168 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



and earth twice more at intervals of three weeks. There are very 

 few annuals but will carry a respectable appearance until the 

 end of the season if so treated. In nineteen cases out of twenty the 

 annuals are allowed to exhaust themselves by maturing a lot of seeds, 

 the produce of their first flowers, and as that completes the part 

 which nature has allotted them in the vegetable creation, they are 

 necessarily short-lived. But remove their seed vessels immediately 

 they are formed, and they will make a fresh growth, and conse- 

 quently produce some more flowers. The application of the water 

 and earth as above recommended, will favour root action, so that 

 they will go on growing and flowering in proportion to the amount 

 of attention given them. Those who say that such annuals as 

 Larkspurs, Balsams, Phlox Drummondii, Marigolds, Clarkias, and 

 Collinsias, etc., etc., are of short duration in flower, are only those 

 who have grown them like hundreds of others, without paying anv 

 attention to them. There are days and weeks spent in picking over 

 the beds of the favourite bedding plants, while a tithe of the same 

 trouble would be grudgingly given to a bed of annuals, though quite 

 as wortby of the care as any other plants. I do not write to find 

 fault with those who delight in bedding plants, I only want to show 

 the rock on which the grower of annuals may be wrecked if the look 

 out be faulty. A bed of geraniums will no more maintain a 

 respectable appearance without attention, than will a bed of balsams. 

 I therefore have a right to claim the same amount of attention for 

 my favourites as is devoted to the others. 



As hot weather usually occurs about this time, the reader must 

 see that nothing is suffering for the want of water in the beds and 

 borders. Alpine and rock plants on blocks and other dry positions 

 sometimes suffer for the want of moisture. Water them carefully, 

 so as not to wash away the soil from their roots. Although I do not 

 like to see anything suffer for the want of water, I am no advocate 

 for the daily dribblings which lady gardeners are in the habit of 

 giving. Water well at once or not at all. That is the only safe 

 method of watering, and when it is at all practicable, sprinkle some 

 dry earth over every spot that has been watered. This will prevent 

 the water being evaporated when the sun comes out the next 

 morning. By this precaution the roots have the benefit of all that 

 is given them. Newly planted ferns must be looked to this month, 

 if the weather is at all dry, and well watered ; when they are 

 established in a shady position they are able to take care of 

 themselves. 



Creepers planted against the house or other similar positions, 

 frequently fail, even in damp weather, often owing to an overhanging 

 roof, or by the position of the wall or fence, the rain is not able to 

 reach their roots, so that they get no more moisture than is given 

 them by hand. Our friends must have an eye to this, or disappoint- 

 ment will be the result. Attention to such small matters as these 

 insures success. Public writers are sometimes accused of mis- 

 leading their readers, when the readers themselves are to blame, 

 because they will not take the trouble of seeing their directions 

 properly carried out. 



