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CULTURE OP ANNUALS. 
Annuals are so beautiful and so easily cultivated, 
and there is such a great variety of beautiful flowers, 
that I often wonder why so few try to cultivate them. 
A genuine love for flowers, a little time and seed, and 
any one can have beautiful annuals. 
I have three ways of sowing seed. If the seeds are 
small, or I have only a few of a kind, and wish to 
raise every plant, I take soap, starch, or candle boxes, 
or any box large enough, 
and set them close to the 
east side of the house, and 
fill with good rich earth. 
I draw the end of my 
finger across the box, 
making a little furrow 
across the box; draw the 
furrows as thick as you 
can, so as to leave a ridge 
of loose dirt between each 
one; sprinkle the seed 
even in the furrow, each 
furrow a different kind, 
and have paper and pen¬ 
cil ; as I sow each row I 
write it on the paper, 
something like this: first 
row, north, Aster; second, 
Ten-week stock, and so 
on, until I have them all 
sowed and labeled. Cover 
the seed with the ridges 
very lightly ; now take a 
tablespoon and water care¬ 
fully, and you have them 
done; your labels will not 
wash off, as you have 
them in the house; you 
need not move the boxes. 
I plant them in April; 
have a board alongside the 
boxes, and cover them with 
it cold nights or rainy 
days; plant them in the 
garden as soon as danger 
from frost is over, as they 
will be large enough. If 
I have plenty of seed, or 
the seed is large, I sow 
them in furrows, the same 
as in the boxes, only in¬ 
stead of sowing in boxes, 
sow in the garden, where 
you want them to blossom. 
The other way is to rake a 
round spot with the hand, 
«as large as a pail; scatter 
out weak plants; leave about one inch apart, until 
the first flower show r s; then, if double, let it remain ; 
if single, pull it up; serve them all so, and you will 
have Zinnias as nice as Dahlias. Keep thinning out 
the poorest until about ten inches apart; tie a string 
around the stem of the most double and perfect flower 
of each color, and save for seed -when ripe; save the 
seeds nearest the outer edge of the flower; throw the 
centre seed away, so it will be nicer every year. Sca- 
biosa, Poppy, Clarkia, Erythrimum, Esehs'choltzia, Sau- 
vitalia, Salpiglossis, are all very pretty. I sow the 
seeds of them all in a round spot, and rather thin ; do 
cellar. Celosia, Ten-Weeks Stock, Amaranth, Pan¬ 
sies, Balsam and Pinks, and all grasses, I always. sow 
in boxes, and transplant grasses eight or ten inches 
apart; good for front edge of beds, and for winter bou- 
cpiets. Pick when green; tie in small bunches and 
hang up to dry in the dark. Soak Amaranth seed in 
warm water, by placing the warm water in a tumbler, 
and stand it on a south window for two days, then 
plant; pick Everlastings and Amaranths, and dry the 
same as grasses, the long buds on Ten-Weeks are 
single ; the round, double. Leave one single betwpen 
two double, for seed roots, and pull all other single ones 
up; save Aster seed the 
same as Zinnia; Marigold 
the same ; sprinkle a thin 
sprinkling of ashes on 
Alysium and Ten-Weeks, 
if troubled with the black 
flea; three times wall make 
them leave. This is my 
practice with annuals, and 
I think very good, as I 
succeed very well. Pan¬ 
sies and Daisies grow best 
in the shade; California 
Poppy and Portulaca, in 
the sun. I save seed from 
the centre flower of a 
well-shaped bush and per¬ 
fect flower, if not marked, 
and save like Zinnia, as 
the centre stem of most 
flowers grows the same 
shaped bush as the seed 
root. Sometimes I plant 
Balsams four or five inches 
apart, and pinch off all 
branches, or except three 
or four, or plant ten inches 
apart, and leave all the 
branches on. Save seed 
from the centre stem of 
double flowers — Pinks and 
Snap Dragon—tie a string- 
on the stem of the best 
flowers; pick off poor 
ones ; save seed from those 
marked. All annuals can 
be grown successfully by 
these rules, according to 
habit of plant. Keep out 
the weeds, and you will 
have no trouble, and have 
large handsome flowers. 
S. E. Gay. 
the seed all over the spot, and cover with earth lightly. 
It the seeds are small, sow thick ; if large, sow thin ; 
transplant when they have six or seven leaves. Zin¬ 
nias, Everlastings, Asters, Four-o’Clocks, and Mari¬ 
golds, and all such flowers can be sown in the bed 
where you want them to blossom. Sow Four-o- 
Clocks about a foot apart; they make a lovely border 
for the back of a bed; sow Everlastings thick, and 
pull out all weak plants, leaving strong plants about 
six inches apart each way, if you wish a whole bed 
of them, or nice for a hedge, left the same distance 
apart in the row. Zinnias I sow where I want them 
to blossom; sow seed thick ; when they come up, thin 
Interior View oe an English Fernery. 
not move them, but make the spots as large as a pail. 
Wherever I want them to blossom they look very 
nice. You can save seed very easily; some of them— 
the Poppy and Eschscholtia—will sow their own seed 
after the first sowing, if left alone. I always save 
some, but have many self sown. Poppies sown thin 
in spots look like so many roots of Peonies. I like 
a whole bed of Petunias and Verbenas; I give Por¬ 
tulaca and Phlox Drummondi a bed apiece; also, sow 
the seed in spots, and transplant where you want 
them, six inches apart. Verbenas, sow the last of 
May; if you want Petunias and Verbenas early, root 
slips in October, and keep in the house or a light 
The Calla Lily. -We 
do not know of a more 
beautiful winter-blooming 
plant than the old-fash¬ 
ioned Calla Lily. It succeeds so well in the window, 
needing very little care, excepting an abundance of 
water and an occasional dusting of the leaves. A writer 
in a Detroit paper gives a very sensible summing up of 
the requisite methods of culture: 1. After blooming, 
dry off very slowly but thoroughly. 2. Keep the roots 
simply from drying out entirely during the season of 
rest. 3. Start slowly in light, rich soil, with little water 
at first, increasing as growth increases. 4. Plunge, 
if possible, in stagnant water until wanted for the house, 
or there is danger of frost. 5. Re-pot in rich mucky 
soil. 6. Plenty of water while the plants are grow¬ 
ing and blooming. 7. Plenty of light and sunshine. 
