Chapter Lxii, Page 373.

For Directions for Garden Cut-Outs, see Chapter LXII]

Thirty-seven Hardy Perennials

Aster (Wild) Alkanet (Anchusa) Baby’s Breath Bellflower Bergamot Blanket Flower Bleeding Heart Campanula Candytuft Centaurea Chrysanthemum Columbine Coreopsis English Daisy Forget-me-not Foxglove Hollyhock Larkspur Lupine Marguerite Monkshood Pæony Pinks {Moss {Hardy Poppy {Iceland {Oriental Phlox (Hardy) Pyrethrum Poker Plant Rock Cress Roses Sneezewort Speedwell Sweet Alyssum (yellow) Sweet-William Thoroughwort Violet and Viola Wall Flower Windflower

Twenty Annuals

Ageratum Cockscomb Cornflower Cosmos Cigar Plant Everlasting Four-o’Clock Garden Geranium Lemon Verbena Nasturtium Petunia Princess Feather Periwinkle Phlox Scarlet Sage Snapdragon Sweet Alyssum (white) Verbena Wild Cucumber Vine Zinnia

Eight Bulbous Plants

Daffodil Hyacinth Iris Lily of the Valley Madonna Lily Snowdrop Tulip Yellow Day Lily

A LETTER ABOUT THE GARDEN CUT-OUTS

Dear Boy or Girl:

No doubt you will wish, just as Mary Frances did, to be able to cut flowers every few days from your garden, for your mother to use as a “center piece” on the dining table, or for your father’s desk, or for your grandmother’s dresser, or as a gift for a friend.

Now, anyone can have a few plants which will bloom at some time or other, but the garden you and Mary Frances have in mind is one which will have flowers in bloom from March, through April, May, June, July, August, September, October, and into November until ruined by frost.

Flowers over eight months of the year! Yes, that is possible in nearly every part of our country—if you study carefully the outlines following this page.

The first outline gives a list of plants which bloom in the Early Spring.

The second names the plants which bloom in Early Summer.

The third, the plants which bloom in Mid-Summer.

The fourth, those blooming in Autumn.

These lists are nearly like the ones given Billy by his teacher, which he and Mary Frances used in planting a garden in front of the Play House. As you read these lists, turn to the pictures of the Mary Frances Garden Cut-Outs, and try to recognize the flower named.

All that Mary Frances wished, she and Billy made “come true,” and every day through the flowering season she gathered flowers from, her garden—but that is part of the story, so now begin to read

A FEW HINTS ON GROWING THE FLOWERS SHOWN IN THE GARDEN CUT-OUTS

In using the following lists, if the garden space is small, select only the names marked with a star.

The height of each plant is given because it is always desirable to plant low-growing flowers in the foreground; and tall ones in the background.

The following-named Perennials (the roots of which live from year to year) may be grown from seeds, but cannot be depended upon to bloom the first year.

Instead of beginners starting seeds of Perennials, it is well to buy the young plants from a reliable dealer to start the permanent garden, and to experiment with seeds after acquaintance with those plants already established.

Do not buy many plants of any kind, as a few, well cared for, will increase in number the next year.

Annuals (the roots of which die in the Fall) will bloom the same season as planted. Start seeds early, either in a box in a sunny window, or in a warm sunny corner out of doors early in May.

The first step in garden-making is the planning of the garden.

(See Chapter LXII on “The Mary Frances Garden Cut-Outs.”)

The second step is selection of the seed, and the ordering of the same from one of the best seed firms.

Never try inferior or untested seeds. It is no economy.

In regard to “color scheme,” see Chapter LX.

For artistic effect, it is usually best to plant the same kind of flowers close together to obtain “masses” of bloom.