io Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 



out permanently to bloom the succeeding year; and they have 

 continued to bloom ever since increasingly in geometric ratio. 

 You cannot have too many hollyhocks, provided they are deli- 

 cate pink and pure cardinal red in the single, semi-double 

 and double varieties. Kind neighbors are only too glad to 

 share the burden of caring for them, and an oversupply of any 

 choice plant often leads to interesting exchanges. Before I 

 had a real garden and a consequent enlargement of heart, I 

 used to think the matter of exchange very small business. 

 This doling out seeds or young plants and getting others in 

 return was too much like dickering, and I frowned upon the 

 whole proceeding. But there came a time when flowers bore 

 a new aspect, and nothing now gives me greater pleasure than 

 to have a friend present me with her favorite flower, which 

 ever after is associated with her. The more things I have 

 planted in this way, the dearer has my collection become; and 

 to-day I go through my garden and tell over these offerings, 

 linking them with affectionate thoughts of the givers, much 

 as the pious nun tells off her beads to the various saints. More 

 than this, when the gift has been bulbs or plants that require 

 resetting, the bond is so strong that those who sent them 

 seem to hover near and companion the hours devoted to 

 planting the contributions of friendship. 



But, as the too loquacious novelist of the last century used 

 to say when he brought his froward pen to an abrupt pause 

 this is anticipating. 



