[Illustration: The German iris is one of the most beautiful forms in the flower world and it will flourish in practically any moderately good soil]
We must remember that nine-tenths of the plants 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.
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.