CULTURE OF A FEW ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. 
181 
The best period for sowing annuals that are intended for spring-flowering is the 
month of August, or early in September, as those instances of success which have 
occurred to us have for the most part been from self-sown seeds, which have 
doubtless been scattered nearly at that time. The seeds should be very lightly 
covered, or only worked into the soil with a rake, and not be sown too thickly, 
because, when the young plants have to be much thinned, the remaining ones will 
be weak and inevitably damaged in some degree. On the other hand, they must 
not be sown very sparingly, as it is desirable that the plants be near enough to each 
other to allow of some dying in the winter, and also to form a covering to the soil, 
which shall assist in protecting the roots. Unless sown in pots, (which is a 
troublesome and unsatisfactory process at this season,) and kept in frames through 
the severest weather, no autumn-sown annual should ever be transplanted, for they 
never recover sufficiently that vigour, and that firm establishment in the earth, 
which are essential to their preservation, if in any way transferred from the spot 
where they germinate. They may be thinned to two or three inches apart, leaving 
the strongest and healthiest, and best-rooted plants ; and if it should appear, as 
winter advances, that their roots are so near the surface as to render them liable to 
injury from winds or other circumstances, a mulching of soil can be carefully laid 
over the bed. We must especially urge the removal of all weeds that may spring 
up around them, since we observed, this spring, a few specimens of Nemophila 
insignis , which had been surrounded with weeds through the winter, and of which 
the flowers were not more than one-third the size of those that grew on an 
unencumbered soil. In the spring, all that will be necessary will be to train the 
branches of the living specimens over those places where any may happen to have 
perished, and the display of blossoms will be most brilliant and durable. 
A transition from annuals to climbing shrubs may appear rather abrupt, but, 
as we do not here confine ourselves to any particular class of plants, we have next a 
few remarks to make on the Trumpet-flowered evergreen Honeysuckle, Caprifolium 
sempervirens. This species, and its several varieties, have a much superior habit to 
the commoner kinds, and their flowers, being of a bright crimson or scarlet, and 
very elegantly disposed, are exceedingly attractive. There is a fine hybrid in the 
Epsom nursery, generally called C. Youngi% which was raised, we believe, between 
C. sempervirens and C. pubescens , and which has larger foliage than the former, with 
a dash of yellow in its flowers. And there is likewise a variety of C. sempervirens 
in the same establishment, which was received from the Continent, and described 
as having semi- double blossoms, but which has a peculiarly rich scarlet corolla, the 
interior of which is so marked with orange as to give it the appearance of an 
additional row of petals or segments. The last, for the handsomeness of both leaves 
and flowers, and their incessant production throughout the finer part of the season, 
is perhaps unrivalled among hardy climbers. 
At the nursery of Messrs. Young, Epsom, there is a considerable number of 
climbing plants supported by single poles, and their effect is most delightful. 
Among the rest may be observed specimens of the species and varieties we have 
