PERENNIALS AND BIENNIALS 



plenty of water in dry weather. If a few large 

 flowers are what you desire, you must thin out 

 the spikes, cut off the side shoots, and sacrifice 

 half the buds on the remaining stalks. If you 

 simply desire profuse bloom, let them alone, and 

 give the plants plenty of liquid manure at inter- 

 vals. I transplant my Hollyhocks into a long 

 bed two feet or so apart, doing this work in 

 the early spring, and then drop a seed or two 

 of some choice variety into the spaces between 

 the plants. This assures us bloom the fol- 

 lowing year if the old plants die. The Holly- 

 hock begins to bloom on the island about July 

 2oth, and continues until frost. The single 

 varieties are invariably the first to bloom, and 

 the whole bed is at its best about the middle 

 of August. 



Myosotisy or Forget-me-Not, ought to be much 

 higher up on the list than this, but I hardly know 

 what to displace to make room for it. There are 

 several varieties in cultivation. M. palustris, a 

 common wild flower in Great Britain, bears 

 flowers which, though generally blue, are some- 

 times white. A variety of this species from its 

 long period of bloom is known as semperflorens. 

 M. alpestris, a dwarf variety of M. syhaticuy is 

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