THE PRACTICAL FLOWER GARDEN 



heavy blow would make havoc among them; 

 so when they are about three feet in height 

 we always stake them. 



August 1st a little nitrate of soda is dug 

 about them and carefully watered in; they 

 then receive a mulch of clippings of lawn grass 

 or leaves from the year before and are again 

 watered freely, and the more they are watered 

 the more they will respond with bloom. 



If a stalk is cut down as soon as the flowers 

 are withered, the plant will immediately begin 

 to send up another, and in this way one is able 

 to have a constant succession of bloom. I 

 always have at least three crops of flowers 

 from the delphinium, but only the stalks of 

 the first crop will reach any great height. 



The delphiniums do not care to be moved 

 after they are eighteen months old. It is pos- 

 sible, of course, but the plants do not thrive 

 as well when moved after they are so old, 

 and it is better to allow them to remain 

 wherever they may be than to take the risk 

 of moving such large plants. There are many 



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