CHAPTER VIII. 
TENDER BORDER FLOWERS. 
The plants classed in this section are such as require to be 
raised every year from seeds under glass, with, in most cases, 
the aid of artificial heat; or to be preserved with particular 
care during the winter, and have the aid of heat to start them 
into life in spring. They are distinguished from hardy peren¬ 
nials and hardy annuals by the fact that they are so far tender 
in constitution that it is only during the summer months they 
can endure exposure to the common atmosphere. Fortunately 
for the cultivator, they readily adapt themselves to a variety 
of circumstances, provided only they are warm enough, and 
for the most part they are rapid-growing plants ; so that, very 
soon afcer being planted out they attain their full stature and 
flower freely. To speak of tender border flowers in a compre¬ 
hensive manner, we might say that the instructions offered 
on the cultivation of bedders apply to them with but trifling 
exceptions, which the amateur will soon discover for himself. 
But our duty is to be particular and precise, however brief; 
and therefore we shall again attempt, as in previous chapters, 
to provide very short but thoroughly practical codes of 
management for the several subjects that claim attention here. 
Though much may be done by means of cold frames, and 
by economizing spare corners in a greenhouse or early vinery 
in the growth of tender border flowers, the amateur who 
would do things well must encounter the few difficulties that 
attend the construction and management of a 
Hotbed. —To heap up a quantity of stable manure is one 
thing ; to make a serviceable and lasting hotbed is another. 
The method of procedure must in some degree depend on the 
nature of the materials at command for the purpose. Stable 
manure that has been slowly accumulating in a heap, and the 
greater part of which is in a half powdery condition through. 
