| Here are some great plants for brilliant | | | | Most terracing includes steps, ledges, or a |
| profits from your greenhouse: | | | | retaining wall of stone, brick, or cement. |
| | | | Often the retaining wall is not a complete |
| Pinks (Dianthus) | | | | one. It may be of slender stone slabs wedged |
| | | | into the soil with spaces left between the |
| Pinks, so easily grown, and in such a wide | | | | slabs. For the gardener who wantschoice, |
| variety of colors, are good plants for | | | | long-lasting material to add interest to any |
| terraces, bedding, or borders. There are | | | | of these terrace features, suggest that he |
| single and double kinds, many having a | | | | plant stone crops. |
| pungent, clove like scent. | | | | |
| | | | They have thick foliage in shades of gray, |
| Start seed in February in the cool | | | | green, and rose-tinted green; attractive |
| greenhouse. Make one transplanting to 2- or | | | | growth patterns (rosettes, fernlike spires, |
| 3-inch pots, or sell directly from the | | | | and slender trailing stems); a bonus of |
| flats.to purchase a mixture. From a mixture | | | | interesting flowers, and the ability to grow |
| you will get shades of light lilac, rose, | | | | in poor soil. |
| pink, and red. | | | | |
| | | | You can grow these from seed, giving them the |
| Low-growing Dianthus deltoides has pretty | | | | same culture recommended for cactus (page |
| small pink, scarlet, or white flowers with | | | | 191). However, the plants of most varieties |
| little fragrance. These, too, flower the | | | | are reasonably priced and the owner of a |
| second year. | | | | small greenhouse may find it more profitable |
| | | | to purchase them in lots of 50 or 100 and |
| China pinks (Dianthus chinensis), the rainbow | | | | retail them. Among my favorite sedums are S. |
| or annual pinks, grow rapidly from seeds sown | | | | acre, S. album, S. reflexum chameleon, and S. |
| in March and grown in the cold greenhouse. | | | | spurium. |
| Pot and sell from 2- or 3-inch pots or | | | | |
| directly from flats. They are not fragrant | | | | Hen-and-chickens is one of the most popular |
| but their single and double flowers in a wide | | | | sempervivums. This one, a low-growing |
| variety of colors make up for lack of | | | | gray-green rosette, sends out tiny plants in |
| fragrance, and they bloom from seed the first | | | | such abundance it would seem, indeed, to be |
| year. | | | | an old mother hen and her chicks. Cobweb is |
| | | | another attractive sem-pervivum. Gray-green, |
| Fragrant-flowered Dianthus grenadina | | | | hairy leaves joined together by a lacy web, |
| resembles the florist carnation and will | | | | plus red flowers, make this an excellent |
| produce flowers from seed the first year but | | | | choice for the terrace. |
| is not hardy in northern gardens. | | | | |
| | | | Tuberous Begonias |
| Ranunculus | | | | |
| | | | You can't beat tuberous-rooted begonias for |
| These daintily flowered creepers make | | | | growing in shady areas of the terrace. It's |
| splendid terrace plants. The small double | | | | easy to see why they are called mocking-bird |
| flowers are in shades of yellow. Ranunculus | | | | flower, for the blossoms come in shapes |
| asiaticus, tuberous rooted, is one of the | | | | resembling roses, gardenias, camellias, and |
| best. Although it can be propagated by seed, | | | | carnations. The colors are gorgeous, |
| the tubers are plentiful and low priced. Pot | | | | including pure white, all shades of yellow |
| the tubers in early January, several to a | | | | and orange, pink, rose, and red. |
| 7-inch bulb pan or flat of soil. Tubers | | | | |
| should be planted about 1 inch below the soil | | | | If this is your first year with tuberous |
| surface. Grow them in the cool greenhouse, or | | | | begonias, you may want to start by offering |
| cold frame. When strong new growth shows, pot | | | | mature tubers, started in pots. The tubers |
| them in 2- or 3-inch pots of soil. | | | | are reasonably priced-the domestics from |
| | | | California cost more than the imports, but |
| Stonecrops-Sedutn and Sempervivum | | | | they're usually larger and firmer. |
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