FASHIONABLE FLOWERS 



are advised to turn to the chapter on sowing, where I 

 have attempted to make plain such matters as often dis- 

 may. If seed is sown under glass one has merely to 

 transfer the seedlings singly to small flower-pots when 

 they are large enough to handle, and, when they are 

 nicely rooted in these, harden them off and plant them 

 out of doors 15 inches apart. If seed is sown in the 

 garden border, the seedlings are, when an inch or so high, 

 transplanted at 6 inches apart, and in a month or six weeks 

 they will be big enough to put finally in the bed or border 

 where they are to bloom. It is all delightfully straight- 

 forward, and very simple, if an early start be made. An 

 early start is everything, for then the plants will take care 

 of themselves. It is rather a long time to wait until they 

 bloom, but, if one can possess one's soul in patience 

 throughout the first season, as soon as the new year 

 comes in one's hopes and anticipations increase as each 

 day passes. When the flower stems show, how they 

 throng the plants ! They are produced not in ones and 

 twos, or even in handfuls, but literally in armfuls, as 

 though to invite the grower to cut and cut and still 

 come again. 



All this glorious harvest is yours, gentle reader, if 

 you will but dig the soil well before you put out the plants, 

 mixing with it a little rotted manure and, when spring- 

 time comes, scatter a little bonemeal on the surface and 

 fork it in. Those who put high value on perfectly 

 rounded form of flower with smooth-edged petals and 



