RAISING PERENNIALS FROM SEED 275 



spring, will flower the same year; and only com- 

 paratively few take more than two years from sowing 

 to flower. 



Speaking roughly we may say that monocoty- 

 ledonous plants take longer than dicotyledonous 

 plants to flower from seed, and are more troublesome 

 to manage. But it was a common practice among 

 English gardeners in the seventeenth century to raise 

 Tulips from seed, and there is no reason why any 

 amateur should not increase his stock of any rare 

 species by this means, if he has the patience. The 

 seed of most spring-flowering bulbous plants usually 

 germinates very early in the year, and it is best to 

 sow them some time in the summer or autumn in a 

 box or pan and keep them in a cold house or frame 

 through the winter and early spring. The seed of 

 ordinary dicotyledonous perennials should be sown 

 either when ripe or in the spring or early summer of 

 the next year. It is safest always to sow them in 

 boxes, or, in the case of the smaller and more delicate 

 Alpines, in pans. Many perennials will germinate 

 quickly and readily with the most ordinary routine. 

 All that is needed is light, rich, and fairly fine soil, 

 say a mixture of sandy loam and leaf-mould, and 

 that the seed boxes be regularly watered with a fine 

 rose and kept shaded and cool in hot weather. In 

 all cases seed should be sown as thinly as possible 

 and covered with a layer of soil proportionate to their 

 size. Very small seed, as of the Saxifrages and Cam- 

 panulas, should be mixed before sowing with a much 



