PLANTS WHICH FLOWER TWICE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 3, 17 January 1912, Page 39

PLANTS WHICH FLOWER TWICE.

Mr. 11. Cumming Wright, in •Garden Life." gives the following list of plants which produce two sets of flowers in one season. Antirrhinums should be cut bac.t fairly hard after the first show of flower is over, and they will then push up strongly from the base, and blossom again in summer and autumn, if possible. in greater profusion than before. All annuals, of course, can be kept in flower over a much longer period by removing all eeed-pods as fast as they form; but this is scarcely the same as

two distinct crops, which all in the following list will give if faded flowers are removed at once:—Linum grandiflorum rubrum. Esehseholtzias, most varieties of Linaria, Lychnis coeli-rosea, alba, and lilacina, and the beautiful Nigella, Miss Jekyll. Amongst herbaceous perennials, the Campanulas will frequently produce even three displays of flower, if careful and rigid attention is given to the removal of flowers as soon as past, when a fresh set of buds spring out from the axils of the stems. Centaurea montana (Sweet Sultan), in blue, rose and white, flowers freely early in December, and at once becomes very shabby: but if the flower stems are cut off close to the ground, new growth is rapidly pushed up, and flowers are freely produced again. All delphiniums should be cut down to within three inches of the soil immediately the spikes are done, and top dressed with short manure to a depth of two inches, when the dormant eyes at the base will start into growth, and a good show of spikes again result in late summer. The florists' pyrethrums, as is well known, can always be induced to flower both spring and autumn: but to secure this they must be grown in rich soil, and liberally watered during the hotter

montas, while, as soon as the second buds appear, liquid manure is oi great assistance. Polyanthus which have been used in the spring bedding, if planted in a cool, lightly-shaded border. will generally throw up a number of trusses of autumn flowers, especially if the sea son is somewhat moist. Failing this, applications of water should be "ive i.