ANNUAL FLOWERS. 



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ANNUAL FLOWEKS. 

 By Alfeed W atkins, F.R.H.S. 

 [Lecture delivered July 21, 1908.] 



No doubt, among the readers of my paper will be many experts and a 

 few amateurs, of whom some are probably more or less experts in various 

 departments of floriculture. 



It is not so much these, who probably know the annual flowers almost 

 as well as the Roses, Orchids, and florists' flowers, as it is the small 



Fig. 26.— Tagetes signata pumila on left; vae. ' goldengem ' on right. 



amateur gardener who keeps only one gardener or who cultivates his 

 garden himself, whom I wish to impress with the great beauty and capa- 

 bilities of many of our present-day annuals when properly grown. 



I will divide my paper into three parts. I shall give, first, my idea of 

 the proper cultural treatment of annuals generally ; secondly, a few facts 

 regarding the enormous increase in the number of kinds, and especially 

 in the variety of colours and improvements in habit of the different 

 plants available now as compared with years ago ; and, thirdly, a short 

 sketch of how by careful and constant selection these results have been 

 brought about. 



Annuals are really quite as useful in large gardens as in small ones, 

 for a long succession of bloom can be obtained from many of them. 



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