CHAPTER XII 

 THE BEST USES OF ANNUALS 



BEST of all the uses of annuals is the most natural 

 one the employment of them to fill any spaces 

 that hardy plants leave in the garden. Then, if the 

 planting be naturalistic, the flower colony looks 

 as though it had sprung up spontaneously. 



No one can be said really to know annuals who 

 has not seen them in such plantings. Barring a 

 few of the very stiff ones, they take on a grace 1 

 and beauty a final touch of both that is lacking 

 in the formality of set designs. It is the differ- 

 ence between the irregularity of a dazzling patch 

 of corn poppies in an English field and a circle, 

 square or triangle of the same flowers cut out of 

 a patch and removed where there is no more of 

 the kind. 



Annuals thus employed are invaluable to the 

 hardy garden and borders. Even in the best regu- 

 lated families, hardy plants cannot always be made 

 to cover every inch of the ground unless they have 

 evergreen foliage then there may be perishing 

 just the same. Spring bulbs die down after bloom- 

 ing, the early lilies soon turn brown as do bleed- 



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