HARDY ANNUALS 167 



as the luxury of flower culture. But this is not a particularly 

 valid objection, since penny packets of seeds both of annual and 

 perennial flowers can now be bought, and each packet frequently 

 contains enough seed to supply the requirements of four workers. 

 Further, the scholars themselves could, in many cases, bring 

 roots of perennials, and where there are large gardens in the 

 neighbourhood, their owners would probably be pleased to make, 

 out of their superfluity, donations of bits of plants to the school 

 garden. Failing a herbaceous border, a narrow strip of each 

 vegetable or fruit plot bordering on a path should be utilised for 

 flower culture, and corners of the garden might be occupied with 

 a few of the easily grown ornamental and flowering shrubs, such 

 as Bamboos, Ceanothus, Choisya ternata, Butcher's Broom, 

 Periwinkle, Almond, Golden English Yew, Buddlea globosa, 

 Broom, Lilac or Syringa, Flowering Currant, Shrubby Spireas, 

 and so on. 



It is not possible to give detailed cultural directions for all 

 the exceedingly numerous varieties of flowers and shrubs which 

 might quite well be grown in a school garden. We must be 

 contented for the most part with some general observations and 

 directions, and refer the reader to the books mentioned in the 

 Bibliography for more complete information. 



HARDY ANNUALS 



An annual is a plant whose life is limited to a single season. 

 The seed is sown in the autumn or spring, leaves, flowers, fruit 

 and seed are produced in the following summer, and in the 

 autumn the plant dies. Hardy annuals are those the seedlings 

 of which can be grown in the open air. Half-hardy annuals 

 are raised in pans or boxes in the greenhouse or on the hotbed, 

 and are planted out of doors in June, when all fear of prolonged 

 low temperature during the night is at an end. If early blooms 

 of hardy annuals are required many of them may, like their 

 half-hardy brethren, be raised in gentle heat. For outdoor 

 sowing the end of March is the best time. The seed bed should 

 be as fine as possible, because the seeds as a rule are very small, 

 and in rough ground would either not be in sufficiently close 



