72 
THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
purple, and blue flowers. They will thrive in any good garden 
soil that is well drained, and, generally speaking, adapted to 
bedding plants. But the soil which suits them best is a light, 
rich, sandy loam ; the lighter the soil the better, but it cannot 
be too deep or too well drained. They are hardy enough for 
all except the bleakest climates in these islands, but a warm 
sheltered position and full exposure to sunshine are conditions 
that conduce greatly to their prosperity, and, consequently, to 
their abundant flowering. They should be planted two to three 
feet apart in large clumps. A number of varieties may be 
mixed, as they all present shades of crimson and purple, but 
the most decided effect will be produced by employing one 
showy variety for a bed, or a number of varieties distinctly 
arranged in bands or rows. Some time in June the beds 
should be covered with two inches deptli of half-rotten 
manure, put on carefully. The plants will soon cover and 
hide it, and will enjoy the moist surface it will insure them 
during the heat of the summer. As the plants progress they 
must be pegged down a little higher than verbenas, and quite 
as regularly. All the growth they make should be left until 
the month of April following, when the whole of the plants 
should be cut back to within six inches of the ground. The 
best way to multiply them is to put down layers in August, 
but young shoots may be struck under hand-glasses in June. 
The best varieties for bedding are: Jachnani , violet purple ; 
Ruhr o-viol ace a , reddish violet; Rubella , deep claret; Yiticella 
amethystina , pale violet blue ; Tunbridcjensis , dark blue; Lanu¬ 
ginosa pallida , lilac ; Lanuginosa Candida , white. 
Coleus. —A few of the varieties of coleus are gorgeous in 
their leaf-colouring and invaluable as bedders, but some thirty 
or forty kinds, supposed to be “ in cultivation,” are scarcely 
better for outdoor purposes than nettles from the hedgerows. 
To grow these plants is easy enough, provided they can be 
wintered in a stove or intermediate house, and be propagated 
early over a tank or on a good hotbed. They cannot be win¬ 
tered in the cool temperature that suffices for geraniums, 
centaureas, and verbenas, and it is but inviting vexation Jo 
attempt it. But given warmth enough and the matter is dis¬ 
posed of, for they grow with the vigour of nettles if they grow 
at all. During winter keep them rather dry and near the 
glass, and never allow a drop of water to touch the leaves. 
Early in spring strike the cuttings in a moist heat of 70°, and 
