128 NEIBKASKA STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



another the same year on the same space. If a flower is not good for 

 cutting, then I want it to have a long blooming season in the garden. If 

 it is good for cutting, then the longer it will keep fresh in the vase the 

 better. Of course I consider the question of beauty and the element of 

 fragrance are important where they can be had. I very soon learned to 

 choose single flowers instead of douljles. If I were raising blossoms to 

 sell by the pound I would choose doubles. For garden or vase display 

 the singles are far superior. Among perennials I choose only the hardy 

 kinds, for continual winter killing is annoying. The selection must be 

 such that there will be both a garden display and a cut flower supply for 

 vases for every week from early spring until late frost. And I want to 

 do the bossing, hence want no flower pests to take charge of the garden. 

 I also consider the question of easy to raise and reasonable certainty of 

 results, as well as economy of time and money. These are my general 

 principles. Necessarily there are exceptions. I endure weakness in some 

 point because of great vaTue in others, never expecting perfection in all 

 points. In my early inexperience I was much troubled to know the proper 

 distance apart for planting, and thought how easy it would be for the 

 seed catalogs to state proper distances. In this article the flgures after 

 each flower represent the distance apart in inches that I recommend. 

 That is, aster 12x12 means the plants should stand one foot apart each 

 way in the garden. 



I raise most of my own plants because I enjoy it. Others may prefer 

 to buy. Every annual flower I now raise may be started in the open 

 ground to advantage, except cosmos, pansy, salvia, and tuberoses, al- 

 though I start some petunias inside for early plants. I use window boxes 

 three and one-half by ten inches, and' three inches deep, for early seed- 

 ing, putting four boxes to a window. I paint the boxes so they will not 

 be unsightly. I bore two small holes in the bottom, cover these with a 

 bit of broken pot, sprinkle in a little sand, fill with sifted soil, put on the 

 seed, cover very lightly, press down very firmly, then set the box in 

 water until the soil is saturated by capillary attraction from below. Suc- 

 cessive waterings I do in the same way. By this plan a sprouting seed 

 or small plantlet is never moved. The drainage being good, I have never 

 yet lost a plant by "damping off." When these house started plants are 

 large enough, 1 transfer to three-inch pots, and plunge these to the rim 

 close together in the garden, surround by boards and cover with glass 

 sash on nights and cold days until frost is over. By this time they are 

 fine large plants and easily transferred to the open garden without aisj- 

 turbing a single fine root. 



I must not fail to mention the condition of my ground. Every foot 

 of it has been trenched, that is, spaded two spades deep, keeping the top 

 soil on top. The benefit of this is noticable every year, and was espe- 

 cially so during the dry season of last year. 



I have discarded many flowers as undesirable for my purpose, and I 

 shall first list them, giving the reasons why I no longer have them. Some 

 of these reasons will not apply to others here, and others will not apply 



