30 



PERENNIALS. 



Perennials are flowers of many years' duration ; 

 and they multiply themselves most abundantly by 

 suckers, offsets, parting the roots, &c. They re- 

 quire little trouble beyond taking- care to renew the 

 soil every year or two by a somewhat plentiful sup- 

 ply from the compost heap ; and by seperating the 

 offsets, arid parting the roots in autumn, to strength- 

 en the mother plant. When the flowers are past 

 and the stems have decayed, then the operation may 

 take place. Choose a showery day for transplant- 

 ing the roots, or give them a moderate watering to 

 fix them in their fresh places. When you trans- 

 plant a flower root, dig a hole with your trowel suf- 

 ficiently large to give the fibres room to lay freely 

 and evenly in the ground, 



I have, throughout my little work, laid great 

 stress upon posessing a heap of compost, ready to 

 apply to roots and shrubs every spring and autumn. 

 VVherever the soil is good, the flowers will bloom 

 handsomely ; and no lady will be disappointed of 

 that pleasure, if a compost heap forms one essen- 

 tial, in a hidden corner of the flower garden. If 

 you raise your perennials from seed, sow it in the 

 last week in iMarch, in a bed of light earth, in the 

 open ground. Let the bed be in a genial, warm sit- 

 uation, and divide it into small compartments ; a 

 compartment for each sort of seed. 



Sow the seed thin, and rake or break the earth 

 over them finely. Let the larger seed be sown 

 half an inch deep, and the smaller seed a quarter of 

 an inch. Water the beds in dry weather often with 

 a watering pot, not a jug. The rose of the water- 



