INTRODUCTION 



HE successful garden has a permanent 

 * basis. There must be some flowers 

 that appear year after year, whose posi- 

 tion is fixed and whose appearance can be 

 counted on. The group classed as peren- 

 nials occupies this position and about flow- 

 ers of this class is arranged all the various 

 array of annuals and bulbs. These last act 

 as reinforcements in rounding out the gar- 

 den scheme. 



Perennials are plants that live on year 

 after year if the conditions surrounding 

 them are congenial. 



Trees and shrubs are perennials, of 

 course; in these the stems are woody, but 

 we are considering only those known as 

 herbaceous perennials, having stems of a 

 more or less soft texture that, with the 

 exception of a few evergreen species, die 



