180 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Some are more suitable for large beds and borders, others for small beds ; 

 some for carpet bedding, others for cut bloom ; some bloom in spring, some 

 in summer, and some in autumn ; many are more fit for greenhouses 

 and growing in pots ; some grow 8 feet to 10 feet in height, some only 

 G inches or less ; some are hardy, some are not. 



Annuals, however, are, I fear, despised by many people, partly because 

 they are not properly known, and more often because they are most 

 improperly and negligently grown. The ordinary amateur is generally, 

 or at any rate often, a relentless murderer of annuals. He buys a few or 

 many packets of seed as the case may be, sows them very thickly in little 

 clumps, puts a cleft stick in the centre of each clump with a little paper 

 flag in the cleft bearing the name, and thinks that is all that is necessary, 

 or that Nature or chance will do the rest. A packet of seed, whether it 

 contains many or few, must be all crammed into this one little clump or 

 patch instead of making two or three or more. Consequently the 

 plants struggle for a time for bare existence in tightly packed masses of 

 fifty or a hundred, where there should have been but two, three, or four 

 plants at most. Poor wretched annuals ! Disease and death come 

 prematurely to nearly all, probably all, though perhaps a few continue 

 to struggle on and eventually bloom. But what a bloom ! What a 

 plant ! bearing scarcely any resemblance to its real natural beauty — sans 

 form, sans habit, sans size, sans everything that would have made it 

 beautiful and attractive. 



If, however, they had been sown by anyone with experience or even 

 common sense, in a spare part of the garden thinly, so that the seedlings 

 when just above ground had been \ inch or 2 inches apart, according to 

 kind, of course, and then, as they grew on, if at all crowded, thinned out, 

 and when large enough to handle, transplanted to where they are to 

 remain and flower, they would have grown into good plants and developed 

 in all their beauty of habit, formj and size. I can think of no annual 

 that requires less than 6 inches to 8 inches of space to grow and develop 

 in, except perhaps the little Virginian Stock or Nemophila, which might 

 put up with, say, 4 inches, but, of course, large-growing plants, such as 

 Sunflowers, Antirrhinums, and tall Larkspurs, should be much further 

 apart even than 6 to 8 inches. These require from 1 foot to 2 or even 

 8 feet. Some few annuals do not like transplanting, and should be sown 

 where they are required to bloom, of course thinly ; when up they should 

 be thinned out early, not waiting till they begin to suffer acutely from 

 crowding. Such are Poppies of all sorts, Eschscholtzias, and all those 

 with long tap-roots. 



I have spoken so far respecting annuals which are better sown out in 

 the open, but many, a great many, are better sown in pots or flat boxes 

 under cold frames, and some under frames in a little heat in January 

 or February, thinly, always thinly ; then, when large enough to handle, 

 pricked off into other flat boxes, 2 to 4 inches apart, and grown on in 

 these in cold frames until April or May, or in some cases June, then 

 planted but of doors into their flowering quarters. Among plants best 

 treated in this way are Asters, Stocks, Antirrhinums, Ageratums, 

 Verbenas, l>alsams, Marguerite Carnation — that is, the annual one — 

 Heliotrope, Marigolds, Dahlias, &o. 



