THE PRACTICAL FLOWER GARDEN 



grown entirely out-of-doors. The professional 

 gardeners at the fair asked my men many 

 questions as to how we had raised such fine 

 flowers. Afterward, when I inquired if they 

 had told everything we did, they replied, "No, 

 or they might beat us next year." 



The seeds of delphinium may be sown in 

 the open as soon as the ground is warm in 

 spring, by the end of July the little plants 

 may be set out six inches apart and moved 

 again to their final dwelling-place October 1st, 

 or early the following spring. I have met 

 with the greatest success, however, in sowing 

 seeds saved from particularly beautiful lark- 

 spurs in the empty seed-bed about the end of 

 August, covering the crowns of the plants 

 with coal-ashes in autumn, and strewing a 

 little straw or coarse hay over them for the 

 first winter. The following year, when the 

 seed-beds are needed for the annuals, the 

 little plants are transplanted in rows one foot 

 apart into a nursery bed, where they bloom 

 during the first summer. By October 1st 



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