Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1874 — FLORICULTURE.—THE PETUNIA. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FLORICULTURE. — THE PETUNIA.

In Jasper county floriculture or' the cultivation of flowers is in its infancy. Until within a few years people have been more in- | tercstcd in making homes than they were in beautifying them. Secure a

shelter first, make a home afterwards, was their motto; and they di-d not seem to care about adorning their premises with the cheap but effective means of flowers, shrubbery and ornamental plants. All who admire the beautiful in nature (and wliat person does not?) must be glad to see the rapid development of taste in this direction among farmers’ families and others, within four or five years.

The ploiuGr settlers of this country found its groves ant}, prairies lavishly decked with brilliant flowers, both annual and perennial, of many kinds and in great diversity of form and color, which bloomed profusely from about the middle of April until October frdsts had destroyed vegetation and falling snowflakes heralded the approach of \ winter. Many varieties numerous then are rarely seen now, while ! others, no doubt, liave disappeared entirely ; being destroyed by fire, by | the trampling and feeding of stock, by the changes in the nature and condition of the soil resulting from drainage, or they have been choked out ly hardier grasses. Still many kinds remain to adorn waste places and make them glad; and the native flora of this region is a rich field for students in botany, even should their studies be limited to individuals of the more conspicuous families. Where can be found more exquisitely delicate beauties than the millions of auemonies that in early'spring carpet groves and prairieland ? or the modest violet, several species of which abound—-pearly while, golden yellow, cerulean blue and deepest violet—upon the summits of. sterile sand ridges, over intervening prairie, and down to the I water verge of marshes? or what garden boasts more gorgeous beds j than those patches of yellow sunflowers, white and crimson-pink phloxes, velvety scarlet lobelias or cardinal-flowers, and sky-blue gentians, which cover, each in its chosen season, large tracts of prairie? Then thereis the curious lady’s slipper, moeeaspn-flower, or cypr\pedium of botanists i —white, yellow, or purplish-peach—that grows on dry sandridges and j low mucky ground in woodland and prairie; two colors of sundial,' (lupine,) with long pyramidal racemes of showy bean-like flowers; grace- j‘ tu 1 orange and dark-spotted litlies, some with single cup* opening i upwards to receive the blessed sunlight and dews of heaven, others with two, three, half a dozen or more Turk’s caps opening downward and their petals recurved one-half their length; and many other varieties of flowers equally numerous and equally showy might be mentioned was there space. But all are gradually disappearing as the country is settled up and the lands are cultivated or pastured. It seems almost vandalism for this wealth ol beauty to he destroyed without replacing it in some man ner. It may be replaced to a certain extent with comparatively small cost of money, time, or trouble, by laying out grounds in beds, which may be kprciful in design or plain according to taste, and planting in them the popular though not more fail- flowers of gardens and conservatories. In Europe, in the older settled portions of the United States, and in the vicinity of cities and large towns, people devote a great deal of attention to this department of home adornment, „It is a praiseworthy employment, and indicates a degree of refinement very flattering to those who spend a portion, of their leisure moments in collecting about them the choicer and more delicate creations Of nature! Every farmer should encourage his children, especially his daughters, j to develop a taste for the cultivation of flowers. Every home in towns j and villages should have its flower plat out doors, and its pots or boxes | of flowers and ornamental .plants in the house. It is tar better employ- ■ ment to cultivate these things than to retail gossip or listen to scandal. ! Satan ikips fingers *liat pull weeds and work among the pinks and lillies. ! —East reason tire floral display at the county lair was larger and much j better than that of the previous year, ami many fine plants were exhib-1 ited. In the collection of annuals and house-plants shown by Mrs. | Alfred Thompson, were specimens equal to the best ever grown ; while Mr. Nagel’s roses wore gems that would attract attention anywhere.— j Everybody admired them, and no doubt many resolved to cultivate a tew | flowers this season who had never given them a thought before. - At the introduction of this article is a cut of a double petunia, and 1 also a smaller representation showing the natural habit or manner of growth of the plant. This popular annual has been developed to a high state of perfection, within the last dozen years, by careiul cultivation. Its name is from pelun, an aboriginal name ol tobacco. Botanists class the petunia with the tSolanaca: or nightshade family, which also includes the potato, the tomato, tobacco and the several kinds of Cayenne or red pepper. They describe it in its natural state as having a “calyx with somewhat narrow spatulate lobes much longer than the tube; corolla white, violet-purple, or rose-red, funnel-formed or somewhat salver-1 shaped, the five-lobed border commonly a little unequal; stamens included in the tube, unequal; pod two-celled, two valved; herbage clammypubescent; flowers large and showy, in summer.” Florists and the eminent American botanist Professor Asa Gray say its native home is ■South America, where it grows in great profusion, particularly along j the Amazon.and its tributaries in Brazil. Petunias also grow wild in j this county, being found on those nooks of prairie that run up into the timber and form little bays, as it were, sheltered from winds; and some have thought them indigenous to the locality. In their wild state here there are two varieties ; one kind produces* flowers of a dusky blueishraagenta hue fading.out lighter as they become old, and the other kind bears a flower of lighter shade bordering on lilac. When cultivated petunias produce flowers in as many as eight or nine distinct shades of color, including white, carmine, bright deep crimson, dark red, deep rose, deep lilac, purple, and violet, together with combinations of white and green, red and green, and modified shades of all these colors pure, blotched, spotted, striped, marbled, veined, etc. Some of the flowers are quite large, attaining a diameter of five or six inches; they are also agreeably fragrailt, particularly those of the white variety. On the dark prairie loam of this county the petunia grows with great vigor, so much so as to partially modify its habit and it becomes semi-procum-bent or somewhat trailing, and may he trained to low trellises, when its \ dark greeu foliage forms an effective background to its flowers. It is a j hardy plant, and a profuse bloomer. Seed may be sown in the fall where plants are wanted to grow, or they may be started now in hotbed or in boxes in the house, or they may be planted in the open ground as soon as it is fit to work and in either case they will produce plants that will commence blooming from the 20th ol June to the middle of July and continue to flower until the ground freezes in the fall, when they may be taken up and potted, florists say, tor blooming in the house. Double petunias are an artificial production, the result of careful cultivation, and a,re not so robust as the single ones. They require extra care, but this is not considered a serious obstacle by the amateur of only a moderate degree of enthusiasm, as it only adds to his enjoyment; the rule holding good in floriculture as well as everywhere else that j objects increase in value in proportion to their scarcity, their perfection, and the labor necessary to attain perfection. Tbe best and most valuable horses, cattle or hogs are not those taken in a wild state, but are those that have been carefully bred;. and constant care is necessary to prevent deterioration. It is so with flowers ; the parents of many gems in cultivation were little better than weeds in their natural condition, and if neglected now they speedily relapse into barbarism. Beginners are not advised to experiment with the finer and more delicate species of flowers first. Better try your hands on the hardier kinds, and gradually reach the more costly ones as experience is gained. Halt a dozen sorts are enough to begin with; and wiil make a constant, beauiful show, if judiciously selected and well cared for. Among the plants recommended for tyros in floriculture the petunia has prominent 'place and is desirable in every collection of annuals, being hardy, showy, and a profuse bloomer. Its cultivation is very simple, and may be explicitly told ill six words: hoe, and keep free of weeds. This article will be followed in future issues of This Union by short •descriptive sketches of some of the easily cultivated, brilliant annuhls that ought to be more frequently seen in this county. For the cut. which illustrates this article, we are under 1 obligations to the generosity of Mr. James Vick, Florist, Rochester, N. Y., whose flower and gardeji seeds are the choicest, and whose Floral Guide is a repository of information indispensable to those who cultivate flo wers,