==Pelargonium==

==Greenhouse perennial==

All kinds of Pelargonium may be raised from seed with the certainty of giving satisfaction if the work be well done.  An amateur, who contributed to the production of symmetrical flowers in the Zonal section, found that under ordinary treatment Zonals began to bloom in one hundred days from the date of sowing the seed, and some of those that flowered earliest proved to be the finest.  The cultivator will soon discover that one rule is important, and that is to sow seed saved from really good strains.  The simplest greenhouse culture suffices to raise Pelargoniums from seed.  Some growers sow in July or August; others in January or February.  The summer sowing necessitates careful winter keeping, and the flowers appear earlier than those from spring-sown seed.  But the spring sowing is the easier to manage, and is recommended to all beginners.  Any light, sandy loam will serve for these plants, and it is well to flower the principal bulk of them in 48-and 32-sized pots, for if grown to a great size the date of flowering is deferred without any corresponding advantage.

==Pentstemon==

==Hardy perennial==

Penstemons when grown as half-hardy annuals are a valuable addition to beds and borders, where they produce a brilliant effect in summer.  In borders it is not advisable to plant singly, but they should be employed in groups of not less than one dozen.  It is also important to sow a strain consisting principally of scarlet and pink shades with white markings, as well as white flowers; under fair conditions there will be a profusion of richly coloured blooms on stately spikes about two feet high.  Sow in heat during February or March and plant out in genial weather.  It is not necessary to keep them after flowering has finished, although seedling Pentstemons on comparatively dry soil in favourable districts scarcely feel the winter.  Seed may also be sown in June, in the manner usual with hardy perennials, and the plants will bloom in advance of those which are spring-sown.

==Petunia==

==Half-hardy perennial==

The Petunia affords another example of the immense strides accomplished in the art of seed-saving.  Formerly the colours were few, and the blossoms comparatively insignificant.  Now the single strains produce large flowers, beautiful in form, including self colours and others which are striped, blotched, and veined, in almost endless diversity.  Some are plain-edged, others elegantly fringed.  The double varieties also come so nearly true to their types that there is little necessity for keeping a stock through the winter.  Plants raised from seed of the large-flowered strain embrace a wide range of resplendent colours, and the doubles are perfect rosettes, exquisitely finished in form and marking.

The only way of obtaining double seedlings is to save seed from the finest single blooms fertilised with pollen of good double flowers.  Plants raised from such seed may be relied on to produce a fair proportion of double flowers of great beauty, and those which come single will be of the large-flowered type.