viii INTRODUCTION 



of success ; but the rules of Nature are invariably the 

 right ones, and, using discretion, it is as well to bear 

 them in mind. 



Having disposed for the present of the Hardy 

 Annuals, we may pass on to those plants known by 

 gardeners as 



HALF-HARDY ANNUALS. The question where to draw 

 the line between the Hardy and some of the Half-hardy 

 Annuals is an open one, subject to the plant being 

 native of a very warm climate, a temperate or cool 

 one; also what must be treated as tender in the 

 North would be considered absolutely hardy in the 

 South. The terms must be used relatively and with judg- 

 ment without going to extremes. Half-hardy Annuals 

 are plants that in their own tropical climes behave just 

 as Hardy Annuals do here ; but in a cool one like ours, 

 subject to frost and other uncongenial conditions, they 

 must be treated in the first stages of growth with more or 

 less artificial heat, according to their several requirements, 

 until they are sufficiently established, and the weather 

 becomes warmer to allow of their being transplanted 

 outdoors. Under this head must be included, for 

 practical purposes, certain plants that are in their 

 own countries not Annuals but true Perennials (i.e., 

 they continue to grow and flower every year), 

 though in this country are usually regarded as Half- 

 hardy Annuals and treated as such. For instance, 

 Petunias and Verbenas. There are numerous Annuals, 

 generally termed Tender or Greenhouse Annuals 

 on account of their delicacy, that are seldom, 

 if ever, a success when transplanted to the open air, 



