Part 38 (1/2)

Slugs

In the spring, slugs, which eat the tender new leaves of many plants, can be kept away by sprinkling coal-ash around them.

Watering

In hot weather, water perennials regularly and well, breaking up earth around them so that the water sinks in easily.

Supports

All tall-growing perennials will need stakes to support them. Care must be taken not to injure the roots when putting these in. The stalks can be tied with twine.

Dividing

Perennials can be divided if they grow too large. With summer-flowering plants this should be done in October or November, and with spring-flowering plants in June. In dividing you simply dig up the plant and break off as much of it as you want, being careful not to injure the roots. As, however, there are many plants which, to be divided, must be cut, and as this is an operation which requires some skill and knowledge, it would perhaps be better to take advice.

Perennials From Seed

Snapdragon, wallflower, pansies, and hollyhocks are very easily grown from seed. They can be sown in June (wallflowers are best sown in April) in boxes, and thinned out and transplanted to permanent places as soon as they are large enough. They will blossom the following year.

Seedlings

Seedlings of most perennials can be bought for a few cents a dozen.

They should be planted as quickly as possible and watered well, and they will flower the following year.

Consult a good nurseryman's catalogue for a list of hardy perennials, as for the annuals.

Bulbs--General Remarks

A garden that is planted only with bulbs, or with bulbs and a few ferns, can be kept beautiful all the year round. Many of our loveliest flowers come from bulbs, and they are easy to grow and interesting to watch from the moment that the first leaf-tips push through the earth until they die down. The position of all bulbs should be very carefully marked on the beds and in your garden-plan, so that you will not cut or injure them when digging your garden over.

The first bulbs to come--through the snow sometimes--are the snowdrops, single and double, crocuses--yellow, purple, lilac, and striped--and then the tiny bright blue squills; and a little later the yellow daffodil and white narcissus, hyacinths, and tulips of every kind. Then white, red, and purple anemones, ranunculi, and wax-like Stars of Bethlehem. In June there are wonderful irises and tall spikes of summer-flowering gladiolus--red and white--and later still the tall garden lilies. There are many of these lilies, and all of them are exceedingly beautiful. Two kinds should be in all gardens--the white Madonna lily, and the orange tiger lily. All the bulbs that have been mentioned cost very little and can be grown very simply. And all bulbs that have been mentioned can remain untouched for many years unless they exhaust the soil around them (when, instead of increasing as they should each year, the plants become poorer and smaller).

Never move a bulb when it is in active growth: after the leaves have died down is the right time.

Leaf-mould mixed with your garden soil will help to give you fine flowers.

If the leaves of the bulbs are attacked by slugs, as they often are, sprinkle a little wood-ash all around them.

Planting Bulbs

For planting bulbs choose a day when the earth is dry, and make your holes with a trowel. If you want to make a clump of bulb-plants, take away the earth to the right depth from the whole area you wish to fill, place your bulbs in position, points upward, and cover over, pressing the earth firmly down.