HERBACEOUS CALCEOLARIAS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 307, 28 December 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

HERBACEOUS CALCEOLARIAS.

Xo one can fail to admire the richly coloured and beautifully marked herbaceous calceolarias. They are not perhaps the easiest things to grow, for they require care and watchfulness, but nothing beyond the skill of the ordinary gardener. Seed can be sown at any time during December, and it is usual to make a couple of sowings. The seed is very small and the packet should be opened away from a draught, or it may be blown away. iSow in a shallow pan, well drained. Over the crocks put some rougher material and then fill up to within an inch of the rim with a sifted compost of turfy loam, to which is added half a part of well-decayed leafmould and a little sand. Make the soil level and firm it with a piece of wood. Then give a good watering and stand the pan on one side to drain for an hour or two. After this sow the seed very thinly, and, because it is so small, do not cover it, but press it in with the flat piece of wood. Over the pan place a sheet of glass and also a piece of brown paper, to ensure shade and conserve moisture. A frame facing south will do to stand the pan in. As soon as the seedlings are up remove the brown paper, and as they develop raise the glass a little more each day to give air. The seedlings must be pricked out directly they are large enough to handle, using a light, porous compost. Do not crowd them; two inches between will not be too much. After pricking them out stand the pot

in the frame again and do not let strong sunshine on them. They will soon start growing afresh, and it will not be long

before they need potting singly into three-inch pots. At this time the compost can be enriched with a little decayed cow manure. The plants must never become pot-bound; shift them on as the roots work round the sides of the pots. They will finally reach the seven or nineinch size, in which they will flower. For the final potting give one part of cow manure to three of fibrous loam, with sand as required. In repotting do not make the common mistake of filling the pots to the rim, nor put the plant too high up so that it cannot be watered properly. Slugs are fond of seedlings and do much mischief in a single night. One method of keeping them at bay is boards nailed together and the two legs stood in water: the same principle is carried out in the seed pan being stood on an inverted flower pot in water.