108 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



again, may be sown in boxes out of doors in May. 

 They can be pricked out as soon as they are large 

 enough into a reserve bed, and planted into their 

 permanent quarters the next spring. Young plants 

 that have not flowered will not usually suffer even 

 from hard winters in fairly light soils, and, in any 

 case, it is not difficult to give them a little protection. 

 Of course, it takes more time to raise plants in this 

 way than to start them in heat in early spring. Pent- 

 stemons, for instance, will flower the same year if 

 raised in heat, and so will Hollyhocks and Snapdragons. 

 But the open-air method produces healthier plants, 

 and costs nothing except the price of the seeds. All 

 the perennials mentioned above can be raised from 

 seed sown in the open border; but the safest plan with 

 most of them, especially where the soil is heavy, is to 

 sow the seed in boxes and to place the boxes in a cold 

 frame until the seedlings are strong enough to resist 

 all caprices of the weather. If this is done it is best 

 to sow the seed in April, so that the plants may be 

 a good size before the hot weather comes. They 

 should be moved into the open air, however, as soon 

 as possible, and then put into their permanent quar- 

 ters in the autumn, where they will flower the next 

 year. When one considers that a single plant of 

 Oenothera macrocarpa costs sixpence, whereas fifty 

 plants may be raised from a penny packet of seed so 

 as to flower the year after sowing, the advantages of 

 raising plants from seed are obvious. 



There are some plants, of course, that do not come 



