BEDDING PLANTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 244, 15 October 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

BEDDING PLANTS

ANNUALS AND BIENNIALS Annuals and biennials are useful flowering plants for beautifying gar dens the whole year round, especially during the summer and autumn. They may be grown at comparatively little cost by sowing seeds of many of the hardy and other kinds in the open ground where they arc to remain after thinning the seedlings out to . the proper distances apart, or by raising the seedlings under glass and transplanting when they are large enough to handle, into shallow trays and hardening them off to provide healthy, well-rooted plants for later transplanting into their flowering places in the beds and borders. By the judicious use of these plants magnificent and lasting displays may be obtained with a plentiful supply of flowers for cutting. Phlox Drummondii '■ Phlox Drummondii grandiflora, the large-flowered annual, is one of the best of summer flowering annuals. 1 Large beds comprising a pleasing mix- ’ ture of colours make an amazing display that may be kept up throughout ! the whole summer and into the early ; winter by successional plantings. Phlox is specially adapted for massing. It is a splendid dry weather plant and very hardy, lasting in perfection into 1 the earlj r winter. Phlox may be ar--5 ranged to colour. A good mixture ’ with bright shades predominating are ’ the most effective. lu addition to the ’ ordinary growers there is a dwarf. r compact-growing free-flowering strain 5 the colours of which are striking. The 1 dwarf habit fits them for beds, edgings or borders. Now is the best time to bod out phlox extensively for the summer dis- ] play. Arrange the seedlings in separ- ] ate beds or in clumps. Before plantf mg see that the soil is in good con- ] I dition and give a light dusting of , blood and bone. Arrange the plants L about Bin. apart, and have another 2 batch of seedlings boxed off and ready -y to make another planting for succest sion. About two plantings after the . first will cover the season and last into j the early winter. ' Marigolds I The many French and the two II colours in African marigolds, zinnias excepted, rank next m order of merit and popularity to the phlox. They afford a wealth of colour that is simply invaluable and are the best of dryweather annuals. With successiona plantings they may be had in flowei from spring until early winter. Th: dwarf double French varieties are elc gantly striped and spotted. The dwarf 11 single-flowered, notably the Legion ol Honour and Josephine strains, with *’ striped and blotched flowers, are most popular and are admirably adapted fo; =’ beds and ribbon borders. These mariJ ’ golds may be planted from now on n ward. Arrange them about 12in. apart G to allow each plant room to develop >e it African Marigolds Jr r . The African marigolds comprise twe is colours, orange and lemon. The tai 3,1 giant orange-flowered has enormou double flowers of perfect shape. Th( lemon, a very pure colour, is otherwisi identical in its habit of growth an. size of the flowers. Both are tai ss growers, and arranged against a hedg' ie or fence they are most effective, bciiq an attractive feature of the garden They must be planted about 18in apart to allow them ample room t> 16 develop. There is a dwarf variety also orange and lemon, that grow Lli about ISin. high. It is very floriferou and is adapted for lydding. Plant IL’in apart.