CHAPTER XXIII.

HARDY ANNUALS.

Treatment. Sowing. - Saving Seed.- Watering.- Mignonette. - Sweet Pea. Asters.- Balsam.- Salpiglossis. - Abronia. - Nigella. - Ageratum. Coreopsis.-Sweet Allyssum.-Candytuft.- Clarkia.- ConvolPortulacca. - Indian Shot. Larkspur. Amaranth. Gillyflower. Schizanthus. Zinnia. - List of Choice Species.- List of Climbing Annuals. - Cypress Vine.

vulus. Eschscoltzia. - Lupins.

W

E CANNOT say these plants are

favorites. With the number

of fine bedding plants now easily obtainable, they are by no means so much cultivated as formerly. Yet there are some which are

indispensable, many which are

endeared by old associations, and many,

without which our summer garden will not be complete. What can excel the beauty of the annual Phlox, the brilliant contrasts of the annual Morning Glory, the dazzling

colors of the Portulacca, the fine-cut and curiously-marked leaves of the Schizanthus, the sweet perfume of the Mignonette and Sweet Pea, or the delicate pencillings of the Salpiglossis!

The treatment of annuals is very simple; they may be divided into two classes.

Hardy annuals, which may be sown in autumn and come up, surviving the winter and blooming early the next summer; or which may be sown in spring, in the open border, for summer bloom.

Half-hardy annuals, which are sown after the ground becomes warm in the spring, blossoming the same summer. This latter class may again be subdivided, according to the treatment required, into garden annuals and hot-bed annuals; the former rapidly coming to perfection when sown in the garden, about the first of May; the latter requiring a longer season, and thus needing to be started and brought forward in a hot-bed, and then transplanted to the garden.

Strictly speaking, annuals are plants which live but one year, that is, spring up, make their growth, bloom, and perfect seed in one season; but many plants treated as annuals may be preserved many years in a frame or green

house, while at the same time in the garden they bloom and seed in a single summer, as for instance the Petunia and Nasturtium.

Others, again, form tubers, which, if properly cared for during the winter, and planted out in the spring, grow again with vigor and flower profusely, and so on indefinitely, as the Four O'Clock (Mirabilis), the Commelina, the Scarlet Bean, and Salvia Patens.

There are, however, some annuals which must be sown where they are to grow, and which will not bear transplanting. Of these, our most familiar examples are Larkspurs, Poppies, Candytuft, Lupins, Mignonette, Convolvulus, Sweet Peas.

If, however, it is desirable to force these plants, they may be started in pots in hot-beds, and then turned out into the open ground, without breaking the ball of earth enclosing the plants.

In the following list, we cannot pretend to give more than a few of the best species. Our descriptions are necessarily brief, but we give, in as few words as possible, the name, color, season of blooming, and culture. Where we have been more diffuse, it has been because the beauty of the plant demands special notice.

But first, a word as to sowing; the general fault is plant

ing too deep.

No rule of general application can be given, for the proper depth must be regulated by the size of the seed. Lupins, Sweet Peas, and such large seeds, may be covered one inch, while very small seed, such as Portulacca, should be sown on the surface, and a very light covering of fine earth sifted over it.

The border for annuals must be finely dug, and the soil well pulverized and raked smooth; if the surface is coarse and lumpy, most of your fine seeds will fail.

Hardy annuals may be sown in August, for early bloom the next season; or about the middle of April, for bloom in the latter part of the summer.

Half-hardy annuals may be sown in the open ground about the first of May.

Then tender species should be started in the hot-bed, sown either in pots or in the bed, about the first of April, and transplanted to the open border about the tenth of May, or when all danger of frost is past.

If the plants come up very thick, thin out the weakest; you will thus give more room for the others, and secure a better and larger bloom.

A word as to saving seed. It is usually ripe when the seed capsule begins to turn yellow; it should then be gathered, exposed in an airy, sunny place for a few days, to allow it to become perfectly dry, and then put up in carefully labelled papers. In purchasing seed, buy nothing in "fine mixed varieties," unless you wish the refuse; for one good you get a dozen poor kinds; learn what you want, and buy only that. Again, select the best varieties, and buy only those; a poor variety occupies as much room as a good one.

In autumn, when the frost has killed down the plants, pull up the old stalks, and clear up the border, for the season's work is done, and the next spring new seeds will give you new plants.

Watering, which is sometimes needed by delicate growing species, should be given from a fine rosed watering-pot, either early in the morning or late in the evening.

MIGNONETTE (Reseda Odorata). Sow in the autumn, very late, when it will vegetate the next spring, or early in April. Flowers, greenish white all summer, of an exquisite fragrance. Where this plant has once grown well, it will come up year after year, without further care, from selfsown seed.