Growing Flowers

Flowers adorn the garden, brighten it, and give it a beautiful, attractive appearance. They are easy to grow, and they are moreover a great source for obtaining an abundant number of cut flowers, which can be used to decorate the rooms and to present to family and friends. And although growing them is easy, they still need a certain amount of care if the result is to be pleasing and entirely satisfying. The first step on the road to success in growing them is to choose the times best suited for it.

Sowing the seed is an important operation that needs a good deal of care. The most fitting method is to sow it in pots, size number 20. As for preparing the pots for this purpose, it is done by filling somewhat more than half of them with soil together with some chemical fertilizer, leaving a space at the top for water. After that we pass the hand over the surface of the soil so that it is pressed down and made flat and level; then the seeds are scattered carefully, taking care to sow them lightly and evenly. See that the seeds are not sown too thickly, or else the seedlings will come up crowded and will consequently be weak. A suitable place must be chosen for germinating the seeds, and it must be shaded and not exposed to drafts of air. In arranging the pots, see that they stand perfectly upright, for if they are tilted the watering runs from the higher side to the lower side, carries the seeds along with it, and makes them collect on one side of the pot, so that when they sprout they come up crowded. These pots are watered with a sprinkling can with very fine holes, and it is much better to water the seeds with small quantities of water, the watering being repeated some five or six times during the day until the seed begins to sprout. Then the number of waterings is gradually reduced, so that after five days have passed they may be watered only three times, and this number of waterings is kept up. And since sparrows are much inclined to eat the newly grown leaflets, the seedlings toward which the sparrows are seen to incline must be protected with a fine net set up around the pots at a height of a meter above them.

After the second or third leaf appears, the seedlings are pricked out singly into pots filled with soil. While carrying out this operation, take care that the growing point (the heart) of the seedling is not covered with soil, and then give attention to the newly separated seedlings, for the operation of separating them halts their growth for a short time. The young plants are moved little by little from their shaded places to sunny places, where they are raised and tended until they are finally transplanted to their beds.

When planting the seedlings in the beds, each kind must be given the area of ground it needs in order to grow well; plants that are crowded, or too far apart, are unsightly.

There follows an operation no less important than the others: arranging the plants in their beds according to height and color. Tall plants must not be planted so as to hide behind them others of medium or short height. As for color and its arrangement, that is a matter of taste, in which the experts in this art may be consulted. The seedlings in their beds are watered according to their need of water, as circumstances require.

Finally, weeds must not be allowed to grow among the flower seedlings, nor be allowed to form their seed early in the season.