Z6 BOOK OF THE COTTAGE GARDEN 



to everyone, and are all of the simplest culture. Of 

 annuals suitable for cutting, we may have yellow and 

 red Coreopsis, single Sunflowers (Helianthus), Scabious, 

 not a true biennial ; Cornflowers, and, of course. Sweet 

 Peas. Sweet-scented flowers will include the Ten- 

 week Stocks, and that delightful evening bloomer, the 

 fragrant Tobacco Plant (N. aff'nis). If distinctive habit 

 and foliage is needed, there are annuals like the Castor- 

 oil Plant (Ricinus), which must be raised in heat and 

 afterwards transferred to the open border. Maize, and 

 the Hemp Plant (Cannabis), fine in groups and usually 

 successful in town gardens. Besides these are numerous 

 climbing plants, which may be grown in free and pretty 

 ways over trellis and hedge, or as bank trailers — Con- 

 volvuli ; Nasturtiums, tall and dwarf; Canary Creeper ; 

 Tropaeolum Lobbianum, in warm places ; and Gourds, 

 in quaint and endless variety. 



The majority of the foregoing annuals will serve also 

 for the autumn garden. All we need do to ensure a 

 full display of bloom is to arrange successional sowings 

 at intervals during the early summer months. With 

 many it is customary to make but one sowing of the 

 chief varieties in April, with the result that most of the 

 plants are out of flower by August at latest. September 

 and October are often the most pleasant months in 

 English gardens, and it is worth making an effort to 

 secure gaiety and colour in the borders until the first 

 frosts of winter. Annuals sown during June will, under 

 most circumstances, flower freely from September on- 

 wards. If the summer is exceptionally hot and dry it 

 will probably be necessary to water seedlings, at any 

 rate for a time ; but their recuperative powers are 

 wonderful, and though flagged, they quickly recover 

 and burst into bud and greenness with the coming of 

 the autumn rains. It is possible, of course, to sow fresh 

 seed where the plants are to bloom, removing for the 



