FAVORITE PERENNIALS 



Many flower lovers young in experience are loth to 

 raise perennials from seed, because in the majority of 

 cases it is then the second season before they blossom. 

 Besides, excellent plants, almost ready to bloom, can 

 be purchased at small cost from reliable nurserymen; 

 and it is often better policy to buy them than to wait 

 the recognized time for seedlings to reach their maturity. 

 They increase very rapidly. The stock once bought, 

 therefore, can be relied on to multiply itself over and 

 over again. 



Years ago a single plant of phlox was an object of 

 interest to the owner and friends of an old New England 

 coast garden. To-day the same planting ground shows 

 an extensive mass of brilliant phloxes that have sprung 

 from this sturdy parent. 



To raise perennials from seed, on the other hand, is 

 interesting work, and should be done in all large gardens 

 where it is required that plants should be kept up to 

 their best development. 



A seed bed should always be planned as an assistance 

 to the raising of perennials. It need not, of course, be 

 a part of the garden. It is better to locate it in some 

 out-of-the-way, inconspicuous place, as it is merely to 

 be used as a nursery for seedlings, and is not destined 

 to show their bloom. In such a bed, the seeds of peren- 

 nials can be sown early in the season, be transplanted 

 later, and at length set in their permanent places before 

 the end of the autumn. The next year they will come 

 up with the determination to hold their own among the 

 other flowers of the garden. A seed bed, in truth, 

 enables a gardener to raise large quantities of plants 



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