STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 87 



is no reason why we should not deal with the hybrid perpetuals, as 

 we may without fear of failure. To keep company with the roses 

 and if 3'ou choose, to make a border for your rose bed, there is no 

 herbaceous plant that will give so much lasting satisfaction as the 

 Sweet William, in the variegated kinds. They grow with very little 

 care and preserve their flowers for weeks in a state of perfection. 

 The person who loves showy flowers would do well to have along 

 with these, a bed of peonies. Their nodding biightness is very 

 attractive to many. 



These will hold their own very well until the pansies and petunias 

 begin to blossom. Now we shall have to go back a little to consider 

 our seedlings. The best way to get our plants is by sowing good 

 seed, unless we wish particu'ar varieties. If a plant has been 

 crossed with some other, or hybridized as we may better say, the 

 seed of that plant'you cannot be sure of. It may produce what you 

 want, so we are told by seedmen, but 3'ou can't get a Baldwin apple 

 tree if you plant all the seeds you can fiud. The seed partakes of 

 the vitalized and fertilizing qualities of the root and not of the 

 branch. If a general variety of pansies, verbenas, petunias, etc., is 

 wanted the better way is to sow good new seed each spring. Expe- 

 rience will teach us man3* things that we can not learn from any 

 other source but perhaps one person's trials and attempts may help 

 others over many little petty annoyances. The most of us like to 

 have a part of our seedlings bloom early. If we do have them ready 

 for blooming by the last of .June or first of Joly we must either 

 grow them iu a hot bed or some other place where the temperature 

 is kept high and they can be driven along the road to life and 

 activity. I have what I call my forcing shelf. A shelf put up in a 

 sunny window in the kitchen, up as high as it can be placed and 

 catch the sun's warmth. The seeds germinate quickly as the 

 elevated position and giving them a good draught of warm water 

 every morning soon do the work. They must scon after coming 

 up through the soil, be transferred to a place of lower temperature 

 as they will grow so fast they will not be able to hold their own 

 heads up in a short time if you do not. Pansies, petunias, zinnias, 

 in fact anything that we wish early can be as nicely grown there as 

 in a hot bed, the only precaution needful to mention is, don't try 

 too many. Take just enough to give a collection for one flower bed 

 for July. Sweet peas must be sown as soon as the snow is off. Dig 

 a drill eight inches deep, fill in one inch or more of well rotted fertilizer, 



