THE IXDISPENSABLE AN"KUALS. 131 



can be done, to start tlic plants in hotbeds, cold frames,* 

 greenhouses, or boxes of earth in the house, from which 

 they are transplanted to the open ground. Considerable 

 time is gained in this way, — often one or two months. 

 Nearly all the annual species may be handled in this 

 way. There are a few exceptions. But many sorts 

 make much better plants by transplanting ; and it is 

 often advisable, to transplant the seedlings once before 

 thev reach their final stations in the i^rounds. 



The commonest error, in growing annuals, is to 

 plant them in flower beds. Tb.is mistake is frequently 

 made with other plants, but never so persistently and 

 disastrously as with phloxes, zinnias, marigolds and 

 their like. If a strictly geometrical scheme is intended, 

 or if the garden is one of the old Italian st^de, with a 

 high wall abont it, then flower beds will fit the i)lace. 

 But in the free and natural door-yard gardening, with 

 wdiich we are most concerned, the whole picture is sadly 

 disfigured when it is cut full of holes to receive strange, 

 detached bunches of unwilling flowers in varied assort- 

 ment. There they stand alxait uncomfortably through 

 the summer, each bunch of flowers jealous of its neigh- 

 bo]*s, all appearing to be afraid of overstepping the cir- 

 cumscribing bricks, stones or oyster shells wdiich hem 

 them in, all chafing at the restraint, and all wishing 

 they were safely away in the woods, wdiere they might 

 clamber down the banks or revel in the grass the way 

 flowers were meant to do. 



The annual ])lants ought to be put, not into beds, 

 but into the borders with the perennials and the shrubs. 

 Or if shrubs and perennials are not grown, then the 

 annuals have the border to themselves. ' Arranged in 



•Directions for making cold frames and hotbeds of all sorts may 

 be found in any general work on gardeninj;. See Bailey's Garden- 

 Making, Taft's Greenhouse Construction, Henderson's Gardening for 

 Profit, etc., etc. 



