ANNUALS AND BIENNIALS. 59 



soil where they are to blossom during the following summer. There 

 are annual varieties catalogued which produce fine flowering plants 

 the first season. Any variety of hollyhock will flower the first 

 season, if the seed is sown in the greenhouse early in January and 

 grown along in a moderately warm house. They make fine 

 material by planting outdoors and blossom profusely during the 

 summer. Young plants grown in this way are less liable to the 

 attacks of fungous diseases. For backgrountls to large borders, 

 grouping on lawns, or for distant effects, the hollyhocks stand un- 

 rivalled. 



Canterbury bells are handsome decorative plants and when in 

 bloom are profusely covered with large bell-shaped flowers which 

 make a most brilliant display. The seeds should be sown in July 

 and when the weather is very severe the plants may be kept over 

 winter in cold frames. If they are grown out of doors all winter, 

 a slight covering of hay is very beneficial. They can be obtained in 

 single and double forms and cup-and-saucer varieties. The colors 

 most prominent in the single-flowered varieties are rose, mauve, 

 blue, white, and striped. In double-flowering varieties the most 

 pleasing colors are blue, white, and rose. The cup-and-saucer 

 forms are the most showy and have many colors; the white-flow- 

 ered and the pink-flowered kinds are the most eftective. They 

 are good border plants and when grown in large masses they are 

 highly decorative. When grown as pot plants they make hand- 

 some specimens and are especially valual)le for conservatory or 

 piazza plants. 



Sweet Williams are very old-fashioned plants and although we 

 have many fine colored varieties there has not been so much im- 

 provement as with many other plants. To obtain good flowers 

 very much depends on the strain of seed. The finest strain we 

 know is Sutton's; their Pink Beauty and Sutton's Scarlet are two 

 excellent kinds; so are also their Auricula-eyed and self-colored 

 varieties. The double-flowering kinds although they have some 

 fine colors are not as pleasing as the single-flowered forms. Of 

 course old plants can be preserved by growing them in extra fav- 

 orable places and increased by division. The best results are 

 obtained by treating them as biennials : they bloom more profusely 

 and more evenly when grown in this way. In many places they 



