The Portland daily press., 1881-05-09
Sowing Flower Seeds.

Nature provides abundantly for the repro
duction of plants, and the difficulty of null
tiplying by one method is compensated by
the ease with which it may be done in an
other. When we find plant takes root
with difficulty from "slips'' or cuttings, in
nine cases out of ten we find that it seeds
freely, and gives us a ready means of in
crease. Thus we find the much admired
centaureas, one kind of the ''dusty millers,''
the white leaved plants now so much used
in massing and for baskets, are exceedingly
difficult and slow to root from cuttings, but
are readily raised from seeds. Our fine
strains of bloched petunias are also trouble
some as cuttings, but make plants quickly
from seeds. The cyclamen, with its turnip-
like stem or bulb, could only be propagated
by cutting in pieces, disfguring it's shape
and requiring years to form circular bulb
again, but here we have seed coming to our
help which terminates freely, and makes
towering plant in one year. The apple ger
anium never affords proper cuttings from
which to make plant, but it seeds freely,
from which splendid plants can be produced
in few months So the primulas and Gin
erarias, both slow and uncertain from cut
tings, seed freely. And so with hundreds
of other plants, to which our space will not
permit us to refer. There is no rule by
which we can designate what plants are
best propagated by seeds, and what by cut
tings, experience being the only teacher
and even the experince of lifetime is too
short for those of us that have had the larg-
est practice.
Seeding plants can be nearly as well rails
ed in the window of a sitting-room or par
lor, provided the temperature is right, as in
greenhouse, IOr seeds do not need strong
direct light while germinating-in fact, that
is often difficulty in greenhouse, as the
surface of the seed-bed dries up too quickly
in the direct sunshine, necessitating water
ing, which bakes the surface The best
thing wherein to SOW seeds is shallow boxes;
these need not be more than two or three
inches deep, with open seams at the bottom
through which water will drain quickly.
Fill the boxes within half an inch of the top
with light, rich earth; if it can be procured,
nothing is better than black leaf mold from
the woods, or light sandy soil, mixed with
an equal bulk of stable manure, so rotted as
to resemble leaf mold; it will not answer
unless rotted as fine as DUST In the alb
sence of either Of these. sweeping from
paved street are excellent, mixed with light,
sandy soil, the object in all cases being
lightness of the soil or mold in which the
seed is to be sown; for if tiny seed, as ma
ny of our fiOwer-seed are, are imbedded in
stiff soil, the germ in many of them is 100
weak to push its way to the light.
When the proper soil has been secured,
pat it down with smooth board until it is
as smooth and level as it well can be, then
sow the seed over the surface, distributing
it evenly; then take common kitchen
sieve and sift just so much earth evenly over
the seed as will cover it and no more; then
take watering pot with the finest kind of
rose, and shower the earth with spray.
Keep the box at temperature as near sixty
degrees as possible, taking care to give it
shower of spray only when the surface ap-
pears to be dry; but few seeds viii! fail to
terminate under such conditions. But af.
ter the seeds have "braided," as the Scotch
gardeners say, comes another difficulty; in
quite number of plants, particularly if
sown in the house, just as soon as the seed
leaf has developed, and before the first
rough or true leaves have formed, the seed
ling is attacked by minute fungus, that
will often sweep off the whole crop in forty
eight hours if not attended to. The required
attention is, that as soon as there are indi-
cations Of the ''damping off, of these tiny
seedlings, they must be carefully taken up
and planted out in similar boxes, prepared
exactly as the seed boxes have been. They
may be planted quite closely, not more than
half an inch apart, and let their further
treatment be exactly as in terminating the
seeds. In the course of few weeks they
will have grown freely, and they may then
be lifted and be placed in similar boxes, but
wider apart, say three or four inches, or
potted singly in two and half or three-inch
pots as most convenient, until such time
as they are to be planted out in the open
ground. or to be used otherwise. Peter
Henderson.