150 SUBURBAN GARDENS 
plants — those which live over from year to 
year, and those which must be raised every 
year from seed sown in the spring; or peren- 
nials and annuals, according to garden termin- 
ology. A third kind which escapes the at- 
tention of the beginner very often is the bien- 
nial, a plant which is raised from seed one 
spring, grows to maturity the first summer, 
lives through the winter, and blossoms and 
matures its seed the second summer, dying 
when fall comes — not of the cold but because 
its life cycle is over. 
These lap-overs are an exasperating kind of 
plant to my mind, and if it were not that some 
of the loveliest of flowers are among them I 
think I should never admit them to my gar- 
den ; for each year young plants must be raised 
and wintered over if next year is to have its 
quota of blossoms ; yet the space in the garden 
occupied by the blossoming plants is not 
available until after the season is over, of 
course. So somewhere there must be a nursery 
for the young stock. Annuals on the contrary, 
brief though their span, require no coddling 
but may almost always be sown in the spring 
where they are to grow; and they blossom and 
take themselves out of the way with no con- 
fusion — which habit has its distinct advantages. 
