THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
101 
secure, if we can, a cutting or a rooted shoot, or “ a bit of it,” 
somehow, and feel bound to make that “ bit ” a plant by some 
means. Experience has taught us, in respeck of scarce and 
valuable plants, the best time to secure seeds, roots, cuttings, 
offsets, etc., etc., is, when you can get them , and we know 
nothing of seasons whatever. But in case this defining should 
perplex an amiable reader, we shall wind up this paragraph 
by saying that dividable subjects, such as violets, pansies, 
daisies, arabis, and primulas, should be taken up in August or 
September, and be pulled to pieces and replanted immediately. 
If the weather is showery, they will prosper without any par¬ 
ticular attention; but if the weather is hot and dry, they must 
be watered and shaded until the cool, damp season returns. 
It is a good plan to have a plot of reserve ground in which to 
plant out the young stock, and allow it to make one whole 
season’s growth before transferring it to the borders. 
Many disappointments occur through mixing tender and 
hardy plants together in borders, and leaving them all to settle 
accounts with the weather. They are very straightforward in 
their mode of settlement. The hardy plants live and the 
tender plants die, and those who have to pay for the losses 
make long faces when summer returns and the favourites of 
the past season are seen no more. In very severe winters, 
and especially in gardens in valleys where the soil is heavy 
and damp, many plants, reputed hardy, are sure to perish. 
Losses are always objectionable; but a certain number must 
be borne with in every pursuit, and the herbaceous border 
forms no exception to the general rule. But the fact suggests 
that a systematic use of frames and other like protective 
agencies, and a reserve of plants of kinds that are least likely 
to suffer by severe weather, are precautions the wise will 
adopt without any great pressure of persuasions. 
To speak of our own case for a moment, we cannot keep 
hollyhocks in the borders during winter, and therefore take 
cuttings in time, and secure a good stock of young plants in 
pots in autumn, to keep through the winter in frames for 
planting out in the month of April ensuing. The amateur 
must study these matters as essentials to the realization 
of the true joy of a garden. Borders that are kept scru¬ 
pulously clean all the winter will be the most severely 
thinned of plants in the event of extra severe weather. 
There is no protective material so potent to resist frost as the 
