62 SATURDAY IN MY GARDEN 



of the leading growers of perennials. The classes are all carefully 

 tabulated, and contain cultural notes of the utmost value to the 

 amateur. 



A selection of the plants that are intended to furnish the 

 border having been made, the next essentials are firm planting 

 and discrimination in the choice of positions, so that the effective 

 groupings and colour schemes can be arranged. Even the be- 

 ginner in gardening will be familiar with the good old rule that 

 tall-growing subjects should be placed at the back of the border 

 and low-growing plants in the front. But he will be wise not to 

 observe it too closely. Its adoption will inevitably result in a 

 dreary and monotonous uniformity, which it should be his object, 

 in this as in all gardening operations, to avoid. By all means 

 let him place his hollyhocks and his rudbeckias towards-theJback, 

 but do not let him hide his early flowering chrysanthemums, his 

 tritomas, his irises, his coreopsis, or his choicest Michaelmas 

 daisies in such a manner that their full beauty is obscured. Let 

 him break up his border by judicious planting. A well-arranged 

 border is like a shifting kaleidoscope, but to realise this constant 

 variety the colour, height, and habit of each individual plant 

 need to be studied. 



As time goes on the clumps of phlox, rudbeckia, campanula, 

 Michaelmas daisy and many other occupants of the perennial 

 border will expand and swell until they swallow up every available 

 inch of soil, and, indeed, overlap each other in their eager hunt for 

 refreshment and sustenance. This may be expected to occur in a 

 well-stocked border in the course of three or four years, and then 

 the necessity presents itself for a vigorous thinning out and a 

 judicious rearrangement of the plants. Neglect to meet the re- 

 quirements of the occupants of the border by attention to these 

 operations will inevitably result in a serious impoverishment of 

 the soil, and a distressing deterioration of the plants. 



While one is about it, it is well to do the thing thoroughly. In 

 the case of a comparatively new border it may, of course, be found 

 sufficient to thin out only a few of the more vigorous occupants, 

 but where the border has been allowed to remain undisturbed 



