SLIPPERWORT
Family SCROPHULARIACEAE
Calceolaria species
Annual
A genus containing some half-hardy perennials
and annuals native to Mexico or Chile.
The large pouch-flowered hybrids are suitable
only for greenhouse cultivation as pot-grown specimens,
those for the open border being smaller flowered
but worthy members of the genus.
C. alba, from Chile, has linear, slightly toothed
leaves about two inches long, and is of a shrubby
habit; the flowers are about half an inch long
and a little less across and clear white, several
being borne on slender one-foot stems.
C. mexicana is an annual and has hairy, lobed
leaves and reaches a foot in height with pale
yellow flowers, of a similar size to those of
C. alba.
Seed should be sown under glass in heat, 60º
to 65º during March and the seedlings pricked
off into pots or boxes and planted out in their
flowering positions in late May or early June.
A sheltered sunny position in well-drained, humus-rich
soil should be provided for them.
Propagation is from seed or cuttings of the shrubby
species.
The flowering season is from midsummer until frost.
See also Calceolaria
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