iving the
exact quantity of water necessary to quench the thirst of seedlings
without producing dropsy, and the consequent "damping off" which, when
it suddenly appears, seems as intangible and makes one feel as helpless
as trying to check a backing horse by helpless force of bit. A frame for
Margaret carnations, early asters, and experiments in seedling Dahlias
and chrysanthemums will be quite enough.

The woman who lives all the year in the country can so manage that her
spring bulbs and hardy borders, together with the roses, last well into
July. After this the annuals must be depended upon for ground colour,
and to supplement the phloxes, gladioli, Dahlias, and the like. By the
raising of these seeds in hotbeds they are apt to reach their high tide
of bloom during the most intense heat of August, when they quickly
mature and dry away; while, on the other hand, if they are reared in an
open-air seed bed, they are not only stronger but they last longer,
owing to more deliberate growth. Asters sown out-of-doors in May bloom
well into October, when the forced plants barely outlast August.

Of many annuals it is writ in the catalogues, "sow at intervals of two
weeks or a month for succession." This sounds very plausible, for are
not vegetables so dealt with, the green string-beans in our garden being
always sown every two weeks from early April until September first? Yes,
but to vegetables is usually given fresher and deeper soil for the crop
succession than falls to flower seeds, and in addition the seeds are of
a more rugged quality.

My garden does not take kindly to this successive sowing, and I have
gradually learned to control the flower-bearing period by difference in
location. Spring, and in our latitude May, is the time of universal seed
vitality, and seeds germinating then seem to possess the maximum of
strength; in June this is lessened, while a July-sown seed of a common
plant, such as a nasturtium or zinnia, seems to be impressed by the
lateness of the season and often flowers when but a few inches high, the
whole plant having a weazened, precocious look, akin to the progeny of
people, or higher animals, who are either born out of due season or of
elderly parents. On the other hand, the plant retarded in its growth by
a less stimulating location, when it blooms, is quite as perfect and of
equal quality with its seed-bed fellows who were transplanted at once
into full sunlight.

Take, for example, mignone