238 THE COMPLETE GARDEN 



of interesting bloom and to make an interesting garden picture, either 

 as masses of colour or spots of colour, is a different garden from the 

 so-called cut-flower garden, from which the flowers, as soon as they 

 mature, are apt to be cut and used for table decoration. The best 

 success in garden development is obtained when a clear-cut line is 

 drawn between the so-called cut-flower garden and the flower garden 

 as a piece of landscape design. There is nothing more discouraging 

 to the expert designer than to see masses of flowers at the height of their 

 bloom, and at a time when they should be most effective in the garden 

 design, deliberately cut for table use and a resulting criticism ex- 

 tended that the garden is not a success because it has no flowers. 

 This discussion applies equally well to a garden filled with perennials 

 and to a garden filled with annuals. A garden should be, if space 

 permits, either for one purpose or for the other, and if a space is desired 

 where cut flowers may be obtained, then a separate garden should be 

 provided from which flowers may be cut as soon as they have matured. 



There are many interesting questions concerning the use of annuals. 

 Perhaps the most interesting group of annuals is that containing the 

 plants which are valuable for cut flowers, such as the larkspur, mari- 

 gold, snapdragon, Mexican poppy, and nasturtium. These plants 

 to be most successful for cut flowers should be in rows for purposes of 

 cultivation, and given ample space to develop fully. Most of them, 

 as with the other annuals which have early flowers, are sown in the 

 seed beds in mid-February and early March or in the hot frames during 

 the last of March and early April and later transplanted. Most of the 

 annuals can be sown in the open ground during the last of April and 

 early May, but the flowering season is apt to be much shorter because 

 the flowers mature at a later date. 



There is a group of annuals which are extremely desirable as ground 

 cover and edgings. They are plants which, when sown thin in the 

 open ground, need not necessarily be thinned out although an in- 

 telligent thinning is better. These annuals form beautiful edgings 

 to the flower borders and fill many otherwise bare spaces in the front 

 of the lower annual plantings. 



There is a group of annuals which should preferably be sown in the 

 open ground where they are to bloom, and which should be thinned 

 out to the proper spacing between plants as the small plants develop. 

 These annuals are difficult to transplant successfully, and include such 

 types as baby's breath, lupin, nasturtium, cornflower, and poppy. 



