1 12 THE UNHEATED GREENHOUSE 



late autumn. Greenery should not be forgotten, for which the 

 Japanese Hop, Zea Mays, and some of the elegant annual 

 grasses, will answer well. The biennial Fish-bone Thistles 

 (Chamsepuce Casabonae and C. diacantha) are also very useful 

 for this purpose. Cosmos bipinnatus, with its finely cut 

 leafage, makes an effective foliage plant while it is young, and 

 a few out of a batch of seedlings might be reserved for this 

 purpose, but the plants intended to flower will do better if 

 summered out of doors. This, being one of the latest of 

 autumn-blooming annuals, is not very satisfactory in the 

 garden for our climate, but if grown under generous conditions 

 it is exceedingly ornamental in the greenhouse during October 

 and November, either in its white or light purple form. 



I will transcribe a short extract from a book seldom to be 

 met with in the present day Mrs. Loudon's work on annuals, 

 which is well illustrated with coloured plates. The hints there 

 given have been very useful to myself, and they form a guide 

 for the general culture of annuals in pots, whether autumn or 

 spring sown. I quote the following passage verbatim, but it 

 will be noticed that in the case of Rodanthe Manglesi, the 

 plant in question, the time of sowing is stated to be April, 

 Rodanthe being half-hardy, but the same cultural directions 

 are applicable whether the seed be sown in autumn or in 

 spring, i.e., whether the annuals be hardy or half-hardy. 



" The seed was sown on April 5, in pots filled with three 

 parts peat, or rather heath-mould, and one of loam. In the 

 first week of May, when the plants were still in the seed-leaf, 

 they were pricked out singly into small 2j-in. or 3-in. 

 pots. In a week's time they were shifted into rather larger 

 pots, and this shifting was repeated six times, always into 

 rather larger pots, till the middle of August, when the plants 

 were in 9j-in. pots, and when they were first allowed to 

 flower. On September 14, when one of these plants was 

 sent to us by Captain Mangles, it was ij-ft. high about 



