Archive for November, 2006

Hollyhock

In July, sow this favorite for background plantings about M inch deep in the cold frame. Pot up the plants the following spring and grow on in the frame or in a cool greenhouse.

There are singles as well as doubles with colors from purest white through lemon yellow, apricot, pink, and into dark red. If you find something especially desirable among your seedlings, you can propagate it by root division in the fall, since seedlings do not usually come true to color. If rust infects plants, clear it up with a sulphur dust.

Canterbury Bells (Campanula medium)

Canterbury Bells are biennials, producing foliage growth the first year and flowers the second. Many gardeners like to purchase these as year-old plants which will flower the same season they are planted, so you will find a ready market for them.

Sow seed directly in the frame and grow plants on there until the following March, when they should be potted up in equal parts of loam, peat moss, and leaf mold and grown on in the cool greenhouse.

To avoid rot, be sure the soil is porous and well drained.

Oriental Poppies (Papaver orientale)

A wide floral color range-from flashy hues to pastels-is offered by the Oriental poppy, a fine subject for both spring and fall sales. Plants can be grown from division to maturity in the cold frame. Popular varieties include White Splendor, pink Spring Morn, salmon-pink Perfection, deep red Claret, and pastel Raspberry Queen.

While they can also be started from seed, you will get better varieties more rapidly if you purchase some choice large plants and divide them for your stock. When you plant, dig holes about 3 inches deeper than the length of the roots. Hold plants in the hole so roots are upright with crowns about 3 inches below ground level. Fill in soil up to the crown’s level. Water well and then you can forget the plants until green leaves appear in fall. The larger the division, the sooner it will flower. Plant an 8-inch division in the fall and it will bloom the following spring.

You can also propagate these poppies from root cuttings which form leaves at the upper ends and roots at the lower ends. So save all the root trimmings (at least 3 inches long) from the divisions. They’ll produce small plants which you can also sell, though at a lower price than the big grown-on divisions.

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Pansies and Violas

Pansies and violas can be grown through their entire cycle in the cold frame. They are good sellers for chain stores, roadside markets, or potted singly in 2-inch pots as a specialty for Mother’s Day. Pansies are large and attractive, but the smaller-flowered violas bloom more profusely and for a longer season. Sow seeds in mid-July in flats of loose, rich soil. Protect the frames during winter. When days warm up in late March or early April, remove the protection. Both pansies and violas bloom soon after the ground thaws.

Hardy Cyclamen

Strictly a specialty, hardy cyclamens are closely related to Cyclamen indicum of the florists’ shops. They can be grown from seed sown in the cold frame in late September. It can be profitable to devote an entire frame to them, leaving them in it until they reach flowering size or selling them out of the frame before they reach maturity. When the weather warms up in spring, start watering and ventilating the planting. Cyclamens form minute underground tubers before showing top growth. As the leaves appear, shade from the sun.

Instead of growing them the whole year in the frame, you can plant them in 3-inch pots and plunge in a shady garden corner or set them in the lath house for the summer, returning them to the frame for wintering.

Primroses

Hardy primroses such as the orange-flowered Primula bulley-ana, yellow and red P. beesiana and alpine varieties, like the blue-purple P. denticulata and rosy-flowered P. cortusoides, can be grown from seed to maturity in the cold frame.

Sow from May to July in light soil, covering with about )i inch of sifted soil. Keep moist and shaded until germination occurs. As plants grow, pot them up in 2-inch pots of rich, humusy soil. For early spring sales, shift to 5-inch pots in September and grow on in a cool greenhouse. If you don’t want to give them greenhouse space, winter them over in the frame and pot them in 5-inch pots after the ground thaws and new growth shows. Primroses can also be sold from flats.

Delphiniums

Perennial-or biennial-delphiniums which flower the second year after planting, are prized for borders. The annual sorts which flower from seed the first year are not so popular. You can sell perennial delphiniums in large or small flats or offer them in Ferto-Pots or the newer Jiffy-Pots made of peat. The buyer can plant them pot and all in the garden and the pot will slowly disintegrate in the soil to let the roots come through.

Sow seed directly in a frame or in flats when the temperature is around 55 degrees, either spring or fall. Keep the soil well moistened during germinating and after seedlings appear. Protect the frames with mats during the winter. When growth shows in spring, water well, ventilate the frames, and give the plants an all-purpose fertilizer. Delphiniums like an alkaline or sweet soil. If you sow early in spring, give seedlings a light application of garden lime at least twice during the summer. Fall-planted seeds need liming the following spring.

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You can grow any plant to perfection in a properly regulated greenhouse, but there may be times when you need all of your greenhouse space for selected pot plants or other specialties. If you are faced with this predicament, grow your annuals, biennials, and perennials in cold frames, hotbeds, and lath houses. You can add to the efficiency of these setups by giving the plants growing in them the same timely care you give your greenhouse-grown plants. But, since it is easier to control temperature, light, and ventilation in the greenhouse you will have to give even more attention to these details when you grow plants in frames and lath houses.

How to use the cold frame?

You may want to grow plants directly in the cold frame. If so, scoop out 10 to 12 inches of the existing earth and replace it with about 4 inches of gravel or pea rock (to insure drainage) followed by good greenhouse soil filled in to within 6 to 12 inches of the sash-cover. Short-growing plants such as pansies, ground covers, and border plants should be planted in the front of the frame. Taller growing sorts, such as gilia, hollyhock, kniphofia should be planted at the back of the frame.

A better method is to make your original plantings in flats and place them inside the cold frame. These, of course, are portable and easily removed when you want to sell from them or bring them into the greenhouse for potting up. During the first warm days of spring, you will have to ventilate the frame by raising the sash-cover a crack or so in mid-morning and then more as the sun continues to heat the air in the frame. Close the top in mid- or late afternoon, just before the temperature starts to decline, to conserve the warmth.

During winter, in my area, the plants need no water. As spring advances, they need only a slight watering on warm sunny days. As in the greenhouse, this watering should be done in the morning so the plants are dried off before nightfall. In late spring and summer, it will be necessary to paint the glass with shading, or use wooden slatting to protect plants from direct sun. When the weather warms and seedlings have grown sturdy, start hardening them off by opening the frame wider each day or by replacing the glass top with lath.

Following are thumbnail sketches of some reliable moneymakers to grow in a cold frame.

Forget-Me-Nots (Myosotis sylvatica)

For Valentine’s Day, forget-me-nots are traditional. But they sell well all spring, in pots or flats. They are popular for planters, too, alone or with single or double-flowering pink, red or white wax begonias.

For growing in frames, plant the seed in July or August in flats of rich porous soil. Thin seedlings so they are spaced about 4 inches apart. They make rapid growth during cool fall days. Protect the frames with mats during winter. In late December, bring the flats into the cool greenhouse, water them and, when growth shows, pot the plants. They will be flowering and ready to sell for Valentine’s Day. If you prefer to sell them for spring bedding, leave them in the frame all winter. Then late in February or March, depending on your area, remove the mats from the frame to admit some light. In the North, plants will not need watering until late March or early April when you can sell directly from the large flats or, if you prefer, transplanted to smaller flats. (Of course, you can also grow forget-me-nots-from seed to finished plant -in the cool greenhouse.)

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Petunias

Petunias are among the best spring sellers. Hybridizers have done so much work on breeding diverse varieties that it is difficult to recognize the old petunia form in some of the new double beauties. Grow your petunias from the best seed you can obtain; it costs very little more than inferior seed and assures you petunias different enough to sell at a premium to gardeners in your community or to a retailer.

Sow petunia seed in mid-January for flowering plants by the first week in May. Transplant the seedlings to flats of average greenhouse soil, spacing them about 2 inches apart. They can be grown on and sold directly from these flats; or, as they crowd one another, you can pot some of them in 2- or 3-inch pots. Petunias do well in 65 to 75 degrees F. and can stand full sunlight. If growing them in pots be sure to check carefully for water; when the sunshine is bright they require watering nearly every day. If you are short of greenhouse room, shift your petunias to the cold frame as soon as hard frost no longer threatens. Aphids are their worst trouble, but in this case, too, mala-thion makes short work of the pests.

Lobelia

With its bright blue flowers, lobelia is a popular springtime seller. Sow the seed in March in fine moist soil. If kept at 60-degree temperatures, the seeds germinate rapidly and will be ready to shift into flats or pots in April. You can harden them off by placing them in the cold frame in April or you can grow them on in the greenhouse.

Flowering Tobacco

Nicotiana or flowering tobacco, a tender perennial, is usually treated as an annual and most northern gardeners replace it every year. The most popular form is 32-inch high affinis or Jasmine tobacco. This evening bloomer is deliciously scented. There is also a compact dwarf variety, White Bedder, which blooms in the daytime. Most of the rosy-red kinds are non-fragrant but some affinis hybrids in shades of rose, red, and crimson have a wonderful fragrance. Sow the seed in early March, cover with fine sand and germinate in 60-degree temperature. Plants will be ready for pots or flats in early April.

Salvia

Salvia, often called scarlet sage, comes in compact dwarf forms, also in taller varieties. Start the seeds in mid-February. Accord salvia the same treatment as lobelia. The salvia plants you sell in the spring will more than likely be minus flowers, but experienced gardeners will purchase these plants anyhow because they know that salvia will lend brilliant red to the garden later on. You may be able to increase sales by suggesting as companion plants to salvias some of the dusty millers (Senecio cineraria), artemisia, or centaurea. These plants have wonderful silvery foliage and make perfect complements to the red salvia flowers.

Display a few seed packets showing the bright red salvia flowers. This will give novice gardeners an idea of the color of the flowers. Indeed, with any of the small plants you sell from pots or flats it is always a good idea to have displayed near them a gaily colored seed packet or poster detailing their colors.

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Impatiens

Impatiens-often called patience, busy Lizzie, or touch-me-not-has a translucent stem. Leaves are green, reddish, or variegated green and white. These attractive little plants produce gay flowers of white, pink, red, or purple. Any friable soil, in 65-degree temperature, is well adapted to impatiens. Seed culture is much like that of coleus, and you can grow impatiens from seed to bloom in 6 months. Cuttings taken in January and rooted in any media will be ready for 2- or 3-inch pots by April. Thrips and aphids are the most bothersome pests and can easily be destroyed by malathion.

Iresine

Iresine (eye-re-sy’ne), known as blood-leaf or chicken gizzard plant, is a popular bedding, window box, or window garden plant and can be grown in full light in a 60-degree house. Propagation is generally by cuttings. Taken in January and rooted in light soil or other media, they will be ready for 2-inch pots by April, or can be left in the flats and sold directly from them. If you intend selling them from the flats, it is better to plant the cuttings directly into the soil. Foliage color deepens with 10-day applications of fish emulsion or soluble chemical fertilizer.

Control their enemies, thrips and aphids, with malathion.

Marigold

The brilliantly colored marigolds that grace nearly every garden can become a source of profit for the home greenhouse grower. Sow the seed in ordinary soil in late February. Pot up as growth indicates, and you will have salable plants by mid-May. If you want the extra greenhouse space, transfer the marigold flats to a cold frame or lath house once the danger of frost is over. In this way, they occupy space for only 6 to 8 weeks. A few more weeks in the cold frame and they are ready to be sold in the same flats they were grown in.

42, 43, 44, 45. Four ever-popular annuals that have a double sales appeal; they are beautiful to grow and to cut: French dwarf marigold Naughty Marietta (top left); Gypsophila elegans or annual babysbreath (top right); Centaurea cyanus or cornflower, also called Bachelor’s Button (bottom left); and Burpee’s Giant heat-resistant sweet peas. (Courtesy, Bodger Seeds, Ltd., and W. Atlee Burpee)

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Ageratum

The ever-popular ageratum, with its white or blue flowers, makes a splendid plant in flats or pots for counter sales. Plant the seeds in early February for salable plants in May. These grow best in a cool greenhouse with a temperature around 50 degrees. Transplant your seedlings when they get to be an inch or so high, spacing them about 2 inches apart. They will bud and bloom in these flats and can be sold directly in them. If you want to pot singly, do it before they begin crowding one another in the flat. Ageratum may be troubled by mealy bugs, aphids, and thrips. A malathion spray will control them all.

Alyssum

Although sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) is a tender perennial, it is treated in the north as an annual. It can be started in the 50-degree greenhouse. January seed-planting should assure salable plants in April. Culture approximates that of ageratum, and the sweet alyssum can be propagated by cuttings

38, 39, 40, 41. Four easy-to-grow and even easier-to-sell bedding plants: Swiss Giant pansy (top left); Crown Jewels petunia (top right); Snow-flake impatiens (bottom left); and Red Rainbow coleus. (Courtesy, Northrup-King & Co., W. Atlee Burpee Co., George W. Park Seed Co., and George J. Ball, Inc.)

and rooted in any growing media. If your greenhouse is crowded, move the flats of sweet alyssum to the cold frame as soon as danger of freezing is past.

Coleus

Coleus is one of America’s most popular bedding plants, but it is also used widely to add color to window boxes and dish gardens, or as a potted plant for window gardens. If you want a great variety in color and form, grow coleus from seed. Sprinkle the seed on light soil or other growing media in a flat or pan. Keep moistened and at a 70-degree temperature. Germination starts within a week. Some of the seedlings will be all-green; these should be discarded, for they are not desirable, lacking the good rich coloring most people want in their coleus. When the young plants begin to crowd each other, transplant individually into 2-inch pots, or plant them into flats of soil, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Seed planted in late January will give you sturdy colorful plants by early May.

If you already have desirable plants you can increase them by cuttings. It takes only 4 to 6 weeks to get established plants from cuttings. Minimum temperature for coleus is 60 degrees. They require no shade and will grow in any average greenhouse soil. In case you pot them, pay strict attention to watering-you’ll find they get very thirsty in small pots.

Eliminate mealy bugs-the chief insect enemy-with mala-thion spray; or if the greenhouse is a free-standing model not attached to your house, the more deadly parathion can be employed with good results. Use it with great care.

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