All the popular kinds are easily raised from seed sown under glass during early spring, although I have raised the dwarf Indian pink Dianthus chinensis and its var­iety heddewigii from seed sown in free-draining soil in the open during late spring and flowered them with great success. Given an alkaline soil and a bright sunny situation they are amongst the most reliable of annual flowers.

Indeed, I would say that they could only be equalled in reliability by the Victorian verbenas. Those lovely plants of a bygone era derived from the plant known as Ver­bena venosa, but now itself irreverently changed by botanists to V. rigida. I recall as a student taking cuttings of these lovely creatures in later summer for over-winter­ing in an unheated greenhouse, to be potted in the spring for the following season’s bedding display. Truly the verbenas are perennials, but in days gone by it was not possible to raise plants, other than the true species, satisfactorily from seed. In recent years development work has continued apace so that now there are a number of very good straight colours as well as mixed strains. Most of these have been developed in the United States and are increasingly finding their way into our seed catalogues. I feel that few of the individual colours are as subdued as their Victorian forebears and therefore are perhaps dubious propositions for the cottage garden. However, a mixed strain like ‘Showtime’ should provide all that we seek.

If a good colour is spotted in a particular batch of plants there is no reason why we cannot revert to the old practice of taking cuttings if only a few plants are going to be required. Although the parentage of modern verbenas is somewhat more compli­cated than hitherto and botanists even deem the progeny as V. hortensis, I feel that they are essentials of the cottage garden.

Not so the petunias, salvias, nemesias and lobelias of the present day. These do not truly belong here, even though by careful integration with appropriate plants it is possible to make a pleasing overall picture. Nor really do the modern stocks, even though stocks of one kind or another have occurred in the literature of country gardens for centuries. Modern varieties of stock are extremely attractive and can be utilized without much effort. They are especially valuable as they are of similar appearance to their grandparents, but now we can ensure that every plant produces double flowers in selected races. Traditionally stocks have been grown for their scent and it was just hoped that most of the seedlings trans­planted would be double and provide an added visual attraction.

Plant breeders have worked extensively on stocks during recent years and it is now possible to select double flowered plants at the seedling stage. To do this, seed should be sown during early spring in a tempera­ture of 15°C (59°F). Once all the seedlings have germinated and their seed leaves have unfurled the temperature should be lowered to about 7°C (45°F) for two or three days. The seedlings will alter their colour, the single ones becoming darker and the double ones being pale green. It is the lighter col­oured seedlings that are obviously desirable and the ones to be pricked out and grown on. Reselection is done at the four leaf stage and any seedlings that are developing weakly are also discarded as these are likely to be odd singles missed during the initial rogueing. It is vital for stocks to have an open sunny situation in a well drained soil. All recent varieties could be considered to be suitable for the cottage garden as the blossoms are still all in attractive pastel hues and the flower spikes well proportioned. The only caution that I would add is to your expectations from these traditional plants. That term ‘ten weeks’ when applied to a stock is very open to question. Very rarely can stocks raised from seed be seen in flower within ten weeks.