The first and most important section of our Fi.owER Garden is composed mainly of 
Annuals, that is, those plants that live but one season. The seeds are sown in the spring, the 
plants arrive at maturity in the early summer, bud, blossom, ripen their seeds, and die in the 
autumn, having performed their entire mission. This class of plants, from their nature, are 
valuable treasures to both the amateur and professional gardener. There is no forgotten spot 
in the garden, none which early flowering bulbs or other spring flowers have left unoccupied that 
need i-emain bare during the summer ; no bed but can be made brilliant with these favorites, for 
there is no situation or soil in which some of the varieties will not flourish. Some members 
delight in shade, others in sunshine ; some are pleased with a cool clay bed, while others are 
never so comfortable as in a sandy soil and burning sun. The seed, too, is so cheap as to be 
within the reach of all, while a good collection of bedding plants would not come within the 
resources of many, and yet veiy few beds filled with expensive bedding plants look as well as a 
good bed of our best Annuals, like Phlox, Petunia or Portulaca, and for a vase or basket many 
of our Annuals are unsurpassed. Though we risk our reputation for good taste, perhaps, in 
making this statement, yet we have seen nothing better, and few things that we shall remember 
longer or more pleasantly than a vase filled almost entirely with the striped Petunia, and showing 
all day and every day hundreds of flowers. To the Annuals, also, we are indebted mainly for 
our brightest and best flowers in the late summer and autumn months. Without the Phlox and 
Petunia and Portulaca and Aster and Stock, our autumn gardens would be poor indeed, and how 
we would miss the sweet fragrance of the Alyssum, Mignonette and Sweet Pea if any ill-luck 
should deprive us of these sweet favorites. Many of our beautiful climbers, such as the Convol- 
vulus and Coboea scandens, and nearly all our Everlastings and Ornamental Grasses are included 
in this section. 
This Department, however, embraces some Perennials, but only those that flower the first 
season, though they do not die at its close, like the Annuals. Among these are the Pansy, Dian- 
thus, Antirrhinum, &c., that live for several years under favorable circumstances. In our country, 
however, most of these are usually short-lived, and are really only to be considered as hardy 
Annuals. Under the influence of spring showers and summer suns they mature rapidly, and 
flower so freely that by autumn the plants are so exhausted they cannot endure the rigor of our 
winters, and in the spring are usually worthless, if not entirely lifeless. By removing a portion 
of the flowers in the summer, and encouraging a vigorous growth, this class of plants will remain 
in perfection at least two years. If seed is sown late in the spring, or even in summer, young 
plants will give but few, if any, flowers tlie first season, and the second summer will be in perfec- 
tion. Many of the flowers that we treat as Annuals, sowing fresh seeds and growing new plants 
every year, because the plants are destroyed by frost in the autumn, are really Biennials or Per- 
ennials in their Southern home. 
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