glish perennial border carnations, bizarres, and
picotees will live for several years, but in this climate must be
wintered in a _dry wooden_ cold pit, after the manner of the perennial
varieties of wallflowers, tender roses, and the like.

I emphasize the words _dry wooden_ in connection with a cold pit from my
experience in seeking to make mine permanent by replacing the planks,
with which it was built and which often decayed, by stone work, with
most disastrous results, causing me to lose a fine lot of plants by
mildew.

The truly hardy pinks (_dianthus plumarius_), the fringed and
clove-scented species both double and single of old-time gardens, that
bloom in late spring and early summer, are called variously May and
grass pinks. Her Majesty is a fine double white variety of this class,
and if, in the case of double varieties, you wish to avoid the risk of
getting single flowers, you would better start your stock with a few
plants and subdivide. For myself, every three or four years, I sow the
seed of these pinks in spring in the hardy seed bed, and transplant to
their permanent bed early in September, covering the plants lightly in
winter with evergreen boughs or corn stalks. Leaf litter or any sort of
covering that packs and holds water is deadly to pinks, so prone is the
crown to decay.

In the catalogues you will find these listed under the names of
Pheasant's Eye, Double Scotch pinks (_Scotius_), and Perpetual Pink
(_semperflorens_). With this class belongs the Sweet-William (_dianthus
barbatus_), which should be sown and treated in a like manner. It is
also a hardy perennial, but I find it best to renew it every few years,
as the flowers of young plants are larger, and in spite of care, the
most beautiful hybrids will often decay at the ground. There is no
garden flower, excepting the Dahlia, that gives us such a wealth of
velvet bloom, and if you mean to make a specialty of pinks, I should
advise you to buy a collection of Sweet-Williams in the separate
colours, which range from white to deepest crimson with varied markings.

Directions for sowing the biennial Chinese and Japanese pinks were given
in the chronicle concerning the hardy seed bed. These pinks are not
really fragrant, though most of them have a pleasant apple odour that,
together with their wonderful range of colour, makes them particularly
suitable for table decoration.

In addition to the mixed colours recommended for the general seed bed,