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Selection of Varieties: Browallia
Browallia is a little-known but most worthy annual. The plants reach a height of about eighteen inches and throughout the season are covered with small somewhat trumpet-shaped blossoms of blue or white. The foliage and the form of the plant are attractive and the flowers are particularly good for cutting. Browallia is useful also for a pot plant during the winter months. Calendulas (pot marigolds) are extraordinarily useful plants. They are very hardy, being able to withstand an extremely low temperature, and are of easy culture. Their cheerful yellow and orange flowers lend a welcome not to many a planting scheme and they are among the most dependable of annuals. Calendulas are excellent for cutting as they last unusually well in water. The plants reach a height of about twelve inches and in the garden they should be spaced from six to eight inches apart.
Centaurea cyanus goes by many names in common garden parlance. It is called cornflower, ragged robin, and bachelor's button. It is one of the dependably hardy annuals and reseeds in an amazingly generous fashion. Its clear deep-blue flowers are particularly effective when massed with a planting of orange California poppies or with calendulas. White and rose-colored varieties are now offered in the seed catalogues, but cannot compare with the old-fashioned blue kinds. They look really forlorn, most of these new colors, as if they had "tried and could n't." The cornflowers are vigorous in habit; they will thrive on poor, sandy soil and with scanty cultivation. Their great failing is their short season of bloom. Nothing one can do will make them prolong their period of bloom for more than a few short weeks, and after they are through flowering they begin to look disreputable, so that successive sowings should be made.
Cosmos attains a greater height than almost any other annual and is valuable for planting at the rear of the flower border. Its growth is, on the whole, rather spreading and ungraceful, and it must be faced down with plants of medium height and more pleasing form. There are early and late varieties, and both single and double forms, coming in white, mauve, and pink shades. The plants are tender and the seed should not to be sown until all danger of frost is over.
The flowers are particularly useful for cutting.
Dimorphotheca, the African orange daisy, is well worth a place in the annual garden. The plants reach a height of about twelve inches and from midsummer until autumn they are lavish with their bloom. The flowers are daisy-like in form with long, slender, somewhat pointed petals. The usual color is an exceedingly pleasant shade of orange that shimmers in the sunlight. There have recently been introduced, however, some new hybrids which range in color from pale lemon to deepest orange and salmon-pink. The plants prefer an open, sunny position and will do well in rather poor soil.
Gypsophila elegans is the annual baby'sbreath, invaluable for cut-flower arrangements. Its period of bloom is very short and it should be sown every three or four weeks if one wishes to have a succession of bloom through the season. It is so useful in the annual garden that one can forgive it this great failing and make special concessions in its behalf. It forms a welcome combination when planted with California or Shirley poppies or with Phlox drummondi. White is the usual color. There is also a pink variety which is somewhat less pleasing in form, lacking the airy grace of the variety alba. The plants reach a height of some twelve inches and should be spaced about six inches apart. As the seeds germinate readily, thinning is usually necessary and the young plants that are thinned out may be easily transplanted. Larkspur. The annual larkspurs have been so greatly improved within the past few years that they have not only gained popularity as a garden flower but are also being grown in greenhouses during the winter. Their tall, graceful spikes make them valuable both as cut flowers and for garden decoration. The plants are extremely hardy and the seed may be sown out of doors early in the spring. If a sowing is made during April, the plants will usually come into flower early in July and from then until frost should give continuous bloom. The plants reach a height of two and one-half to three feet. A variety of colors may be had: pale blue, deep blue, lavender, white, carmine, and soft rose-pink.
Lobelia is one of the most popular annual edging plants and it is useful also for porch and window boxes. There are several forms, the very dwarf form, such as the variety Crystal Palace compacta, bearing flowers of intense deep blue; the trailing form, such as the varieties gracilis (light blue) and speciosa (ultramarine blue); and the upright form, tenuior, which reaches a height of almost fifteen inches and bears large flowers of rich cobalt blue. The intensity of the blue found in lobelia is equaled in almost no other flower. The plants are tender, and the seed should be started indoors early in the season, being planted out in the garden when all danger of frost is over. They are of simple culture and will thrive in almost any soil. Lupine. The annual forms are almost as desirable as the perennial forms, although in a more modest way. The graceful spikes of blue, pink, or white flowers are very beautiful. The plants are easily grown and will give bloom over an exceedingly long period if they are not allowed to go to seed. Seeds may be planted early in the spring where the plants are to flower. They do well in either full sun or partial shade. There is a softness about the coloring of lupines that is particularly welcome in the midsummer and autumn planting scheme and they should be more commonly grown. The annual lupines reach a height of about two feet.