50 MAKING OF A FLOWER GARDEN 



house and bedded out when all danger of frost is 

 past, and a few cents' worth of seed will give several 

 dollars' worth of plants, which will give quite an air 

 to the lawn and garden. Ricinus or castor bean, one 

 of the most imposing ornamental plants we have, is 

 so easily grown from seed that its use should be more 

 in evidence, especially in these sections of the cities 

 or towns where lots are still divided from each other 

 by unsightly fences and the rear of the lots defined 

 by alleys. Here the ricinus may be very useful in 

 hiding all that is unsightly and obtrusive, and this is 

 true of many of the taller growing annuals — ^the 

 Cleome punge^is, annual sunflowers, cosmos, euphor- 

 bias, Nicotianu sylvestris and the like — ^while for low 

 beds about the house or lawn there is nothing better 

 than the brilliant verbena, the persistent petunia, 

 which comes in so many beautiful shades and color- 

 ings and blooms until real cold weather, or the Phlox 

 Drvmmondi. 



Indeed, there is scarcely a need of the flower gar- 

 den, except that of permanence, that may not be met 

 by an excursion into the realm of annual flowers, and 

 the requirements for their growth are of the simplest 

 — just fairly good garden soil, worked fine and mel- 

 low and enriched with some old, well-decayed manure 

 and, if possible, some leaf mold or earth/^from a com- 

 post heap, and a sufficient supply of water during 

 the growing season, especially when the flowers are 



