J i hi. 191 2 



THE CAR I) EN MAGAZINE 



301 



time, I had a fairly good swamp with a 

 brook running through it. 



Now it is a fact that all florists stand 

 marketable Bowers to their necks in water 

 for twenty-four hours before shipping. 

 They will absorb enough water in this way 

 to keep them for a long time. These 

 plants of mine proved to have absorbed 

 more than they could" sober up" under in 

 a week. By means of plank path-ways, 

 we tied up each plant with lengths of 

 raffia, just above the crown, and again 

 near the top, being very careful to keep 

 every part straight. The tyings were not 

 taken off until a week later, that the 

 plants need expend no energy in holding 

 themselves up. We moved them all, a 

 wheelbarrow load at a time, in two days, 

 turning the water on again during the 

 intervening night. They came out of the 

 ground, even the biggest, as easily and 

 slimily as can be imagined, every bit of 

 earth clinging to the roots as only mud 

 can cling. 



About four days after setting out, I gave 

 them a strong nerve stimulant in the form 

 of a half-inch of wood ashes spread over 

 the entire surface of the bed, well-raked and 

 well-watered in. There is nothing better 

 for fainting fits in the vegetable world! 



And now, knowing what can be done, 

 my garden no longer has those unsightly 

 gaps in the perennial borders, against 

 which one has had to resort to successions 

 that seldom succeeded at the required 

 times. In my nursery garden, the "left- 

 overs" are used for this very purpose and 



served up accordingly as "entrees." 

 When larkspurs are cut back, 1 set the 

 intervening spaces with the tall variety of 

 white snapdragon in bud and even in 

 blossom. The more slender second bloom 

 of the larkspurs will allow this without 

 over-crowding, and later on, when they 

 catch up, the two will go on blooming 

 together. Or, when the carnations are 

 past, set out among them the single petunia 

 Rosy Morn, and keep that part of your 

 garden, otherwise without a flower, a 

 thing of beauty for the rest of the season; 

 with the French pink of that petunia's 

 blossoms against the green-blue of the 

 carnation foliage. Even the Shirley poppy, 

 most fragile of growdng things, may be 

 handled with impunity and entire success 

 in this way. 



Many advisers say, "fill in all bare 

 spaces with poppy seed, sown broadcast." 

 This makes pleasant reading. It calls up 

 a mental picture of a garden so filled in that 

 would be gratifying if realized. But no 

 one begins with bare spaces. They occur. 

 And there is a horrid interval of earth and 

 tiny plants which are always too thick here 

 and too thin there, and whose reluctant 

 bloom comes so long after as to find itself 

 in turn surrounded by the empty places of 

 a past generation. No, an immediate need 

 of this sort cannot be met with a packet of 

 seed and future conditional flowers. 



Last July I set out Shirley poppies by 

 the hundred, just as the first flower bud 

 was pushing up from the centre. It was a 

 case of wanting what I wanted both when 



and where I wanted it, and having it too! 

 To begin with, the poppy seeds had been 

 mixed before sowing with a cupful of dry 

 sand, and the seedlings thinned unsparingly 

 until the plants stood at least four inches 

 apart. Equipped with a thin-bladed 

 trowel, a large tin tray and a package of 

 tissue paper, I wrapped each plant as lifted 

 from the mud in a single sheet of the paper, 

 which formed a surprisingly tough little 

 paper-case, and for all purposes of trans- 

 planting, turned the seedlings into "pot- 

 grown" plants, with the difference that 

 these are set out just so, without removing 

 the paper cases. They adhere most tena- 

 ciously, and there is no falling away or 

 loosening of the earth from the roots to 

 shock the over-delicate fibres. 



Once in the ground, a few days will rot 

 the tissue case completely out of existence. 

 The tin tray is used for moving them. As 

 each plant is taken up, it is stood against the 

 rim of the tray, until enough have been 

 taken up to reach all the way around the 

 edge, never letting any two touch each other. 



All small annuals may be transplanted in 

 this way to advantage, and will repay 

 the extra trouble, especially stocks and 

 asters, the quality of whose bloom depends 

 greatly on an unchecked growth from seed 

 to flower. And yet they require trans- 

 planting to give vigor! 



One last warning: Do not try to move 

 anything when the wind is blowing. Fly 

 kites, or sail boats, or employ yourself in 

 any of the other ways that nature provides 

 for such times; but don't transplant! 



AH the flowers shown in this picture were transplanted successfully in full summer by being careful to thoroughly soak th 



and tending till established 



with water before their removal 



