THE CULTURE OF HARDY PERENNIALS. 
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phillus, light blue, dark blue, and white ; the 
Salvias. Forwarder still, we have abundance: 
the Potentillas, Pasonies, Irises of all sorts, 
dwarf Phloxes. The dwarf flowering bulbs, 
even down to the Crocus, may fill up the front. 
But there is great room for ingenuity and taste 
in planting one of these borders, because each 
month ought to show most of the colours, 
and they should be somewhat evenly distri- 
buted over the space. Many persons grow 
the bulbs in a border by themselves, and con- 
fine the herbaceous border, so called, to the 
plants, which, although comprising some bul- 
bous, do not require to be disturbed every 
year, but may be left from year to year in the 
ground to take their chance, and are only 
attended to by forking over the ground directly 
they all appear above it, to show where 
they are ; top-dressing it before tforking 
with either leaf-mould, or dung converted into 
mould by decay, raking smooth, and then 
tying such as require it to sticks, as they 
advance, and keeping them proper and tidy 
until they have done blooming, when the de- 
caying flowers are cut off, the stems at last 
cut down, and the bed or border, left for the 
winter, sometimes covered with litter, when 
great severity of weather is anticipated, but 
not often. Beds thus kept soon get too full 
by the rapid spreading of some of the species. 
These are generally reduced, as soon as they 
have done flowering, by chopping off pieces 
all round, which pieces are planted out in 
other borders to flower; or, in nursery-beds, 
much smaller pieces, to grow, thus leaving 
the main plant in the original bed merely re- 
duced to its proper size, and filling up the 
vacancies occasioned by cutting the roots out 
with mould, to make all level. If a good 
border of herbaceous perennials be once 
planted to your liking, it is more showy, and 
less troublesome, than any other style of garden. 
But to do this, we must omit all subjects but 
those thoroughly hardy. The hardy shrubby 
perennials are such as do not die down at the 
end of the season, but retain their shrubby 
habit, and sometimes their leaves also, in 
which case they are called evergreen perennials. 
Most of these are propagated from seed, some, 
however, have double flowers, and do not bear 
seed ; cuttings of such may be struck under 
hand-glasses ; when struck, they should be 
planted out into nursery beds to grow into 
strength before they are placed in their final 
destination. Some may be propagated from 
layers, such as the Carnation, for instance, but 
even that can be raised from cuttings, or as 
they are technically called, pipings, quite as 
easily, and with as much certainty in some 
kinds. Some florists, however, think the colour 
of the flowers, and the strength of the future 
plant are affected unfavourably by raising 
from cuttings instead of layers. The same 
kind of soil will suit almost all kinds of peren- 
nials. The border once made up as we have 
mentioned for .blooming the plants in, all of 
them may be planted in the autumn, their 
roots being established, and there they may 
remain. But many perennials are fancy or 
show flowers, and are grown in pots, on that 
account, in preference to the border. These 
will all be noticed under their separate heads, 
as, for the purpose of show, they, for the most 
part, require very different treatment from 
the ordinary kinds grown in borders. As a 
general principle, the higher the breed, that is 
to say, the further removed from the natural 
state, the more delicate they are in constitu- 
tion, and, consequently, the more pains must 
be taken to preserve them in good health. 
Perennials from Seed. — When it is de- 
termined to raise these from seed, instead of 
cuttings or layers, the object is to get them 
up in time to gain sufficient strength by the 
winter. There are hardy perennials, which will 
sow their own seed, and grow like weeds; but 
they are in general so easily propagated by 
parting their roots, that those only of which 
new varieties are wanted, are in general sown. 
However, the seed may be sown at two periods 
of the year, the one directly it is ripe, the 
other in the spring. The success of autumn 
sowing depends on a mild winter ; that of 
spring sowing cannot fail. ]f you desire to 
sow in autumn, the seed should be thinly 
sown in a spot which can be covered with a 
frame and glass, and then there will not be 
much difficulty. The merely covering with 
glass of nights, and not uncovering it while 
there is a frost, will secure it very well, until 
it is large enough to plant out in the spring ; 
but there is little got by this, because many 
kinds will bloom as well after spring sowing, 
as after autumn. In fact, there is sometimes a 
a struggle between the plant and the season to 
bloom just at the close of the year. Spring 
sowing, then, for us; and if the ground is clear, 
that is, clear from weeds, and tolerably good, the 
plant will not fail to thrive. Sow the seed in 
May, thinly over the surface of the space it is in- 
tended to fill as the seed-bed ; any open space 
will do. Rake it in regularly and evenly; or, if 
there be but few seeds of each, and many sorts, 
draw with your fingers, or a piece of wood, 
a drill across the bed, for each sort, and cover 
very lightly. We have sown this month mixed 
Antirrhinum, Lupinus polyphillus, mixed 
Columbine, Delphinium, or perennial branch- 
ing Larkspur; Lychnis, Digitalis or Fox- 
glove; several kinds of Iris, Polyanthus, Pink, 
Piccotee, and Carnation, and many others, 
chiefly for the sake of getting a large quantity, 
at a cheap rate, for an extensive border, and 
not so much from any hope of novelty, as we 
