10 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 
out permanently to bloom the succeeding year; and they have 
continued to bloom ever since increasingly in geometric ratio. 
You cannot have too many hollyhocks, provided they are deli- 
cate pink and pure cardinal red in the single, semi-double 
and double varieties. Kind neighbors are only too glad to 
share the burden of caring for them, and an oversupply of any 
choice plant often leads to interesting exchanges. Before I 
had a real garden and a consequent enlargement of heart, I 
used to think the matter of exchange very small business. 
This doling out seeds or young plants and getting others in 
return was too much like dickering, and I frowned upon the 
whole proceeding. But there came a time when flowers bore 
a new aspect, and nothing now gives me greater pleasure than 
to have a friend present me with her favorite flower, which 
ever after is associated with her. The more things I have 
planted in this way, the dearer has my collection become; and 
to-day I go through my garden and tell over these offerings, 
linking them with affectionate thoughts of the givers, much 
as the pious nun tells off her beads to the various saints. More 
than this, when the gift has been bulbs or plants that require 
resetting, the bond is so strong that those who sent them 
seem to hover near and companion the hours devoted to 
planting the contributions of friendship. 
But, as the too loquacious novelist of the last century used 
to say when he brought his froward pen to an abrupt pause— 
this is anticipating. 
