BEDDING PLANTS. 
201 
Autumnal sown .annuals are too often passed over as not worth 
the trouble attending their preservation through the winter ; but 
they will be found most efficient stopgaps in the beds im¬ 
mediately after the removal of the spring-flowering bulbs, and 
before the subsequently introduced plants can be got into bloom. 
Annuals that have been well kept, and are consequently in good 
condition if planted alternately with the permanent occupants of 
the beds, will, in all probability, be in blossom at the time of 
their transplanting, or if not then will be immediately after, and 
can be removed as soon as the other plants begin to require more 
space. 
I need not go on particularizing the several plants that are 
benefited by the treatment I advocate, but will proceed to meet 
the objection most likely to be urged against it in the additional 
room required for the plants so increased through the winter; 
and, first, I would beg to remind cultivators or their employers, 
that large attempts with limited means are usually abortions, by 
which I mean that no one ought reasonably to expect a large 
flower-garden can be kept in proper order without corresponding 
appliances; that more space will be required cannot be denied, 
unless the extent of beds to be ultimately filled is reduced, and 
where the winter accommodation cannot be enlarged, it would 
certainly be the most advisable course to reduce the requirements 
proportionate to the existing means of meeting them, because, as 
in everything else connected with gardening, it is better to have 
a little done well, than a greater quantity only attempted. At 
the same time, many of the plants propagated in autumn, will 
stand very well several together in the pots in which they are 
struck, in the manner of the nurseryman’s stores, which will 
economise the standing room through the worst part of the season, 
and if these are repotted about the time that under other circum¬ 
stances the cuttings would be taken, there is not a doubt of their 
being at least a month in advance. 
While on this subject, I may mention the stock of Verbenas to 
be preserved through the winter should be provided without delay, 
1 have invariably found the cuttings taken off the first week of 
September form plants which stand better than those of any other 
age ; the earlier plants grow too large, and being filled with young 
wood, are very likely to suffer from mildew, while the later ones 
