HARDY ANNUALS HALF-HARDY ANNUALS 209 



HARDY ANNUALS 



THE seeds should be sown on carefully prepared soil from which 

 large stones have been removed, and the clods must be broken, but 

 the surface should not be so smooth as to be liable to become pasty 

 after rain. Sow thinly, cover with a very slight coat of fine dry earth 

 the smallest seeds needing but a mere dusting to cover them and, 

 from the first, keep the plants thinned sufficiently to prevent over- 

 crowding, which weakens them, and tends to a poor instead of a 

 bountiful bloom. The soil into which they are transplanted for 

 blooming should be deeply dug, thoroughly broken up, and if at all 

 poor should be liberally manured. Spring-sown annuals are worthy 

 of a better soil than they usually have allotted them, and also of 

 more careful treatment. It is not wise to sow earlier than March 

 or later than the middle of April. The most important matter in the 

 after culture is to keep the clumps well thinned, for not only will the 

 bloom of crowded plants be comparatively poor and brief, but by 

 early and bold practice in thinning the plants will become so robust, 

 and cover such large spaces of ground with their ample leafage and 

 well-developed flowers, as really to astonish people who think they 

 know all about annuals, and who may have ventured, after much 

 ill-treatment of them, to designate them 'fugacious and weedy.' It 

 is an excellent practice, also, to sow hardy annuals in autumn, but it 

 is needless to say more on this subject here, as a chapter is devoted 

 lo it at page 273. 



HALF-HARDY ANNUALS 



GIVE these as long a period of growth as possible to insure a vigorous 

 plant before the season of flowering. The best time for sowing is 

 February, or the beginning of March, for although some kinds may 

 with advantage be sown earlier, it is safer, as a rule, to wait for sun- 

 shine and full daylight, so as to keep up a steady and continuous 

 growth. The soil for the seed-pans should be rich and fine. Good 

 loam, improved by the addition of thoroughly decayed manure and 

 leaf-mould, with sufficient sand to render the texture porous, will suit 

 all kinds of annuals that are sown in pans under glass. Sow the seed 

 thinly, cover very slightly, and lay squares of glass over to keep a 

 uniform degree of moisture without the necessity of watering. Should 



