878 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



PART III. 



6505. Propagation and culture of biennial border-lowers. They are all raised from 

 seed, but some of the finest double varieties are continued by cuttings. The seed 

 of such sorts as ripen by August may be sown immediately after it is gathered ; but the 

 seed of those sorts which ripen later should be preserved till the following spring, and 

 sown in May or the beginning of June. Sow thinly in beds in the reserve-garden, 

 transplant into other beds when the plants are a few inches high, and in September or 

 October remove the plants to their final destination. If this be, as it most generally 

 will in the mingled flower-border, to provide a succession of the same sorts, then it can 

 only be done in the case of those sorts which are done flowering by September or the 

 first of October, and the others must be removed early in March with balls. Great 

 care is requisite in removing some sorts which have large tap-roots, as oenothera, holly- 

 hock, lavatera, &c., for if materially checked they will not flower strongly. The best 

 mode is to nurse these sorts in large pots, and transplant them in October or February, 

 with their balls entire. The sorts continued by cuttings are chiefly fine double varieties 

 of wallflowers, stocks, rose-campions, &c. The cuttings may be taken from the flower- 

 stalks, or the root-shoots, early in summer, put under hand-glasses, and otherwise 

 treated as cuttings of perennials. If the cuttings of some sorts, as dahlia, chrysanthe- 

 mum, lobelia, &c. are taken off early in the season, they will flower in the autumn. 

 The plants once placed where they are to remain, their general culture and manage- 

 ment is the same as for the perennial border-flowers. (6187.) 



SUBSECT. 4. Species and Varieties of Hardy Annual Border-Flowers. 



6506. HARDY ANNUAL BORDER- FLOWERS. JUNE. 



