108 FLOWER GARDENING 
in London, where there were groupings of annuals 
that could not be surpassed with perennials. 
The disadvantage of a garden of annuals is not 
any limitation of esthetic potentiality; it is its im- 
permanence, necessitating complete making over 
and repetition of expense every year, and a mini- 
mum season. The last is the great, and uncon- 
querable, disadvantage; July is at hand before 
much bloom can be counted on and of the few 
species available after the middle of September 
not all can stand frost without protection. There 
are two kinds of annuals, hardy and half hardy. 
The latter are too tender to put plants in the 
ground until near the end of May, so that getting 
them started under glass does not help the matter 
of May bloom. Hardy annuals are so by com- 
parison with the other class, not in the sense that 
most of the cultivated perennials are. The few 
that are really hardy, surviving through late seed- 
lings of the previous year, hurry their blooming 
very little. 
In the circumstances why not let the garden 
of annuals belie its name, just as the hardy garden 
does without compunction whenever it chooses? 
Lavish annuals on it in any measure for summer 
glory, only do not leave the garden bare before 
and after. This is easily got around by pardon- 
able inconsistency. In October plant the garden 
with tulips, hyacinths and other spring bulbs. Edge 
formal beds or borders with hardy candytuft, for 
a permanent thing; with pansies, Bellis perennis, 
