May 8. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
80 
! must be colonised, and so must every pot of seedlings 
I which is full and pressing at the end of the tension 
month ; hut some, or the greatest part for the flower-beds 
1 will do to he colonised ont-of-doors, or in cold pits 
without pots. 
I spent a few hours, the other day, with a colonial 
j “ Governor,” who very much approved of this way of 
| treating young colonists, and who wondered that this 
| system of colonisation was not enforced by the laws of 
' the country ; hut when we bring to mind that it was not 
| till very recently that the proper way of dealing with 
an “overplus” of seedlings, in either kingdom or 
nature, was understood by the authorities, we can well 
account for these “ wonderments ” at the new order of 
settlements. 
A shaded place is not the best place for putting out 
seedlings at this season, whether they he singly, or in 
little patches; perhaps a west aspect would be the best, 
if the place can he shaded in the afternoon with boughs, 
or anything else, for the first week; full south is too 
glaring for them, and less sheltered from the cold east 
wind, than under a west wall, hank, or hedge, and, like 
the goose and the gander, what is good for seedlings is 
equally good for old plants turned out for a while. 
| Thus, so far relieved, by planting out the hardiest, by 
colonising, and by economy of space, we have time to 
look a-head, the distance of six months first, and to the 
end of next April after that. The “ book ” shows, at 
one glance, when such and such places in the garden 
are likely to “ wear off,” and to become blanks, and the 
succession crop. 
SUCCESSION SOWINGS. 
What a world of anxiety is expressed in these two 
words—“succession crop!” The 10th of May ushers 
in a new order of sowings, to be in readiness all 
next autumn, and to come to our relief by this time 
next year. “ The flowers of our childhood ” have 
touched a chord, the most impulsive and sensitive of 
our nature, and it must and will be responded to, on or 
soon after the 10th of May, in sowings, and sowings, 
and sowings, till every border of a shrubbery, and all 
along the walks, are brimfull of spring flowers for 
“ May-day.” But the first sowing on the 10th of May 
must be of China Asters, the second and the final crop 
for this season, unless, indeed, wo should have a dry 
time of it after the middle of August; in that case, the 
Asters from the first May sowing will be too apt to run 
out before the frost comes ; to guard against such a mis¬ 
fortune, another sowing on the 25th of May is always 
made by the wisest; if the plants from this late sowing 
are not wanted, good and well, but if they are, who can 
count their value! The Asters from the last May 
sowing are planted six inches apart every way, in the 
kitchen or reserve garden, and are in full bloom before 
they are wanted, then, if the expected frost on the 10th 
of October comes, the Heliotropes are gone, and many 
more besides, and the Asters, in bloom, are just ready 
at hand, to fill up such beds as are seen from the 
windows. To many of the old gardeners it is almost a 
fixed law, that if we escape the frost during the second 
week in October, we have a chance of seven to one that 
the next month or five weeks will not hurt these Asters, 
or much else, which escape the said early frost; hence, 
the argument for such late sowings as that on the 25th 
of May. The recollections, not of our childhood, but 
of my own doings, at the very end of my tether, have 
prompted me to these dates, for I know, full well, their 
practical value in the eyes of some of my best friends, 
and others may rely on them to the very letter. 
Next, after the Asters, should be sown Sweet Williams, 
\ Wallflowers, Antirrhinums, Piccotees, Perennial Lark- 
. spurs, Ipomopsis, French Honeysuckle, Columbines, Cow- 
i slip, Polyanthus, Auriculas, Brompton and Queen Stocks, 
Trachelium cceruleum, Poppy Anemones, Spanish Dian- 
thus, and Japan Dianthus of many sorts; the sweetest 
ot all Pinks, Dianthus plumosus, and varieties, and 
Scarlet Lychnis, all for next year, and all in the open 
ground, except Ipomopsis eleyans and Trachelium, which, 
with Eccremocarpus and Maurandias, should be in pots, 
in a cool frame, and to be housed in winter. The 
smallest packet of seeds of all these would furnish 
plants enough for a good sized garden. The Rock 
Pinks, and Mountain Pinks, and Spanish Pinks, and 
Mule Pinks, are just as numerous as Geraniums, or 
Calceolarias, or rather Cinerarias from seeds. One 
could buy seeds of twenty kinds of the Pink, or Dianthus 
tribe, and each kind would be likely to afford many 
variations; for rockworks they are indispensable; for cut 
flowers, some of them are among the best; for light 
borders, in a mixed garden, they would last for years; 
and for keeping up the stock, many of them seed, and 
others are kept by cuttings, just like the common 
Pink. 
The middle of May is also a good time to sow the 
seeds of Hollyhocks, as it is putting unnecessary stress 
on ourselves to sow any of those which I have named 
earlier in the spring, for do what we can thoy will not 
flower the first year; and by sowing them in April, the 
seedlings must be watched and looked to at the very 
busiest time of the year, and before the bedding plants 
are all got out; but by deferring the sowings till after 
the middle of May, the seedlings come in for transplant¬ 
ing just at the easiest time for us, after the beds are all 
planted. 
RAISING PERENNIALS AND BIENNIALS FROM 
SEED. 
There is no cheaper way of filling the borders, or 
keeping them full, than that of raising plants from 
seed, besides the chances of new varieties. There is 
hardly a plant worth having which one cannot buy the 
seeds of novv-a-days. A plant which will cost ninepence 
or a shilling, next spring, may bo had, by the score, from 
seeds before that time by a little forethought; and I 
know of no better time for sowing seeds of all our 
hardy perennials, or biennials, than from the middle to 
the end of May, when one has plenty of time to look 
after them till they are past nursing and can take care 
of themselves. The best and cheapest way for sowing 
would bo to dig up a spare border, or any piece of light 
ground, to rake the surface as fine as possible, then give 
it a good soaking of water, and next day it is fit to 
receive the seeds; small, narrow beds are best, the 
seed to be sown rather thin, and a barrow load of fine, 
dry, sifted mould to be at hand for covering them, so 
that each kind may be covered according to the size of 
the seeds; generally, a quarter-of-an-inch is a covering 
thick enough for any of these seeds, but if the very 
small seeds are just covered it will be enough. If this 
miscellaneous assortment is sown in the usual way, like 
so many Cabbages, or Lettuces, and “raked in,” as we 
say, the chances are that one-half of them are too deep, 
and the other half not so deep as they ought to be, 
as they cling to the little lumps of soil on the sur¬ 
face, or go after the teeth of the rake. No, there 
is no better way of covering flower seeds than by hand 
from a heap of sifted soil, and when the’ bed is well 
watered before the seeds are sown, there will be no 
danger of the surface “ caking,” as no more watering 
will be necessary before the seedlings are up, unless the 
weather is vory dry indeed. Where the ground is liable 
to cake after watering, a little sifted leaf-mould put all 
over is the best preventive. A reel of white cotton 
run across, or along, the best, and fastened to little 
sticks, will keep off the sparrows and other birds, if 
I anything will. 
