WALLFLOWERS

North Otago Times, 27 October 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

WALLFLOWERS

This fine old-fashioned plant id] a universal favourite, and, simple! though its needs are, it deserves,' and receives, attention equally with many a more pretentious exotic. It is equally at home in the cottage garden and the spacious plea-sure-grounds of tho millionaire, while for market it is cultivated in enormoiid quartitios, and there is always a brisk demand for the richly-coloured fragrant blossoms, The wallflower is rea&jf a perennial and in cottage gardens in the country is frequently to be seen growing and blooming year after year, but afl after the first fieason the plants are apt to beoomo straggling and untidy, and the bloom is sparee, the plants are usually, and best, treated as biennials, the seed being sown one year to produce I plants that will bteom the following spring.

There is some amount of dispute among growers as to the beet time, for sowing the seed, some holding that it is best sown rather early in the spring., and others maintaining that the month of December is early enough, and better than getting tho plants to work before. These are chiefly Northern growers, for if the plants are too forward, or "winter proud," they may suffer severely in a bard winter, but according to my experience it is much better to sow thd seed early in October on - thereabouts—and thus obtain strong plants to go out in March or early April. These will blossom far more' profusely, as well ad earlier, than the late-eown samples. The seed should be sown in the ordinary way in a well-prepared but not too rich bed of soil in the open air and when large! enrogji the little plants ehould'bo pricked off, at 4in, to 6in. apart, into another or ''nursery'' befcl «£ (rood soil., Ab the plants are rather.

lial'lo lo wilt under, a list sun tlicy • should bo frequently sprinltlied over- 1 hoad in bright weather, which will, greatly help tliein to bcconjo establish- 1 cd. In duo coui-se— that is, a; early | 'in llio autumn us j)os6ililc-4lie plants | IMirt lie transforrotl to tlioir flowering j quarters, and if a somewhat sheltered | position can be clicecn so much tlio I Hotter, Plant firmly, in good but not too rich soil, which ought to contain a| fair quantity of old mortar or other! limo-nibbish. . i . J ln tlieso (lays there arc a groat, many forms and colour* l of the wall- j flower as of <-jo many other tilings, but j the rich crimson and bright yellow 1 varieties are still the most popular. ] These always look well when planted ; with tulips—a seaiiot or crimson tulip: with tlio yellow wallflower, and a ■ bright/ yellow ono with tlio crimson hind. A few of the leading varieties t are the "Blood-Red," as grown for Covent Garden and oilier markets,' with tlio bright yellow form; Harbin-! gbr, with largo i'<xl blofl.oirls very! early; Vulcan, with ibwers of rich, deep, rosy roarlet colour; Salmon, Queen, of which the dowel's open of a 1 i soft-chamois oolour, and gradually pass ! to a salmony-roeo hue; Ruby Gem, a i beautiful' Variety of a fine rosy-violet i colour; Phoenix, very early, rich deep I red; Primrose Dame, with soft primi rose-coloured blcfsonis; and Purple, i forming a fine contrast to tlio paler i colours. Tlio new Parisian Wallflowers, i if sown in October or November, will t commence blooming the Mime autumn, and continue through the winter more, or leffe.