ANNUALS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 19 August 1933, Page 9

ANNUALS

For the amateur of limited means there is no class of flowers from which so rich a harvest of bloom can bo as cheaply obtained as by hardy annuals. They are compartively short-lived, producing flowers and maturing seed in a space of a few months. Such a quick maturing piano needs plenty of food, in liquid available condition close at hand. This means that plenty of manure in the, soil and plentiful supplies of water during the growing season are necessary. Another common mistake made with annuals, is thick seed sowing. Usually tbo seed is cheap, and as only small patches are required, the plan often adopted of sowing a lot, no matter what is required. The thick sowing would not harm so much if seven, thinning were done as soon as the plants are up. The majority of hardy annuals require plenty of room to properly develop and should bo treated quite on an equality, regarding room, with their more important brethren. Among the best kinds are asters, bartonia, candytuft, annual chrysanthemums, clarkia, collmsia, coreopsis, cornflower, cosmea, dianthus, cschscholtzia, erysimum, godetia, gypsophila, gaillardia, gilea, leplosyne, love-in-a-mist, larkspur, iavatira, linaria, Jinuin, nialopc, mignonette, nemesia, phlox druinrnondi, poppies, schi/.anthus, scabious, sweet sultan, sweet alyssum, ten-week stocks, sunflower, and Virginia stock. Nasturtium should be sown in rather poor soil, but in. a sunny position. There, are several ways of growing hardy annuals, but for the amateur with limited space at his disposal, especially if lie desires a number of kinds, tile advantages of sowing the seed in small clumps between perennials in the herbaceous border are many.