, Some Hardy Annuals for Farmers’ 
Gardens. 
WE have been asked to name a half- 
dozen of tlie most beautiful,and sliowy and 
most easily cultivated hardy annual flow¬ 
ering plants, something in fact which will 
grow and bloom abundantly in any farm¬ 
er's garden. It is urged that those who 
plant and care for new and rare varieties 
already understand what they want and 
how to take care of them, but those who 
have but little time to devote to flowers 
simply wish a few which will make a fair 
show under adverse circumstances. 
"With this idea in mind we have made a 
few selections, and present cuts of some 
which will always be popular, simply to 
show the general form or type of the va¬ 
riety. It is true they are all “common,” in 
one sense, and yet nothing can ever be 
more beautiful or popular than the im¬ 
proved strains of these same old favorite 
flowers. 
Pansies are worthy of cultivation by all 
who attempt to cultivate flowers at all, 
not only on account of their brilliant flow¬ 
ers but from their durability and long con¬ 
stant bloom. They are among the most 
hardy of all flowers, it being not at/all rare 
to pick flowers at all times of year. The 
seeds may be sown at any time of year 
in rich, moist earth, which if partially 
shaded by a fence or building will be all 
the more suitable. Pansies are now grown 
of almost every shade and color from pure 
white to jet black, and with many ad¬ 
mixtures which always make them inter¬ 
esting. The illustration we give is of the 
exact size of a specimen just picked under 
our window, a little over two inches 
in diameter. 
Asters are perhaps only second to Pan¬ 
sies in multiplicity of color as well as pop¬ 
ularity. Although the most common of 
flowers some of them are the most rare, 
and surely nothing can exceed them in 
brilliancy. They grow easily in any gar¬ 
den soil, and if a few plants be started 
early in the hot bed and transplanted when 
the cabbages and tomatoes are, they will 
supply cut flowers for bouquets all through 
the summer and fall. Our Grandmother’s 
China Aster would hardly be recognized 
among the German and French strains of 
the present day, so marked has been the 
improvement in them. 
Verbena. —Can the Verbena ever become 
too common to be loved and appreciated 
by all who care for flowers at all ? What 
can be more beautiful in all of Flora’s 
realm than a bed of Ffybrid Verbenas, 
ranging in color from the purest white to 
the brighest of scarlet and clearest of blue ? 
The trailing plants are thickly covered 
with clusters of flowers as shown in our 
engraving. If sown early and transplanted 
in beds as soon as hard frosts are passed. 
It- 
