BIENNIALS AND PERENNIALS. 55 



operation, I should advise you, this year, to 

 apply to the gardener for all the common half- 

 hardy annuals, as he will, of course, have a hot- 

 bed to grow them on. 



I will send, in May, seedlings of the newest 

 sorts of annuals, which have lately been intro- 

 duced into this country. I have told you how 

 to raise them, in case you wish to do so 

 yourself. 



While on the subject of sowing seeds, I must 

 advise that, some time next month, a bed be 

 sown with perennials and biennials, so as to 

 have them ready to plant out in the autumn ; 

 the best are wallflowers, rose campions, sweet- 

 williams, Canterbury bells, foxgloves, French 

 honeysuckles, scabious and Chinese hollyhocks ; 

 the three latter will probably flower this year. 

 When the plants make their appearance, the 

 bed must be thinned out, and the seedlings, as 



