THE CULTIVATION OF HARDY FLOWERS. 



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gardens. There are certain conditions of the atmosphere when 

 every plant looks as if it were dying for want of water, though 

 the soil is quite moist. This happens when rapid evaporation is 

 going on, and it is a condition very unfavourable to flowers, but 

 watering is no remedy for it. 



Tying up plants is often condemned as giving a stiff and 

 formal appearance ; yet in wet soils, where stalks are deficient 

 in backbone, the flowers of tall plants are soon spoilt without 

 it, as the tops often turn over and rest their heads upon the 

 ground in rainy weather. Even if they recover from this posture 

 the stem is left crooked and twisted, and they never look happy 

 afterwards. I find it best to have an abundant supply of iron 

 rod, three-eighths of an inch thick, cut into lengths of from three 

 to eight feet. These last for ever, and are always ready. In 

 situations exposed to wind, strong tying material such as soft 

 sacking twine, is often wanted. Plants which require support 

 when in flower had better be tied as soon as there is any stalk 

 to tie, so that they may never get bent. Do not wait for a gale 

 to lay them low before tying, but always tie as if a gale were 

 coming to-morrow. Well-tied plants are improved in appear- 

 ance, as the flowers are better displayed, but it is often necessary 

 to have three or four rods to a plant of many stalks. 



If you wish to have every plant in your borders as fine as 

 possible, you must not cut them down as soon as they have done 

 flowering. In the garden of hardy plants there must always be 

 a certain proportion of dead and dying foliage and flower- stalks. 

 Some of them are ornamental, but such things as Colchicum 

 and Daffodil leaves must be tolerated, whether ornamental or 

 not. This mixture of withering flowers and leaves seems to 

 many a serious objection to borders of perennial plants, and I 

 know that many visitors have gone away from my garden dis- 

 appointed, and have decided not to change the neat and trim 

 arrangement of their ribbon borders, and their masses of bright 

 colour, for such an untidy wilderness as they have seen at Edge; 

 and it is true that the bedding-out system is better suited to 

 some tastes and some situations. But besides the objections on 

 the ground of untidiness, the arrangement of the plants in the 

 mixed border will never please all comers. Some wish to com- 

 promise matters with the advocates of bedding-out by planting 

 each kind in large masses. This, of course, involves large flower- 



