io8 FLOWER GARDENING 



in London, where there were groupings of annuals 

 that could not be surpassed with perennials. 



The disadvantage of a garden of annuals is not 

 any limitation of esthetic potentiality; it is its im- 

 permanence, necessitating complete making over 

 and repetition of expense every year, and a mini- 

 mum season. The last is the great, and uncon- 

 querable, disadvantage; July is at hand before 

 much bloom can be counted on and of the few 

 species available after the middle of September 

 not all can stand frost without protection. There 

 are two kinds of annuals, hardy and half hardy. 

 The latter are too tender to put plants in the 

 ground until near the end of May, so that getting 

 them started under glass does not help the matter 

 of May bloom. Hardy annuals are so by com- 

 parison with the other class, not in the sense that 

 most of the cultivated perennials are. The few 

 that are really hardy, surviving through late seed- 

 lings of the previous year, hurry their blooming 

 very little. 



In the circumstances why not let the garden 

 of annuals belie its name, just as the hardy garden 

 does without compunction whenever it chooses? 

 Lavish annuals on it in any measure for summer 

 glory, only do not leave the garden bare before 

 and after. This is easily got around by pardon- 

 able inconsistency. In October plant the garden 

 with tulips, hyacinths and other spring bulbs. Edge 

 formal beds or borders with hardy candytuft, for 

 a permanent thing; with pansies, Bellis perennis, 



