ANNUALS. 



16 



ANNUALS. 



and the plants in it, may be turned 

 out into the open border. This mode 

 is well adapted for strong clay soils, 

 because when plants from a hotbed are 

 transplanted into such soils, they 

 commonly receive a severe check ; 

 whereas when they are turned out 

 with balls, provided the soil round 

 them is settled by a good watering, 

 they receive no check whatever. The 

 soil in which half-hardy annuals are 

 raised, should be light and rich, be- 

 cause it is only in such a soil that the 

 tender seedlings will grow vigorously, 

 and produce numerous fibrous roots, 

 without which they would produce 

 but little effect when turned out into 

 the open garden. The more showy 

 kinds of half-hardy annuals are the 

 French and African Marigolds, Chi- 

 nese and German Asters, Zinnias, the 

 purple Jacobaea, and a number of 

 others. Brompton, ten-weeks, and 

 German stocks, though quite hardy, 

 make better plants, and consequently 

 flower more vigorously when so raised. 

 There are few plants more truly or- 

 namental than the different kinds of 

 stock; and when these are raised under 

 glass, pricked out into pots of the 

 smallest size, and gradually shifted 

 from pots of two inches to those of 

 ten inches in diameter, they will make 

 winter ornaments for greenhouses and 

 dining-rooms, which for fine masses 

 of colour are unequalled by any pro- 

 duction of tropical climates. Bromp- 

 ton stocks, treated in this manner, 

 have been known to attain the height 

 of six feet, and to live and flower for 

 three years. 



Hardy Annuals are generally sown 

 in the open garden, where they are 

 finally to remain ; or they may be 

 sown in pots or seed-beds to transplant 

 into their final situation, when they 

 are two or three inches high. The 

 latter mode is preferable with all the 

 California annuals,which growstronger 

 and flower better when sown in 



autumn, and suffered to stand the 

 winter in the open air, than when 

 they are sown with the other annuals 

 in spring. About an inch in thickness 

 of very light soil should be laid on a 

 hard surface of rock or gravel, in any 

 obscure part of the garden, and in this 

 the seeds should be sown the first 

 week in September. In March or 

 April, according to the season, when 

 the flower-beds and borders have been 

 dug over and prepared, the young 

 seedlings should be taken up by spade- 

 fuls and laid over the bed, filling up 

 all the interstices between the patches 

 with earth, so as to make the surface 

 even. Thus treated, the Nemophilas, 

 the Leptosiphous, the Collinsias, the 

 Lasthenias, and, in short, all the 

 Californian annuals will be splendidly 

 in flower in May and June. 



When the seeds of annuals are 

 sown, the ground should first be made 

 firm by pressing it with the saucer of 

 a flower-pot, or the back of the spade; 

 the 6eeds should then be sprinkled 

 thinly over the ground, and just 

 covered with fine earth, which should 

 be slightly pressed down over them. 

 "When they come up, if they appear 

 too thick, they should be thinned out 

 so as to leave each plant standing 

 apart ; the distance at which they are 

 left from each other varying, of course, 

 according to the strength and habit of 

 growth of the plant. The plants of 

 some kinds of annuals will bear trans- 

 planting after they have been taken 

 up in thinning, but generally they are 

 not worth the trouble of replanting. 

 The seeds when sown are often de- 

 stroyed by birds ; but this may be 

 prevented by turning a flower-pot 

 over each patch till the seeds have 

 germinated, taking care, however, to 

 remove it as soon as the plants begin 

 to grow, lest they should be drawn 

 up by the shelter thus afforded, and 

 become weak. Snails and slugs are 

 dangerous enemies to young and ten- 



