RAISING PERENNIALS FROM SEED 277 



to hamper each other's growth. And this fact shows 

 the great advantage of thin sowing. Perennials that 

 are thinly sown can often be kept in the seed box until 

 they are ready to be planted out of doors, and thus a 

 great deal of trouble is saved. It is well to have a plot 

 of ground in the kitchen garden for seedlings; and there 

 they may be left until the autumn, when they can be 

 planted where they are to flower next year, or else, 

 if the gardener intends to keep only the best of them, 

 they can remain until they flower the next year. When 

 seed is sown as soon as it is ripe, it is often safest to 

 winter the seedlings in a frame, unless they have 

 grown very strong; and for this reason most gar- 

 deners prefer to sow the seed of perennials in the 

 spring, so that they may be large enough to face the 

 next winter out of doors. 



It would be impossible to give anything like a com- 

 plete list of perennials that are easily raised from seed. 

 We can only name some of the best and easiest of 

 them, and they are enough to stock a large garden. 

 All the perennial Larkspurs are very easily raised 

 from seed, both the innumerable hybrids and species 

 such as D. formosum and D. grandiflorum and the 

 scarlet D. nudicaule and D. cardinale, both of which, 

 however, are only doubtful perennials. It is now 

 possible to get seed of the beautiful pale blue D. bella- 

 donna, and this is said to come true. All perennial 

 Larkspurs will flower the next year from seed sown 

 as soon as it is ripe, and some will flower the same 

 year from seed sown in early spring. Columbines are 



