BEANS. 



42 



BEDDING PLANTS. 



at any time of year, whether early or late. 

 They may be grown on a hotbed, but they 

 are better grown in pots, or they are apt to 

 run all to haulm and leaf. In an ordinary 

 hotbed, as if made for cucumbers, place as 

 many 6-inch pots as will stand 15 inches 

 apart. These pots being filled with good 

 loamy soil, in each plant, triangularly, 

 three Canadian Wonder beans, or Daniel's 

 First Early, which are of small dwarf 

 habit and great bearers, and, as they grow, 

 give them regular waterings ; but they 

 need not be removed, and the heat should 

 never fall below 60. They are very sus- 

 ceptible of frost, and will require careful 

 protection from it, in common with all 

 forcing plants. Nothing can be better for 

 covering the lights than hurdles made of 

 lath and straw. If sown in January or 

 February, they, will bear in April or May. 

 They sometimes require supporting with 

 sticks. 



Beans, Runner. 



As Runner Beans grow to a considerable 

 height, they cannot be conveniently forced 

 like the dwarf sorts, though this might be 

 effected by constantly pinching off the lead- 

 ing shoots, and thus compelling it to assume 

 and maintain a dwarf, bushy growth. The 

 soil should be light and rich as for peas 

 and other varieties of beans, and the 

 situation sunny and open. Plant in 

 double rows 9 inches apart, dibbling in 

 single seeds to the depth of 2 inches and 

 9 inches apart in the rows. At least 6 feet 

 should be allowed between each series of 

 double rows. Means for the plants to 

 climb must be afforded by pole stuck in 

 the ground along each row, inclined 

 towards each other till they cross at the 

 top, and secured by tying with tarred cord 

 to horizontal sticks dropped into and along 

 the crossing of the poles in the earth, from 

 end to end of the row. If there is not 

 piuch roonij the seed may be set in single 



rows, about 3 feet apart, and kept dwarf by 

 pinching the leading shoots. If this style 

 of growing them be adopted, no sticks will 

 be required. Another mode is to place 

 hurdles along the rows, on which the runners 

 may climb to the height of the hurdles. 



Runner beans are often sown in a mass, 

 in a pan or box in richly-manured soil, in 

 the middle of April, and kept under shelter 



SCARLET RUNNER BEAN. 



until the middle of May, when they are 

 planted out in the garden. By this means 

 the crop may be obtained a little earlier. 

 These beans are often utilised for covering 

 fences, and yield plentifully when sown or 

 planted in such positions. Those known 

 as Scarlet Runners are so called from the 

 scarlet flowers which they bear. The White 

 Dutch Runners have white blossoms and a 

 third sort, known as Painted Ladies, have 

 scarlet and white blossoms. 



Bear's Breach. See Acanthus. 

 Bedding Plants. 



Plants commonly known under the name 

 of bedding plants consist of the common 

 scarlet and other geranium^, verbena^ 



