THE HARDY BORDER 



almost endless, but you cannot have too many of 

 them. Use them everywhere. The chances are 

 that you will wish you had room for more. They 

 bloom early, are magnificent in color and form, 

 and are so prolific that old plants often bear a 

 hundred or more flowers each season, and their 

 profusion of bloom increases with age, as the 

 plant gains in size. Many varieties are as fra- 

 grant as a Rose, and all of them are as hardy as a 

 plant can well be. What more need be said in 

 their favor? 



In order to attain the highest degree of success 

 with the Peony, it should be given a rather heavy 

 soil, and manure should be used with great liber- 

 ality. In fact it is hardly possible to make the 

 soil too rich to suit it. Disturb the roots as little 

 as possible. The plant is very sensitive to any 

 treatment that aff ects the root, and taking away 

 a " toe " for a neighbor will often result in its 

 failure to bloom next season. Keep the grass 

 from crowding it. Year after year it will spread 

 its branches farther and wider, and there will be 

 more of them, and its flowers will be larger and 

 finer each season, if the soil is kept rich. I know 

 of old clumps that have a spread of six feet or 

 more, sending up hundreds of stalks from matted 

 roots that have not been disturbed for no one 



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