ho is inclined to be
satisfied with nothing but the best. The "best" is what the dealer will
send you if you patronize one who has established a reputation for
honesty.

The impression prevails, to a great extent, that perennials bloom only
for a very short time in the early part of the season. This is a
mistake. If you select your plants with a view to the prolongation of
the flowering period, you can have flowers throughout the season from
this class of plants. Of course not all of them will bloom at the same
time. I would not be understood as meaning that. But what I do mean
is--that by choosing for a succession of bloom it is possible to secure
kinds whose flowering periods will meet and overlap each other in such a
manner that some of them will be in bloom most of the time. Many kinds
bloom long before the earliest annuals are ready to begin the work of
the season. Others are in their prime at midsummer, and later ones will
give flowers until frost comes. If you read up the catalogues and
familiarize yourself with the habits of the plants which the dealer
offers for sale, you can make a selection that will keep the garden gay
from May to November.

On the ordinary home-lot there is not much choice allowed as to the
location of the border. It must go to the sides of the lot if it starts
in front of the house, or it may be located at the rear of the
dwelling. On most grounds it will, after a little, occupy both of these
positions, for it will outgrow its early limitations in a few years. You
will be constantly adding to it, and thus it comes about that the border
that _begins_ on each side of the lot will overflow to the rear.

I would never advise locating it in front of the dwelling. Leave the
lawn unbroken there. While there is not much opportunity for "effect" on
small grounds, a departure from straight lines can always be made, and
formality and primness be avoided to a considerable degree. Let the
inner edge of the border curve, as shown in the illustration
accompanying this chapter, and the result will be a hundredfold more
pleasing than it would be if it were a straight line. Curves are always
graceful, and indentations here and there enable you to secure new
points of view that add vastly to the general effect. They make the
border seem larger than it really is because only a portion of it is
seen at the same time, as would not be the case if it were made up of
straight rows of plants, with the same width