348 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



there is a blaze of flower, and all the annuals are rapidly 

 aiding the general bloom. All the colours are plentiful, and 

 if the place were extended to thrice its size, we feel that 

 we could lin it. JS'or does the next month find us in any 

 difficulty for subjects in flower. The perennials take the 

 ascendant as to beauty, the carnation and picotee, forming, 

 themselves, a most gorgeous and most delicate subject. The 

 Balsams, among the annuals, are now in perfection ; the 

 China aster, and many other subjects, being gay. The 

 Delphinium grandiflora, •\\T.th its dazzling rich blue flower, 

 towers above the ordinary annuals, and is, for its time, the 

 most striking subject in the place. The hollyhock plays its 

 part for two months nearly, and before that is done with, the 

 dahlia begins. And we know of no better way of regulating 

 a garden to be thus supplied, than by cultivating all things 

 in the nursery-garden at their proper season, and, when they 

 will bear it, in successive seasons ; and as soon as one set of 

 subjects in the show-garden becomes shabby, to replace it 

 with another, carefully removing the defunct, with a spit of 

 earth, to the place where the new subject is to be obtained. 

 If the defunct plant be worth keeping, let it take the place ; 

 if it is an annual or biennial, and is useless, let the earth 

 only be placed there, and the plants be thrown to the dung- 

 hilL We have given a hst of the annuals to be depended on 

 as the chief ; we have been guided by their properties ; they 

 are the best in cultivation, although there are many more 

 which bear a seed-shop reputation. But, in estimating all 

 annuals, perennials, or other plants, in the open air, we have 

 some guiding properties, without which we value them not. 

 First, we want quantity of bloom ; next, length of bloom ; 

 lastly, brilHance or denseness of colour. The only exception 

 to these quahties is the mignonette, which we take for its 

 fragrance. The perennials most valued must have some one 

 of these qualities, though there is one which " covereth a 

 multitude " of faults — the season of bloom. If we could find 

 subjects fuh of blemishes which bloom in December and 

 January, we should make room for them, however we require 

 a choice from the following : — 



Crocus ; white, blue, and yellow ; six inches. 



Hyacinths ; white, blue, red, and straw-colour ; nine to 

 twelve inches. 



Jonquils ; yellow ; nine to twelve inches. 



