FLOWER-BEDS: THEIR 



ful amount of pleasure. Coming, as they do, 

 so far in advance of all other garden-flowers, 

 we appreciate them more than almost anything 

 else we can grow in the garden. 



The best annuals for the amateur gardener 

 to grow are those whose merits have been fully 

 proved by long years of cultivation. These, 

 for the most part, are sturdy, self-reliant kinds, 

 which give large returns in bloom for a small 

 amount of care. Among the best annuals for 

 the amateur I would name the following: 

 Phlox Drummondii, Sweet Peas, Petunias, 

 Asters, Ten-week Stock, Calliopsis, Balsam, 

 Morning-glory, Mignonette, and Sweet Alys- 

 sum. All these, with the exception of the 

 Aster and Stock, will come into bloom quite 

 early in the season, and continue to produce an 

 abundance of flowers until frost comes if they 

 are kept from ripening seed. I would advise 

 sowing the seeds of these flowers in the beds 

 where they are to remain during the summer, 

 between the first and the middle of May at the 

 North. In the latitude of Washington they 

 can be sown a fortnight earlier. The amateur 

 gardener is not successful, as a general thing, 

 in his or her attempt to gain a month or six 

 weeks by starting plants into early growth in 



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