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GREENHOUSE AND OTHER ANNUALS FOR AUTUMNAL SOWING. 
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3. If there be any one petal in which there is no white. 
4. If a pod be split down to the sub-calyx. If a guard petal be badly split. 
5. Notched edges are glaring faults, for which no excellence in other respects compensates.* 
GREENHOUSE AND OTHER ANNUALS FOR AUTUMN SOWING. 
THERMIT me, through the medium of your interesting periodical, to call the attention of your 
JT amateur readers to the extreme usefulness of certain annuals, when sown at this season, for 
decorating the conservatory and flower-garden in the spring and early summer. I recollect some 
years back, seeing in the garden of G. W. Norman, Esq., at Bromley, under the care of that most 
assiduous cultivator, Mr. W. Barnes, some specimens of that little simple, though lovely thing, Rho- 
danthe Manglesii in eleven or thirteen-inch pots, and which could not have been less than two feet in 
height, and as much in diameter, and, at the same time, Mignonette bushes nearly as large. At Chats- 
worth, some sixteen or eighteen years back, I once saw magnificent bushes of Schizanthus Hookerii; 
and the splendid plants of Clintonia pulchella, which used to be exhibited at Chiswick when it was 
first introduced, must be familiar to many of our best gardeners. But where'are they now P For 
years past we have not seen them ; and yet how easy it would be to grow them, and how interesting 
they would be ! Phlox Drummondii, not many years back, graced the principal collections of plants 
at the Metropolitan exhibitions early in the season, and some of the finer varieties, when properly 
grown, make most admirable plants for conservatory decoration. “ Oh, but,” remarks some one not 
yet versed in the art and mystery of growing annuals to perfection, “ I have tried them, and they will 
not do.” Why P simply because you began at the wrong time ; instead of sowing them at Michael¬ 
mas, you committed them to the fostering care of your Cucumber-frame in March, and after nursing 
them for a few weeks, they started prematurely into bloom, became useless, and were thrown away. 
Now let me beg of all such as imagine that annuals cannot be turned to good account, to procure 
the following, and sow them as early in the month of September as possible, viz., Phlox Drummondii 
oculata, oculata alba, and Leopoldiana; Rhodanthe Manglesii, Clintonia pulchella, Schizanthus 
Hookerii, and retusus albus, Lobelia ramosa, Portulaca Thellusonii, splendens, and Thorburnii, and 
Grammanthes gentianoides. These must be sown in rich light soil, and be placed in a warm frame 
until they begin to vegetate; then inure them to full exposure, and so soon as they are large enough, 
prick them singly into small pots, or some of the smaller kinds, as the Clintonia, Lobelia, and Gram¬ 
manthes, may be placed three or four in a pot. Use a light and tolerably rich compost, but avoid any¬ 
thing too stimulating ; place the plants in a close frame or pit until they are thoroughly established, 
and then remove them to a nice airy shelf in a warm part of the greenhouse. As the plants progress 
in growth, stop them occasionally, to induce a diffuse and spreading habit, and shift into larger pots 
as the plants require it, regardless of the time of the year, and everything else, except that of keeping 
the plants steadily growing. Should the Rhodanthe or Phloxes show flower, pinch it off immediately, 
and continue to pinch it off until the plants are thoroughly established in eight-inch pots, this will 
be by the end of February, and then they may receive their final shift into eleven-inch pots. Through 
the winter the plants will not require much water, but take care they do not suffer for the want of 
it. The following will be found an excellent compost:—turfy loam, two parts; peat, one part; and the 
same of leaf mould; the whole liberally intermixed with gritty sand and charcoal. The Phlox may 
be found subject to mildew, which must be destroyed by the usual application of sulphur dusted over 
the parts affected. The temperature of the greenhouse will be found quite sufficient, but avoid cold 
draughts near the plants. Plants thus treated will be a blaze through April and May, and will impart 
quite a new feature to the conservatory. In passing, it may be remarked, the Schizanthus retusus albus 
is one of the finest annuals in cultivation, and most admirably adapted for sowing at the present time. 
Mignonette, to grow it into large bushes, only requires rich soil, a suitable temperatnre, such as that of 
an airy greenhouse, and the abstraction of the flowers until the plants are thoroughly established. 
Now, of annuals for the flower-garden, it may be stated that all those from California, or the Rocky 
Mountains, are hardy in this country; such as Clarkias, Collinsias, Godetias, Gilias, Iberis, Nemophila, 
and many more, but the members of these six families alone would make a grand display, assisted by 
single and double Wallflowers, Erysimums, and the usual spring flowers; indeed, with them a garden 
with its baskets and vases may be kept very gay in the early part of the season. These annuals must 
be sown on light, sandy, and rather poor soil, in a situation not fully exposed to the mid-day sun, but 
where there is a free circulation of air, and where, at the same time, they are not likely to suffer from 
stagnant moisture about their stems. Should the winter prove very severe, a few evergreen branches 
* Glenny’s Properties of Flowers. 
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