lo8 THE UNHEATED GREENHOUSE 



suitable may be useful, not only to those who mean to depend 

 entirely upon such yearlings, but for others, who will find 

 many of them exceedingly valuable, if not indispensable, 

 additions to their flowering plants. Where time fails to raise 

 these for ourselves it is generally possible to buy strong 

 seedlings of ordinary sorts ready for potting, so that we need 

 not wholly despair of procuring decorative material of this 

 temporary nature, and with little outlay. 



Annuals are often regarded with some contempt, but it may 

 be traced in most cases to failure in growing them well, 

 resulting mainly from the initial mistake of sowing the seed 

 too thickly. Seed is often minute, marvellously so when 

 one thinks of the germ of life and the earliest food for that 

 germ which is, in one way or another, packed up in it. It 

 does not at all follow, however, that the plant produced from 

 a microscopic seed should require to be looked at through a 

 magnifying glass when full-grown, and this we must always 

 take into account. A single seedling of Nemophila or Lim- 

 nanthes will make a grand free-flowering specimen if allowed 

 proper scope, when a dozen cramped into the same space 

 will be utterly worthless and disappointing. 



Seeds, minute or otherwise, must not be sown too thickly, and 

 with the larger kinds, like Tropaeolum or Lupine, it is a good 

 plan for indoor work to put them singly into the smallest pots 

 and to shift them as required into larger sizes. Annuals, 

 again, under these circumstances must never in the earlier 

 stages be allowed to get pot-bound, needing constant attention 

 from the first, until they get their final transfer into the 

 flowering-pot. Hardy biennials may often, on the contrary, 

 be planted outside with advantage to make their growth 

 before being potted for the greenhouse, which is a great saving 

 of time and labour. These require a somewhat longer time to 

 bring them to the flowering stage, and are generally sown one 

 year to flower the next. The time of their flowering depends 



