A PLEA FOR HARDY PLANTS 



49 



I have had a somewhat extended experience with rhododendrons, and 

 my opinion of the proper soil to grow them in may be worth something. 

 Their beauty is now pretty generally known and appreciated, but they are 

 popularly considered tender and difficult to grow. This is largely owing 

 to the selling of improperly grown plants and tender varieties, and to late 

 fall planting, which is very apt to be fatal. I have found that when 



HOUSE AND GROUNDS OF AN AMERICAN MILLIONAIRE 



Photograph taken twelve years after completion of house 



Catawbiense seedlings, or the well-known hardy named varieties, grown on 

 their own roots from layers, were planted, there was no difficulty in grow- 

 ing them in any ordinary soil or in any position, except immediately under 

 old-established trees. I have seen them grown with peat and with leaf- 

 mold, but the best results I have ever seen in this country were where an 

 excavation two and one-half feet deep had been made for them and filled 

 in entirely with turfy, fibrous sods, chopped up, and allowed to stand over 

 winter before planting. No manure was mixed with the sods, but after the 



