The Canadian Horticulturist. 83 



SOME POINTS ON GROWING HARDY PERENNIAL 



PLANTS. 



THIS is the season when the future beauty of our garden should be 

 planned. While this is equally true of both vegetable and flower 

 garden, it is more especially of the latter of which I wish to speak. 

 While much can be said on the flower garden as a whole, there is a parti- 

 cular branch to which I desire to call the attention of the readers of The 

 Horticulturist. 



A fact that is not generally known, except to professional growers, is that 

 many ot our finest hardy herbaceous perennials are as readily raised from 

 seed as the most ordinary of annuals. Where any number of plants is to 

 be used like a variety of Campanulas, Delphiniums, Poppies, etc., this is 

 by far the more desirable way of securing a fine collection at an expense 

 hardly worth considering, for a packet of seed of most every hardy subject, 

 containing from fifty to one hundred sound seed, may now be had from any 

 extensive seed house, for no more, often less, than a single flowering plant 

 is usually sold for by the nurserymen. 



One reason that this method has not heretofore been largely adopted, is 

 that it is only comparatively recently that seeds of the better perennials could 

 be purchased at a low rate, — that is, of such subjects as do not naturally 

 bear seed in every one's garden. Again, it is commonly supposed that, 

 unlike annuals, these perennial seedlings must be grown until the second 

 year before they bloom ; this is true only under certain conditions. If the 

 seed is sown in the summer or autumn of one year, naturally no bloom will 

 be had until the following season, the plants, even then, being a year or 

 less old. X 



The proper way, however, of treating these plants, is to sow the seed 

 about the middle of March, under glass, either in a green-house, hot-bed or 

 sunny window, in a shallow box, and when the plants are above ground, 



