THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
189 
has come, the spade must he employed to dig deeply and break 
np the ground well. If a good dressing of half-rotten manure 
can be dug in, the result will be a more brilliant and lasting 
display than can be insured by withholding manure, but even 
that is not absolutely necessary. The finishing touch should 
be given to the border by thoroughly breaking up the surface 
soil to produce a fine seed-bed. The best way to sow the seeds 
is in patches of one to three feet across, and the same distance 
apart as the size of each patch. It must depend upon the size 
of the border as to the distances and sizes of the clumps, but a 
few large clumps will be better than many small ones, even 
on a border of most limited dimensions. Now we come to 
the sowing of the seed, and have to say that the seeds of 
hardy annuals are always sown too thick, and there are always 
too many plants left in the several clumps. Good reader, 
kindly bear in mind for your own joy, that one plant of the 
common Virginian stock allowed to attain complete develop¬ 
ment will cover more than a square foot of surface, and pro¬ 
duce flowers as large as a florin, and last two months in 
bloom; while if twenty plants occupy the same space they will 
be spindling weedy things with flowers the size of threepenny 
bits, and all over in three weeks at the utmost. The one grand 
secret in securing a fine bloom of hardy annuals is to sow 
early, and thin severely, and to proportion the thinning to the 
growth of each sort, so that every separate plant in a clump 
shall have room to spread and be encouraged to make much 
growth before it begins to flower. The time for sowing seed 
is February and March, and the surface soil should be fine and 
dry when the work is done. The seed should be thinly scat¬ 
tered in the circles allotted to the several sorts, and be covered 
with finely-sifted earth, about one inch deep generally speak¬ 
ing, but the larger seeds may be dropped into holes made with 
the finger or a stick, and the larger they are the deeper they 
should go; those of lupins, for instance, may be two or three 
inches deep, the little seeds of Virginian stock, on the other 
hand, should be but just covered. It may be that bad weather 
prevents early sowing, in which case the month of April remains 
for a last opportunity, and a very good display may be obtained 
in June and July by sowing even so late as the end of April or 
the first week in May. But as to the advantage of early sowing 
there cannot be a question, for the longer the period in which 
the plants grow and spread before they flower the finer at last 
