THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. £7 
potentillas, anemones, ranunculuses, irises, cenotheras, fox¬ 
gloves, campanulas—require a deep, rich, well-drained loam, 
but will grow well in clay that has been generously pre« 
pared, and need not be despaired of altogether where the 
soil is shallow and sandy, provided there are appliances avail¬ 
able in the shape of manure, mulchings, and waterings, to 
sustain them through the hottest days of summer. It must not 
be forgotten, too, that if the herbaceous border is formed on a 
somewhat good soil—say a soil that will grow a cabbage—and 
in a position open to the sun and the health-giving breezes, it 
may be enriched by the addition of roses, stocks, asters, 
zinnias, balsams, dahlias, and many more good things, that 
“ need only to be seen to be appreciated.” 
In the management of the herbaceous border details are 
everything, and principles next to nothing. The best time to 
plant is in August and September, but planting may be safely- 
done in March and April, and with but little risk on any day 
throughout the year, provided the plants at the time of plant¬ 
ing are in a proper state for planting. For example, a holly¬ 
hock may have a spike of magnificent flowers six feet high in 
the first week of September, and no sane gardener would then 
propose to transplant it; but the white lily, only a yard or so 
distant from it, may be just then in a dormant state, and, if 
to be transplanted at all, in a condition most desirable for 
the process. A great tuft of Arabis might be lifted any day 
from October to February, if lifted quickly and replanted 
with care, and in the ensuing month of April would bloom as 
well as if left undisturbed ; but any sensible person who had 
struck a lot of arabis cuttings in pots in autumn would take 
care not to plant them until May, because little weak scraps 
of plants would probably perish if planted in the dark, short, 
cold days of the year ! Leaving a fair margin for exceptions, 
it may be said with truth that herbaceous plants may be planted 
at any time, but we must return to the primary presumption, 
and repeat that the best time is in August or September, but 
if the chill November days occur before the work can be done, 
it is better to wait until spring, and then if possible choose a 
time when the wind is going round to the west and the 
barometer is falling. Haply, when your work is completed, 
soft showers will fall to help your plants make new roots 
quickly, to hold their own through the summer heat. 
It cannot be wrong to repeat that the amateur need not 
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