==Streptocarpus Wendlandii== is a singularly interesting variety.  Only one immense leaf is produced, which frequently attains a width of two feet, with a proportionate length.  This leaf is reflexed, completely hiding the pot on one side, and from its midrib scapes of elegant violet-blue flowers with white throat are thrown up to a height of eighteen inches.  The seeds should be sown in a warm greenhouse early in the year.  The plants will begin to flower in the winter and continue in bloom for about six months.  The temperature which is suitable for Gloxinias will answer for this plant also.

==Sunflower==

==Helianthus annuus.  Hardy annual==

The utility of the Sunflower has been alluded to in a former page.  Here we have only to regard the plant in its ornamental character, as an occupant of the shrubbery or flower border.

In addition to the common species, there are several strains which are adapted for special purposes.  The dwarf varieties grow about three to four feet high, and produce fine heads of bloom.  The ‘giant’ attains the enormous height of eight or ten feet in a favourable season, and the flowers are of immense size.  The double strain generally reaches six feet in height, and is valuable for its fine show of colour and enduring quality.  There is no difficulty, therefore, in making a selection to suit the requirements of any border.  The Sunflower can also be employed in one or more rows to make a boundary or to hide an unsightly fence, and some growers use it as a screen for flowers which will not bear full sunshine.

Seed may be sown very early in the season, and the plants can be brought forward in the manner usual with half-hardy annuals, but there is no necessity for this mode of growing them.  Sow in April or May where the plants are to flower, on soil which has been abundantly manured to a depth of eighteen inches, and they will bloom in good time.  To maintain the rapid growth, water must not be stinted in dry weather.

==Sweet pea==

==Lathyrus odoratus.  Hardy climbing annual==

The history of the Sweet Pea can be traced back for more than two hundred years; and it is almost as fascinating as an exhibition of the flowers.  Recent improvements in this highly popular subject include an amazing diversity of colours, a marked increase in the number of flowers on each stem, and an extraordinary enlargement in their size.  A modern list may run into hundreds, but those who grow every known variety find that there are many close resemblances, arising no doubt from simultaneous introductions by hybridists who have experimented on similar lines.  Enthusiastic growers of Sweet Peas are no longer content with a limited number of named varieties, for it is obvious that in competitions where fifty or a hundred bunches have to be staged for certain prizes, a large and representative collection must be grown.  For general garden decoration, however, and to provide sprays for the adornment of homes, the Giant-flowered class, offered under colours only, will continue to be extremely popular.