ANNUALS 



varieties will appeal to special tastes. To insure 

 success. Asters should have a deep rich soil, with 

 an abundance of manure worked deep in the bed. 

 In dry weather water must be freely supplied to 

 the plants, and before the flowers begin to bloom 

 a top dressing of well-rotted manure should be 

 given them. To secure early bloom the seeds 

 should be planted in a cold frame in April. I 

 plant, however, in May in the beds where they 

 are to grow, and weed out- the larger sorts so that 

 they stand fully a foot apart. They bloom from 

 August 15th to frost, the Queen of the Earlies 

 being about a fortnight in advance of the other 

 varieties. 



Centaurea moschata, or Amberboa moschata, A. 

 odorata, or Swset Sultan, is a beautiful flower for 

 the garden, is fine for decorative purposes, and lasts 

 a long time after being cut. I have worn a speci- 

 men in my buttonhole for fully two days before 

 the flower looked wilted. It comes in three 

 colors, white, rosy-purple, and citron-yellow, the 

 latter being also known as C. suaveolens. Some 

 improvements have been made of late in the size 

 of the flowers, and of course new names have 

 been invented, such as C. imperialis, C. Margarita, 

 and C. chamaleon. It grows about two feet high, 

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