Gardening for Little Girls

by Olive Hyde Foster

While a small number of these beauties will bloom the first year if started early in the spring, most of them make their début in garden society the second summer. Before that they have to be watched, or they might meet with accident. A good way, therefore, is to have a little bed (preferably a cold frame) for a seed nursery off to one side, in a safe place, where the baby plants can be cared for, protected from cold, and tended like the infants they are, until grown up and old enough to enter the society of bed or border. In such a place the seeds should be planted in fine, rich soil, preferably from the middle of May to the 1st of July, and all carefully marked. Sow thinly, and then cover the seed by sifting over with fine soil from 1/8 to ¼ inch deep. Sprinkle very lightly by means of a whisk broom dipped in water, so as not to wash out the seed, and if you possibly can, cover with a piece of glass. Keep in the shade at first, and never let dry out. Some of this seed will germinate in less than a week, while some may take so long that you will think it is not going to grow at all! But don't give up; and maybe some day when you have forgotten all about it, you will discover a lot of new babies in your nursery.

TRANSPLANTING PERENNIALS

As soon as your seedlings are big and strong enough to be handled, they must be carefully lifted and set in another part of the nursery, not less than 3 inches apart, protected from the hot sun, and left until they become strong, sturdy children. Then early in the fall, before the middle of September, you can take them up very gently, without disturbing their tiny rootlets, and put them with their friends and relatives in the garden, wherever you wish them to bloom the following summer.

Of course you couldn't,—and you wouldn't want to grow everything you ever saw or heard about! Just think of the fun, however, of picking out a small number that will be sure to give you flowers, one after another, from earliest spring until cold weather! Yet the following list, suggested by one authority, is easy to get and little trouble to care for:

PERENNIALS FOR A WHOLE SEASON'S BLOOM

Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata); white, rose, lavender; bloom April and May.

Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majalis); white; May, June.

Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis); rose pink; April through June.

Iris (Fleur-de-lis); white, purple, yellow; April to July.

Peony (Pæonia officinalis); white, rose to crimson; May, June.

Larkspur (Delphinium); blues; June, July, September.

Balloon Flower (Platycodon); blue, purple, white; July to October.

Phlox, Hardy (Phlox paniculata); no blue nor real yellow; June through September.

Golden Glow (Rudbeckia laciniata); yellow; August.

Blanket Flower (Gaillardia aristata); yellow, red; July to October.

Boltonia (Boltonia latisquama); lilac; August to October.

Sunflower (Helianthus); yellow; July to October.

KIM AND COLUMBINE

The fault that I would find with the gentleman's list is that he has omitted chrysanthemums, which could be substituted for sunflowers to most people's satisfaction,—and which also would bloom as late as November. Also I should prefer columbine to his bleeding hearts,—and the golden-spurred variety will bloom from early May to early August! Above all, instead of boltonia, I would use the adorable snapdragons, which, although considered a "tender perennial," will survive cold weather if well protected.