ANNUALS AND BULBS 
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grown on a raised border with good drainage, 
they will stand our climate perfectly, and that 
the fleshy roots will not rot away under these 
conditions. Montbretias are quite hardy, and 
of great use for cutting as well as colour, their 
red and yellow colouring and simple rush-like 
leaves being most attractive. The many new 
and improved sorts, Prometheus, Geo. Davison, 
Hereward, and Star of the East have flowers 
3 to 5 inches across and are proportionately 
expensive to buy at present. 
To see them at their best the corms should 
be taken up and replanted separately, yearly, 
at any rate every two years ; if this is not done, 
they grow into a thick mat. Grown through 
white pinks, or purple pansies, they look well. 
The autumn crocus and the colchicum should 
both be in the border, and flower about the 
time most things are over. The double 
colchicum, both white and mauve, is a lovely 
thing, and so is speciosum, and giganteum, 
with great rosy cups that shine out in late 
summer ; but the leaves, which come up early, 
and are very large and green, are an uncon- 
scionable time a-dying, and very disagreeable 
and yellow while about it. For this reason 
the crocus is better than the colchicum, and 
sativus (purple), the common saffron, and 
