Hardy Perennials from Seed 
m 
|T takes a little more .skill and experience to 
grow this class of plants from seed than 
annuals. Some are slow in germinating 
and it is not rare to find a species that will 
not come up until the second or third year. 
A few have to have special treatment in order to 
bring them up. Heuchera sanguinea is one I found 
impossible to grow until 1 tried it in the greenhouse. 
I sowed the seed in a box, pressed it in on the sur¬ 
face, covered the box with a sieve and the sieve 
with half an inch of wet sphagnum moss. By keeping 
the moss and surface of the soil moist for several 
days I succeeded in growing plenty of plants. After 
the little plants were large enough to make a little 
show, I removed part of the moss, and then the 
whole later. Most perennials may be grown in 
frames by keeping the surface of the ground always 
moist and covered with cotton. After the seeds are 
up 1 remove the cotton and shade with racks made 
of lath, which admit about a third of the light. If 
the weather is not too dry a lath shade wi 1 ! do, and 
by watering everyday the surface of the bed is kept 
moist. Small seeds generally do better if sown on 
the surface and only pressed in. Many seeds fail 
to come up because covered too much. Seedlings 
covered too closely often damp off, and this is why 
the lath shade is good. It admits the air and pre¬ 
vents the damping off which might otherwise occur. 
Many perennials, such as Poppies, Canterbury 
Bells, etc., self-sow in late autumn, and come up 
with the first warm days of spring. Such young 
seedlings are much better, because they are earlier 
than what we usually get by sowing in frames. 
They make better plants by fall because they are 
earlier. I am therefore in favor of sowing many of 
the perennial seeds in late autumn, but late enough 
so that the seed will not come up until spring. If 
there is too much warm weather before winter, after 
the seeds are sown, so that they germinate, they 
may not survive the winter. Many of the seeds of 
iris have to lie in the ground over one winter at least before coming up. I make a practice of sowing all 
my Iris seed in autumn. If any is sown in spring I do not, as a rule, expect it to come up before the 
following spring. Few of the Lilies sown in spring come up before the second spring, and Lilium aura- 
tum seed almost always requires two winters in the ground before coming up. I believe after the first 
winter the seed germinates and forms a little bulblet which comes up after the second winter. 
Perennial Phlox. (See page 27.) 
PROTECTING PLANTS 
I like a little protection for nearly all the hardy plants in winter; not a protection so much against 
frost, for this is natural to them, but a protection against mild winter weather. Plants that are hardy enough 
for the severest winter weather may be killed by alternate freezing and thawing. Nature, in many instances, 
provides this protection in the dead foliage falling about the plants; yet we cannot tell just how much 
of this exposure each species will bear during the winter, nor just how much it will have to bear. Our 
hardiest meadow grasses are frequently killed out in open winters, as is the case with winter cereals. 
With Hardy Perennials it is much the same. Species that are native to the coldest climates —that will 
stand almost any amount of cold, freezing weather—are often injured by alternate freezing and thawing. 
But a covering of 2 or 3 inches of swale or beaver meadow hay protects them from such sudden changes, 
and they come out from their covering in spring as fresh and green as those from under a snow-bank. A 
few of the more tender sorts may need 3 inches of forest leaves under the hay, but these are not necessary 
except for tender sorts. For the exclusion of all frost for species that will not bear freezing, OtolO inches 
of the leaves under the hay will be required. 
( 3 ) 
