CHEAP GARDENING 109 



true from seed, so that if the gardener wants a par- 

 ticular variety he must buy a plant and propagate 

 from it by other means to increase his stock. But 

 this is usually the case only with plants that have 

 been developed by the florists, such as Larkspurs, 

 Carnations, and garden Pinks, and Violas or Tufted 

 Pansies; and this variableness adds a new interest 

 to the raising of plants from seed, if the gardener has 

 some spare ground which he can use for trial beds for 

 his seedlings. If he does this and selects his seed 

 judiciously year by year, he will probably obtain some 

 very fine varieties of any plants to which he may give 

 particular attention. The trouble of an annual sowing 

 of Larkspurs or Columbines or Violas will be very 

 small, especially if the seed is sown in the open ground 

 when ripe, and the expense will be nil. The gardener 

 who saves his own seed will probably have so much 

 of it that he will be able to afford the risk of a sowing 

 in the open border if his soil is not too heavy; and if 

 he sows there, he will be able to leave the plants alone 

 until they flower. 



There are some plants that can be so easily in- 

 creased by other means that it is scarcely worth while 

 to sow seed of them when once a few have been ob- 

 tained; and there are also plants, as, for instance, 

 most bulbs, which, if raised from seed, take years 

 before they flower. But all means of propagation, 

 even in the case of plants most easily increased, are 

 strangely neglected by many gardeners. Nothing is 

 easier, for instance, than to get a large stock from a 



