We now have at least twenty-five perennials and low shrubs that will bloom as long as tender bedding plants — say two months or more, e. g., hydrangeas (plate 103), gaillardias, Miss Lingard phlox, Stokes's blue aster, the Napoleon III pink, the Baby Rambler rose, two kinds of hydrangea, Eupatorium cczlestinum, and certain varieties of Veronica and ragged robin with names a foot long.

But I place no emphasis on "everblooming" plants, because they are somewhat like a thirty-cent dinner with wine — they give rather too much for the money. It is an excellent idea to use a bed or two of them, so as to be sure of colour always, but to make them dominant is to destroy one of the keenest pleasures, viz., a sense of the procession of the seasons. I hope the great majority of hardy plants will always definitely mark certain months, for the best thing to live with is not a "continuous performance" by flowers. Much better is a broken series of dramatic floral events. Therefore, let us turn from these "harpers on a single string," and see how we can have a variety of flowers at different times.