ON ANNUALS AND BIENNIALS. 



243 



ruby-coloured flowers; Wilmoreana, 6in. high, with bright purple 

 flowers and yellow eyes. 



Asters (China), known botanically by the name of Callistephus 

 chine?isis, form a splendid class of plants, the decorative value 

 of which cannot be over-estimated. For grouping in flower 

 borders, or for filling beds, they are indispensable, whilst for pot 

 culture and cut flowers they are also much prized. To see 

 them in their full beauty, however, they require to be grown 

 in masses, and when well cultivated, they produce an abund- 

 ance of fine flowers. To have a succession of Asters, the seed 

 should be sown at intervals, from the end of February to the 

 end of May. The first sowing should be made in a slight 

 hotbed frame, pricking out the seedlings into another frame 

 when large enough, gradually hardening them off, and transferring 

 to the open ground 

 in May. The second 

 sowing should be made 

 two or three weeks later 

 in a cold frame, treating 

 the seedlings in the 

 same manner as the 

 first-sown batch. As 

 soon as the seeds ger- 

 minate in the frames, 

 they must have a plen- 

 tiful supply of air, being 

 careful to avoid chills, 

 or a weak batch of 

 plants will be the re- 

 sult. Attention must 

 also be paid to shading 

 during hot sunshine, or 

 the tiny seedlings will 



be scorched. For succession, a sowing might be made in the 

 open ground in April, and again in May, in a good, rich, 

 loamy soil, and this batch will flower after the earlier sowings 

 are over. In transplanting from the frames to the open 

 borders, the plants should be lifted with good balls of earth 

 attached ; choose showery weather for the operation, and plant 

 in good soil, which ought to have been previously enriched by 

 the application of well-rotted farmyard manure If the weather 

 turns dry, watering must be attended to, so as to avoid, as far 

 as possible, checking the plants in their growth. They should 

 be planted from 9m. to 12m. apart each way, and this will 

 admit of the hoe being used for keeping the surface open and 

 free from weeds. When the plants are well established, and 

 have made a mass of roots, it is a good plan to give them 

 a good mulching of rotten manure from an old hotbed ; this 



R 2 



Fig. 131. — Truffaut's P^jony-flowered 

 Aster. 



