The Culture of Flowers from Seeds 



instruction. We recommend not only a free use of annuals, where 

 they can be appropriately employed for purposes of embellishment, 

 but also the setting apart for a collection of them a border or plot, 

 one part of which is sunny and another part somewhat shaded. On 

 this border sow clumps of annuals, of as many kinds as possible, and 

 affix to each clump a label that will last the season out, or enter the 

 names in a book in the order in which the clumps are arranged, for 

 purposes of ready reference. This border will afford immense delight, 

 for many annuals that are not popular, because not particularly 

 showy, will be found to be worthy of admiration for their subdued 

 and refined appearance, their elegant forms, and their delicate 

 blendings of colour. Amongst them are many magnificent subjects 

 that might well emblazon the terrace garden, but the less showy 

 flowers will probably be held in highest esteem by the genuine 

 lover of floral beauty. We know of nothing more pleasing, 

 as an incident in a quiet garden walk, than to pass along a border 

 where such gems are to be found as Saponaria calabrica, Leptosiphon 

 roseuSj Platystemon calif or nicus, Calandrinia grandiflora, White, 

 Yellow, and Purple Sweet Sultan, Erysimum Perowskianum, Eutoca 

 visrida. Double Sanvitalia, Gypsophila elegans, Kaulftissia amelloides, 

 Phacelia campanularia, Silene, and Viscaria oculata. These, however, 

 are but a few, selected almost at random, from amongst dozens that 

 are equally beautiful, that might be sown to make the ground glitter 

 from earliest spring to latest autumn. 



Hardy Annuals. The seeds should be sown on a carefully 

 prepared surface from which large stones have been removed, and 

 the clods must be broken, but the soil should not be made so smooth 

 as to become pasty under rain. Sow thinly, cover with a very 

 slight coat of fine dry earth the smallest seeds needing but a mere 

 dusting to caver them and, from the first, keep the plants thinned 

 sufficiently to prevent overcrowding, which weakens them and tends 

 to a poor instead of a bountiful bloom. The soil into which they 

 are transplanted for blooming should be deeply dug, thoroughly 

 broken up, and, if at all poor, liberally manured. Spring-sown 

 annuals are worthy of a better soil than they usually have allotted 

 them, and also of more careful treatment. It is not wise to sow 

 earlier .than March or later than the middle of April. In the 

 after-culture the most important matter is to keep the clumps well 

 thinned. Not only will the bloom of crowded plants be comparatively 

 poor and brief, but by early and bold thinning the plants will be- 

 come so robust, and cover such large spaces of ground with their 



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