HARDY BIENNIALS AND PERENNIALS AB UTILON 211 



HARDY BIENNIALS AND PERENNIALS 



THESE are often sown in pans or boxes, and are pricked off when 

 large enough into other pans or pots before they are transferred to 

 beds or borders. The system has certain advantages in insuring 

 safety from vermin and proper attention, for it is an unfortunate fact 

 that too many cultivators consider it needless to thin or transplant 

 sowings made in beds or borders. The plants are frequently allowed 

 to struggle for existence, and the result is feeble attenuated specimens 

 which, with trifling care and attention, might have become robust, and 

 capable of producing a bountiful bloom in their season. Still, it 

 should be clearly understood that all the hardy biennials and peren- 

 nials may be grown to perfection by sowing on a suitable seed-bed in 

 the open ground in the early part of the summer, protecting the spot 

 from marauders of all kinds, and by early and bold thinning and 

 transplanting. As a rule, we advocate one shift before placing the 

 plants in final positions. 



ABUTILON 



Half-hardy greenhouse perennial 



HANDSOME plants, two feet or more in height, can be produced from 

 seed, and flowered in a single season. They are useful for training 

 to greenhouse walls, and they may also be transferred to open borders 

 for the summer. When employed for the latter purpose, the plants 

 should be lifted and put into pots again about the end of August, 

 after there has been a penetrating shower. In the absence of rain a 

 soaking of water on the previous day will prevent the soil from falling 

 away from the roots. 



February and March are the right months for sowing seed, and 

 pots filled with any fairly light potting compost will answer. Prick 

 off the seedlings when about an inch high, putting the plants in down 

 to the seed-leaves. They must not be allowed to suffer for want 

 of water, nor should they be starved in small pots. The growth had 

 better not be hurried at any stage, and the plants will then develop 

 into shapely specimens with very little care. 



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