HARDY ANNUALS.

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 57, 4 September 1926, Page 26

HARDY ANNUALS.

Sowings o£ all hardy annuals may be made now in the opei ground either m prepared beds for pricking o2 or where they are to remain. Some annuals do not thrive unless pricked off, while others are difficult to transplant. As a general guide, all the tap-rooted plants are more or less difficult to transplant, while the fibrousrooted ones are the better for it. Among those -which are best sown where they are to remain are poppies, eschscholtzias. mignonette, and humemanuia, while stocks, nemesias, scabions, antirrhinum, t/K., thrive better when pricked out from the eeed beds as soon as largel enough to handle and planted out when they have become good bushy little plants. Scabions are particularly valuable annuals, having a long season of flowering, and the various coloured blooms being borne on long, wiry

stems, making them invaluable for room decoration, the delicate blue-coloured variety "azure fairy" being perhaps the best. Another good flower, either for house or garden purposes, is sweet Sultan. The flowers range from white, pink, lilac, and purple, while there is also a soft yellow variety. The blooms are borne singly on long stiff stems which stand well above the foliage. These plants are sometimes attacked by the disease which often does so much damage to asters—a disease known as collar rot, which is caused by an organism in the ground. The soil should be sterilised before planting by means of boiling water and the plants watered with a solution made as follows:—2oz of bluestone and lloz of powdered ammonium carbonate well mixed and placed in an airtight tin for at least 24 hours before using. Mix at the rate of loz to the gallon of water and apply to the growing plants. This solution does not injure the foliage, and may be used wherever collar rot is prevalent. The Milestone and ammonium must be reduced to a powder and well mixed, and the container must be airtight to prevent the evaporation of the ammonia. Apply the solution by means of a watering can with a rose.