Annuals

Annuals are among the most cheerful flowers in the garden. They come in a vast array of colors, and because they are here this year and gone the next, they allow the gardener endless opportunities for ex perimenting and for yielding to whims of the season. This volume will show you how to take full advantage of an nuals' flexibility and variety. The first chapter explains how to prepare the soil and various ways of planting annuals-in beds, in window boxes and hanging containers, among flowering per ennials and bulbs-and how to cut and dry them for indoor en joyment. The second tells how to propagate, by sowing seeds and planting stem cuttings, and how to create your own hybrids. The third describes methods of keeping the garden in shape and what to do at summer's end to give your annuals a head start for the following year. Following is a section with a handy frost-date map that indicates when annuals can be safely planted, depending on where you live, a checklist for maintenance and tips on troubleshooting. Finally, the volume concludes with a dictionary describing the genus and species of more than 150 of the beautiful flowers that grow as annuals.