216 THE FLOWER-GARDEN. [CHAP. VIII. 



planted in the open ground till May. When 

 they have been raised in pots, the contents of 

 each pot should be carefully turned out, and put 

 into a hole made to receive them without break- 

 ing the ball of earth that has formed round the 

 roots of the plants. As some plants, for example 

 stocks and all the Cruciferae. require a rich soil, 

 a pit may be dug in the border a foot or eighteen 

 inches in diameter, and about the same depth, 

 and filled with a rich compost of equal parts of 

 garden mould, decayed leaves, and well-rotted 

 manure, or, what is much better, with the re- 

 mains of the trenches in which celery was 

 grown the preceding summer. The pit should 

 be filled with this compost, so as to raise it 

 about six inches higher than the rest of the 

 border, to allow for the new earth sinking, and 

 the annuals should be planted in the centre, and 

 carefully shaded for a few days by a flower-pot 

 beinsf turned over them. The mode of making: 

 and managing a hotbed has been already given 

 in the second chapter of this work ; but the 

 readiest way for the inhabitant of a suburban 

 villa to obtain half-hardy annuals is, to purchase 

 them from some nurseryman when ready for 

 transplanting. The usual price is from two- 

 pence to fourpence for a dozen plants; and thus, 

 for a couple of shillings, a sufficient number of 

 plants may be procured to make a splendid dis- 

 play in a small garden for a whole summer. 

 No one should, indeed, attempt to manage a 

 hotbed, who has not some person to pay con- 

 stant attention to it ; as one day's neglect re- 

 specting giving air, watering, &c, will some- 

 times destroy the hopes of a season. 



