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THE CULTIVATION OF ANNUAL FLOWEES. 



SECTION I. — HARDY ANNUALS. 



Introduction. — The term " annual" is 

 applied to those plants which flower and 

 ripen their fruit the same season they are 

 sown, and then perish. This definition is 

 in no way affected by the fact that many 

 annuals may be treated as biennial, or, iu 

 other words, be sown in autumn for flower- 

 ing early the following season. By hardy 

 annuals are usually understood those which 

 require no artificial heat at any period of 

 their growth ; every stage of their develop- 

 ment, from germination to the ripening of | 

 the seed, being passed in the open ground ; 

 whilst the term half-hardy is applied to j 

 those species which will flower — and often j 

 ripen their seed — in the open air, but need j 

 the assistance of artificial heat in the earlier 

 stages of their growth. 



Soils most Suitable. — In soils of a 

 porous, sandy texture, a much greater num- 

 ber of sorts of seed may be committed to 

 the open ground than in those of a heavy, 

 retentive character ; and many annuals, 

 among those commonly termed half-hardy, 

 only require to be treated as such when 

 sown at an early period of the spring. It 

 will be evident, therefore, that no classifi- 

 cation of annuals could be given which 

 would be strictly applicable to every lo- 

 cality, nor even which should hold good 

 for all places in the same county. Perhaps 

 the soil best suited to a majority of the 

 annuals — and, we might add, of plants in 

 general — is a light, friable loam, contain- 

 ing a moderate amount of vegetable matter, 

 and sufficient sand to render it porous ; 

 but as it rarely happens that the amateur 

 has much choice of soil, it is fortunate that 

 most of them will succeed in any but such 

 as is of an extremely dry, sandy, or calca- 

 reous nature, or of a stiff, heavy, retentive 

 character. 



Manures. — The use of strong, crude 

 manures of an animal nature should be 

 carefully avoided. In ordinarily good soil, 

 an annual dressing of leaf-mould, decayed 

 turves, or thoroughly-rotten manure, in 

 quantities proportioned to the require- 

 ments of the soil, dug in to the depth of a 

 few inches, will be all that is requisite. 



Time of Sowing. — With regard to the 

 proper season for so whig the hardy annuals, 

 much necessarily depends on the character 

 of the season. Of late years the springs 

 have been so unfavourable, that many of 

 the early-sown seedlings have perished 

 under the combined influence of frost and 

 wet, or the scarcely less destructive agency 



of bright sunshine, drought, and cutting 

 east winds. As a general rule, the first 

 sowings of this class may be made about 

 the middle of March ; — we doubt if any 

 real advantage is gained by committing the 

 seeds to the ground at an earlier period, 

 for even should the weather chance to be 

 sufficiently mild and open to permit of 

 their being sown in February, no reliance 

 can be placed on its continuance. 



Mode oe Sowing. — As a general rule, 

 the surface-soil should be rather dry than 

 otherwise at the moment of sowing, and 

 the operation should never be undertaken 

 when the ground is very wet, especially 

 at an early period of the spring. In the 

 case of seeds of moderate size, the surface- 

 soil may be scraped aside with the edge of 

 a trowel to the depth of a quarter of au 

 inch, and around the circumference of the 

 slight hollow thus made, the seeds be 

 thinly strewn, the soil being then returned 

 and pressed flat with the back of the spade 

 or trowel. If the soil be of an adhesive 

 nature, the pressure should be slight, or 

 the surface will cake. It will be better, in 

 this case, to cover the seeds with a little 

 sandy loam, or other friable soil, instead 

 of that of the border where the sowing is 

 made. 



The depth at which the seeds are sown 

 will vary with their size. Large seeds, 

 such as those of the Lupin, may be half 

 an inch deep ; while such as are very small 

 require to be sown on the actual surface, a 

 slight pressure being then sufficient to im- 

 bed them to a proper depth. For the ma- 

 jority of seeds, a very thin covering suf- 

 fices ; if sown too deep, they are longer in 

 germinating, and the smaller ones are liable 

 to decay. It sometimes insures a more 

 even distribution of very small seeds, such 

 as those of campanulas, Wahlenbergias, 

 etc., if they are intimately mixed before 

 sowing with a little fine dry soil, the mix- 

 ture being sown the same way as seeds. 

 Woolly seeds, as anemone, which adhere 

 to each other, should be rubbed with a 

 little fine sand, or ashes, which will gene- 

 rally separate them. 



With a view to facilitate the vegeta- 

 tion of the seeds, it is often desirable to 

 cover the patches for a few days, either 

 with an inverted flower-pot, or, if the 

 patches are large, with a few furze bushes. 



Transplanting. — As soon as the seed- 

 lings are an inch high, such of the patches 

 as are too thick should be carefully thinned 

 out, especially about the centre of the tuft. 



