ANNUALS AND BIENNIALS 31 



experienced few of late years, it may be necessary to 

 water freely in order to keep them alive. But it 

 frequently happens that an ill-prepared soil and the 

 overcrowding of plants is responsible for more losses 

 among flowers of this class than can be traced to any 

 natural shortcomings. 



If left to themselves, annuals shed their seeds in 

 autumn at the conclusion of the flowering period ; 

 these, in the case of the hardier kinds, germinate at 

 once, and the young plants attain fair strength and 

 size before the arrival of winter puts an end to further 

 growth. Remaining dormant until spring showers and 

 sunshine loosen and warm the soil, they then make 

 rapid headway, and flower much earlier than their 

 fellows. Autumn-sown plants are immeasurably 

 stronger than those whose seed has been saved until 

 spring, and in sheltered places and with all such 

 varieties as are able to withstand the stress of winter, 

 Nature's way should be followed. A few carefully 

 prepared beds in the reserve garden, or a section of the 

 espalier or fruit border, would serve as a seed ground, 

 the soil being raked fine and the seeds sown in drills. 

 The seedlings must be thinned as soon as large enough, 

 and may be planted out in permanent positions durmg 

 October, or left where they are until March. 



Half-hardy annuals comprise some of the best of 

 garden flowers, and although common usage has asso- 

 ciated most of them with the stereotyped bedding-out 

 system, there is no reason why they should not be 

 used in other and prettier ways. Phlox Drummondi, 

 so varied in colour, and beautiful when used as a 

 carpeting plant for beds of Tea Roses and flowering 

 shrubs ; Verbenas, brilliant through summer and 

 autumn ; Balsams, dwarf Snapdragons and fragrant 

 Heliotrope ; Ageratum, charming with its note of pale 

 lavender in the mixed border ; Pyrethrums, Nicotiana, 

 c 



