You must observe that you have no chance of keeping your flower-garden in a proper state, unless you have in some retired place what is called a _reserve-garden_, in which the plants may be brought forward till they are in a proper state for transplanting into the proper flower-garden. This reserve-garden is generally placed near the stable, both to have it out of sight, and for the convenience of manure; as it must contain hotbeds and frames, for rearing tender annuals, striking cuttings, and, in short, for performing all those gardening operations which require to be carried on behind the scenes. In this reserve-garden you must bring forward your _Californian annuals_; and for this purpose choose a piece of hard ground, a walk will do, or any place that has been much trodden on, and cover it about an inch thick with light rich soil. In this the seeds of the annuals should be sown the first week in September, and suffered to remain till the bulbs have faded, and the annuals are wanted to cover the beds, which will probably be about April. The annuals must then be taken up with the spade, in patches, and being removed to the flower-garden, they must be laid carefully on the beds, so as to cover them exactly; the spaces between the patches being filled with soil, and pressed gently down, so that the surface of the beds may be as even as possible. These annuals will come into blossom in May, but they are killed by the dry heat of summer; and, though they would sow themselves if permitted to seed, it is better to remove them as soon as they have done flowering. It is always a bad plan to permit annuals to sow themselves; as early in autumn, when the plants have done flowering, the ground not only becomes rough, but it is covered with dead stalks and leaves, which have always a most miserable and desolate appearance; and these cannot be removed till the seed has fallen, while the beds must not be forked over and raked for fear of destroying the seedlings. It is therefore much better, as soon as the annuals have done flowering, to take them up, and throw them away; a supply of seed being preserved by having left some plants in the reserve-ground for that purpose. A second or spring sowing of the Californian annuals may be made in the reserve-ground, to be ready for use in case any should be wanted to flower in the autumn. Though I have only advised you to have Californian annuals in your beds, I may here say a few words on the culture of _annuals_ generally. You are, of course, aware that what are called annuals are plants that live only one year, or, rather, only a few months; for they are generally sown early in spring, and die as soon as they have ripened their seeds, at the latter end of summer, or the beginning of autumn. These plants are of three kinds; viz., hardy, half-hardy, and tender.