A Little Maryland Garden 65 
of the opium poppy, but fair and delicate 
as they were, they did not seem to belong 
to my little garden as the Shirley poppies 
did, and this spring I have sown them again. 
On the fifteenth of April, according to 
Mr. Peacock, one may plant dahlias. Last 
year J made my first experiment with them. 
I had always before been afraid to try 
them, discouraged by a friend who had never 
succeeded in raising them. Yet in driving 
through the country here I have seen saucy 
beauties nodding over many a farm fence, and 
in little cottage gardens along the pike. [I 
think it is a mistake to be deterred from trying 
a plant by another person’s failure. Nine 
times out of ten conditions in your garden 
will be different, and if you study the best 
authorities on the subject you have a fair 
chance of success. At least it is better to 
have tried and failed than not even to have 
made the attempt. 
I considered the subject seriously before 
venturing, and sent for Mr. Peacock’s 
little pamphlet on the cultivation of the 
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