It Pays To Know Your Seeds

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29269, 29 July 1960, Page 9

It Pays To Know Your Seeds

It is the general rule for seed packets to bear such descriptive terms as “hardy annual,’* “half hardy perennial,’’ and so on. Frequently one sees these descriptions reduced to initials. As the treatment required by these different classes of plants varies greatly, it is essential that the meanings of these various terms be thoroughly understood. Hardy annuals (HA.). These are plants which bloom once only. Seeds

should be sown out of doors from August to October for summer blooms, or they may be sown in February for flowering in the following spring. Half hardy annuals (HJLA). Seeds of these need to be sown in a greenhouse, hotbed, or frame, from the end of August to September then they are planted out during May to bloom in summer. Some, such as asters, may also be sown out of doors at the beginning of September, and others, such as cosmos and zinnias, in November. Hardy annual climbers (H.A.C.). Seeds can be sown out of doors as for the hardy annuals. Half hardy annual climbers (HJIAC.). Seeds of these have to be sown under glass in August, pricked off and planted out in October. Hardy biennials (HJB.). These are plants which are raised from seed one year to flower and complete their life cycle the following one. Seed is sown out of doors in December or January, the young plants being transferred to their positions in autumn. Hardy perennials (H.P.). Plants which live on for several years, dying down each autumn and growing up again in spring. Seeds may be sown in the greenhouse in August, or in the frame or open ground from September onwards. Half-hardy perennials (HFJ 1 .). The seeds must be sown about August, and the plants put out of doors at the end of October, and housed again in autumn