Annuals, and How to Grow Them. 



By Professor L. H. Bailey, of 

 Cornell University. 



This article appeared in May, 1903, Country Life in America, and is printed by permission. 



Annual plants are those that you must sow every year. The 

 staid perennials I want for the main and permanent effects in my 

 garden, but I could no more do without annuals than I could do 

 without the spices and the condiments at the table. 



Of the kinds of annuals there is almost no end. This does not 

 mean that all are equally good. For myself I like to make the 

 bold effects with a few of the old profuse and reliable kinds. I 

 like whole masses and clouds of them. Then the other kinds I 

 like to grow in smaller areas at one side, in a half experimental 

 way. There is no need of trying to grow equal quantities of all 

 the kinds that you select. There is no emphasis and no modulation 

 in such a scheme. There should be major and minor keys. 



The minor keys may be of almost any kind of plant. Since 

 these plants are semi-experimental, it does not matter if some of 

 them fail outright. Why not begin the list at A and buy as many 

 as you can afford and accommodate this year, then continue the 

 list next year? In five or ten years you will have grown the 

 alphabet, and will have learned as much horticulture and botany 

 as most persons learn in a college course. And some of these 

 plants will become your permanent friends. 



For the main and bold effects I want something that I can 

 depend on. There I do not want to experiment. Never fill a 

 conspicuous place with a kind of plant you have never grown. 



The kinds I like best are the ones easiest to grow. Zinnia, 

 Petunia, Marigold, Four O'Clock, Sunflower, Phlox, Scabiosa, 

 Sweet Sultan, Bachelor's Button, Verbena, Calendula, Calliopsis, 

 Morning-glory, Nasturtium, Sweet Pea, — these are some of the 

 kinds that are surest. I do not know where the investment of 

 five cents will bring 

 as great reward as 

 in a packet of seeds 

 of any of these 

 plants. 



Before one sets 

 out to grow these or 

 any other plants, 

 he must make for 

 himself a n ideal. 

 Will he grow for a 

 garden effect, or for 

 specimen plants or 

 specimen blooms ? 

 I f for specimens, 

 then each plant 

 must have plenty of 

 room and receive 

 particular individual 

 care. If for garden 

 effect, then see to it 

 that the entire space 

 is solidly covered, 

 and that you have a 

 continuous blaze of 

 color. Usually the 

 specimen plants 



would best be grown in a side garden, as vegetables are, where 

 they can be tilled, trained and severally cared for. 



There is really a third ideal, and I hope that some ot you may 

 try it, — to grow all the varieties of one species. You really do 

 not know what the China Aster or the Balsam is until you have 

 seen all the kinds of it. Suppose that you ask your seedsman to 

 send you one packet of every variety of Cockscomb that he has. 

 Next year you may want to try Stocks or annual Poppies, or 

 something else. All this will be a study in evolution. 



There is still a fourth ideal, — the growing for gathering or 

 "picking." If you want many flowers for house decoration and 

 to give away, then grow them at one side in regular rows as you 

 would potatoes or sweet corn. Harvest them in the same spirit 

 that you would harvest string beans or tomatoes: that is what 

 they are for. You do not have to consider the "looks" of your 

 garden. You will not be afraid to pick them. When you have 

 li ii i - -ted an armful your garden is not despoiled. 



I like each plant in its season. China Aster is a fall flown. 

 In early summer I want Pansies or Candytufts and other early 

 or quick bloomers. For the small amateur garden greenhouses 

 and hotbeds are unnecessary, and they are usually in tin- way. 

 There are enough kinds of annuals that may be -own directly in 

 the open ground, even in New York, to fill any garden All 

 those I have mentioned are such. I should get early effects with 

 kinds of plants that naturally are early. Let everything have its 

 season. Do not try to telescope the months. 

 (56) 



Four O'Clocks, ok Marvel of Perc is a Fence. 



I have sown China Asters in the open ground in early June, 

 in New York State, and have excellent fall bloom. Things 

 come up quickly and grow rapidly in May and June. They 

 hurry. The spring bloom you are not to expect from annuals. 

 That you are to get from perennials, — the spring bulbs, soft 

 bleeding-hearts, spicy pinks, bright-eyed polyanthuses and 

 twenty more. 



Make the soil rich and fine and soft and deep, just as you 

 would for radishes or onions. There are some plants for which 

 the soil can be made too rich, of course, but most persons do not 

 err in this direction. The finer and more broken down the ma- 

 nure the better, Spade it in. Mix it thoroughly with the soil. 

 If the soil is clay-like, see that fine manure is thoroughly mixed 

 with the surface layer to prevent "baking." 



Watering is an exacting labor, and yet half of it is usually 

 unnecessary. The reasons why it is unnecessary are two: The 

 soil is so shallowy prepared that the roots do not strike deep 

 enough; we waste the moisture by allowing the soil to become 

 hard, thereby setting up capillary connection with the atmosphere 

 and letting the water escape. Mulch it so that the water will 

 not evaporate. Mulch it with a garden rake by keeping the soil 

 loose and dry on top. This loose dry soil is the mulch. There 

 will be moisture underneath. Save water rather than add it. 

 Then when you do have to water the plants, go at it as if you 

 meant it. Wet the soil clear through. Wet it at dusk or in 

 cloudy weather. Before the hot sun strikes it renew your mulch, 

 or supply a mulch of fine litter. More plants are spoiled by 

 sprinkling than by drought. The less your space the fewer the 



kinds you should 

 plant. Have enough 

 of each kind to be 

 worth the while and 

 the effort. It is more 

 trouble to raise one 

 plant than a dozen. 

 It is usually best 

 not to try to make 

 formal '' designs " 

 with annuals. Such 

 designs are special 

 things, anyway, and 

 should be used spar- 

 ingly and be made 

 only by persons who 

 are skilled in such 

 work. A poor or 

 unsuccessful design 

 is the sorriest failure 

 a garden can have. 



This brings up a 

 discussion of the 

 proper place to put 

 annuals. Do not 

 put them in t h e 

 lawn , — you want 

 grass there. Supposing that you grow the annuals for garden 

 effect, there are two ways of disposing them, — to grow in beds 

 or in borders. The border method is more informal, and there- 

 fore the simpler and easier. 



Its pictorial effect is usually greater. But in some places there 

 are no boundary lines that can be used for borders. Then beds 

 may be used; but make the beds so large and fill them so full 

 that they will not appear to be mere play-patches. Long beds 

 are usually best. Four or five feet wide is about the limit of ease 

 in working in them. The more elaborate the shape of the bed, 

 the more time you will consume on keeping the geometry straight 

 and the less on having fun with the plants. 



It is surprising how many things one can grow in an old fence. 

 The Four-o* clocks (see cut) illustrate this point. Most persons 

 owning this place would think that they had no room for flowers; 

 yet there the Four-o' clocks are, and they take up no room. Not 

 all annuals will thrive under such conditions of partial neglect. 

 The large-seeded, quick-germinating, rapid-growing kinds will 

 do best Sunflower; Sweet Pea, Morning ('dory. Japanese Hop, 

 Zinnia, Marigold, Amaranths, are some of the kinds that may be 

 expei ted to hold their own. 



First ami last, 1 have grown practically every annual offered 

 in the American trade. It is surprising how few of the uncom- 

 mon or little-known sorts really have great merit for general pur- 

 poses. There is nothing yet to take the place of the old-time 

 groups, such as Amaranths, Zinnias, Calendulas, Daturas, 



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