DON'T NEGLECT THE PERENNIALS 213 



latest varieties of hardy Phlox. It is more probable that the same 

 customer will buy twice as much before six months are over, and 

 keep up such purchases and want just as many porch boxes filled 

 as before. 



Consider for a moment the cost to you of producing a good 

 4-in. Geranium — the time, the labor and the bench space it takes 

 to do it and remember that you can sell Geraniums only once a 

 year. Then consider growing a Delphinium from seed sown out- 

 doors, and transplanted once. What isn't sold keeps on growing 

 into money; you cut the flowers and a year later the plant will be 

 worth twice as much, whether you sell it or keep it, in which case 

 you cut more flowers. The third year you can use it for flowering 

 under glass, where one flower stalk will bring as much as an 8- 

 months' old Geranium plant. No, the Delphiniums are not the 

 exception. Many other perennials do the same thing in proportion. 



Grow on a good stock of biennials and perennials; advertise 

 and keep on advertising; make a display on your own grounds; 

 let your customers know when it is Iris, Peony or Phlox time. What 

 you can't sell at home, dispose of wholesale. If you carry good 

 varieties and let the trade know what surplus you have, there will 

 be no trouble in disposing of it. What the trade is mostly interested 

 in are those varieties which furnish good cut flowers or can be 

 flowered under glass. 



How TO WoBK Up a Stock of Perennials 



If you realize the importance and the possibilities of handling 

 biennials and perennials and are considering going into the work, 

 let me offer a few suggestions that will be of help in getting started 

 and under way; after that you wiU be able to help yourself. 



According to your requirements and pocketbook, begin by in- 

 vesting in the three leaders: Peonies, Iris and Phlox. The most 

 expensive of these are Peonies, and I wouldn't plant more than 

 six varieties. You might consider the following: Festiva maxima 

 for white; Jules EUe, light rose; Duke of Wellington, creamy white; 

 Golden Harvest, peach-blossom pink; Louis Van Houtte, dark red; 

 and Fehx Crousse, another red. Plant twenty-five, fifty, or one 

 hundred of each in nursery rows, allowing about one foot between 

 the plants and three feet between the rows. Don't go to the trouble 

 of digging the soil over several feet deep and manuring heavily. 

 Deep cultivation is fine, but too deep tillage is waste, and so is an 

 overdose of manure. Cultivation after planting is what counts. 

 If you plant one foot apart you can, if you like, take up every other 

 plant and sell it. 



Iris are not expensive, even the good new varieties. Of these 

 you also want not over six varieties to start with, that is, if your 



