By ability to stand alone, I do not mean is every branchlet stiff as if
galvanized, like a balsam, for this is by no means pretty, but is the
plant so constructed that it can languish gracefully, petunia fashion,
and not fall over stark and prone like an uprooted castor bean.
Hybridization, like physical culture in the human, has evidently infused
grace in the plant races, for many things that in my youth seemed the
embodiment of stiffness, like the gladiolus, have developed suppleness,
and instead of the stiff bayonet spike of florets, this useful and
indefatigable bulb, if left to itself and not bound to a stake like a
martyr, now produces flower sprays that start out at right angles,
curve, and almost droop, with striking, orchid-like effect.

For making patches of colour, without paying special heed to the size of
flower or development of individual plants, annuals may be sown thinly
broadcast, raked in lightly, and, if the beds or borders are not too
wide for reaching, thinned out as soon as four or five leaves appear.
Portulaca, sweet alyssum, Shirley poppies, and the annual gaillardias
belong to this class, as well as single petunias of the inexpensive
varieties used to edge shrubberies, and dwarf nasturtiums.

Sweet peas, of course, are to be sown early and deep, where they are to
stand half an inch apart, like garden peas, and then thinned out so that
there is not less than an inch between (two is better, but it is usually
heartbreaking to pull up so many sturdy pealets) and reënforced by brush
or wire trellising. Otherwise I plant the really worthy, or what might
be called major annuals, in a seed bed much like that used for the hardy
plants, at intervals during the month of May, according to the earliness
of the season, and the time they are wanted to bloom. Later, I
transplant them to their summer resting places, leaving those that are
not needed, for it is difficult to calculate too closely without