ORNAMENTALS 259 



In severe weather it may be covered with carpet 

 to protect the plants from the cold. By opening 

 the door into the cellar below the temperature will 

 be kept fairly even, especially if there is a furnace 

 in the cellar. 



Another very satisfactory plan of growing hardy 

 plants without heat is to have a permanent plant- 

 pit built of brick, and sunk 4 or 5 feet in the 

 ground. In the bottom can be placed such plants 

 as should be kept for winter — dahlias, cannas, ge- 

 raniums, etc. Across the pit on a level with the 

 ground surface should be a floor covered with 6 or 

 8 inches of soil in which lettuce, pansies, violets, 

 young onions, cabbage, and any other semi-hardy 

 plants can be grown during the winter to supply 

 the home table with crisp salads, blossoms, and 

 early spring plants for transplanting. 



FAVORITE PERENNIALS 



" The great mistake in growing hardy peren- 

 nials," writes the late C. L. Allen of Long Island, 

 New York, " is the almost general opinion that 

 when once planted they can forever remain in 

 the same place without further care or at- 

 tention. This is a fatal error from the fact 

 of its being in direct opposition to the uni- 

 versal law that the rotation of crops is an 

 agricultural necessity. The period that some 

 plants will thrive in a given locality much longer 

 than others, as is the case with arborescent plants, 

 many of which require centuries to perfect their 

 growth, does not detract from this principle in the 

 least. 



All of our herbaceous plants require frequent 

 changes of locality, because they have taken from 



