on to say disparaging things about the garden of
annuals. Annuals are very desirable. Some of them are absolutely
indispensable. But they call for a great deal of labor. It is hard work
to spade the ground, and make the beds, and sow the seed, and keep the
weeds down. This work must be done year after year. But with hardy
plants this is not the case. Considerable labor may be called for, the
first year, in preparing the ground and setting out the plants, but the
most of the work done among them, after that, can be done with the hoe,
and it will take so little time to do it that you will wonder how you
ever came to think annuals the only plants for the flower-garden of busy
people. That this _is_ what a great many persons think is true, but it
is because they have not had sufficient experience with hardy plants to
fully understand their merits, and the small amount of care they
require. A season's experience will convince them of their mistake.

[Illustration: SHRUBS AND PERENNIALS COMBINED IN BORDER]

In preparing the ground for the reception of these plants, spade it up
to the depth of a foot and a half, at least, and work into it a liberal
amount of good manure, or some commercial fertilizer that will take the
place of manure from the barnyard or cow-stable. Most perennials and
herbaceous plants will do fairly well in a soil of only moderate
richness, but they cannot do themselves justice in it. They ought not to
be expected to. To secure the best results from them--and you ought to
be satisfied with nothing less--feed them well. Give them a good start,
at the time of planting, and keep them up to a high standard of vitality
by liberal feeding, and they will surprise and delight you with the
profusion and beauty of their bloom.

Perennials will not bloom till the second year from seed. Therefore, if
you want flowers from them the first season, it will be necessary for
you to purchase last season's seedlings from the florist.

In most neighborhoods one can secure enough material to stock the border
from friends who have old plants that need to be divided, or by
exchanging varieties.

But if you want plants of any particular color, or of a certain variety,
you will do well to give your order to a dealer. In most gardens five or
six years old the original varieties will either have died out or so
deteriorated that the stock you obtain there will be inferior in many
respects, therefore not at all satisfactory to one w