CHAPTER XI 

 THE SPECIAL VALUE OF PERENNIALS 



ALL other plants might disappear and the peren- 

 nials would give the garden supreme loveliness 

 expressed in hundreds upon hundreds of individual 

 forms. No one knows how many kinds are in cul- 

 tivation; if any calculation were made it would be 

 good for only a day, so rapidly are species emerging 

 from the realm of botany to the garden and new 

 varieties appearing on the scene. A glance at a 

 British list of iris, primula or campanula species 

 alone is enough to stagger one. 



The special value of perennials, however, lies 

 not more in the marvelous variety of form and 

 color that incalculable numerousness affords than in 

 the distribution of their blooming season through 

 the greater part of the year. Excluding all of 

 the bulbs, which it is the trade custom to catalogue 

 under a separate head, the herbaceous perennials 

 have a range of bloom that has not begun to be 

 realized by amateurs as the meagre representa- 

 tion in the average garden, in both spring and 

 autumn, demonstrates clearly enough. Without 

 any coddling at all, they can be made to furnish 



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