we grow are
exotic--natives of distant parts and climes--coming from various
atmospheric conditions, and from all kinds of soil. We bring them into
our garden and grow them all under one climatic influence and in the
one kind of soil we happen to possess. Certainly we cannot expect
uniform success with all of them. You might as well bring into one room
unlettered natives of distant climes and expect them all to enter into
a general conversation. Even in gardens quite near each other, their
permanence varies. I cannot grow, successfully, any of the boltonias,
while within a quarter of a mile of me, in a friend's garden, they grow
like weeds. Our soil is the same, and one would suppose that the
climatic conditions were, still the fact remains. I merely mention this
so that any novice finding that he cannot grow some plants as well as
others near him, may not feel lonesome in his grief. It is, however, a
good plan, when a plant supposedly easy to grow, fails to materialize,
to try it in another part of your own garden, and if it does not do
well there, discard and forget it--the world is full of good things.

Due to the fact of the perennial's habit of annual recurrence the
cultural directions are different from the flowers of but a season's
bloom. There are some vital fundamentals that every gardener should
know and some short cuts to success that every one may know. Since
perennials, then, form the very kernel of the garden these are things
of first importance in the growing of flowers and will be here
elaborated sufficiently to give the reader an impetus that will carry
him at a bound into the inner circle of the garden mysteries.

PREPARING THE BEDS

Do we want a successful flower bed--one that our neighbors will
envy--or one in which the plants are struggling to exist? If we want
the former--and who does not?--we must give our plants good pasturage.
They are as fond of the fat of the land as we are, and, since they
gladden our hearts with their radiant blooms, we should treat them
fairly. And how? By giving them a good, deep soil for their root-run,
not only rich in food, but loose and friable.

Most all virgin soils contain ample plant food, but the deeper part
lacks the result of the action of air, sun and frost, and the natural
humus of decayed leaves and grasses. The plant food it contains is
"uncooked"--that is, not ready for plant assimilation. Therefore, the
beds to contain your perennials should b