30 



PERENNIALS. 



Perennials are flowers of many years duration ; 

 and they multiply themselves most abundantly bv 

 suckers, offsets, parting the roots, &c. They re 

 quire little trouble beyond taking care to renew th-j 

 soil every year or two by a somewhat plentiful sup 

 ply from the compost heap ; and by seperating thi3 

 offsets, and parting the roots in autumn, to strength 

 en the mother plant. When the flowers are pa^t 

 and the stems have decayed, then the operation ma ir 

 take place. Choose a showery day for transplant 

 ing the roots, or give them a moderate watering to 

 fix them in their fresh places. When you trans 

 plant a flower root, dig a hole with your trowel suf 

 ficiently large to give the fibres room to lay freeh 

 and evenly in the ground, 



I have, throughout my little work, laid great, 

 stress upon posessing a heap of compost, ready to 

 apply to roots and shrubs every spring and autumn. 

 Wherever the soil is good, the flowers will bloom 

 handsomely ; and no lady will be disappointed of 

 that pleasure, if a compost heap forms one essen 

 tial, in a hidden corner of the flower garden. If 

 you raise your perennials from seed, sow it in the 

 last week in March, in a bed of light earth, in the 

 open ground. Let the bed be in a genial, warm sit 

 uation, and divide it into small compartments ; a 

 compartment for each sort of seed. 



Sow the seed thin, and rake or break the earth 

 over them finely. Let the larger seed be sown 

 half an inch deep, and the smaller seed a quarter of 

 an inch. Water the beds in dry weather often with 

 a watering pot, not a jug. The rose of the water- 



