134 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ September, 
In 1879, the crop was nest to nothing, having 
been crushed by the cold spring and the ex¬ 
cessive rain that followed. We have now, 
1880, an immense crop, and I am having it 
well thinned, both to save the trees from ex¬ 
haustion and to avoid damage as the weight 
increases. The trees are, with a few excep¬ 
tions, extremely beautiful in form and propor¬ 
tion ; they have, in their own way, mended 
most of their original irregularities, and the 
crop of this year will put a stop* to their 
vigorous growth, which is certainly to be de¬ 
sired. The Winter Nelis is a fair example of 
the growth throughout, and demonstrates that 
non-pruning promotes fruitfulness, and fruit¬ 
fulness checks growth; and thus the trees, 
being left alone, will, I expect, keep themselves 
pretty well within bounds. — J. E. Saunders.” 
HARDY ORNAMENTAL 
ANNUALS. 
D®^ 3 M 0 NGST the many occupants of the 
flower-garden, the class of hardy and 
half-hardy annuals may be specially re¬ 
commended to the notice of those who desire to 
utilise the beauty and variety to be imparted to 
their gardens and pleasure-grounds by the use of 
distinct types of ornamental plants. This has 
been well illustrated during the past summer 
by the exhibitions of annual flowers made by 
the Messrs. Carter and Co., at the gardens of 
the Royal Botanic and Royal Horticultural 
Societies. 
The first special merit attaching to annuals 
is that they are within reach of everybody, 
since, for a comparatively small outlay, an 
abundant variety may be secured by any one 
who cares to grow them. A second recom¬ 
mendation is that the annuals are a hardy 
race, that need little or no coddling—at 
least, there are amongst them a large number 
which need but the simplest course of treat¬ 
ment. Thirdly, they afford a wide choice of 
colours, some of them furnishing hues of the 
most brilliant character. Fourthly, they can 
be cleared away at once when the bloom is 
over, to make way for their successors, since, 
of course, seed-saving in a tidily-kept garden is 
not to be thought of. And finally, though 
the blooming season may be brief, as compared 
with many of the bedding plants, they at least 
last as long in flower as the average number of 
bulbs or herbaceous plants, and can be much 
more easily brought under control, so as to 
furnish a succession of blossom. These are 
good qualities, which should secure for them 
a greater degree of popularity than at the 
present time they enjoy. 
It may, perhaps, be urged that in the case 
of public gardens the necessity for a continuous 
display has led to their rejection, and the same 
objection might possibly be taken to their use 
in private establishments as materials for fur¬ 
nishing formal or geometrical gardens ; but 
even here their introduction might be con¬ 
sidered an advantage, in the eyes of those who 
object to the glare of a whole series of beds 
full of bright blossoms, since it would be 
comparatively easy to adopt a design which 
would admit of a well-balanced set of the beds 
being devoted to a succession of annuals, the 
first crop of which would possibly be quite 
coeval with the earliest summer bedding, and 
the second crop, while growing, would tone 
down the full summer blaze. This method of 
including a design within a design, we hold to 
be the most perfect of all arrangements for 
flower gardens, since it admits of introducing 
the different materials adopted for successive 
effects in winter, spring, summer, and autumn, 
in the same parterre ; and though the succes- 
sional pictures produced may be less gorgeous, 
the element of variety is constantly coming in, 
to add to the interest of the display. But 
irrespective of this, there are in all gardens, 
public and private, isolated or outlying places 
where annuals would not affect the symmetry 
of the arrangements, but where the variety 
they would impart would be most welcome; 
and there are also the mixed borders, to which 
they could be freely and very advantageously 
introduced. 
As to the available materials, there are many 
perfectly hardy annuals of which three crops of 
flowers might be obtained during the season, 
by having recourse to sowing the seeds in 
autumn, in early spring, and later on in the 
spring months; while a little extra feeding, 
which is now so easily supplied by means of 
one or other of the many excellent concen¬ 
trated fertilisers now in. the market, of which 
Clay’s, Jackman’s, Gyde’s, Stephens’s, and the 
Flor-vitse, are familiar examples, would supply 
all that would be required to support the suc¬ 
cessive crops, even if they were confined to the 
same plots, which possibly they need not be, in 
all cases. Of those kinds which would not en- 
