THE OPENING YEAR 



heart. The seed may lie dormant for some time if Jan. 

 the weather should turn cold, but it is not likely to 

 perish. 



Here, then, is one advantage of buying seeds in 

 January ; they are always ready when wanted. Another 

 is that there is rarely the disappointment of finding that 

 something which was particularly wanted has been sold 

 out. In the case of novelties, which are always in great 

 demand, this may easily happen in February, still more 

 easily in March. 



Those leisurely garden-lovers who rouse themselves 

 from their winter sleep in March, and, tearing off the 

 wrapper of a catalogue, begin to make selections of 

 Sweet Peas, are sometimes brought up with a round 

 turn at finding that the most admired variety on the 

 coloured plate is not procurable. Early buyers have 

 gobbled it up to the last seed. 



Amateur gardeners rejoice in a batch of catalogues as 

 a bibliophile revels in the crowded shelves of a book- 

 shop. How enticing are the descriptions ! How ravish- 

 ing are the illustrations I Perhaps a little perplexity 

 creeps in when one reads of a dozen varieties of Kidney 

 Beans, all of which have marvellous cropping powers, 

 huge pods, and delicious flavour. One wants them all, 

 yet has room only for two. Or one has heard what a 

 beautiful annual the Godetia is, and, little recking that 

 there are many varieties, is a little bewildered when, on 

 turning to the page, one finds that a choice has to be 

 made from among fifteen to twenty sorts. But the writer 

 of gardening books will not deplore the fecundity of 

 seed-raisers, because it drives the buyer to consult his 

 pages. And the odds are that the novice himself will 

 find a fearful and secret joy in getting himself enmeshed 

 in a mass of plant names. 



3 



