60 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



are not very hardy and require a mulching of leaves or hay to keep 

 them over the winter. In places where the weather is very severe, 

 a cold frame is the best place for sweet williams in winter. To get 

 good sized plants the seeds are sown in April or May and they 

 blossom the following summer. They hke a strong, rich soil and a 

 position where water will not lodge about the crowns of the plants. 



Wallflowers are not grown as much as they should be. We have 

 no flower in early spring that has such a dehcious fragrance. If the 

 seeds are sown in April or May the young plants may be planted 

 out for the summer and put in cold frames during the winter. In 

 spring they make pleasing beds and although the flowers are not 

 as showy as those of some other plants, this deficiency is made up 

 by their sweet fragrance. There are single and double forms; 

 the single flowers are the most fragrant. The Parisian annual 

 variety, which was introduced a few years ago, if sown early in 

 spring in the greenhouse, will flower the first summer. 



Foxgloves or fairy thimbles. Digitalis purpurea, are sometimes 

 perennials but when we want them for massing effects we grow 

 them as biennials as they flower more evenly. In some situations 

 they are not hardy and are benefited by a mulch in winter. The 

 seeds are sown in spring and grown out during the summer and 

 produce their long flowering stems the following year. They 

 make good border plants and are excellent for semi-wild effects. 

 The kinds known as Digitalis gloxiniflora are the most showy. 

 Foxgloves are sometimes grown in pots for conservatory or piazza 

 decorations. 



Sometimes sweet rocket, Hesperis matronalis, although a peren- 

 nial is grown as a biennial. When large massive effects are re- 

 quired this is the best way to grow the plants. 



Honesty, Lunaria biennis, is a biennial which has rather showy 

 purplish flowers, but it is not altogether for the blossoms that they 

 are grown, but for their showy, silvery-white seed pods which are 

 used in winter in bouquets. They are called "Honesty" because 

 the seeds can be seen through the pods. If the seeds are sown in 

 spring the plants will blossom the following year. 



This subject is intensely interesting and would take much more 

 time than I can give it here. If I have helped to point out some 

 of the ways in which these plants can be used to advantage, and 



