Perennials for a Thought-out Garden 207 



are resting in August, and the roots of phlox, rudbeckia, golden 

 glow, the pearl, day primroses, pentstemons, boltonia, day-lilies, 

 bee balm, chrysanthemums, Japanese anemones, and other plants 

 that grow in clumps as soon as they show above ground in the 

 spring, there is little danger of checking their bloom; and by 

 lifting some of the self-sown seedlings of foxgloves, Canterbury 

 bells two indispensable biennials that give a charm to any 

 garden of gaillardia, hollyhocks, anemones, Oriental poppies, 

 coreopsis, and columbines, one may benefit immeasurably a well- 

 established garden while giving away plants enough to stock 

 another. Fill in all cavities from which roots have been lifted 

 with fresh soil made extra rich with well-rotted black manure. 

 The pit back of the cow barn is the best one to rob for the flower 

 garden. Plants given away are never missed, for what are left 

 show their relief from crowding by greatly increased vigour. Some 

 gardeners advocate lifting all perennials every four years, carting 

 away the exhausted soil in which they grew, and replacing it 

 with fresh earth heavily enriched in which to reset them. So 

 great a labour is quite unnecessary if the bed has been deeply 

 and thoroughly prepared in the first place, and if one will be 

 generous annually, or even every two years. 



Perennials, as a rule, are such gross feeders that they soon 

 extract the available food within their area. Phloxes and 

 peonies, especially, must be either lifted into replenished earth every 

 four or five years or be liberally fed annually. The practice 

 of spading or forking in the manure that has covered a garden all 

 winter as soon as growth starts in early spring is responsible 

 for a deplorable loss of or injury to cherished plants. Never be 

 guilty of it. Some forgotten treasures not yet started are sure 

 to be buried; others, with brittle new shoots like ferns, bleeding- 



