1 tried it, and found it immune from rust. I have grown it now for 
years, and I am beginning to save the seed so that I may grow the 
separate colors. It is not as tall as the usual perennial variety, but is 
quite tall enough for any garden use; the blooms single and gracefully 
set on the long stalk, and of lovely colors, with black-maroon, lemon, 
and amber (the color of Amber Queen Snapdragon) predominating. 
The pink is a good shade, and the red, a good glowing red without a 
trace of scarlet. As I do not like the fat, crepe-papery double Holly- 
hocks, the ones I grow as annuals satisfy me completely. Sow the 
seed the first of April in the cold-frame, give them more room in which 
to develop, otherwise treat as you would Zinnias or Asters. 
This spring I shall buy seed of Holly-hocks in separate colors, 
plant it as the annual seed, and watch it with great interest to see if 
it will bloom the first season, and if it will prove free from rust as does 
the annual. If the two big " ifs " materialize, what a neat little theory 
we can work out, of age and immunity, and so forth ! 
Speaking of rust, I have had a certain measure of success with the 
two following remedies for the rust on Snapdragon. First, I wash the 
seed, just before sowing, with a one half of one per cent solution of 
formaldehyde, then I water the plants with one teaspoonful of house- 
hold ammonia to one gallon of water a dozen times during the season. 
Always water first with clear water before using the ammonia water, 
and do not use the ammonia water right after transplanting. Last 
summer I noticed in a friend's garden that all her tall and mediijm 
Snapdragon were badly rusted, but that the dwarf Snapdragons that 
filled the center beds were free from rust. It will be interesting to see 
if the dwarf proves free again this summer. 
In The Well Considered Garden Mrs. King speaks highly of 
the annual Statice, varieties, bonduelli, and s'muata. The seed seems 
difficult to get, but can be bought as follows: — Statice sinuata, blue, 
simtata alba, bonduelli, and incana, of the Carter Seed Co., io6 
Chamber of Commerce Building, Boston, Mass. — Statice bonduelli, 
and sinuata blue, rose (which Mrs, King rightly calls mauve), and 
white, of Vaughan's Seed Store, 3 1 W. Randolph street, Chicago. You 
can also buy of Vaughan the Russian Statice which I have never 
tried out of doors, but which is most lovely under glass. I am told 
that Statice incana, though a perennial, will bloom the first year from 
seed. 
If I could have but one annual (perish the thought, for I cannot 
imagine a garden of any size with less than six) that one would be the 
Ageratum Mexicanum coeruleum because it has the longest season 
of bloom of any annual we grow, because its foliage is as lovely as its 
flowers, and it slips in and out of the perennial border until it fills 
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