30 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 
evaporating from the general heap and wafting themselves 
into place? The voice of the silent past answers not, and Iam 
forced to the conclusion that no lady would attempt such a 
project, or she, who does undertake it, cannot be of gentle 
rearing. These doubtful imputations do not trouble me much, 
even though the garden I possess is mine solely through the 
conquest of just such impossible conditions. 
Winter set in before the work was done, and again I re- 
sorted to the catalogues and botanies as my chief literature. 
I did not exactly distrust the glowing accounts of the seeds- 
men: I wanted corroboration; and when I found the impartial 
Asa Gray, who seldom raises his scientific admiration to the 
heat of adjectives, quoting any plant as “handsome,” 
“showy,” or “cultivated in choice gardens,” immediately 
that gem went on my list. Neglected was the atlas; warm 
sun-kissed islands had no attraction; the foot-rule, blank sheets 
of paper, spread out on a lapboard, a rapidly decreasing 
eraser, gave full occupation until January, when I sent off for 
fifty varieties of annual and perennial seeds. I prudently 
limited myself to those not costing more than ten cents per 
package. I bought also two hundred Neponset paper flower 
pots, that come in all sizes, and take the place of the more 
perishable earthen pots at one third their price. Each acts as 
a guardian angel to the seedling raised in it; for, in trans- 
planting, the pot may be turned over a plant to shield it from 
the sun, and it also gives protection from any untoward frost 
that may descend at unpredicted moments. Under its be- 
nign shade a plant endures transplanting as comfortably 
beneath a hot July sun as if it were a cloudy May morning. 
I had brought in a quantity of rich mellow soil—it should 
have had more sand in it, as rich earth often causes young 
seedlings to “damp off,” that is, to drop over and die sud- 
denly, when kept too moist—many little stones to put in the 
