CHAPTER XI 



THE ECONOMY OF SEED-SOWING 



THE very natural desire of the amateur gardener to grow 

 his own flowers from seed is easily understood. First, 

 he is influenced by the ambition to achieve success by his 

 own unaided efforts to watch over his flowers from the earliest 

 days of infancy until they attain the highest stage of their develop- 

 ment and reward him with a rich harvest of bloom. A second 

 and not unimportant consideration is borne in upon him as he 

 gains experience. This is the necessity to practise economy. 

 He finds, as he becomes better acquainted with the mysteries of 

 horticulture, that it is considerably cheaper to grow a batch of 

 plants from seed than it is to purchase a couple of dozen of the 

 same plants from the florist when they are nearing the period at 

 which they will bring forth their flowers. 



There is yet another consideration which will weigh heavily 

 with the cultivator whose supreme aim it is to produce flowers 

 in perfection. If he has given any study to the history of a few 

 of the most popular of our garden flowers he will know that while 

 it has been possible to propagate them from year to year by means 

 of cuttings, this process has, in some instances, entailed severe 

 penalties. Take the case of only two of them the hollyhock 

 and the verbena. Continuous propagation for many generations 

 so debilitated the constitution of these plants that they became 

 the victims of diseases which threatened their very existence. 

 The battle with these diseases lasted for years, and indeed, in 

 many cases it was given up in despair. That these flowers were 

 ultimately rehabilitated in popular favour was due to the fact 

 that great seed experts deserted the old paths of propagation and 

 resorted to Nature's own method by raising plants possessing 

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