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. They are 

 flowers of a season. I like flowers of a season. 



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. My personal 

 equation, I suppose, determines this. Zinnia, Petunia, Marigold, 

 Four O'Clock, Sunflower, Phlox, Scabiosa, Sweet Sultan, Bach- 

 elor's Button, Verbena, Calendula, Calliopsis. Morning-glory, 

 Nasturtium, Sweet 

 Pea, — these are 

 some of the kinds 

 that are surest and 

 least attacked b y 

 bugs and fungi. 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 an ideal. 

 Will he grow for a 

 garden effect, or for 

 specimen plants or 

 specimen blooms ? 

 1 f for specimens, 

 then each plant 

 must have plenty of 

 room and receive 

 particular individ- 

 ual 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 1 hope that some of you may 

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

 not know what the China Aster or the Balsam i- until you have 

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

 send you one packet of every variety ol Cocksi omb thai he has. 

 Next year you may want to trj Stocks or annual Poppies, oi 

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



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

 king." If you want in my flowers for house decoration and 



to give away, then grow th sm al one side in regular rows as you 

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

 that y.ou would harvesl 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 



harvested an armful your garden is not despoiled, 



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

 tn i ir I \ summer I want Pansies oi Candytufts and other earlj 

 or quick bloomers. Foi the small amateui garden greenhouses 

 and hotbeds are unnecessary, and they are usually in the way. 

 There are enough kinds of annuals thai may be -own directl) in 

 the open ground, even in New York, to till am garden. All 

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Four O'clock's, or Marvel of Peri - in a Fence. 



those I have mentioned are such. In general, I should not try 

 to secure unusually early effects in any kind of plant by starting 

 it extra early. 1 should get early effects with kinds of plants 

 that naturally are early. Let everything have its season. Do 

 not try to telescope the months. 



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

 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 Jyou 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 shallowly 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 atmos- 

 phere and letting the water escape. See how moist the soil is 

 in spring. 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 under- 

 neath. 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 al 

 dusk or in cloudy 

 weather. Before 

 the hot sun strikes 

 it renew your 

 mulch, or supply a 

 mulch of fine litter. 

 M ore plants are 

 spoiled by sprink- 

 1 i n g than by 

 drought. Bear in 

 mind that watering 

 is only a special prac- 

 tice — the general 

 practice is to so fit 

 and maintain t h e 

 ground that the 

 plants will not need 

 watering. 



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 

 trpuble 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 sparingly and be made only by persons who are skilled 

 in such work. A poor or unsuccessful design is the sorriest fail- 

 ure a garden can have. 



This brings up a discussion of the proper place to put annuals. 

 I)o not put them in the lawn. — you want grass there. Suppos- 

 ing that you grow the annuals for garden effect, there are two 

 ways of disposing them, — to grow in feds or in borders. Some- 

 times one method is better and sometimes the other. The border 

 method is more informal, and therefore 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 90 Luge and fill them SO full 

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

 are usually best, Four or U\c feel 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. Long points that run 

 off into the gras a- the point- of a star — are particularly wor- 

 risome, for the gras- roots lock hands underneath and grab the 



food and moisture. 



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



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