116 SATURDAY IN MY GARDEN 



failures in the cultivation of annuals than anything else. It is 

 necessary, of course, to discriminate. The sunflower and the 

 lupin will need more space in which to develop than the linum 

 or the poppy, but even the latter will yield more flowers and 

 finer plants if they be allowed plenty of breathing-space. There- 

 fore thin out remorselessly and stifle the pang that will rise un- 

 bidden at the sight of so many apparently promising seedlings 

 cast on the rubbish heap. But the thinning-out process, essential 

 as it is, may be attended by evil results unless care be taken. 

 This operation is best performed in the evening, and should be 

 undertaken when the soil has been softened by rain. Many 

 of the young plants that it is intended to leave undisturbed 

 are loosened in pulling out those that are to be sacrificed. It is 

 advisable, therefore, to make those that are to remain quite 

 firm by pressing them down in the soil with the thumb and fingers. 



The subsequent treatment of hardy annuals consists in keeping 

 the soil free from weeds by frequent surface-hoeing with the 

 Dutch hoe, copious watering hi periods of drought, and efficient 

 staking and tying in the case of plants that require it for their 

 support. Flowers should be cut regularly, for it is hopeless to 

 expect quick-growing annuals to bear the double burden of blossom 

 and seed at the same time. Onoe seed be allowed to form and to 

 ripen the days of the hardy annual's flower productivity are 

 numbered. 



The practice of sowing certain hardy annuals in autumn has 

 much to recommend it. Coupled with the advantage which 

 results in an early display of bloom is the additional merit that 

 plants thus raised are distinguished by greater vigour and longevity 

 than those sown in spring. Autumn-sown annuals gain in virility 

 by the fact that they have time in which to develop a vigorous 

 root service before the heat engendered in the soil during summer 

 has evaporated. Very little top growth is apparent until spring, 

 but when the seedlings are transplanted, as they may be in April, 

 the fact that they are welf supplied with roots will give them a 

 splendid start. Among the annuals that lend themselves readily 

 to autumn sowing are godetias, nigella, annual chrysanthemums, 



