96 FLOWER GARDENING 



more or less naturalistic fashion, the rule in ques- 

 tion need occasion no complete replanting for a 

 long time. This is avoided by removing alternate 

 plants, or one here and there, as the colony be- 

 comes crowded. In some instances the plants may 

 be left in the same number, but the individual size 

 reduced by cutting off portions with a trowel 

 which may be accomplished without lifting 'the 

 plant from the ground. Peonies are an exception 

 to the rule; they should be planted two feet or 

 more apart, as they dislike frequent disturbance. 



Perennials usually are planted for permanent ef- 

 fects, but there is a growing tendency to use some 

 of those that bloom in the spring and very early 

 in the summer as bedding plants. Seedlings or 

 small plants raised from cuttings are bedded out 

 in the autumn, after the summer flowers have come 

 to the end of their tether, and the year following, 

 directly the height of bloom is past, they are rooted 

 out and either thrown into the compost heap or 

 divided and placed in nursery rows. This is the 

 plan of Belvoir Castle, where every spring there 

 is a superb display of bedded-out perennials on 

 a scale that may be imagined from the fact that 

 the annual consumption of aubrietias alone is some 

 seven thousand. 



Such a temporary use of perennials within the 

 limits of parterre formality and the set designs 

 of park flower beds is quite common in England. 

 The example is one that might well be emulated 

 in the United States, where, aside from the most 



