CONCERNING HARDY PLANTS 37 



next foliage plants or geraniums, and finally, when frost 

 threatens, potted plants of hardy chrysanthemums are 

 brought into play. 



No, The Garden, You, and I know that hardy plants, 

 native and acclimated, may be had in bloom from hepat- 

 ica time until ice crowns the last button chrysanthemum 

 and chance pansy, but to have every bed in continuous 

 bloom all the season is not for us, any more than it is 

 to be expected that every individual plant in a row should 

 survive the frost upheavals and thaws of winter. 



If a garden is so small that half a dozen each of the 

 ten or twelve best- known species of hardy herbs will 

 suffice, they may be bought of one of the many reliable 

 dealers who now offer such things; but if the place is 

 large and rambling, affording nooks for hardy plants 

 of many kinds and in large quantities, then a permanent 

 seed bed is a positive necessity. 



This advice is especially for those who are now so 

 rapidly taking up old farmsteads, bringing light again 

 to the eyes of the window-panes that have looked out 

 on the world of nature so long that they were grow- 

 ing dim from human neglect. In these places, where 

 land is reckoned by the acre, not by the foot, there is no 

 excuse for the lack of seed beds for both hardy and 

 annual flowers (though these latter belong to another 



