THE PRACTICAL FLOWER GARDEN 



second crop of the blossoms of these most 

 beautiful flowers, what a benefactor to gar- 

 deners that person would be! I have often 

 thought of addressing a petition to the great 

 Burbank upon the subject. 



During the last five years the peonies in 

 my garden have been fed about August 15th, 

 at the same time with and similarly to aspar- 

 agus, with cow manure and bone meal, and 

 the wonderful increase in the size of the plants 

 and in the number of blooms leads me to 

 believe that the blossom-bearing buds of 

 peonies, like those of asparagus, form in 

 August or September for the flowers of the 

 following year. 



By this treatment, with the addition of a 

 winter mulch of cow manure which is lightly 

 forked into the ground as soon as frost is out 

 in the spring, and about half a trowelful of 

 nitrate of soda sprinkled over the crown of 

 each plant and immediately watered in, the 

 asparagus is made to yield abundantly from 

 about the first of May to the middle of June, 



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