Alpines for the rock garden and Sweet violets

Alpines and other rock-garden plants are always a good selection for the cool greenhouse. Many of these can be grown from seed which costs only a few cents per package. Seeds of rarer sorts are naturally more expensive, but the finished plants bring correspondingly better prices. Investigate your local market before you go in heavily for alpinesunless you are willing to sell them mail order.

Spring is the best time for seed planting. Use light soil, such as equal parts of leafmold and sand for the bulb pans or flats. Shade the seedlings from strong light and pot them up as soon as they are strong enough to handle successfully. Grow them in a cool house.

Dwarf campanulas, Aster alpinus, alpine pinks, small-flowered platycodon species, and white- and red-flowered silene are but a few of the many interesting rock-garden plants that can be sold.

Sweet violets

Dainty and fragrant sweet violets (Viola odorata) are traditional favorites as cut flowers, especially in nosegays. The flowers are produced mostly under glass in the East. However, the plants grow and bloom beautifully in lath houses. California with its long growing season provides optimum growing conditions for these salable plants.

Violets are propagated by dividing the runners into cuttings. All leaves are removed and the cuttings inserted into sterilized sand. The cuttings rot easily so it’s wise to give them a before-planting treatment of Fermate touched to the cut areas. Cuttings taken in March will start flowering in early fall and continue to flower until the following March or April. Since violets produce more flowers under low temperatures (40 to 50 degrees), and need dense shading during the summer, they are ideal plants for growing in California lath houses. With a minimum of protection, they can be grown throughout the winter in the lath house. During the winter months the addition of plastic covering to the lath house would be good protection for this crop.

If you live in the North and want to grow violets for sale, start the cuttings in the cool greenhouse or in the hotbed with gentle bottom heat (no higher than 55 degrees). Grow them during the summer in pots, flats, or beds in the lath house, and in the late fall, just before freezing, move them to the cool greenhouse.

Violets make first-rate material for corsages and they’re especially good sellers for Valentine’s Day and Easter.

During the winter they need little water, but when in active growth, they grow best if the soil is always moist.

Tags: home greenhouse

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