THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



51 



vised for small offsets, and as they 

 advance pot them into larger pots, 

 and use the compost recommended 

 for specimens. 



These notes will enable any one 

 to make a fair beginning in the culture 

 of florists' polyauthuses. The subject 

 will be resumed in order to treat at 

 proper length of pot culture, exhibi- 

 tion, the merits of varieties, and other 

 subjects which may interest the more 

 advanced florist. In the meantime, 

 the following list of twenty-four of the 

 cheapest varieties, all of them good, 

 may be useful : — 



Pearson's Alexander. 



Maud's Beauty of England. 



Faulkner's Black Prince. 



Sander's Cheshire Favourite. 



Timmil's Defiance. 



Fletcher's Defiance. 

 Madder's Delight. 

 Hufton's Earl of Lincoln. 

 Cronshaw's Exile. 

 Brown's Free Bloomer. 

 Buck's George IV. 

 Nicholson's Gold Lace. 

 Craiggy's Highland Mary. 

 Eckersley's Jolly Dragoon. 

 Nicholson's King. 

 Willison's Lady Milner. 

 Hufton's Lord Rancliffe. 

 Park's Lord Nelson. 

 Cox's Prince Regent. 

 Collier's Princess Royal. 

 Fillingbam's Taniarara. 

 Stead's Telegraph. 

 Hartley's Volunteer. 

 Summerseale's Warrior. 



Fido Fides. 



ANNUALS FOR BORDERS AND MASSES. 



The following is a list of the most 

 fihowy and lasting of hardy annuals 

 adapted for sowing in clumps, in the 

 borders, and for making brilliant 

 ribbon lines and masses in beds. In 

 describing them as " lasting " it must 

 be remembered that the term is used 

 in a comparative sense only. There 

 are very few annuals that last long, 

 yet, while they last, some of them are 

 so brilliantly and distinctly coloured 

 that they cannot be surpassed. Where 

 there are no means of raising or pre- 

 serving greenhouse bedding plants, 

 and the expense of purchasing an- 

 nually is a matter of some importance, 

 it only needs a little forethought and 

 perseverance on the part of the ama- 

 teur to ensure a continuous and abso- 

 lutely gorgeous display. To make it 

 continuous, there must be measures 

 adopted for a succession of flowers ; 

 there must be several sowings of seed 

 during the season, and in fact the 

 whole affair must be reduced to sys- 

 tem, or the blanks left after the first 

 bloom is over w ill appear all the more 

 dreary, through the display which has 

 just come to an end. The adage 

 about going up like a rocket aud 

 coming down like a stick is illustrated 

 every year in thousands of gardens 

 where one sowing only is made of 

 annuals, for these, after appearing 



splendid for a while, are apt to become 

 a seedy and weedy mess during the 

 months of July and August, when the 

 garden should be at its brightest ; and 

 in fact it is this natural tendency of 

 annuals, or, as the pedants say, their 

 fugaciousness, which gives the victory 

 at last to geraniums, verbenas, and 

 the like, people preferring the one 

 trouble for all,. rather than be at the 

 pains to provide themselves with a 

 succession of flowers by several sow- 

 ings of annuals. But the amateur 

 will ask, how is it to be done ? Re- 

 ference to former issues of the Floral 

 World will afford abundant infor- 

 mation on what may be called the 

 "rotation system" of cultivating an- 

 nuals. But suppose I take an example. 

 Last year at this time I sowed a broad 

 circle of seventy feet circumference, 

 which forms the outer margin of a 

 clump of rhododendrons, with a 

 shilling packet of Barr and Sugden's 

 scarlet strain of Tom Thumb Tro- 

 pajolum. When up, the plants were 

 thinned to eight inches apart. The 

 plants met, and formed a solid band 

 of vegetation, and in due time 

 flowered, forming a ring of intensest 

 orange scarlet, almost solid with 

 colour, four feet broad and seventy 

 feet round. It was a magnificent eight, 

 but it was soon over. The rocket 



