HARDY ANNUALS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1940, Page 9

HARDY ANNUALS

SOME USEFUL HINTS. Hardy annuals are plants the seeds of which can be sown in the open in the spring or early summer, and the plants will flower from summer well on into winter, according to the season, and ripen their seeds. A border ol annuals or patches in the mixed or the shrubbery border are very bright, and most are also useful as cut flowers for the house. In the herbaceous border there would be gaps after the spring-flowering bulbs of various kinds are over were it not for the annuals, both hardy and half-hardy, which can be sown or planted to take their place. The ground for hardy annuals should be fairly rich, but not freely manured with farm-yard manure, otherwise the plants would make a lot of growth and very little flower until very late in the season. In> a border devoted entirely to hardy annuals the seed should be sown in irregular groups varying in size according to the value of the kind, the taller ones at and near the back and the dwarf ones at the front, due regard being taken to the form of inflorescence, those with spike being mixed judiciously with those with heads, like calendulas and annual chrysanthemums. The border should receive a dusting of lime and then be forked over, breaking up all lumps to the depth of the fork. If the soil is not very rich a dressing of blood and bone manure or bonedust can be sown over the surface and worked in while raking. The surface should be made fine and level and then be marked out in irregular patches. The seeds are then sown evenly on these patches, raked in a little with the rake, and then covered with fine sifted soil, the very small seeds a quarter of an inch and the larger onesj half an inch. Level the surface and. firm it with the head of the rake, and label each kind as it is sown.

To keep away birds, and to maintain the moisture in the surface soil, cover the borders or patches with twiggy branches, which must be removed as soon as germination takes place. As soon as the seedlings are large enough to handle easily, they should be thinned out to about two inches apart, and later on the final thinning should be given, when the dwarf kinds can be left at from four to six inches apart and the taller growing ones to from nine to twelve inches. Thinning is most necessary, for if the plants are crowded they are drawn up and spindly, they have no room to form side branches, and when the few flowers on the end of the stem are over the display is past. Where they have room they go on developing side branches which continue the flowering over a longer period. Some of the taller kinds require support, and this is best provided by sticking in a few twiggy branches among the plants at their final thinning. The space between the various patches should 'be hoed as long as it is possible, but in time the different groups will meet and completely cover the soil, smothering all weeds.

The following would be a good collection of hardy annuals to grow:— Alyssum minimum as an edging, Alonsoa compact pink, Aster, Comet and Southcote Beauty. Valendula, Orange King, Chrysantha and Art Shades, Chrysanthemus, Evening Star and Coronarium, Clarkia elegans scarlet orange-scarlet, and rose-pink. Coreopsis special mixture, Cornflower. Jubilee Gem and mixed Dimorphotheca. aurantiaca, and hybrids, Eschscholtzia, fireglow and special mixture suitable for poor soil and a dry place. Gypsophila elegans, Godetia, tall varieties with long loose spikes cherry-red. rosepink and pink Dwarf varieties with flowers in clusters mixed varieties. Double azalea-flowered pink and scarlet, Helichrysum useful everlasting daisies. Jacobea double. Lavatera loveliness, Larkspur stock-flowered scarlet, pink and rose single branching, Linaria mixed, Lupins annual mixed. Mignonette, giant red and giant white; Mathiola bicornis. Nasturtium bleam hybrids and Tom Thumb varieties. Nebesia hybrids mixed, Nemophila insignia, Nigella, Miss Jekyll, Portulaca for warm sunny path, Annual Poppies. Shirley, carnation-flowered and giant double. Rudbeckia, Golden Sunset. Silene, salmon pink. Statice sinuata Venidium, hybrid art shades. Viscaria mixed.

f OLD MEDAL GLADIOLI, from W. R. Toon, 123 Wilson’s Road, St. Martin’s, SE2, Christchurch. Catalogue free on application, featuring cultural directions and useful hints for the amateur.