_Propagation_--They are all raised from seed, but the finest double
varieties require to be continued by cuttings. The seed should be sown
as soon as it can after opening, but if this occur during the rains, the
beds, or pots, perhaps better, must be sheltered, removing the plants
when they are few inches high to the spot where they are to remain, care
being at the same time taken in removing those that have tap roots, such
as Hollyhock, Lavatera, &c not to injure them, as it will check their
flowering strongly, the best mode is to sow those in pots and transplant
them, with balls of earth entire, into the borders, at the close of the
rains. Cuttings of such as are multiplied by that method, are taken
either from the flower stalks, or root-shoots, early in the rains, and
rooted either in pots, under shelter, or in beds, protected from the
heavy showers.
_Culture_--Cultivation after the plants are put into the borders, is the
same as for perennial plants. But the duration and beauty of the flowers
is greatly improved by cutting off the buds that shew the earliest, so
as to retard the bloom--and for the same reason the footstalk should be
cut off when the flowers fade, for as soon as the plant begins to form
seed, the blossoms deteriorate.
* * * * *
THE ANNUAL BORDER PLANTS.
These are generally known to every one, and many of them are so common
as hardly to need notice, a few of the most usual are however mentioned,
rather to recal the scattered thoughts of the many, than as a list of
annuals.
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