76 THE SCHOOL GARDEN BOOK 



underground offshoots with roots in autumn, it is readily 

 propagated. One school secured a division of a little yellow 

 Pompon Chrysanthemum in spring. The following year it 

 yielded a dozen plants. Late that fall the dozen clumps we're 

 carefully divided and cut into some three hundred rooted 

 sections. These were closely set in rows within a cold-frame, 

 that the frost might not turn the little divisions out of the 

 soil. The second spring these all touched their glass cover 

 with vigorous foliage by the end of April. They were all 

 slipped, and the sturdy, branching, well-rooted plants were 

 distributed as gifts, prizes, or sales to all the other city schools 

 and to many home gardens. Moreover, the home school had 

 the three hundred plants left in the form of healthy slips. 



Since then the plants have multiplied in like manner yearly, 

 while dozens of other varieties — red, pink, yellow, bronze, 

 and white in all gradations, widely different in size and in 

 character of petals — have been added to the collection. 

 This flower should round out the season in every school-yard 

 garden, outlasting even the calendulas and other hardy 

 annuals. 



AUTUMN PERENNIAL FLOWERS 



The best perennial flowering plants for young gardeners 

 should be perfectly hardy, surviving the severest winters with- 

 out special care. The best hardy plants for school gardens 

 should flower while schools are in session, and should be easy 

 to propagate that they may be distributed freely to home 

 gardens. Most of the tall-growing perennials which flower 

 in the late summer and autumn meet all these conditions. 

 The best include several hardy sunflowers, the heleniums, 

 boltonias, and asters. 



