106 
THE LADIES MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
TIME FOR SOWING FLOWER-SEEDS. 
BY D. B. 
Nothing looks less cheering than empty beds on grass or gravel near 
the windows during winter; and of all the annuals or perennials none is 
better for furnishing the beds for the winter than the commonest varieties 
of single wallflowers. From a small packet of seeds, sown in April or 
May on a light piece of ground, and transplanted into any spare places, 
as many plants may be raised as will keep a large flower-garden quite 
green and gay all winter, and will be a good shelter for the bulbs 
coming forward. When the beds are wanted to sow or plant other things 
on them in spring, or in the beginning of summer, the wallflowers will, of 
course, be thrown away ; or they may be transplanted to fill any vacant 
spaces in the shrubbery, &c., and left there to seed. 
Clarkia may be sown in September, March, and May, and so may the 
Godetias; but Collinsia will not succeed if sown later than the first week 
in April, especially C. grandiflora , though this species will flower freely 
on the stiffest clay. I once threw the ripe herbage of C. grandiflora on a 
large heap of the best clay I could find for puddling, and which was 
lying at hand for that purpose : the barn-door fowls scattered the seeds 
all over the heap of clay, in pecking at them, and next May the whole 
heap was a splendid mass of flower—the plant seeming as much at home 
on the hard poor clay, as it could have been on the best prepared bed. 
As the Californian annuals are very short-lived, they should have two 
or three sowings. The first in autumn, where they may stand the winter 
and be ready to flower early in spring ; then in February, and the last in 
April. After this they wont do much good, as they are easily killed by 
too much heat. The best for spring sowing are Nemophila insignis, Gilia 
tricolor, Platystemon californica, Lupinus nanus, and Clintonia pulchella. 
All these are dwarf plants and very handsome. The Collinsias seldom 
do well if sown late; and particularly the beautiful Collinsia bicolor, 
which is very apt to become drawn up and weak. The large flowering 
annuals, such as the Godetias, and Clarkias, and Malope grandiflora, 
should have a rich soil and plenty of room. Clintonia pulchella also will 
not flower well unless the soil is enriched with vegetable mould, or part 
of an old hotbed, so thoroughly decayed as to be quite black. 
