarias are a cool temperature, frequent
repotting, and guarding against the attacks of the greenfly. Perhaps the
last is the most difficult, and with one having no facilities for
fumigating, it will be almost impossible to prevent the difficulty. A
living room usually has too dry air for cinerarias.
The seed, which is very minute, should be sown in August or September to
have plants in bloom in January or February. Sow the seed on the surface
of fine soil and water very lightly to settle the seeds into the soil. A
piece of glass or a damp cloth may be spread over the pot or box in
which the seeds are sown, to remain until the seeds are up. Always keep
the soil damp, but not wet. When the seedlings are large enough to
repot, they should be potted singly in 2-or 3-inch pots. Before the
plants have become pot-bound, they should again be repotted into larger
pots, until they are in at least 6-inch pots in which to bloom.
In all this time, they should be grown cool and, if not possible to
fumigate them with tobacco, the pots should stand on tobacco stems,
which should be moist at all times. The general practice, in order to
have bushy plants, is to pinch out the center when the flower-buds show,
causing the lateral branches to start, which they are slow to do if the
central stem is allowed to grow. Plants bloom but once.
Clematis.--One of the best of woody climbing vines, the common C.
Flammula, Virginiana, paniculata and others being used frequently to
cover division walls or fences, growing year after year without any care
and producing quantities of flowers. C. paniculata is now planted very
extensively. The panicles of star-shaped flowers entirely cover the
vine and have a pleasant fragrance. It is one of the best of all
fall-flowering vines, and hardy north; clings well to a
chicken-wire trellis.
The large-flowered section, of which Jackmani is perhaps the best known,
is very popular for pillar or porch climbers. The flowers of this
section are large and showy, running from pure white, through blue, to
scarlet. Of this class, a serviceable purple is Jackmani; white, Henryi
(Fig. 266); blue, Ramona; crimson, Madame E. André.
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