90 FLOWER GARDENING 
Again climate differences are such that garden nor- 
mality is by no means the same everywhere in 
spring and early summer; the German iris is likely 
to be in full bloom in northern Virginia the last 
week in April while in southern New England it 
is not to be looked for until May. 
In the matter of hardiness—the withstanding of 
the winter’s cold without artificial protection— 
there is no fixed rule once a perennial leaves its 
habitat. Taken by and large, perennials are won- 
derfully adaptive in this respect, often enduring 
patiently more cold, or more heat, than at home, 
and quite as often giving no sign of minding at all 
a drop of a mile or more to about sea level. But 
with a fairly large number—these include, un- 
fortunately, some of the most charming species 
—the degree of hardiness positively refuses to 
budge much to accommodate the grower of flow- 
ers. Such perennials must either have protection 
_ that amounts to coddling or, perhaps, be taken 
up every year and stored all winter where they 
will not freeze. They it is which are largely re- 
sponsible for making certain features of hardy 
gardens of southern Britain the despair of north- 
eastern America—where winters are colder and 
summers hotter and drier. 
Where a plant’s local hardiness has not been 
tested by cultivation it is a good plan to look it 
up in an authoritative reference book before decid- 
ing about planting. First, see how closely native 
and proposed conditions tally. Then, if the book 
