On light, friable land, Ten-week Stocks can be successfully grown from sowings made in the open about the end of April.  The character of the season must be some guide to the time chosen, and the sowing in this case should be rather thicker than in the seed-pans.  Should the seed germinate well, severe thinning will have to be practised as growth demands.  This method of culture entirely prevents loss by mildew, which so often proves fatal to young transplanted seedlings.  It is difficult to make the soil too good for them, and there is no comparison between Stocks grown on a poor border and those grown in luxuriance.  Some growers make a little trench for each row of seed, and this affords a certain degree of protection from cutting winds, and also forms a channel for water when there is a necessity for administering it.  In a showery season, the plants will appear in about twelve days, but in dry weather it will be longer, and one or more gentle morning waterings may be necessary to bring them up.  The distance between the rows must be determined by the variety.  Nine inches is sufficient for the dwarf sorts; twelve or fifteen inches will not be too much for medium and tall kinds.

Slugs may be kept off by a dusting of soot or wood-ashes, and some precaution must also be adopted to prevent birds from disturbing the seed-bed.

Here it may be well to mention a fact which is not always remembered, although the knowledge of it is generally assumed.  Seed can only be saved from single flowers, but those who have made a study of the business find little difficulty in selecting plants, and treating them in such a manner that seed obtained from them will produce a large percentage of double blossoms in the following generation.  But the experience of the most skilled growers has not enabled them to save seed which will result entirely in double-flowering plants; and this is scarcely to be regretted, for the perpetuation of the race is dependent on single flowers.  In keeping the various colours true there is one very awkward fact.  Certain sorts invariably produce a difference in colour between the double and single flowers.

==Intermediate Stocks== form a valuable succession to the Summer-flowering, or Ten-week varieties.  From seed sown in gentle heat in February or March, the plants usually commence flowering when the earlier varieties are beginning to fade, and will continue to bloom until winter sets in.  It is also easy to grow the Intermediate section in pots for spring decoration, if the protection of a house or pit can be given during the winter to preserve them from frost.  A simple plan is to sow in August or early in September five or six seeds in 48-sized pots.  Thin to three plants in each, and of course a larger pot with more plants can be used when desirable.  Give air whenever possible, and water regularly.  There is no need for artificial heat; indeed, it is not well to hurry the plants in any way.  A good top-dressing of rich soil is advisable before flowering, and as the buds appear, manure water, weak at first, but gradually increased in strength, may be given once a week until in full bloom.