REGARDING ANNUAL FLOWERS 



T is a bleak and incomplete garden indeed that disregards, 

 ignores or is unmindful of the value of our annual flowers, 

 which are the most easily managed of all our garden 

 wealth. Certainly it is impossible to make a really successful 

 border exclusively of perennials. 



The grace, the loveliness of many of our modern annual 

 flowers are the greatest garden aids, and how well they serve the 

 so-called perennial border we all know. Every year we see aston- 

 ishing advancements and fascinating novelties that have been 

 achieved in the annuals — annuals that bear little resemblance to 

 the '^old-time" flowers of the same family. For example, when we 

 speak of Lobelias we naturally think of the Pearly White, with 

 its white florets, edged with sky-blue florets as large as those of 

 the phlox, and when we think of Candytuft we think of Queen 

 of Italy, which is as pink as a rose, and grows into quaint, impor- 

 tant-appearing diminutive bushes about eight inches high. Is 

 there an Amateur who does not love Blue Butterfly, the dwarf 

 delphinium which we now grow as an annual? And it possesses 

 the advantage of coming into bloom from seed just as quickly as 

 alyssum or clarkia or other ''quick" seed-sown flowering annuals. 



Have you ever seen Blue Butterfly surrounding the pink snap- 

 dragon Rose Dore or Feltham Beauty? Well, they create the love- 

 liest groups conceivable all through the perennial border and at a 

 time when the earlier flowers have bloomed and gone. Feltham 

 Beauty is a tall, erect variety presenting us with bold, clear pink 

 spikes of bloom that are quite the largest I have seen blooming 

 in the open garden. Rose Dore, although she is only of interme- 

 diate height, is most valuable as a filler and bedding snapdragon. 

 It is remarkable the way both of them respond to ''pinching" 

 which, as you are aware, is the removal of the tip of the plant when 

 it is about eight or ten inches high. This pinching induces side 

 branches to develop, and consequently results in a fine, broad 

 plant which without the "pinching" would remain a poor appear- 

 ing specimen. "This same treatment also applies to the Blue But- 



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