Cornell University Library Flower gardening, Cornell University Library Mew Work State College of Agriculture PMc aoe et tte LS. Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002815722 FLOWER GARDENING ASNOy ay] OF UOIIDII4 Sql UL yno Jybnoy? &jy6no.10yy auo yah puv uapsvb v ysnl—sua pavb fo spury Aupw ayy fo asaq ay] St SIH T,,, nas es Let < er ” ry FLOWER GARDENING BY H. S. ADAMS Author of “Making a Rock Garden,” ‘‘Lilies,” etc. NEW YORK McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY 1913 ra A oN Aa e203 Copyright, 1913, by McBarpe, Nast & Co. c SBA AS Published, April, 1913 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. FLowers AND THE Home_......... I IJ. FLower GARDENS oF Many Kinps. 3 III. Layrnc Out THE FLOWER GARDEN. 17 IV. How To SuccEED WITH FLOWERS... 25 V. SPRING WoRK IN THE GARDEN.... 33 VI. Work For SuMMER Days........ 44 VII. THE GaRDEN’s NEEDS IN AUTUMN. 51 VIII. Borpers FoR A SMALL PLACE...... 63 IX. ACCUMULATING A GARDEN........ 49 X. Wuy a Harpy GARDEN Is BEsT.... 80 XI. Tue SPEcIAL VALUE OF PERENNIALS 88 XII. Tue Best Uses oF ANNUALS...... 102 XIII. SHRusBs IN THE FLOWER GARDEN...113 XIV. Sprinc AND SUMMER FLOWERS FROM BULBS .ovedvei 27 Ren oe ov me GARDENS OF MANY KINDS 13 When termed a moraine garden, a miniature slope of fine stones is made for alpine dwarfs that do not thrive well in pockets of soil. Broadly speak- ing, a rock garden is a semblance of nature, which may be no more than the mere planting of native flowers by existing rocks. One great advantage of it is that it need be only a yard square and still be what it pretends to be; there are many tiny ones in England. And it can be entrancingly beautiful without the employment of any plants but some of the “‘iron-clad” perennials. A wall garden is not to be confused with a walled garden. It is any wall in the crevices of which are grown appropriate plants. The mortar may be knocked out here and there in an old wall, but it is better to make a dry one—that is to say, one in which the crevices are filled with earth for planting. It is a large or small undertaking, according to desire and circumstance; nothing could be simpler than a simple one. ‘Lhe water garden is a sufficiently expansive term to cover plants that like “wet feet’ as well as those that actually grow in the water; for that matter it may be made up of either, the water being the essential thing. As for pretentiousness, a tub of water sunk in the ground and a single water lily growing in it, with a bit of perennial forget-me-not flourishing in the adjacent moist soil, is a water garden that is not to be sneered at; the birds will tell you that by their actions, if they cannot in so many words. 14 FLOWER GARDENING A bog garden is a wet one, more or less faith- fully reproducing boggy conditions. It is just the place for segregating some of the orchids, ferns and other native plants that otherwise are liable to perish in cultivation, or at best grow only half- heartedly. It may be also a peat garden, or just the moister section of one—the remainder to be higher land for rhododendrons, heather, lilies and other peat-loving plants. Of what may be called sentimental gardens there are doubtless more kinds than will ever be num- bered, because any one is likely to extend the list through purely personal promptings of the heart. The best for general recommendation is the garden of friendship. All of the plants in it, of course, are from friends or from seed sent by them; and it is astonishing to find how many are only too glad to contribute. Long-lived, hardy plants ought to be given the preference. A garden of association might mean this, too; but a wise differentiation is a gathering together of plants—personally and through friends—that come from places of historical and literary interest. Shakspere, Bible and Virgil gardens are among the possible specializations, though all offer ob- stacles to completeness that few would find sur- mountable. Enough for most will be to visualize “Daffodils that come before the swallow dares” or some of the other easy references. The name garden has occasional possibilities that have not begun to be recognized. Rose and Vic- GARDENS OF MANY KINDS 15 let may choose either the flower or the color for theirs. Daisy is perhaps not less fortunate in the variety of “day’s eye” flowers that extend over the entire season. And there is Lily, with glorious opportunities from May to September. If there be but contentment with one or two kinds of flow- ers, several other feminine names, and perhaps as many masculine ones, may be coupled with gardens. Is it too small a thing to bestow the name of Mary’s garden on a generous planting of “blue-eyed Mary” and “sweet Mary,” or Susan’s garden on a grouping of the two flowers known as “‘black-eyed Susan”? Surely there would be something in them to Mary or Susan that an acre of roses would lack—even though there were not a precise match- ing of eyes. Color gardens are more dreamed of than re- alized. Yet they offer a most fascinating field that would not seem hedged in with trials and tribulations if the first thing to remember were not usually overlooked. It is this: there is no statute on the books requiring a pink garden, for example, to be all pink. How soon the eye would tire were there not the green of the leaves; and if the color why not a touch of white? The only rule is to have the name color dominant, and no more so than you fancy. White always is a re- freshment and a bit of yellow warms up a blue garden. A red garden ought not to be too red, as this is a hot color in summer; use winter berries and evergreen foliage in generous measure, By skill- 16 FLOWER GARDENING ful planting the garden may be four or five colors in succession. In that event, yellow is a warm color for spring. The old-fashioned garden is a somewhat con- fused term. It may mean a formal Colonial garden or a garden having only the flowers of other days, with little or no color and planting order. Either interpretation will answer—in its place. But do not worry yourself to death trying to find out where the old-fashioned flowers begin and the new ones end; it is a hopeless task. If the garden looks old-fashioned, or Colonial, a few anachronisms will not matter a great deal. There are also two kinds of wild gardens, real ones and crazy ones. The latter are the product of the pernicious habit of mixing various flower seeds together and scattering them broadcast to come up as best they may. The real kind is a bit of the wild brought to the home. It offers no end of attractive possibilities, especially where there is adjacent woodland and conditions may be adapted instead of being created. Finally, there is the fruit garden—which first is a flower garden, yet seldom figuring in that light. Now that there are all manner of dwarf fruit trees, enchanting spring pictures are to be made. Though the fruit is highly decorative later, there are spaces where flowers may bloom all summer. In early spring the fruit garden may be bright- ened with various bulbs. (May qa] “ ‘asaupgv gf uvyy 4d ID4 anbsauvgn f UIPAVDH JUVJ]NSIA IY []DI OF SaSOOYI quopad v {T7,, CHAPTER III LAYING OUT THE FLOWER GARDEN THE initial step toward laying out a flower gar- den is to make up your mind not as to the kind that you want but the kind that you ought to have. Although this sounds heart-breaking, it is not so bad after all; it is only a matter of adjusting the mental attitude. Of course, the kind of garden that you ought to have is the one that is best in the circumstances. In the first place, as has already been said, it should bear a relationship to the house. This does not mean that a house wholly impossible, or only half- way bad, ought to have those qualities duplicated in the garden; nothing could be more senseless than that. It does mean that there should be a certain harmony, if not actual correspondence, of character. ‘True, there might easily be the sort of planning that would so isolate the garden as to shut it out completely from any picture of the house. This would satisfy the passerby, and your neighbor; but how about you? Do you not want to feel that there is a certain homogeneity of at- mosphere? Well, you ought to if you do not. If 17 18 FLOWER GARDENING the house is not right architecturally, strive to con- ceal its defects by beginning the garden there, so to speak. Sometimes a single vine or a few shrubs or evergreens will chasten architecture wonder- fully, and at the same time serve to bridge the house with the garden. An Italian villa would better have an Italian garden, a Georgian house a formal design of the English type, a rambling farmhouse an old-fash- ioned layout of no set form, a house built on rocky ground a rock garden, and so on. This is speak- ing broadly; in actual practice, so far as the aver- age place of moderate size is concerned, the idea is not so much a garden that is technically accurate for its class as one that in its lines, or some dis- tinguishing feature, suggests that class. Nor, as has previously been said, is there any need of its going by this, that or the other name; it may have a dominant Italian note in the broad view, as seen with the house, but at close range reveal such a variety of adapted touches that it can.be called only the garden. There is no occasion to fear that this limitation of plans will be a serious barrier to the expression of individual preference; the combinations that can be worked out are endless. The real limitations enter when decision must further depend on cli- mate, soil, exposure to sun and wind and whether the house is occupied at all seasons, not to mention the matter of time. All these things must be considered, and considered well. LAYING OUT THE GARDEN 19 Time, that is to say the amount of leisure at one’s disposal, is of the utmost importance. It takes time not only to make a garden, but to main- tain and enjoy it. The moment that the garden uses up more time than can be given to it com- fortably, it gets beyond its province—play becomes work. And a flower garden is no place for drud- gery. Figure out then how much time you can spend, comfortably, not merely during the season just in sight but for at least a few years to come; and cut your garden cloth accordingly. Climate is safely disposed of only by the elimina- tion of all but the really dependable flowers, re- membering always that in some places hot, dry summers are as much of a problem as severely cold winters in others. Soil disadvantages can be remedied wherever expense does not stand in the way. Winds and the force of the summer sun are broken by the planting of shrubs and vines. Little or no sun is harder to get around, though the last resort of a shady garden is far from being one to be altogether deplored; sometimes such a garden is a place of genuine delight. All this figuring out what is best to be done is prime mental sport for long winter evenings. Those are rare times for the planning of gardens— when the fire burns bright and you can sit and think, devise and revise, with the comfortable feeling that spring is still well in the future—that there will be no call to dig on the morrow. Hurry, indeed, is the last thing to enter into the 20 FLOWER GARDENING planning of the garden. Much has to be thought out, and thought out means threshed out until there is clean winnowing of the impractical from the practical. Preliminaries out of the way, the paper stage of the game passes from memoranda into the definite form of a plan to scale. Blessings on the man who invented cross-ruled paper; with it laying out a garden is child’s play, even for the unmathemat- ical mind. This paper comes in sheets, 17x14 inches, and is ruled in little squares that run thirty- six to the square inch. The squares may be called any convenient unit from a square foot up, and if one sheet of paper is not large enough two or more may be pasted together. With a steel tape, if you can get hold of one, take measurements of the boundaries of the en- tire home grounds and the base lines of the house and any other buildings. Then get the distance of the house from the boundaries and locate by further measurements all existing roads, paths, trees, shrubs and borders. Having decided on your unit, transfer these measurements to the cross- ruled sheet and you have a plan of the place all ready for laying out the garden by exact scale. This plan would better settle only the location and size of the garden. A large plan of the garden in detail should then go on a separate sheet; this to be a working scheme for planting. Here it will sometimes be found very convenient to call every six squares _apsvb asot D payoubisap aq o4 snoljuajasgun 00j—yundn aavj¢ aj}fi] D asja 40 ‘saso4 YIM uapivb6 vp qsou 40f 49119, LAYING OUT THE GARDEN 21 each way a yard, which gives plenty of space for numbers or other designations. All borders should be not less than four feet in width; six is better, and they may run up to ten or twelve feet if there is access from both sides. Three feet is a good average width for a path, but if growth is eventually to fall over both sides allow another foot. Straight lines depend largely upon the amount of formality that is to enter into the plan. Some- times, however, they are considered as the means of saving work. Every variation from straight lines calls for more labor of maintenance, as well as construction, and the same is true of the mul- tiplicity of beds and borders in a layout. The time to think of both things is when the paper plan is taking shape. At this point, too, it should be borne in mind that laying out a garden does not necessarily im- ply that you are binding yourself to do all the work designated before the next summer has flown. As a matter of fact, in the case of any layout of size or one of complexity, the better way is to make only a start the first year. If, as is again and again the case, the start is a wrong one, it will be the more quickly remedied. Suppose the garden scheme to be a bordered path leading down to a parterre plot. Plant only the path border the first spring and let the re- mainder simmer until autumn—when it can be made ready for planting the following year. This 22 FLOWER GARDENING is not altogether a question of dividing the labor, though that is important enough; you learn a lot as you proceed with the work and the final shaping of the plan will be easier as well as more satis- factory for the experience. If it is convenient to make ready the parterre plot the first spring, fill it up with annuals as a temporary measure. Greater restraint than this may be exercised, and it is good advice to follow where pretty nearly everything is to be learned about plants—color value, foliage effect, manner of growth, hardiness in a given locality and the season and duration of bloom. These things are best learned by doing all the initial planting in some out-of-the-way place like one end of the vegetable garden. Lay out long beds about six feet wide and grow your flow- ers there for a season, or even two or three— until you feel competent to handle them with in- telligence. Plant in transverse rows, wide enough apart to use a hoe, where rapid increase of hardy stock is desired and in small groups to experiment as to color combinations and other effects. It takes courage and patience to do this, but it pays in the end. These are more thoughts for winter evenings. Meanwhile, the paper plan is only an outline of boundaries. The filling in of the details is simple or complex, according to the variety of plants used and the character of the color scheme. A border of Canterbury bells, white in front of pink, may be indicated on cross-ruled paper in this manner— LAYING OUT THE GARDEN 23 calling each one of the squares a square foot: i ee ee? ee eoe 2a e oO fG oO OC oO oO oO oO eo eB Wo eo OOo 8 Pe ooeooaoaen eon eo 89 eo 8 8 8 ew oO eh Oe AO Bo e@edgenvnaw#eoe0oe9eeedgeeeee 8 8 0 88 8 oO eo CANTERBURY BELLS — 24 x6 FT. O-PINK X- WHITE Or in this way, the shading indicating a color: A ical CANTERBURY BELLS — 24x6 FT. If the plants are in long drifts and big patches, show them so: 17 &. ~ (5G. 1S F. 1g f. “47 € 40 B. SEA. 20 B. ge Job. 2c. SLA. MIXED HARDY BORDER— 24x6 FT. A- ARABIC ALBIDA (White) D-PRIMULA VERIS SUPERBA (Yellow) B-PHLOX DIVARICATA (Blue) E-PHLOX, MISS LINGARD (White) C-GRASS PINK, HER MAJESTY (White) F- PHLOX, ROSENBERG (Violet Red) F-PHLOX, MRS. JENKINS (White) 24 FLOWER GARDENING Apply a thin wash of water color to the sec- tions, before the letters and numbers are put on; the indication will be all the clearer. In the final stage it is advisable to color the entire plan, using green for all grass plots and brown, gray or brick color for the paths, according to the material. Catalogues begin to come along in January; so that these may be gone through and the selection of plants and seeds made as the work of planning progresses. arly decision and early placing of orders is wise; you get the pick of the stock, which sometimes runs out altogether before the late- comers have been heard from. There is no danger that early orders will be shipped too soon; they merely take precedence, CuHaPpTerR IV HOW TO SUCCEED WITH FLOWERS To grow flowers successfully one thing, perhaps above all others, is needed. This is plain, ordinary gumption. It is all very well to say that flowers will grow for those who love them; that so and so has only to put a stick in the ground and it will blossom, and that sort of chatter. One might as well assert that good bread, cake and preserves are products of affection rather than of skill. As in everything else, there is a certain knack in growing flowers. This knack comes unconsciously to some, being bred in the bone. Others, who are the great majority, have to acquire it. Usually the process of learning is a slow one, not because it need be but because of the wrong notion that the heart is the guide of guides. Far from it; the head it is that leads to success in the garden. The hands are the chief aids, and once in a while the feet are called upon to do more than walking. WHleart, in the sense of senti- ment, has been known to be absent altogether. But it ought to be there always, only properly 25 26 FLOWER GARDENING dominated by the too rare quality of common sense. Nature is the great fount of garden knowledge. Go to her for the elementals. From her you will learn how plants grow, bloom and ripen their seed; how natural gardens are planted, how colors are arranged, how the annual has its place and the perennial its, how winter protection is given, how evergreens serve a purpose—in short, the all of the how. The more you know nature the better gardener you will be. She teaches the why and wherefore of everything, if you will but open your eyes to see; and she makes learning a pleasant pastime. The whole point is this: All gardens are nature humanized, to a greater or less degree. The humanization proceeds successfully only as you fol- low natural laws. You may bend those laws a bit, for the time being, but you cannot alter them. Ignorance of first nature principles is shown on every side by the very bad habit of thinking that blossoms are the beginning and end of a plant. They are not; they are an episode in the life of a plant. In numerous instances they are not the most attractive episode; the foliage at one stage or another, or the seed, may be a great deal more beautiful. Let this sink firmly into the mind. A lily is more than blossoms; it is a plant, and one of a particular class in nature’s wise ordering of things. With that class always associate it. A person, whose family name happens to be Legion, once said when spring came around: “My HOW TO SUCCEED 29 Canterbury bells all died.” Of course, they did; their time had arrived and they went the way of their kind. This, person should have known that some plants are biennials, of which the Canterbury bell is one. Biennials, relatively few in garden cultivation, bloom normally in their second sum- mer from seed; then they die. Occasionally, when the seed is sown later than spring, they survive two winters. Annuals, as the name implies, are plants of a year. ‘They are born in the spring and if their life has not spent itself by the end of autumn the winter’s cold blots it out. In gardens, seedlings from sowings too late in the year to bring the plants to maturity will sometimes bravely endure a winter rather than perish in unfruitfulness. The name annual is necessarily elastic in the usage of cold climates, as freezing will kill some plants that naturally would go on flourishing. Thus the four-o’clock, unless the root is taken up and stored for the winter, is an annual in the North, though in its native tropics it is a perennial. Strictly speaking, all trees and shrubs as well as those herbs that are neither annual nor bi- ennial are perennials; the first two are differen- tiated as woody, the last as herbaceous. In garden usage perennial is hardy herbaceous perennial, for short. Herbaceous plant and hardy plant are oc- casional alternatives. Bulbs, although veritable herbaceous perennials, are usually classed by them- selves; which is convenient if it is not botanical, 28 FLOWER GARDENING Herbaceous perennials are the largest class of garden plants and because of their durability they are the most valuable one. Their life runs on indefinitely; two or three generations may see a peony or fraxinella growing in the same spot. It scarcely can be said that the individual lives years without number, as in the case of a tree. Often there is the appearance of this when old plants have not been disturbed; but the fact is that the root system expands from year to year, forming new crowns for blooming. With the development of the new comes a more or less gradual dissolu- tion of the old, according to the nature of the plant. Bulbs create new units as the old ones die and shrink and wither away. Whatever is herbaceous is supposed to die down to the ground in winter. This many herbaceous perennials fail to do. Nota few, such as the pinks and the creeping phloxes, have evergreen foliage —which is a very fortunate thing indeed. That beautiful St. John’s wort, Hypericum Moserianum, is known as herbaceous, but is more like a dwarf shrub. Annuals and biennials have a root system that generally permits of no division. They are there- fore grown from seed; or, in certain cases, from cuttings. The more nearly the root is a long tap with very fine rootlets, the more difficult transplant- ing becomes; that is why it is advisable to sow the seed of annual poppies, sweet alyssum and mignon- ette where the plants can remain, the surplus being 490] Guiysasfas 0 svy sfomjo yyod v puv 4apsog v udanjog fin} fo Gtajs nosspu BF on HOW TO SUCCEED 29 thinned out graduallyasthe plants become crowded. Perennials, on the other hand, have spreading root systems that, after the second year or so, are more or less readily separated by either pulling or cutting them apart; bulbs separate automatically. The roots of perennials are sometimes a spreading network of fibre; again the system is largely con- centrated in a fleshy stock, a tuber, a rhizome or a bulb. It is essential to learn these things, for the reason that knowledge of plant life below ground, as well as above, is no inconsiderable factor in successful cultivation. Associate a plant with its class and characteris- tics at the very outset. Do not be content with half knowledge; you get nowhere with that. If some one gives you a plant of purple German iris that you had admired when it was in bloom, do not begin by thinking of it as a lovely purple flower with three petals curved upward and three in falls. Think of it as a perennial—ask if you are ig- norant—with, as you can see for yourself, roots of a rhizomatous character. If you have not learned that in nature such roots grow horizon- tally and near the surface of the ground, some- times showing a little above it, find that out, too, by inquiry. Very soon the observation of these details and their merger into a comprehensive whole becomes second nature; you know a plant as an individual without any more process of reasoning than when 30 FLOWER GARDENING you mentally distinguish the pine as an evergreen tree or the grape as a deciduous vine. A frequent cause of failure with flowers is what may as well be called footlessness as anything else. That is about what it is; an aimless plunging into the task with good intentions but an appalling lack of common sense. Footlessness cuts a strip fifteen inches wide out of the lawn on the west side of the house, and quite near it, and plants in what it is pleased to call a border some roses. or some peonies, without any enrichment of the poor soil. Common sense would have ascertained before a spade was put in the ground that roses and peonies must have a sunnier position, that they are gross feeders and that without a wider border the grass would encroach on their territory in no time. Footlessness plants sweet peas in dry, poor soil, three weeks late at that, and then wonders why the woman next door ‘‘always has such good luck”’; it undertakes to establish a rose garden in an ob- viously unsuitable location; it piles manure on top of foxgloves, which become rotten pulp before spring, and then cannot see why they should “‘win- ter kill”; it takes home plants that friends have given and sticks them in the ground with so little care and thought that the wail that they “didn’t live” goes up; it transplants hollyhocks six inches apart and pansies fifteen—it does a thousand things wrong. And all for the want of taking pains to find out the right road to travel. Taking pains looms large in the garden gospel. HOW TO SUCCEED 31 If your cousin’s wife has famous larkspurs every summer—larkspurs more than six feet tall and with enormous spikes of bloom—that is not “Ser- ena’s luck’’; she took pains. Serena took pains to secure the very best seed, or plants, obtainable; you may be sure of that. She took pains to pre- pare a bed of deep and well-drained soil for them and to enrich the same without letting manure come next to the roots. Every May she takes pains to work a little bone meal into the soil around the plants. And she stakes the plants in time; early and late she is mindful of her larkspurs— which she knows will respond quickly enough if she gives them what they want. Serena is “on to her job,” or everybody would not be talking about her larkspurs. It is not luck that counts; it is ordinarily in- telligent labor. If only everyone would realize that this uses up no more time than pottering, not infrequently a great deal less! The labor that makes for success is marked by the timeliness that finds it materially easier to get ahead of work than to lag behind it. Things are done when they ought to be done. Labor is thus so distributed through the season that at no time does it become wearisome enough to cease to be a pleasurable rec- reation. ‘And by system every step possible is saved. All this is helped along by a good memory. Every successful grower of flowers has a good, or, at any rate, a serviceable, one. The memory may 32. FLOWER GARDENING be bad indeed as to Latin names, but it seizes upon essentials and holds them ever ready for use. The mind in time develops into what is virtually a per- petual garden calendar; you feel instinctively that such and such things are to be done at certain times of the year. An element of success always is the careful avoid- ance of attempting to do too much. Your neigh- bor around the corner has the banner sweet peas in town; but if he tried to beat every one in roses and chrysanthemums also he would fall down in all, for it happens that he has only a comparatively little time to give to flowers. Being especially fond of sweet peas, he devotes himself to them and lets who will excel in other directions. That is the right spirit. Not the least of requirements is eternal vigi- lance—a watchfulness that becomes a habit, but never a burden. It has a keen sense that sights the bugs from afar, that detects any invasion of weak plants by the strong before it is too late, that feels Jack Frost in the air—that ever is at one with the life of the garden. CHAPTER V SPRING WORK IN THE GARDEN Too many there are who look out of the win- dow of a February day and sigh: “Oh, I wish that spring would come, so that I might work in the garden again.” Not so the wise gardener. Already he is up and doing; for he knows full well that spring, so far as its particular garden chores is concerned, is then at hand. There are February days when little or no snow lies on the frozen ground. Then is a good time to spread on it some manure, to be soaked into the soil by later snows. If it has to be wheeled, or carted, over the lawn it can be done at that time without ruts being left on the turf. Where plants are green above ground, as not a few peren- nials are, place the manure around them, not on them. In February, too, take the pruning shears. out- doors between snows and cut off from the shrubs branches that the winter storms have broken, or any that show unmistakeable signs of being dead. Throw them into a wheelbarrow as you go along, to save a second handling, and at the same time 33 34 FLOWER GARDENING gather up fallen twigs and other refuse; then make a pile of the rubbish in a suitable place for the first spring bonfire. In your garden wanderings look for the green spears of the snowdrops; if they show, favor them by pushing aside a bit their blanket of dead leaves. March is the best time for pruning all of the roses but the teas, which can go until April. If large blooms are wanted, cut the canes of hybrid perpetuals back to within six or eight inches of the grounds. Only a few “eyes” are required and it is best to let the top one on each cane be an outside one in order that the growth may be outward and give a spread to the bush. Cut off at the base all weak and dead canes; also any that come from below the graft. Bushes of such old roses as Madame Plantier, Damask and Har- ison’s Yellow need have only the dead wood cut out unless the branches crowd each other too closely. For the climbers the same, but weak side shoots, dead cane ends and all wood that has lost its use- fulness for blooming ought to be removed. Have the wheelbarrow at hand to receive all cuttings and dump them at once on the bonfire heap. When pruning roses always wear gloves. There will also be some pruning of shrubs and vines to do in March. The shrub rule is to prune in spring only those that bloom late in the season— Hydrangea paniculata, for example. Live wood taken from the spring-blooming shrubs, such as forsythia, weigela and deutzia, only robs the sea- 21 qunjpaut Ajdus atv hay ADIN ayy JO autly 104} 1P ‘uapsvb6 ayy ul anjpa sour yf {o aap sqing yyy auizbursgs ay} ul St 47, SPRING WORK 35 son of a part of its flowers. Vines that make an exceedingly vigorous growth each year, like Clematis paniculata, are usually pruned very se- verely. Crocuses, Scilla sibirica, glory-of-the-snow and the common coltsfoot need a little watching in March, that their bloom may not flash in the pan because of too much covering. Burn up in March all rubbish, including any rakings, that may have been gathered; if it is dry, it is quickly disposed of and is that much out of the way. The village fire rule of making a bon- fire not less than thirty feet from a building is a good one. If the wind is toward a building even twice that distance away, or is blowing very strong in any direction, wait for a more favorable day. A dry pile of rubbish may be started by thrust- ing a crumpled sheet or two of newspaper under the bottom on the windward side and touching a match to it. When there are green twigs to be burned, it is better to make a more careful job of it. Put some paper and dry grass on the ground and then the dry twigs and wood on top. Add only a portion of the green stuff, or there will be too much smoke, and feed the remainder when the fire is burning briskly. Throw on whatever rub- bish the house and barn hold. And never let the fire go long unwatched; not at all if children are about. Look over the garden tools; sharpen the old ones and order the new ones, that April may find 36 FLOWER GARDENING nothing unready. In odd moments cut stakes of various kinds and make or repair trellises. On the first day of April, some years a little earlier, it is safe to uncover the flower beds in gardens as far north as Connecticut. It is better for the plants, and easier for you, to do this gradually. The point is to give light and air to plants that have begun to grow, thus preventing the blanching that weakens shoots and foliage. Be- gin by lifting leaves or other covering from the top of plants like grass pinks that remained above ground all winter and from bulbs that are piercing the soil. Use the hands if there is little to do; if there is much, take an iron rake and draw off gently, taking care that the teeth do not sink deep enough to tear creeping plants or root up the little fellows. Carry all coarse stuff, like stalks, to the bonfire, but give the leaves, which have not begun to lose their usefulness, to the compost heap. Take off from time to time the litter between the plants or, if well rotted and there is plenty of space, work it into the ground. This is readily done with roses and peonies, for both of which the leaves in the soil will be very beneficial. Leav- ing some of the litter between plants serves to keep the ground warm. It is nature’s way and is not necessarily untidy. If plants need to be cod- dled, a little pile of litter may be left near them against cold April nights; some gardeners inva- riably do this with tulips and hyacinths. In such SPRING WORK 37 cases, of course, the covering must be taken off the next morning unless the weather is extremely severe. Few hardy plants, however, are injured by April cold; bleeding heart, astilbe, crown imperial and some of the lilies, which have tender shoots, are exceptions. The greater danger is too much protection once growth has set in. One reason why so many plants “winter kill” is because they are murdered in spring. Each, if it disappears for the winter, has its own time to show itself, and unless its precise location is remembered—which ought to be the case—it is un- safe to put an implement into the soil, lest some- thing be beheaded and, lacking the strength, fail to rise to the occasion a second time. When April, say, is half over remove the last of the litter, if it is not to remain to be worked in. Use the left hand, and a basket, for this, and, with a two-tined steel table fork or the point of a nar- row trowel held in the right hand, stir the soil gently around the crowns of plants and between— if you are sure that everything is above ground or so far below that cultivation will not be hazardous. At the same time, pull up any weeds that have got a start—some will have survived the winter— and destroy, or remove to a nursery row, all seed- ling plants that are out of place. Make a note, too, of plants that require division or transfer to a more favorable location. Early cultivation of the soil is among the most important of April operations. It not only en- 38 FLOWER GARDENING courages growth, but weeds then will not get ahead , of you. Use a hoe wherever possible; it saves a lot of time and is more effective. Cultivation may begin as soon as the soil is dry enough to be easily worked. Wherever the bed or border is next to a grass plot, straighten the edge of the turf. Use a sharp spade and a line if a turf cutter is not available. \After shaking off some of the soil, throw the clods of turf into a wheelbarrow and make a new com- post heap or extend the old one. A simple way to start a compost heap is to lay out a square or rectangle in a place remote from the house and yet not inconvenient of access, by placing on the ground clods of turf, with the grass side down, something after the manner.of a founda- tion. If there is enough turf for walls a foot or more high and a flooring as well, so much the bet- ter. Throw into this kitchen refuse, lawn clip- pings and any easily rotted garden waste that does not contain weed or grass seeds; burn these. Cover lightly with earth any decaying matter that at- tracts flies. By the following spring the pile will be valuable fertilizer. Before April is past much of the transplanting is out of the way if time be taken by the forelock. Hybrid perpetuals, old-fashioned bush roses, climb- ing roses and flowering shrubs are best moved when the leaf buds have not begun to expand and the transplanting should therefore be done early in April; even late in March if the ground is ready. SPRING WORK 39 Aside from spring-blooming bulbs, lilies, peonies and bleeding heart, hardy plants are shifted in the latter part of April and early in May to rather better advantage than in the autumn, though there is no rule save convenience and the exigencies of the case. If note of what is to be moved has not been made already, look over the garden with pencil and paper in hand and get a line on things. Before digging you are supposed to have some idea of what sort of a root growth a plant has, that you may favor it as much as possible. Excepting with tap roots there is no special risk if most of the soil falls away but it is safer to have a good ball of earth, which is not difficult in spring when there is plenty of moisture to hold it together. The ball is less likely to split if the trowel, or spade, is pressed deep into the soil on one or two sides and withdrawn, the actual lifting being then done from a third side. When a very large plant or shrub is to be handled, first prepare the new hole. Then it may be car- ried there on the spade that has lifted it and there is less likelihood of the ball of earth splitting. If the distance is far, lay the burden, spade and all, on a wheelbarrow and look out for rough places in transit. When you can do so, choose for transplanting a day when the sky is overcast or when you have an idea that rain will be along soon. ‘Then, per- haps, you will be able to do away with the trouble of watering. As the plants are dug lay them care- 40 FLOWER GARDENING fully in a basket or wheelbarrow and protect from the hot sun; the roots dry very quickly. As a rule, take up only what can be replanted before night- fall; any held over may be placed in the barn or cellar after being sprinkled lightly. Put all plants that are not required for the garden scheme in rows in a nursery bed, dividing them into as many parts as you can. They will be useful there in three ways—for increase of stock, gifts to friends and bouquet flowers. The greater part of the spring flowers may be lifted with safety even after they have begun to bloom; give them plenty of water. Plant always in a hole deep enough and wide enough to a little more than take the ball of earth that holds the roots. If the bottom of the hole is hard, loosen it with the point of the trowel or spade. Where the ground is dry fill the hole with water and let this soak in thoroughly. Then sprinkle the bottom with a little soil and set the plant down, steadying it with the left hand to keep it upright and filling in with the other until it stands alone. As the remainder of the soil is filled in, press it down with the hands or feet. Unless there is a drought, a second watering will probably not be necessary, but the plants must be watched until the next rainfall. Many flower seeds cannot be sown outdoors with safety until late in May, when, as the seeds- men say on their little packets, “danger from frost is over.” April therefore ought to find a cold- “The peculiar advantages of the double border are the creation of delightful vistas and the greater enjoyment of a stroll where attention is not confined to one sidc” SPRING WORK 41 frame getting a start of the season, provided that autumn forethought did not make one ready the year before. This can be purchased, knocked apart, or with some narrow boards and one or more window sash it is a matter of little time to put one together at home. Plant in it in April or very early in May seeds of annuals for bloom- ing ahead of those sown in the open ground; also seeds of perennials, for years to come. Sow the seed in rows and at the head of each place a num- ber on the inside of the frame, this to correspond with a list giving the name opposite each number. Seed is always ‘“‘bad’” whenever it fails to come up. The truth is that seed from a reliable source is good, but very frequently the planting is bad. Whether in a coldframe or in the open ground first see that the soil is loose and quite free from lumps and grit, adding a little sand if not light enough. Press the soil down with a small piece of board to get a smooth surface. Scatter the very finest seed, such as that of the poppy, broad- cast on the surface and sift a very little soil over it. Sow larger seeds in rows, made with a sharp- pointed stick, the depth being about twice the di- ameter of the'seed. Pour the seed into the palm of the left hand and drop it with the thumb and. finger of the right. Or, if done adroitly, the dropping may be done through a small hole made in one corner of the seed envelope. Plant very large seeds one by one and an inch or so apart in the row, to avoid the labor of thinning out. 42 FLOWER GARDENING After the sowing in rows, fill in with soil and then—in broadcast sowing as well—press firmly and evenly with a bit of board. Cut a piece of white cotton cloth large enough to fit the surface of the soil, lay it down smoothly and do all the watering, with a sprinkler, through this until the plants begin to show above ground. If the stand is good, thin out rigidly. When the first two true leaves appear thin out the weaker ones or, if a large stock is wanted, transplant to an- other frame. Seedlings that are so close together as not to be easily separated by dividing the soil with a small trowel or knife may be lifted in clumps and dropped into a shallow pan of water. There the soil is turned to mud and the seedlings will pull out with no injury to the rootlets. At the end of May the annuals will be large enough to move to their permanent place in the garden, either by themselves or as fillers among hardy plants. The perennials may remain in the frames, to grow on, until summer, autumn or the following spring. May weeding is the salvation of summer, when garden work is less invigorating. Go over the garden carefully and between times pull up every weed within easy reach as you walk about. Loosen with a trowel any weed or bit of grass that does not yield at once, so that no roots may be left behind. In May also dirt walks will need hoeing and lawn edges of borders another very careful clipping. SPRING WORK 43 In the latter part of the month, after a rain, sift some powdered hellebore over the roses to ward off insect ravages. CHAPTER VI WORK FOR SUMMER DAYS WHEN June is well under way, the gardener rests on his hoe and draws a breath of relief. But only for a moment; work must go on and on. Theoretically growth should now cover the ground completely. There are bare spots, how- ever, and weeds are struggling to get possession of every one of them. Such spots must be gone ‘over at least once, and there are the paths to hoe again. All of which is very prosaic when there is a riot of roses and the Canterbury bells and foxgloves are vying with them and each other. Pruning the shrubs that have bloomed in spring is a task of early summer. Most will stand plenty of cutting back, as it is the new wood that will furnish the next year’s blossoms. Limit the pruning of lilacs to the removal of weak and super- fluous branches and the disfiguring seed clusters. Pinch off the tops of hardy chrysanthemums, to make them branch. In August pinch off the ends of the branches. Bugs demand June attention. The principal of- fender is the rose bug, which is not satisfied with 44 SUMMER DAYS 45 his June fodder but must needs feast upon the Japanese irises of July. Fortunately he is big enough to handle very conveniently between the thumb and forefinger. Pick him thus from the rose or iris and drop him into a wide-mouthed pickle bottle partly filled with kerosene oil. If you object to touching this creature, which has a special hankering after white blossoms, poke him into the bottle with a little stick; the end, not the means, is the important thing. Gather up the rose bugs every morning. Once in a while empty the bottle on the ground and touch a match to the mixture of dead bugs and oil. Snipping, of which the summer brings a great deal, begins in June—if May has not been a re- minder of earlier needs. This is snipping with scissors and the objects are two—neatness and pro- longation of the blooming period. As soon as a flower fades, if no seed is wanted, snip it off, with its individual stem. Then the plant retains its attractiveness. And it is astonishing how much difference this little thing makes, especially with such flowers as the rose, iris and peony. The later blossoms not only have more room for expansion but benefit by strength that otherwise would go into the development of seed. Pansies planted in a partially shaded place and treated in this way will bloom quite freely into August and sparsely until winter. Canterbury bells and some of the other bellflowers, whose beauty is serious marred by the brown of even a few 46 FLOWER GARDENING faded blossoms, will give a second crop of bloom if snipped. Snip hollyhocks, foxgloves and an- nuals that self-sow freely, as their progeny is some- times as much of a nuisance as weeds. Let the blossoms and stems fall to the ground, between the plant, to serve as mulch and soil nourishment if this can be done without making an unsightly appearance. Remove flower stalks from June on, when bloom is entirely over, cut down plants whose foliage has turned brown and pull up by the roots bien- nials and annuals that have bloomed themselves to death. Leave hollyhocks and foxgloves if they show new crowns, as sometimes they send up small second stalks of bloom. Fill in the spaces thus created, and those left earlier by the dying down of the spring bulbs, with annuals from the coldframe or seed bed, or with potted plants. In some way all the garden gaps should be filled as summer progresses. Transplanting is safely done on the hottest of summer days, though cloudy ones would better be given the preference. Use plenty of water. Shade for a few days with pots, slats or cotton cloth stretched on pegs, if the plants look as if they would wither quickly. Toward evening is the best time for the work. Where a plant is very choice, or the roots are not strong, minimize the risk by filling the hole with water once or twice and letting it soak in. Set the plant in a little lower than usual and only partly fill up with soil. Then add a thin SUMMER DAYS 47 layer of wet lawn clippings, more soil and a light top dressing of the clippings. Mulching is a summer task much more honored in the breach than in the observance. It is always beneficial, and when there is a long period with lit- tle or no rain it is the alternative of tedious water- ing. Sometimes water is so scarce that mulching is the gardner’s only solution. Either dry soil or lawn clippings and other vege- table matter may be used as a mulch. The dry soil is simply the surface of the ground kept loose by frequent cultivation—a good thing in summer even when the season is normal. Lawn clippings are an excellent mulch, but they must be spread very lightly as otherwise they heat. Or a thin layer of wet clippings with a litle dry soil on top may be used. Tall weeds—if there are no ripe seeds on them—flower stalks and discarded bouquets make good mulch when run through a hay chopper. Then there is leaf mold, but that is rarely at hand. Spraying with the hose toward evening always freshens plants in summer. But real watering has to be done only when digging into the ground a little shows plainly that the soil is abnormally dry; do not wait to find this out by the appearance of the plants themselves. Watering having to be done, do it thoroughly rather than frequently. Set the hose where the spray will fall like so much rain, and leave it there until the ground is well soaked; then water the next tract. A still better way to fight drought is to dig a circular trench around 48 FLOWER GARDENING a plant, or a straight one between rows, fill this with water two or three times and then put the soil back in place. A day or two afterward cul- tivate to keep the soil from baking. Potted plants, even when sunk into borders to fill up the empty places, dry out quickly and may be crying for water when their neighbors are not. This is particularly true of Hydrangea hortensis, one of the hardest of garden drinkers. Use a watering pot with a long spout and no spray. Seed gathering goes on all through the summer and into the autumn. It is worth while when there is a good strain and when the flower is one of as- sociation. It is not worth while, in many cases, going to the trouble for the sake of mere economy, for seed is comparatively inexpensive. Poppy seed, for instance, is easily saved, but gathering and dry- ing China aster seed is bothersome and it means the sacrifice of several blossoms to concentrate strength in one. Some seed, like that of the fraxinella, must be gathered before the pods split; or it will be scat- tered far and wide. Upright receptacles, such as the columbine and iris have, may be left until they have split a bit. Generally the seed is dead ripe when the pod, or in the case of composite flowers the head, is brown. Cut off pods carefully, so as not to spill any of the seed, and place in a saucer to dry; if the seeds are of the shooting kind, cover the saucer to prevent their escape. Usually they will dry sufficiently in a day. Shake out any “Tt requires no profound knowledge of garden material to work out these beautiful forms of garden expression” SUMMER DAYS 49 seed remaining in the pods and throw the latter away. Then winnow the chaff by blowing gently with the breath across the saucer. Dry composite heads by hanging them up in a paper bag, out of the reach of mice, for a fortnight or more; then shake or pick out the seeds and get rid of the refuse. For carrying seeds through the winter, or for making up packets for friends, the little manila pay envelopes that open at one end will be found very serviceable. Seed that is as fine as dust must first be folded in tissue paper; otherwise it is likely to leak out of a corner of the envelope. Or, in- stead of the envelope, a small piece of white paper folded after the manner of a druggist’s powder wrapper will do. Label the packages with ink, and be sure to state the year as well as the kind of seed. It will be well to sow the new crop of perennial seed on the first of August or thereabouts. Bloom cannot be looked for in some cases the next year, unless the seedlings are given the benefit of a hot- bed later, but the plants will have a better start than if the seed is held over the winter. Sow in a coldframe or in the open in a seed-bed, which it is always well to have on the place for this purpose and for cuttings of perennials. Proceed as with the May sowing of seed, but shade with laths and be careful that the ground does not dry out. Transplant the seedlings in rows when large enough. They may then be removed to permanent 50 FLOWER GARDENING positions in autumn or wintered where they are. Cuttings are also planted in rows. They root readily in summer if kept well watered and shaded a bit at first. This is a good way to propagate grass pinks, Arabis albida and Torrey’s pentste- mon. Pull off sprigs that have half-hardened wood at the base; do not cut them off, because that makes it less easy for the callous that pre- cedes rooting to form. Some of the perennials, especially the creepers, will furnish cuttings that already are partly rooted. Summer work is most comfortably disposed of in the cool of the morning; leave only transplant- ing and watering for the other end of the day. If the work is properly spread over the period, the time spent will hardly be missed. CHAPTER VII THE GARDEN’S NEEDS IN AUTUMN Tue work of the garden year is materially less arduous when a proper proportion of it is spread through the autumn months. A good garden ax- iom is to leave nothing until spring that can be done in autumn. No matter how much is gotten out of the way, there need be no fear that one cannot find enough to do in spring. It will not kill peonies to move them in spring, but the best month is September. Oriental poppies and Lilium candidum are transplanted the month previous, as they make a new foliage growth in early autumn. The other lilies are generally moved in autumn, or a little before that if the foliage has died down; the spring bulbs in October. This is about all that there is to the necessity of autumn transplanting. The advisability of autumn transplanting is quite another matter. It applies with particular force to the making over of the hardy garden, which is done to advantage every few years. There is more time to do the work in autumn than in spring and if the planting includes bulbs, other than the rarities that bloom after September, everything 51 52 FLOWER GARDENING can be taken out. Though not necessary, this is always a good plan. In that event, lift out all the plants and lay them on old bagging or canvas spread on the ad- jacent path or grass plot. This saves cleaning up afterwards and, if the cloths are not too long, plants may be carried in them to another spot. Then spade the ground twelve to eighteen inches deep and work in some well-rotted manure, unless the planting is to be of lilies or larkspurs; these do not like to come in close contact with that kind of fertilizer. Leaf mold is always a good ad- dition and if the soil is heavy a little sand may be mixed in, too. If possible, have all the plants back in the ground by nightfall; if not, place them under cover to keep the frost away from the roots. Separate into parts any plants that are large enough. When the ground is tolerably moist no watering need be done, but it always helps a plant to re-establish itself quickly. The category of advisability also includes the transplanting of a considerable number of the per- ennials that bloom in early spring—more especially those of April. These can be moved in April, but the bloom is more satisfactory when the plants establish themselves before winter and thus have a chance to develop foliage and blossoms without any setback. The bleeding heart, all the primulas, Arabis albida, Phlox subulata, Alyssum saxatile and coltsfoot are some of the plants that it is Wise to transplant in autumn. AUTUMN NEEDS 53 Certain of the bienni:.’: notably foxgloves, Can- terbury bells, hollyhocks and Myosotis dissitiflora, it is well to transplant to the beds in which it is proposed to have them bloom the next year, if this has not been done already; likewise summer- sown pansies, violas and dianthus. Move into their permanent places any perennials grown from seed and likely to bloom another year. Where there is actual danger of winter-killing, very young biennials and perennials may be car- ried over in a coldframe and bedded out in April or May. This is also a good way to catch up, if planting has been late or growth slow; devel- opment then goes on through the autumn and is resumed early in the spring. Put only a few leaves in the frame; just enough to cover the plants lightly, as if the fall had been natural. Bank earth against the frame and when winter has set in lay a piece of rush matting or some cornstalks on top of the glass. If there are warm days, let in some air and light in the middle of the day when the sun is warmest. Planting in autumn has a slight distinction from transplanting, for in the case of purchased plants and bulbs the time is sometimes regulated by trade exigencies. Thus lilies, other than L. candidum, may be transplanted in September and October, but purchased bulbs, especially the imported ones, are slow getting to market. Lily bulbs from Japan are planted in November and even in early De- cember, the ground being kept from freezing by 54 FLOWER GARDENING a heavy cover of manure. A good bulb rule is to have crocuses and daffodils in the ground in early October and other bulbs by the end of the month if they arrive in time. Allow about two inches from the base of the bulb to the top of the ground for small bulbs and about five inches for the larger ones. If the lilies are stem-rooting kinds, allow six to seven inches. For planting crocuses, scillas and snowdrops in the lawn there is a special dibble; where that is lack- ing use a pointed stick to make the hole. Whether bulbs are planted in the garden or in the grass, press the soil firmly over them. A little sand under and around the bulb is a good thing for lilies, hyacinths, tulips and fritillaries. Both of the best known fritillaries, the crown imperial and the guinea-hen flower, have bulbs that are slightly hollowed on top. In order that too much moisture may not settle in the hollow, it is customary to plant them tilted a little. In general, autumn planting of perennials that either have to be purchased or are acquired by gift is the better way out when the plants bloom as early as April. In the matter of purchases espe- cially, the result is much more satisfactory in cer- tain instances. Thus most of the primulas in the trade are grown in pots from seed and, being kept in coldframes, are likely to arrive with the bloom almost or quite gone; by autumn planting a year would have been gained. So with leopard’s bane, aubrietia and trollius. aénpaid ayt fo yno ‘ajinb 40 ‘fpabany Gursq sLapiog 4anoy ayy ‘stapsog Aaagqnays fq djuo pons dav unvy Pun osnoy ays 2494 ff, cata AUTUMN NEEDS 55 Again some roots, like bleeding heart, are dug up in autumn and stored as the only means of early spring delivery. Better winter them in your gar- den than to buy them in spring, possibly sprouting and consequently weakened. Of later-blooming flowers it is well to plant all of the irises excepting the bulbous ones in Sep- tember, as spring will then find them well estab- lished instead of trying to readjust themselves the while they are gathering strength to bloom. Bul- bous irises are planted in October. It is well also to plant Phlox paniculata in September, or Octo- ber. The reason is the same; though less urgent, as the blooming period is later. Frost begins to be a serious problem some time in September. Very often one or two frosts come quite early and then there will be no more, per- haps, until October. For this reason it is deplor- able that the first frosts are allowed to blight the garden. Most of the hardy plants will stand frost after frost. The Japanese anemone is an excep- tion; this needs to be covered on frosty nights, otherwise its beautiful bloom is likely to be lost. When hardy chrysanthemums are neither close to the house nor where there are tree branches over- head, the large-flowered kinds would better be protected; they endure cold but the frost gets in the mass of petals and, melting, streaks the blos- soms with brown. Some of the annuals and all of the tender bed- ding plants are the ones to look after chiefly; and 56 FLOWER GARDENING these really repay wonderfully the little care that it takes to prolong their blooming season. Pansies and sweet alyssum will stand the frost; the calen- dula and scabiosa a great deal of it. Look out for cosmos, dahlias and geraniums in particular. White cotton cloth laid over plants is the handi- est protection. Frost comes when the wind has gone, and the cloth is just heavy enough to stay in place by its own weight. If it presses too heavily anywhere, put a stake underneath. News- Papers are quite as good. Weight the corners with small stones if the plants are very low; tall plants may be wrapped loosely and the top of the paper brought together with pins. Uncovered plants that look dangerously frosted may often be kept from being blackened by sprinkling them with cold water the next morning, before the sun has a chance to shine on them. Another way, and a very pleasant one, to get the better of Jack Frost is to take up some of the plants while they are in bloom, or just before. Cosmos, and hardy chrysanthemums lend them- selves to this purpose especially well. Dig the plants up with a good ball of earth and put in pots or tubs. The plants will be very decorative in- doors, on the porch or set in the shrubbery or hardy border and placed under cover at night. Both plants have a long period of bloom. Cosmos plants may also be placed in a shed or barn, or the potting room of a greenhouse, and the blos- soms used simply for cutting. AUTUMN NEEDS 57 Take up in October, or before the ground freezes, such bulbs and tubers as would perish if left outdoors all winter. These include the dahlia, canna, gladiolus, Galtonia candicans and Madeira vine. It is a good plan to let them dry for a few days under cover. This gives the tops a chance to die down before they are cut off, while the clinging soil falls away readily. Then place the tubers and bulbs in a dry, dark cellar where they will be kept from freezing and yet not be warm enough to start premature growth. Cannas and dahlias may be set on a board, raised a little from the floor, and partially covered with the dry earth that has fallen away from them. Very choice varieties of these plants and all smaller tubers and bulbs would better be laid in a wooden box and covered with dry sand. The sand treatment may also be used for wintering a few of the tender herbaceous peren- nials like the red-hot poker plant (Tritoma). Very often it is worth while saving some of the olants that were bedded out in the spring and have made a sturdy growth—these for future display purposes. The lemon verbena and lantana, per- haps, have developed into big shrubby plants and there are geraniums, both “fish” and fragrant, that have seen one winter in the house but are now grown beyond indoor convenience. Put all of these in large pots or wooden boxes, crowding the plants fairly close together. Keep them where they can dry off, by the gradual withholding of water, but where they will not freeze, until November and 58 FLOWER GARDENING then move them to a cool cellar for the winter. If the cellar is dark give a little water two or three times in the course of the winter; if it is light, and quite warm, the plants may be kept near a window and given more water—in which event there will be less dying down. Plants that know no garden life save within the confines of pots or tubs, including Hydrangea hor- tensis, “marriage bell’? (brugmansia), oleander, agapanthus and amaryllis, require the same treat- ment as to autumn drying off and wintering. When repotting is necessary, this is done in the spring. There is also a dry system of storing plants. All the earth is shaken from the roots and the plant is suspended, head down, from the ceiling of a dark, cool cellar. This is the old-fashioned way of treating geraniums after serving a winter as window plants and it is sometimes recommended for the lemon verbena. More often than not, autumn’s weed troubles are passed on to spring. This is a mistake. The garden, on principle, ought to be put away for the winter clean. But there is another reason; weeds and grass that were so small in summer as to escape the eye may now be maturing seed and doing their level best to make mischief for an- other year. Root them up early. Some of these pests flourish bravely through the autumn, and the sooner they are checked the better. One of the worst offenders is chickweed. A late crop seems to spring from nowhere in August and, if AUTUMN NEEDS 59 not rooted up, covers the ground in short order. Pull up all stakes and temporary trellises just as soon as the need of them is over. Unless they are in too bad order for further use, shake off the dirt and put them away for the winter under cover. The last thing to do in the garden before winter is to give the plants any needed protection. But this does not mean that the task is to be begun at the eleventh hour. Go about it gradually as nature does. Manure, straw, hay, cornstalks or any coarse litter—four to six inches deep—may be placed over plants that have disappeared en- tirely from view, provided that this is done after the ground freezes and the covering is all or par- tially removed when spring growth is discernible beneath it. The usual reliance, and there is noth- ing better, is leaves and the stalks of plants. Gather the leaves after each heavy fall—lest many of them blow where they will be lost to you, and also to make the burden lighter. So far as can be done conveniently, rake the leaves toward the plants, using a leaf rake, and then toss them lightly over the plants with the implement. Other- wise carry the leaves in a basket or wheelbarrow to the spot and toss them by hand. In either case they will fall naturally—most of them settling sooner or later between the plants, where the next rain will pack them a bit. Continue this process three or four times until all the available leaves are used. A good com- 60 FLOWER GARDENING bination is maple leaves, which fall early and soon curl up, and the apple and pear leaves, which drop to the ground late and keep firm all winter. Or, for shrubs, vines, roses and any large plants, the leaves may be left by the side of them in a pile or windrow and spread over the ground thickly after it has frozen. With perennials the point to be borne in mind is that the majority of them endure the cold well enough; many of them, if left quite unprotected artificially, provided the cold is continuous. What they really need is to have the ground so covered that the danger of alternate thawing and freezing is minimized. So make sure, first of all, that the plants which remain above ground have protec- tion around them—especially those that have dis- tinct crowns; creeping plants protect themselves in a measure. Put only a thin scattering of leaves on the crowns of plants with soft foliage that is more or less evergreen; manure will rot foxgloves, Canterbury bells, primulas and hollyhocks. Very light stalks may then be laid on to keep the leaves from blow- ing away. When such plants seem to need greater protection use more leaves and then with slats, rest- ing on something just high enough to be clear of the plants, and cornstalks, or weighted straw, make a roof over them, closing it in on the north side. This roof prevents the snow from bearing down too heavily, and allows air circulation. The weight of the snow itself would not harm AUTUMN NEEDS 61 the plants, as it falls flake by flake and settles evenly. Snow is the winter blanket par excellence, if only it would stay put—which it will not do nowadays. Where there are many leaves on plants with soft foliage, however, the snow presses the dead and living so close together that there is rot- ting, which every thaw aggravates. As the final operation, cut down all herbaceous stalks and lay them between the plants and over such as will bear the weight. These stalks are a little added protection and they serve to hold down the leaves. Cut the stalks with pruning shears quite close to the ground and be sure that the peonies and hardy chrysanthemums have some of their own; they are entitled to them. Light brush and small evergreen branches may also be used. With every stalk laid low, the beds and borders will have the neat appearance that is highly desi- rable even if it is not necessary. Burn up in autumn any litter not suitable for either garden protection or the compost heap. There is always more or less lying around and there is no time like the preseni to rake it up and reduce it to ashes—which, after a bonfire, ought to be spread over tilled ground or shoveled up and placed around roses and shrubs. Do not burn any fallen leaves; if there are too many for the garden, use a portion of them for the compost heap and put the remainder, sprinkling with water each load when dumped, in a trench to form leaf mold for another year. 62 FLOWER GARDENING Coarse manure, laid around shrubs, roses and vines after the ground has frozen and worked into the soil in spring, is an excellent means of autumn fertilizing. For smaller plants use well rotted manure thoroughly mixed with a little soil, and put it on the ground before the leaves are spread. Tobacco stems, which are rich in potash, are a good autumn fertilizer for roses, peonies and other strong plants that have bare ground around them. CHAPTER VIII BORDERS FOR A SMALL PLACE FLOWER beds, that exhaust the possibilities of geometrical design and then wander off into all manner of devious paths, are well enough in their place. They are necessary, within decent bounds, to the rigid formality of the partere. And there is a theory, which may or may not be tenable, on the part of park superintendents that such plantings, even when turned into living signs and like freaks, are one of a municipality’s horticultural duties to the public. Unless there is a parterre grouping, the home is better off without flower beds in the accepted sense. Stuck—there is no other word that fits—in the lawn they are always out of place and very fre- quently are nothing short of atrocious. Then, in their set gaudiness, they remind one of what Bacon said of lawn designs of colored earth: ‘You may see as good Sights, many times, in Tarts.” Flowers for the edge of the lawn, but the stretch of sward itself unbroken save by suitable planting of trees or shrubbery, or both, is a good rule that does not have to be qualified other than to admit 63 64 FLOWER GARDENING the inevitable exceptions that make the rule. There are instances, as in Hyde Park, London, of beds in the simplest geometrical forms being placed in the lawn near the edge of it with an effect really beautiful and not out of keeping with the general scheme; but all this is on a large scale. Again, islands of shrubbery, that are virtually converted into flower beds by a liberal planting of perennials or bedding plants, are to be seen. For the small home grounds, above all, the bor- der, or series of borders, is infinitely to be preferred in any but very exceptional circumstances. Borders adjust themselves to every line of a place, no matter with what irregularity it is marked; beds rarely do. Then, too, borders are very much easier in the making, while in the upkeep the labor does not begin to be so much as with a bed that offers any- thing more serious than a right angle. The thought of laboriously cutting a crescent in the lawn, and then planting it, trimming it again and again and keeping the grass edge just right, that always there may be exact symmetry, is enough to drive such an idea out of one’s head. A border is technically a narrow flower bed— that is to say, one that is narrow in proportion to its width. Less precisely, but within proper usage, it is any bordering bed. Though usually much elongated, it would not be out of place to call a large square bed a border if it had a path on one or two sides of it. The simplest and commonest “Then there is the border that defines one or two edges of the lawn on the sides that are not adja- cent to the house or street” BORDERS 65 form is a long strip of even width, straight or curved, with either square or rounded corners. Very frequently the border is a triangle, generally obtuse-angled. Then there are various forms with all the edges irregular and others where one side is broken very much as a coast line is. The more closely the border sticks to straight lines, the less work in the beginning and from that time on. The guiding idea, however, should be fit- ness; what is best for one place may be worst for another. Asa rule the line of border along a path, road or boundary has at least the nearer line paral- lel to the latter; this is not necessarily automatic, as often there is the permissible very narrow strip of turf between. But the border may be parallel only a certain distance and then veer off at an angle at a point where a break in the lawn gives it an ex- cuse for so doing, or where it is desirable to create a low screen. Irregular borders would better have their edges broken by graceful curves when they come close to a path; they look better and the bit of intervening turf is more easily cared for. As to care, the same is true of shrubbery islands in a lawn scheme. If a border is to be cut up into capes and bays let it be a long one on the farther side of a lawn, where not so much the irregular edge as the admirable effect produced by it comes into the picture. Width and length are governed by circum- stances; some borders are from twelve to twenty feet wide and others are hundreds of feet long. 66 FLOWER GARDENING One of the most frequent errors is to make them too narrow—two feet or so in width. This does not seem narrow when the ground is prepared; but it is. Aside from the impossibility of obtaining scarcely more than a ribbon effect, there is scant room for the spread of the plants—which must be kept clear of the grass or walk, though some may hang over the latter if there is room enough. Four feet will be found a convenient minimum where there is access to the border from only a single side. This for small plants, either in rows or massed in sections of broad and drift forms. Many of the large plants, as well as dwarf shrubs, can be massed in clumps } in a four-foot border; or they can be placed in three rows if the plants in the center one are set opposite the space in the other two. Borders on a small place, as may be observed by a study of cottage gardens, are exceedingly attrac- tive when run along the foundation wall of the house, or the edge of the piazza. If the border turns a corner it will be all the more satisfying to the eye. Choose the south and east walls wherever possible, for the sun. If the shade is there, or only the west or north wall is available, you can always get around the difficulty by using shade-loving plants. Borders such as these need not come down to, or even near, a path if the latter is some distance from the wall. Lay out the border with reference to the line of the wall and let the outer edge of it be parallel or not, as circumstances warrant. BORDERS 67 A border, preferably a double one along the path leading up to the entrance to the house, is another good leaf from the book of cottage gardens. This may be of equal width the entire distance, or agree- ably varied by a distinct broadening at one or both ends—at the house end only if it does not extend to the gate, or sidewalk line. Again it may be va- ried by being made L—shaped on one or both sides, the arm being an extension along the house wall; widen the elbow a little to reduce the angularity at that point. Or the front yard scheme may be extended to two rectangular borders, the remaining boundaries being as near the side limits of the home plot as seems practicable. Leave a break in the border near the house for entrance from the path. Where space is abundant and more flowers are desired, make the border a double one all around, or part way, by a continuance of the path within the grounds. Inside the rectangles have only lawn, with shrubs or small trees if there is room. A border along the driveway is sometimes quite enough for a small place. One that comes to mind for its fitness uses up the entire space between the road and the boundary line. It is six feet wide until the road takes a turn inward; then it broadens and ends with a rounded effect. Another, that has the drawback of a brief season of bloom, is simply a four-foot strip of German irises that follows the several curves of a driveway its entire length. Then there is the border that defines one or two 68 FLOWER GARDENING edges of the lawn on the sides that are not adjacent to the house or street. This is one of the best kinds of borders, since it is not only very beautiful as a nearer background but may be made to serve the purpose of a screen. If the flowers are largely here, and the borders by the house and front path are given over to shrubs, the foliage of which is of rather more importance than the blossoms, there is an advantage not so commonly apparent as might be. For, with all the cottage garden charm of a house framed by flowers, or a front yard well nigh filled with them, something is lost when the borders are open to the full gaze of every passerby. The cot- tagers do not mind; for generations they have had no privacy and, ignorant even of what it means to the more sensitive, are happy in brief intervals of morning and evening garden intimacy that their long hours permit. While the cottager has no other choice, it is a small place indeed that does not allow a second. This is the relegation of at least some of the bor- ders to the rear of the house, or where they will provide a walk with a semblance of seclusion—if not the thing itself. To what lengths the relegation is to be carried is a matter for every individual to decide for himself, but that the extreme need not be too far in certain circumstances is clearly enough demonstrated by small places where the house and lawn are framed only by shrubbery borders, the flower borders being largely, or quite, out of the BORDERS 69 picture as seen from the street. Not that blossoms are absent; some of the shrubs bloom and there is an interspersing of perennials and bulbs. The main note, however, is shrubbery—which is given a winter value by the employment of some evergreen shrubs and others with berries or gaily-colored twigs. Run a border down from the back door—even when that happens to be the kitchen entrance. Make a path if none exists and extend the border to a flower garden, consisting of more borders or a parterre; or to the kitchen garden, the barn or the poultry yard. The walk thither will be the more pleasant for the border, in each case. Or run a border from the rear of the house down to the end of the lawn; then straight through the plowed ground to the farther edge of the plot, to divide the fruit garden from the vegetable garden, or all around a rectangle of vegetables—excluding corn and lima beans, unless the space is large. If there is no plowed ground the rectangle may be a grass plot for tennis—or merely for drying clothes of a Monday. These back yard borders are all along the lines of least resistance—straight propositions. None of them offers any particular difficulty; in fact there is no easier kind of flower gardening. They may be long or short, wide or narrow, straight or curved, double or single; you consider yourself and your convenience here, not the judgment of the passerby. 70 FLOWER GARDENING Make a border that leads somewhere, a double one whenever you can do so. In the case of a very wide rectangular border that ends at a boundary line, arrive at a similar result by running a path nearly through it lengthwise. The peculiar ad- vantages of the double border are the creation of delightful vistas and the greater enjoyment of a stroll where attention is not confined to one side. A narrow strip of turf between a border and a path always has a refreshing look, but in the con- sideration of this it must be remembered that the care of it is no small item, looking through the year. The strip is not easy to mow and there are the edges to be cut, as well as the grass ends to be trimmed from time to time. Altogether it will be far less trouble to let the border come down to the walk. Even when the walk is of dirt, gravel, ground stone or ashes, it does not take much time to keep the line comparatively straight. Borders are best managed when they are a mat- ter of gradual growth. A good way is to begin at the house and make only one, or a section of it if it is to be very long, the first year. Add the other as time goes by. Then when the borders have to be made over, assuming that they are hardy, all the work will not come in one year. Again, delay allows time for the accumulation of experience in border-making and the propagation of stock that, perhaps, is beyond one’s mean to buy in quantity. Nothing is lost and a great deal is gained by going slowly. _ SIPUDISUNIALI pouotdaaxa yng duv ut passat -aagd aq 04 Ajaqiuyul st ‘ssapsog {0 Satdas 40 “49p40g YF ‘ypunosh aWloy ]]DWS 947 40,7, BORDERS 71 Aside from shrubs, which are in a class by them- selves, perennials are the best for borders—for the simple reason that they do not have to be planted every year. Also they have a longer range of bloom that gives them an advantage over other herbaceous plants; and there is the widest variation of height, which is no small thing in the planning of effective borders. Very beautiful borders, how- ever, are made of biennials or annuals alone—or of various bedding plants, including not only the ordinary ones that are left to die in autumn but large and choice specimens of greenhouse plants that are kept under glass in winter. There is no rule save the very primitive one of doing as you please. "What is known as a hardy border is not neces- sarily one composed of herbaceous perennials ex- clusively. These may or may not be all; perhaps there are a few shrubs and more often than not there are annuals, biennials and bedding plants scattered through. But the very pillars are herbaceous perennials. No matter what class of plants is employed, it is a good plan never to use less than two kinds, these to be at their best at different times unless the pe- riod is a very protracted one. German iris backed by Michaelmas daisies is an example. Or, in an- nuals, Shirley poppies may be followed by China asters, letting an edging of sweet alyssum, which will outlive both, be regarded as the second flower. So few as three perennials will answer very well 72 FLOWER GARDENING indeed if they all have good foliage. “Thus the Arabis albida, German iris and hardy chrysan- themum would give three separate periods of bloom and a continuous gray foliage effect in ad- dition. But the greater joy is in using a larger number of perennials to provide a long succession of dominant bloom, any other plants being fillers and therefore secondary. CHapTer IX ACCUMULATING A GARDEN THOSE whose wealth is a perpetual Aladdin’s lamp have but to command a garden and it appears. Infancy and childhood are annihilated in its crea- tion; like Aphrodite—goddess of gardens—rising from the sea, it is born mature. That is a legitimate enough game for princes and potentates, whether royal, financial or industrial, and it is a custom honored by at least a few thou- sand years of observance. But, on the whole, it is just as well that not more are in a position to in- dulge in the game, or have hopes of ever being able to do so. For the truth is that a garden is a great deal like a library; you get infinitely more enjoy- ment out of it when you accumulate it than when you acquire it outright. All of the gardens that mean most to their owners, the real home gardens, may be said to have been gathered together—just as a collection of books is. There is a small beginning, perhaps a very modest one indeed; the years add more plants and for them more places are made. With the years, too, comes the inevitable discarding of what- 73 14 FLOWER GARDENING ever has lost its usefulness or, it is discovered, never did have any to speak of. This is not the spirit that goes in for numerical satisfaction; numbers, and size, too, are of second- ary importance. It is the spirit that, little by little, room by room, equips a house with mellow old furniture having the air not so much of a collec- tion as of being an inseparable part of the home. How a garden may be accumulated can be no better illustrated than by telling just how one has thus been brought together. There came a day to an old place in the country when the last vestige of its golden garden age had disappeared. Not a link, unless it was the purple lilac on the west side of the house, bound the garden past with the pres- ent. Nor was there enough of the present to boast of—a narrow bed of spring bulbs on the east side of the house and on the western edge of the lawn a short row of “golden glow”; that was all that was worth mentioning. More flowers were needed; at least as many as in days long gone by, the waning glory of which was well remembered. ‘This was obvious one spring when winter scarcely had departed. Then came the thought: This is an old-fashioned house; why not an old-fashioned garden? Very likely an impatient soul would have endeavored to make an old-fashioned garden all at once, had he not been a creature of circumstances; forced to do what he could, not what he wanted to. The which was a blessing, for circumstance taught ACCUMULATING A GARDEN 75 him a garden joy that otherwise he might be ignor- ant of even now. The moment desire was known, neighbors of- fered of their garden treasures. So a start was made by going after these offerings in April. In- cluding some shrubs, they were numerous enough to fill up the extended bulb bed and a new triangu- lar, half-shaded border that had been dug where two paths met on the other side of the house. There was even enough, with gifts that followed in May, to fill a dozen or more short rows in an improvised border in the rear of the house; every- thing separable was divided, some plants making three or four. This bed, unconsciously rather than by intent, became a nursery. Later, seed of a dozen kinds of perennials and biennials, one packet of each, was purchased. This was sown, in shallow boxes, on the very first day of August—strictly according to rule. There was a good stand, which was thinned out where too abundant, and in due time a great number of seed- lings was transplanted, in a cleared end of the vegetable patch—the more delicate ones in a home- made coldframe and the remainder in rows by the side of it. When the time came for covering them up for the winter there was a lot of lusty plants, though smaller than the one most interested had hoped to have at that particular stage of the pro- ceedings. The end of the first season did not see much of a garden, to be sure; any one might protest with 76 FLOWER GARDENING reason that it was no garden at all. Yet it was very much of a garden to a dreamer of dreams, who naturally was not always over-careful to draw a distinct line between the substantial and the insubstantial. Treasures, not a few of them choicer from asso- ciation, had been brought together. If the idea was still lingering on the border of vagueness, there was a plain enough nucleus; and one the sounder because it was largely permanent. While the foundation was not laid, the first of the stones were on the spot. But that did not begin to be all of the initial season’s showing; else this. tale would be less interesting, as well as shorter. There was the experience, that had been accumulating the while the garden grew from nothing into the hope, if not the present semblance, of something. The dreamer had known flowers from childhood—had pottered with them indoors and outdoors; but for the first time in his life he had been handling hardy plants, other than a few bulbs. Already there was a feeling of conquest. The hardy garden had been sensed and a glittering of practical knowledge of its spring work, its summer work and its autumn work was indelibly impressed on the mind. Perennial and biennial were now fixed terms. Out of indefiniteness were beginning to come ideas as to succession of bloom in the garden, the use of blossoms and foliage in the way that the painter employs the pigments on his palette ACCUMULATING A GARDEN 77 and much else that concerns the pictorjal side of gardening. And of many other things learned, or then well along in the learning, not the smallest was contentment with a modest beginning and with making haste slowly. The second year unlearning began; as with gath- ering libraries, that is always incidental to the early stages of making a garden. One thing un- learned was the sowing of the seed of biennials and perennials on the first day of August—a rule again and again drummed into the ear of, the would-be flower gardener. Only a few of the perennials bloomed and of the biennials not a Canterbury bell or a hollyhock and no more than one foxglove; the Iceland poppies alone were up to scratch. From that time on some one has planted biennial and perennial seed under glass in early May, if he counted upon getting bloom the following year. To return to spring from this summer digres- sion, the second April saw a long, and really se- rious, border under way. It was L-shaped and ran back from the street along the east side of the east lawn and then turned to border the south side—thus giving this part of the yard a back- ground. Hybrid perpetual roses were planted nearly up to the turn, where a break was made with some larger Madame Plantier bushes; thence the border was continued as a hardy herbaceous one. What with the little nursery, the numerous seedlings and more generosity on the part of neigh- 78 FLOWER GARDENING bors, there was enough to give the new border a fair showing and also to turn the nursery into another border. Only a few plants besides the roses had to be purchased; but in the autumn bulb- buying for the new borders began, the planting being in little colonies. So the garden grew. The third spring an- other border—in the rear of the west lawn, to define it. It was a big one, almost as wide as it was long—with a path nearly all the way down the middle; but it was not so big that there were not plants enough to give it a good start in life. Some purchases—they could now be made with wisdom—more gifts, another crop of seedlings and the natural increase obtained by separation, all helped. And as the garden grew, experience grew. The fourth year brought a narrow herbaceous border paralleling the rose border and a very wide one behind the original herbaceous border, while the one that was first the nursery was extended to the other side of the path leading up to the rear door of the house and also along the east edge of it. A new nursery was started at one end of the kitchen garden. Now stock was increasing so rapidly that a great many plants were given away, more going out than coming in. Of those that came in, there was beginning to be a sprinkling of plants of association—picked up on travels and sent, or brought, home. And always accumula- tion of experience, ACCUMULATING A GARDEN 79 One more east border, the longest of all, an- other year; the addition of some small ones, mak- ing sixteen altogether, and experience piled upon experience—that is the rest of the story. Maybe it is not yet a garden that has been accumulated, but it illustrates a principle even if it is no more es an aggregation of loosely related hardy bor- ers. The cost? Nota great deal more than the labor of two hands in leisure hours. The small expense for purchased plants and seed was scarcely missed because of its distribution through the years, while the amount of money paid out for hired help was so slight as to be practically negligible. As the garden stands today, it would take hundreds of dollars to duplicate the plants, let alone the ex- pense of planning and planting if these were done by a professional. And the pleasure of it. In all of flower garden- ing there is nothing more charming than this gath- ering with the years and learning with the years. You never get to the end, of course. But who wants to? A garden is not made to be finished within the span of any one human life—unless, perchance, it is the decree of wealth that it shall be. It is something of cumulative growth—some- thing that expands with its age and the age of the one whose hand has shaped and reshaped it and who always secretly hopes that when he is gone there shall be no cessation of expansion, CHAPTER X WHY A HARDY GARDEN IS BEST TIME was when most American flower gardens were hardy. That was still the rule in grand- mother’s day—the grandmother, say, of those who now are getting toward middle life. Grandmother knew the intrinsic value of per- manence in the garden; she loved plants that stayed by her, that endured with her the rigors of the winter and woke up smiling in the spring. And she knew full well that, with all else that she had to do from the rising of the sun until long past the going down thereof, such plants must be her main reliance because they represented the minimum of labor. Came mother. She was rather inclined to stick up her nose at grandmother’s garden. Like some of the fine old furniture, it was not quite good enough for the new day and generation. So many a beautiful garden that had been treasured for years by some one now gone to her last account perished from lack of care, and lack of thought, by a more or less slow process of petering out. They died hard, not a few of them; here and 80 _Suapsb fo 48aq ayy $1 yl asnvjaq ulvbd uno SJl OJUI 90) Soy Uapavb pany a4 T,,, THE HARDY GARDEN 81 there in New England villages root-bound daffo- dils, tulips, grape hyacinths and “johnny-go-to- beds” are still struggling through the grass to show where once was such a garden. Mother took a fancy to red cannas, redder gera- niums, and reddest salvia, for their gay color, and she had a notion that “foliage plants’—meaning coleus—and ‘‘elephants’ ears” were as necessary to the family position as black walnut furniture and body brussels carpets. These plants kept up a brave show all summer, the while they gave a tropical air to dooryards that was not altogether becoming, to say the least. Happily the third generation came to its senses. Today the tide is turning back and with a force such as to leave no doubt that the hardy garden is here to stay definitely. Old-fashioned flowers of permanence are being restored to places that knew them in the long ago and are basic figures in the establishment of numberless new ones. The hardy garden has come into its own again because it is the best of gardens. It is best by reason of the very permanence that links it with the home, year in and year out, so closely that the child born within sound of it will remember it with infinite pleasure the rest of his life—even though time and circumstance eventually remove him far hence. There is another reason, and a potent one. It is nature’s way. She uses an abundance of an- nuals, that there may be no bare spots, and bi- 82 FLOWER GARDENING ennials; but trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials and bulbs are the strength of her gardens. Hers are hardy gardens. They are by far the most beautiful, the hardy gardens. Not that supremely beautiful gardens that are only of a summer’s life may not be made, but the beauty is of a less satisfying kind. Ob- served once it enchants, for the lavish display of color cannot fail to impress; but when the July vision is like unto that of June, and August sees little or no change, the beauty is of the palling kind. Fancy living with a garden made up of such beds as are to be seen at Hampton Court in summer, for example—glorious as these master- pieces are for an ever-shifting public. The beauty of the hardy garden owes much of its charm to the fact that it does not endure, save as a varied pageant. May’s splendor is its own, and so with the other months. There is al- ways beauty from April to November—often in winter as well; but so frequently does it change that at all seasons today’s beauty scarcely can be called tomorrow’s beauty. As in nature, picture follows picture. Plants almost incredibly numerous and varied make this possible. Grandmother had relatively few to draw from; but now the world has been ransacked and the array is nothing short of be- wildering. No matter what it is, any effect can be planned and carried out—and with the feeling that it will become the better with age. THE HARDY GARDEN 83 Another point in favor of the hardy garden. There you see plants reach their full development, as nature intended them to be. From the first snowdrop to the last chrysanthemum, every plant pursues its natural course of life; you may ob- serve it mature and immature. On the other hand, bedding plants, such as the geranium, heliotrope and lantana, come into the garden in their youth and are cut down by the frost before the end of it. They are bedding plants at best. When one thinks of the geranium in subtropical California, the helio- trope in the Alameda of Gibraltar and the lantana~- running wild in Bermuda, all in the greater glory that nature meant to give them, their incomplete- ness in our northern gardens seems really very pitiful. Then there is the question of appropriateness, speaking more particularly of temperate climates. Hardy plants are natives of temperate zones, other- wise they would not be hardy. There is accord- ingly a certain fitness in their use. They seem to fall in with any landscape scheme and look as if they belonged there. A lily from Japan or a bleeding heart from China has the appearance of being at home in a Massachusetts garden, whereas Cuban palms or Arizona cacti, bedded out for the summer in pots, do not. This, of course, is going to extremes to institute a comparison. The idea is the fitness of hardy plants for the general note of home gardens of temperate zones. Seldom is a hardy garden literally, that is to 84 FLOWER GARDENING say exclusively, hardy. Nor is there a valid reason why it should be—any more than there would be for the prohibition of flowers from a zoological garden. As a matter of fact, some of the finest hardy gardens have liberal plantings of annuals. To such a purpose most annuals lend themselves admirably, especially when planted in a naturalis- tic manner to double-crop the patches of ground given over to spring bulbs. That so many of them are natives of tropical or subtropical countries is no argument against them. Few appear out of place in a northern garden in which they are the secondary note. Perhaps they ought to, but they just do not. The long season of the hardy garden is always a revelation to those who, by the use of only tender bedding plants, have been accustomed to think of the flower garden as having its annual beginning late in May and its end in September. If the proper thought be given to planting, the hardy garden, which is little affected by cold in either spring or autumn, will have no less than seven months—April to October inclusive—that are really good ones. There are forty or fifty reliable kinds of flowers that will bloom in April, and, if October has fewer at her command, the numerical deficiency is more than counterbalanced by the showier display. But a hardy garden ought to give some enjoy- ment to the eye the year round, and will, even above a heavy winter blanket of snow, if only a : _Suspsvb Spavy ayy nfignvag qsow ayy wf fq aiv say T,, Neo a si = aie ee THE HARDY GARDEN 85 few of the advantages that evergreen shrubs and those with attractive twigs and‘ berries offer are taken advantage of. There are winter days when, if the garden is not an altogether comfortable place to walk in, it may be a pleasant sight from the window. A mistaken idea of the hardy garden is that it is the most expensive. This is true only of the initial expense, and not always then. If everything has to be purchased at the outset, the creation of a large hardy garden does mean considerable expense; but even then, the investment being a permanent one, the cost at the end of a decade or so may be less than the total amount that would have been laid out for the perishable material of ten consecutive summers. There is the economy in labor also to think of. A well-made hardy garden can go for many years without complete replanting at any one time; some have gone a generation or more and shown no material deterioration. The changes, in other words, may be made by piecemeal and, if need be, at any convenient time, whereas if the foundation is not hardiness everything has to be done over each year. It is labor saved in the end to spade the beds or borders fifteen or eighteen inches deep and work in a fair quantity of well-rotted manure. If the soil is really poor, take it out to at least the depth of three feet and fill up with entirely new and good soil. What with frequentstivxing.ofsthe-goil 86 FLOWER GARDENING and an annual top dressing of fine manure between the plants, the garden can be kept in good shape indefinitely. Sheep manure, which may be used sparingly for roses, is excellent for surface appli- cation and bone meal is worked into the soil with fine results. One of the best of commercial fer- tilizers for perennials is a mixture of bone, blood and potash; a peony will thank you for a handful of it in the spring. No hardy garden is made in a day, always ex- cepting the comparatively few products of carte blanche orders. Even when all laid out at once, the plantings call for a considerable amount of reshaping. Then again, some of the finest peren- nials refuse to be at their best for two or three years unless there is the unusual and extravagant expedient of making use of large clumps—which soon will have to be taken up and divided, as they are virtually ready for that when set out. The sensible plan is to make the hardy garden a vision of three or four years hence and com- promise with the springs, summers and autumns that come before. The plan in detail is this: Plant shrubs, roses, peonies and fraxinella far enough apart to allow for the maximum expan- sion. It is just as well, though less imperative, to follow the same rule with funkias, bleeding heart and Lythrum superbum. In the spaces between the plants grow little colonies of spring bulbs, to be followed by transplanted annuals, until the time comes when they are not needed; the bulbs can THE HARDY GARDEN 87 remain for years with the peonies, as a great deal of ground is required for the spread of the latter’s foliage. In regard to other perennials, fill at first only one-third or one-half of the space laid out for a colony, setting the plants thickly enough together to cause one summer’s estimated growth to seem at a little distance nearly to conceal the ground. Fill the remainder of the space with a good and appropriate annual, massed; let one or two of the plants wander over into the perennial colony, that the effect may appear less studied. As the perennial colony becomes crowded remove some of the plants and with them continue the filling of the space. Another way, but not quite so good, is to plant the perennials wide enough apart to al- low for a few years’ expansion and then fill in the spaces with annuals. CHAPTER XI THE SPECIAL VALUE OF PERENNIALS ALL other plants might disappear and the peren- nials would give the garden supreme loveliness— expressed in hundreds upon hundreds of individual forms. No one knows how many kinds are in cul- tivation; if any calculation were made it would be good for only a day, so rapidly are species emerging from the realm of botany to the garden and new varieties appearing on the scene. A glance at a British list of iris, primula or campanula species alone is enough to stagger one. The special value of perennials, however, lies not more in the marvelous variety of form and color that incalculable numerousness affords than in the distribution of their blooming season through the greater part of the year. Excluding all of the bulbs, which it is the trade custom to catalogue under a separate head, the herbaceous perennials have a range of bloom that has not begun to be realized by amateurs—as the meagre representa- tion in the average garden, in both spring and autumn, demonstrates clearly enough. Without any coddling at all, they can be made to furnish 88 PERENNIALS 89 an uninterrupted stretch of bloom for approxi- mately nine months of the year; a thin showing at both ends, it is true, but neither quantity nor variety is everything in the flower garden. With coddling, it is possible to extend this stretch through December, January and February and thus make a complete circle of the year. Perennials as a class bloom only once a year. Most adhere to this rule with absolute rigidity; the exceptions usually are early spring flowers that a mild autumn causes to bloom sparsely a few months ahead of time or summer flowers that have a second spurt, often because the first crop of seed has not been allowed to mature. Nor is the average period of perfection of bloom long; sometimes it is lamentably brief and rarely is a perennial so prodigal as the plumy bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa), which has blossoms from spring to autumn. The actual time of bloom is fixed only so far as habitat—the place where the plant is native— is concerned. Even then the season, especially an early or late spring, will shift normality a little one way or the other. In gardens a similar in- exactitude of time, but more of it, is to be noted. Comparatively few perennials are cultivated in re- gions where they grow naturally. Not infrequent- ly there is a marked change of altitude; thus a primula native to the mountainous heights of Switz- erland will bloom earlier in a New York garden, because in the latter the snow disappears earlier. 90 FLOWER GARDENING Again climate differences are such that garden nor- mality is by no means the same everywhere in spring and early summer; the German iris is likely to be in full bloom in northern Virginia the last week in April while in southern New England it is not to be looked for until May. In the matter of hardiness—the withstanding of the winter’s cold without artificial protection— there is no fixed rule once a perennial leaves its habitat. Taken by and large, perennials are won- derfully adaptive in this respect, often enduring patiently more cold, or more heat, than at home, and quite as often giving no sign of minding at all a drop of a mile or more to about sea level. But with a fairly large number—these include, un- fortunately, some of the most charming species —the degree of hardiness positively refuses to budge much to accommodate the grower of flow- ers. Such perennials must either have protection _ that amounts to coddling or, perhaps, be taken up every year and stored all winter where they will not freeze. They it is which are largely re- sponsible for making certain features of hardy gardens of southern Britain the despair of north- eastern America—where winters are colder and summers hotter and drier. Where a plant’s local hardiness has not been tested by cultivation it is a good plan to look it up in an authoritative reference book before decid- ing about planting. First, see how closely native and proposed conditions tally. Then, if the book AANjoU ira ul punof{ 2q 0} a4D sp yons sqaaffa pijos hq yInajs aap saqou fig jnfsapuom ayy, PERENNIALS gt does not give the result of tests in the United States, ascertain whether the plant is catalogued by reputable American houses. The perennials that they offer are a very much abridged list as compared with British ones and generally they are either reliably hardy as far North as Boston, or relative tenderness is plainly indicated. All of these things should be clearly understood before any definite attempt to grow perennials is made. Such understanding is absolutely essential for determining the special value of perennials not merely to the garden world but narrowed down to the province of your particular garden. What you want to know above all is the worth of peren- nials to you as working material. This enables the choice from the embarrasingly large list to be made with the intelligence that prevents useless waste of time and money in the endeavor to do what is not worth while in an in- dividual case. For the great pleasure in growing perennials is to devote time and money to those that are dis- tinctly worth while in one’s own case. There is a host of them available after the most ruthless proc- ess of rejection that any one of a thousand cir- cumstances would necessitate. The sacrifice will never be so great that the true philosopher will not be able to find solace in the garden of a dif- ferently situated neighbor or friend, or a public collection of plants. In making a list of availables for final choice 92 FLOWER GARDENING take, say, one or two hundred small cards and from catalogues and garden books pick out the same number of plants of tested hardiness that seem best suited to the required purpose. Write at the top of each card both the botanical and the common name. Then add, on separate lines, the time of blooming, as nearly as you can as- certain for your section of the country, and its aver- age duration, the height of foliage as well as bloom wherever possible; the general character of the plant, whether creeping, sprawling, bushy or mar- kedly erect and, finally, the color. It is best thus to segregate the color memorandum, because this should include not only the color, or range of colors, of the blossoms, but like notes as to the foliage. Make a clear differentiation of the many foliage shades and if the leaves are evergreen say so. It is well also to keep in mind, as to color, that the matter of blossoms and leaves being loose or com- pact may make a material difference in their use for garden pictures. Next, sort the cards according to season of bloom—going by the month or, better still, by fortnights; they cover better the average period of perfection. Lay the resultant packs of cards, chronologically, in a line on a table and see if there are any distinct breaks in the succession or any fortnights that do not admit of enough choice. Should these deficiencies exist, return to the cat- alogues and garden books for additional material, before proceeding. PERENNIALS 93 The last step is to take up each little pile of cards by itself and either subdivide according to this or that feature of the memoranda or at once choose for the planting. The selected cards will then answer as notes from which to make the garden, or border, plan. Even with this preliminary study, it would be far better for every one who is growing peren- nials for the first time to plant most species in rows like so many vegetables; this for a year or two. No matter how much one absorbs from books, it is only by watching a perennial grow a season or more that it is possible to sense its character in every particular, and if this is done in a little home nursery the acquired practical knowledge makes every definite step in the use of such plants as per- manent garden material infinitely easier and more effective. No time is really lost and much work- ing experience is gained. A good reason for this preliminary planting is the difficulty of getting a clear idea of the foliage spread of a perennial without actual observation. The kinds are too numerous to permit of the spacing tables by which tulips, hyacinths, pansies and geraniums are set out; very few go into the ground excepting by what seems guesswork, but is really an acquired knack. The foliage spread is important to know be- fore planning a hardy border or garden, in order that enough and not too many plants may be ac- quired and set out—thus saving money at the 94 FLOWER GARDENING outset and time spent in replanting later. Suppose, to get away from the abstract, half a dozen oriental poppies and as many plants of “baby’s breath” (Gypsophila paniculata) are set out in a home nursery bed—in parallel rows, about fifteen inches apart and the plants nine inches apart in the rows. If the plants are of commer- cial size they may not seem too close together in the row the first year; but the second year they will look crowded and there will be every sign that thinning or complete replanting must be done earlier than ignorance had suspected would be the case at the time they were so very carefully set out at apparently wide spaces. Possibly ignorance, had the planting been done in a garden, would have taken it for granted that no change would be necessary for years. The second season it is noticed that an oriental poppy is likely to have a spread two feet in diameter while the masses of “‘baby’s breath” in the bloom- ing season will perhaps be twice that distance across. Meanwhile this will have been discoy- ered the first year and will be still plainer the sec- ond; the poppy blooms early in summer and soon the plant turns brown and dies down to the ground, the while the later-blooming “baby’s breath’? is spreading out toward it and gradually concealing its unsightliness. It is also seen that by the time the “baby’s breath” is turning brown a couple of vines of Thunbergia alata, from seed that hap- pened to fall there, are making their way over the PERENNIALS 95 drying masses—because partly to hide the ugly is one of the special errands on which nature sends the five-foot climber. By autumn another thing is noticed; the poppy has begun to make a considerable second growth of foliage and, lest this be too shaded, there is need of cutting away some of the branches of “baby’s breath’—or else diverting them to one side. Obviously, the oriental poppy and “baby’s breath” are one of those dovetailing perennial combinations to know which is among the secrets of successful hardy gardens and borders. Here then is a whole lot, and not all at that, learned by the exercise of a litle patience in the study of plant character before attempting to bend that character to one’s own use. And the observa- tion of the plants was the easier because of their being in a row. The only safe general rule for the planting of perennials is to allow a space of ground six inches square for each plant known to be of dwarf or fairly low habit and a space a foot square for the taller ones. This is a good rule. Unless the plants are seedlings or small cuttings—sometimes then—the ground will be nearly or quite concealed when the first summer is well along on its course. And there will be ample room for two, three or more season’s growth—according to the plant’s nor- mal rate of increase and the way that this is helped or hindered by weather conditions. Whether the plants are set out in rows or a 96 FLOWER GARDENING more or less naturalistic fashion, the rule in ques- tion need occasion no complete’ replanting for a long time. This is avoided by removing alternate plants, or one here and there, as the colony be- comes crowded. In some instances the plants may be left in the same number, but the individual size reduced by cutting off portions with a trowel— which may be accomplished without lifting ‘the plant from the ground. Peonies are an exception to the rule; they should be planted two feet or more apart, as they dislike frequent disturbance. Perennials usually are planted for permanent ef- fects, but there is a growing tendency to use some of those that bloom in the spring and very early in the summer as bedding plants. Seedlings or small plants raised from cuttings are bedded out in the autumn, after the summer flowers have come to the end of their tether, and the year following, directly the height of bloom is past, they are rooted out and either thrown into the compost heap or divided and placed in nursery rows. This is the plan of Belvoir Castle, where every spring there is a superb display of bedded-out perennials on a scale that may be imagined from the fact that the annual consumption of aubrietias alone is some seven thousand. Such a temporary use of perennials within the limits of parterre formality and the set designs of park flower beds is quite common in England. The example is one that might well be emulated in the United States, where, aside from the most Naturalistic arrangements take on a grace and beauty—a final touch of both—that is lacking in formality of set designs PERENNIALS 97 familiar bulbs, it is rare to see any plants but pansies, English daisies, arabis and forget-me-not bedded out in spring. There is a long list to choose from, without touching the doubtful flower such as various kinds of ranunculus and anemone. It is not an expensive form of gardening, if one has the time for the additional labor required. Seed of perennials does not cost a great deal and as soon as a stock is started, propagation by cut- tings uses up no money and very little time. When seed is purchased, secure the very best obtainable. ‘This costs more, but is worth every bit of the difference. Americans are apt to imagine that they are paying a high price for seed when they exchange a dime for a packet and to regard a nickel as a sort of standard price. The Eng- lish, on the other hand, think nothing of paying the equivalent of twenty-four, thirty-six and forty- eight cents a packet; they know what superior seed means and the choicest is never too good. Seed is the best means of securing some of the perennials that are not in the American trade. Not only is the risk of importing plants done away with, but specimens born here are better fitted to stand the climate. One of the few American alpine gar- dens of importance has been thus stocked. Aside from this, the question of using seed depends a great deal on circumstances. It is the quickest way of getting a considerable quantity of larkspur, Iris pseudo-acorus, aubrietia, Baptisia australis, blackberry lily (Pardanthus sinensis), oriental 98 FLOWER GARDENING poppy, Amsonia Tabernaemontana, the maiden pink (Dianthus deltoides) and some of the primu- las, to name only a few perennials, while it is a very slow way to accumulate herbaceous peonies. The only thing to go by is a knowledge of habit, which varies greatly in the length of time required for germination as well as for the attainment of the capacity of blooming; it is often difficult to get the seed of trollius and Gentiana acaulis to ger- minate until its second spring underground. Creeping and prostrate plants commonly send out a large number of shoots that root readily and, indeed, often strike root before being attached. All of the spring-blooming phloxes, arabis, doron- icum, Polemonium reptans, the ajugas, the veroni- cas and the stonecrops are readily propagated in this wise. Others, like the primulas and dropwort, cannot be grown from cuttings; they form crowns that are easily pulled apart. Cuttings may be ta- ken of Phlox paniculata, and it grows quickly from seed, but for ordinary purposes the best plan is to separate the roots. Large clumps may be safely cut with the edge of a spade and the same is true of Tradescantia virginica, the funkias, hermero- callis, Siberian and Japanese iris and all perennials that form a mass of roots so closely bound together that division by hand is out of the question. There need be no fear of taking cuttings, within reasonable bounds, or of much subdividing; both are good for perennials, which, it must not be for- gotten, occasionally thrive more luxuriantly in the PERENNIALS 99 garden than in their native haunts. Separate every few years; or every year, if conditions seem to warrant it. This for the majority of perennials; divide peonies every seventh year and let frax- inella and the everlasting pea alone indefinitely unless a transfer is absolutely necessary. It is a custom, but one altogether too infrequent, to plant some of the perennials—generally grown from seed—in pots. This seems to be the only way to get perfection out of the chimney bell- flower (Campanula pyramidalis). In pots the spikes of blue or white blossoms will shoot up five or six feet and there is nothing more beau- tiful for an early summer decorative change in the conservatory or for a porch or hall plant. All of the hardy primulas, but more particularly the English, Cashmere and Siebold primroses, the giant cowslip, the polyanthus and the border auricula, are remarkably handsome little pot plants for March and April indoors. The choicer pyreth- rums, trollius, Phlox divaricata and many of the alpines are quite as handsome in their way. All of the plants may be set out in the garden after blooming, though the chimney bellflower is gen- erally treated as a biennial and thrown away after blooming. _ There are two more uses for potted perennials. One is to keep a reserve store for filling gaps in the garden and the other is to solve the problem of those perennials, including some bulbous and tuberous plants, that are unreliably hardy if at all. 100 FLOWER GARDENING Among the latter are several of the loveliest wind- flowers—Anemone sylvestris, A. blanda, A. St. Brigid and A. fulgens; the turban and Lebanon ranunculus and Rehmannia angulata. These, as well as the various hellebores known as Christmas and Lent roses—which, if they survive the winter in the open, do not always bloom satisfactorily in December, January and March—may be grown in pots sunk in ashes in a tight coldframe or kept cool indoors until brought out to bloom. Some perennials hold strictly to species. Others have a perplexing number of varieties, the peony, Phlox paniculata, pyrethrum and larkspur running up into hundreds, and the original type may be lost altogether in cultivation. Where there is a choice of varieties, seek out the best. There is the greatest difference in the world, as to both size and color of bloom, between the best of the peonies, phloxes, pyrethrums and larkspurs and those that are neither bad nor yet very good. And of the best select not many kinds; a dozen plants each of the lovely new double pale pink pyrethrum Queen Mary and as many more of that admirable double white, Carl Vogt, make a much finer show- ing than a mixture of two each of twelve va- rieties. So, too, a massing of the Festiva Maxima peony or the old-fashioned red “‘piny” is better than the same number of plants in varied assortment, while Phlox paniculata loses half its effectiveness when there is not a generous grouping of one kind. PERENNIALS 101 Not only be chary of varieties in the hardy garden and borders, but use the same restraint as to the multiplication of species. The wonderful big notes are struck by solid effects such as are to be found in nature. Bring your stock of Phlox divaricata—the type color—or Alyssum saxatile up to one hundred plants, which is easily done in a few years. Set them out in a long, narrow drift of each and the point will be plainly appar- ent. This course does not call for the slighting of other desired perennials; they can be grouped as fillers, or used in the reserve garden and odd spots on the place. Often space by the south or east wall of a barn may be used for colonizing peren- nials not required for the garden. They make a fine show there because of the isolation and are always handy for cutting. Perennials are the cheapest of all plant invest- ments, everything considered. Most of them in- crease so rapidly that in a few years the result makes the money laid out seem ridiculously small. A large number of the commonest kinds may be had at fifteen cents each—less by the dozen or hundred. Novelties and rarities are seldom more than half a dollar in this country. In England all kinds of high prices are paid willingly; some of the 1912 novelties were $24 each. CHAPTER XII THE BEST USES OF ANNUALS BEST of all the uses of annuals is the most natural one—the employment of them to fill any spaces that hardy plants leave in the garden. Then, if the planting be naturalistic, the flower colony looks as though it had sprung up spontaneously. No one can be said really to know annuals who has not seen them in such plantings. Barring a few of the very stiff ones, they take on a grace and beauty—a final touch of both—that is lacking in the formality of set designs. It is the differ- ence between the irregularity of a dazzling patch of corn poppies in an English field and a circle, square or triangle of the same flowers cut out of a patch and removed where there is no more of the kind. Annuals thus employed are invaluable to the hardy garden and borders. Even in the best regu- lated families, hardy plants cannot always be made to cover every inch of the ground unless they have evergreen foliage—then there may be perishing just the same. Spring bulbs die down after bloom- ing, the early lilies soon turn brown—as do bleed- 102 ANNUALS 103 ing heart, oriental poppies and some other peren- nials. Not a year but there are bare spots that nature will strive to fill with weeds rather than have them bare. Here annuals are welcomed. But it would be doing annuals scant justice to leave them to hazards of this sort. Paradoxical though it sounds, it is an unideal hardy garden that does not provide in the layout for one or more colonies of annuals. Without them there is, somehow, a sense of incompleteness. The greater the departure from the conventional the more objection there is to using double flowers. The objection is highly elastic; nine times out of ten it need not bar the showy double forms of the China aster, clarkia, zinnia, stock, poppy and African marigold. The chances are, however, that where thought is given to the matter the peculiar advantages of single forms for drifts and other naturalistic plantings will be apparent; single China asters and poppies look natural, double ones do not. Besides those mentioned, some of the best an- nuals for unconventional massing are larkspur, Arc- totis grandis, godetia, lupine, Drummond’s phlox, schizanthus, candytuft, leptosyne, nigella, corn- flower, eschscholtzia, cosmos, petunia, nemophila, Saponaria vaccaria, phacelia, scabiosa, chrysanthe- mum, spreading lobelia (L. speciosa), nemesia, Gyphsophila elegans, nicotiana, viscaria, Brachy- come iberidifolia, portulaca, coreopsis, alonsoa, Dimorphotheca aurantiaca, \eptosiphon, petunia, 104 FLOWER GARDENING sweet sultan and Lavatera rosea and several others. Where there is a choice of color, as in the case of the larkspur and phlox, make it the general rule to plant only one tone in a colony. If the latter is very large and two colors are desired, mass each; but divide the space unequally between them and make the line of division very irregular. One of the saddest mistakes made with annuals is to plant them in mixtures. Some flowers, pop- pies, for instance, never shock you grievously when all colors are thrown together; but zinnias, China asters and Drummund’s phlox, among others, do with a vengeance. While between these extremes are instances where a mixture may be suffered, no annual can be seen in perfection unless the va- rieties of the species are segregated. ‘Treated this way some of the shades of the zinnia and China aster that seem unbearable when in close contact with others take on genuine beauty. The sweet sultan, scabiosa, portulaca, nemesia, petunia and Drummond’s phlox likewise show a vast improve- ment when the colors are separated. Beware of “art”? and strange shades, unless the scheme is one that needs just such tones; they are beautiful when rightly applied, but not easy to apply. The large mauve blossoms of Martynia elegans are difficult picture material; so are the gold-veined blossoms of salpiglossis. And there are certain shades of scabiosa and sweet sultan that it were better to discard than to use without proper thought. “Best of all the uses of annuals is the most natural one—the employment of them to fill any spaces that hardy plants leave in the garden” ANNUALS 105 Before deciding on annuals for temporary col- onies in the hardy garden and borders, get a com- prehensive idea of the height and spread of the plant; frequently a seed catalogue will give the one in print and the other in picture. Thus cosmos is very tall and therefore, for the background, save when used near a border edge to break a vista, though its height may be reduced by the some- what reprehensible practice of pinning down the plant and letting the side shoots grow perpen- dicularly. Low annuals, like Brachycome iberi- difolia and godetia, are for the immediate fore- ground or very open spaces between perennials that are farther to the rear. In the placing of annuals among perennials a point always to be considered is the freedom with which they self-sow and thus become a nuisance unless watched very closely. The cornflower, lark- spur, coreopsis and Silene armeria are as much of a pest as weeds if left entirely to their own way of thinking what their share in the population of the garden ought to be. These should have the blossoms, as they fade, snipped off with scissors —not a burdensome task if the planting is not an uncommonly large one and the work is done daily. Where the planting of a hardy garden or border is delayed to afford time for accumulating a stock of perennials in the home nursery, annuals may serve two excellent purposes at once. Get the ground in readiness for its eventual use and then devote it to annuals entirely for one, two or three 106 FLOWER GARDENING years—as circumstances necessitate, or warrant. Whether the hardy scheme be formal or informal, a vast amount of experience in the effect of mass- ing blossoms and foliage, the combination of colors and the meaning of skylines and vistas is to be had in this way. You want to know, perhaps, how small taper- ing evergreens would define certain garden formal- ity, or would look in an irregular grouping. Ex- periment with the annual that is well named sum- mer cypress (Kochia trichophylla). The color is light green, changing to a reddish tint in autumn, but with the needed form there the imagination can do the rest. Or you want to get the effect of low shrubs; use the bushy four-o’clock, which is a better annual (really a non-hardy perennial) than it is credited with being if any of the self- colored varieties is used by itself. Put to a prac- tical test the color value of sheets of low bloom by planting the blood-red Drummond’s phlox or the orange eschscholtzia, the value of irregular spikes with larkspur, of rayed blossoms with Brachycome iberidifolia, of blossoms thrown up on long stems with sweet sultan, of scattered bloom with cosmos, of clouds of tiny blossoms with schizanthus and of pastel shades with scabiosa. Work out formal effects with such annuals as the China aster, candytuft, stock, godetia, alonsoa, tall and dwarf zinnia, chrysanthemum, lupine and French and African marigold—any that are not of sprawling growth. With a little study it will not be ANNUALS 107 a difficult task to find comparative material. A garden all of annuals is also a desirable ex- pedient when a place is rented for a season. Peren- nials, of course, can be set out temporarily and removed with the rest of the household belong- ings—this is done every year—but the plan is not always practical. Most would prefer to plant an- nuals and leave the problem of garden permanence to the next comer. Again this kind of a garden is a welcome alternative when a new place is in its first season and there is either not the time for permanent planting or else a definite scheme is left to future decision. Then there is the country home that is occupied only from late June to early September. The garden could still be hardy, out of the abundance of summer-blooming perennials, if there is any one to give it the necessary spring and autumn care; but annuals, and bedding plants treated as such, are sometimes to be preferred for one reason or another. Whether it is well to possess a garden of annuals simply to have it all annuals is something that no one can decide for another. Without question, it may be a garden of superlative beauty; on the Riviera are great borders that prove this—bor- ders composed of drifts and other irregular sec- tions of some of the most strikingly effective an- nuals, the arrangement being as careful as if per- manent material were employed. Like proof was offered at the international flower show of 1911 108 FLOWER GARDENING in London, where there were groupings of annuals that could not be surpassed with perennials. The disadvantage of a garden of annuals is not any limitation of esthetic potentiality; it is its im- permanence, necessitating complete making over and repetition of expense every year, and a mini- mum season. The last is the great, and uncon- querable, disadvantage; July is at hand before much bloom can be counted on and of the few species available after the middle of September not all can stand frost without protection. There are two kinds of annuals, hardy and half hardy. The latter are too tender to put plants in the ground until near the end of May, so that getting them started under glass does not help the matter of May bloom. Hardy annuals are so by com- parison with the other class, not in the sense that most of the cultivated perennials are. The few that are really hardy, surviving through late seed- lings of the previous year, hurry their blooming very little. In the circumstances why not let the garden of annuals belie its name, just as the hardy garden does without compunction whenever it chooses? Lavish annuals on it in any measure for summer glory, only do not leave the garden bare before and after. This is easily got around by pardon- able inconsistency. In October plant the garden with tulips, hyacinths and other spring bulbs. Edge formal beds or borders with hardy candytuft, for a permanent thing; with pansies, Bellis perennis, ANNUALS 109 Myosotis dissitiflora or Arabis albida for spring bloom or with violas (tufted pansies) for summer flowers. All of these plants can be set out in October and with the exception of the candytuft any of them are suitable for places between the bulbs, which they follow immediately in bloom when the period is not coincident; the arabis and myosotis are especially good with early tulips, or late ones if care is taken as to the color that goes with the myosotis. Late in May, when the bulb foliage is turning brown, remove any other plants that are not used for edging and set annuals in all the available spaces. Or the bulbs may be taken up, dried off and reset in the autumn. If this is done through- out, or here and there, the garden may be given a riot of autumn color by massings of hardy chry- santhemums. It is not necessary that the chrysan- themums should be potted ones; they may be plants from cuttings rooted in the spring and grown on in rows, as they will bear moving even when in bloom. Start the annuals, other than poppies, eschscholt- zia and sweet alyssum, early by sowing seed in a coldframe soon after the first of May. Keep the plants under glass until the end of the month, or later if the garden is not ready for them. Do not let them get spindling; this is the objection to starting the seeds in the house in boxes in April. If started still earlier in a greenhouse, in March, they can be potted and put in the garden as good- 110 FLOWER GARDENING sized plants; but they will reach up for the light and are apt to go outdoors in a weakened condi- tion. Annuals that are a long time reaching maturity— such as helichrysum, the finest of all the everlast- ings, and the old type of cosmos—ought never to be sown in the open ground. The fascinating sal- piglossis, also, is sown early under glass to insure bloom. Then there is the sweet sultan, which likes to get an early start so that it may give of its, best before the heat of midsummer. An effective way of using annuals is as pot plants —not only to fill spaces in the greenhouse but for the porch in summer, and for setting among shrubbery or in garden blanks. A great deal of this is done in England, where some potted an- nuals are superb specimen plants that cause eyes not familiar with them to open wide with wonder. Think of bushes of Clarkia elegans, a yard high and through, that are a mass of double pink or salmon blossoms! ‘These are May possibilities if the seed is sown indoors in September and the plants potted and pinched back to promote bushi- ness. Cosmos, for autumn; rhodanthe, one of the everlastings; the common double balsam, ne- mesia, schizanthus, cockscomb and Dimorphotheca auriantiaca, the last of which has handsome hy- brids now, are among other suitable annuals for pots. The balsam, nemesia and schizanthus, like clarkia, develop better in pots than in the garden. One of the biennials, the Canterbury bell, is as ANNUALS IIl fine a subject for pot culture as heart could desire. This and other biennials, among them the fox- glove, hollyhock and Myosotis dissitiflora, are usually thrown in with the annuals as they are regarded as plants of only a year so far as garden usefulness is concerned. Often they spend scarcely more time in the garden than is necessary for blooming, after which they are discarded. The same with sweet-william and columbine, though both of these will persist several years if conditions are favorable. Of the number of annuals in cultivation few have any idea. Name a dozen or so and the list that the average person can think of offhand is ex- hausted. The common annuals are such because of a worth that time has shown, but they do not begin to be all that ought to be common. Nor do they begin to be all the easy ones—if any annuals can be called really difficult. The salpiglosis is one that deserves to be better known; it is very good for massing if the colors are not mixed, but this plant affords the keenest pleasure when it is in less crowded garden con- ditions or when the blossoms are in a vase. Un- appreciated, too, are schizanthus, with its myriads of little butterflies; nemesia, than which no low annual is more charming and which shows blue as well as red, yellow, pink and white, and phacelia, especially P. campanularia, with its blue bellflow- ers. Then there are three rayed annuals that are 112 FLOWER GARDENING badly neglected. The Swan river daisy (Brachy- come iberidifolia), from Australia, is among the daintiest of carpeting annuals. The type is light blue, but there are white and pink varieties. Of the others the African daisy (Arctotis grandis) is unusual in that the white blossoms have a mauve centre, while the foliage is very downy, and the Namaqualand daisy (Dimorphotheca aurantiaca) furnishes rich yellow bloom. This trio is good for all summer. CHAPTER XIII SHRUBS IN THE FLOWER GARDEN Most of the old-time flower gardens of the northeastern part of the United States had at least a shrub or two—with others so near as to give them an air of relationship. Flowers were flowers in those days; little time was spent in botanical dif- ferentiation of the source. One such garden scarcely would be discoverable today were it not for the surviving shrubs. Turf- grown paths, with but a ragged remnant of the box that once lined them, are arched with great bush honeysuckles; a double yellow “wallflower” struggles for bare existence in the shade of a rank old “syringa,” cinnamon roses run wild and a flowering almond is a mere ghost of its former glory. What few perennials remain are straggling remnants of hardy races that even neglect finds it difficult to kill. The old idea is every whit as good today. Why look upon shrubs, or trees, as something quite separable from the garden? If only as a background, some of them almost always come into the picture anyway; when shut out of a 113 114. FLOWER GARDENING planting by a circumscribing wall, they are rarely lost altogether from view. No matter how plainly defined, what it is so pleasant to call the garden is no more all the garden, in the broadest sense, than the section of a city that is built up solid is all of that city. As the city rambles suburban- ward, so the garden spreads and spreads, until the ends thereof are the boundaries of the home site. Shrubs are not the only factors in this garden ex- tension, but the flowering ones are the dominant denotive figures. A shrub in the garden, or by the side of it, a few more near the house and a small border of them in one corner of the grounds— there you have the simplest sort of a garden chain; yet one binding together the parts of a small place. Shrubs, in short, are prime material for the mak- ing of the piers of the imaginary garden bridges that every place, whether large or small, needs. A great English estate, such as Witley Court, the main portion of which stretches out into ten thousand acres, shows how little size has to do with the expression of the thought. May is two- thirds over and the garden of gardens, that the stately mansion looks out upon, is aglow with rho- dodendrons. But in every direction flowering shrubs are beckoning, as if to remind you that there is more to the garden than that. Whichever way you turn there are links with the garden; some of them bind it to other gardens, and then away again. In one direction you are soon in the woods, but along the broad shaded path are ISDAJUOI 40709 SD 1191 SD m4of PIFADUL IANIIS OF “oe SD OS ‘hJILADA AIYJOUD YIM UDYI 49YjV4L JOIUUIsag D yin gijny dopy v aulguory ” SHRUBS 115 more rhododendrons with other shrubs, and you can see that only a little while ago there had been myriads of bluebells and primroses to perform a like office in a more lowly fashion. Shrubs are of special value in the hardy garden because of their height, which varies the skyline agreeably and at the same time gives permanence to some of its aspects. In April, when nothing herbaceous, barring possibly the crown imperial, has dared as yet to raise its blossoms far from the ground, a single forsythia will fairly illumine the garden because it is a flowering shrub standing out boldly against the sky. Then in winter the bare branches of shrubs, above a deadly monoto- nous level, are a grateful break if they are only brown; more so when they are red, green, yellow or gray, and still more so when bright fruit or evergreen foliage lingers on them. In the garden proper these are more important considerations than mere wealth of bloom for late spring and early summer, when no end of peren- nials can be depended upon for flower color. Shrub bloom really grows in importance as it recedes from the garden, unless the latter is given over en- tirely to this class of plants, which is seldom the case. Put but one evergreen shrub in the garden, re- gardless of whether it blooms, and it is imme- diately seen that here is an indispensable note. Spring, summer, autumn and winter this note is indispensable. In a formal garden that is not 116 FLOWER GARDENING large enough to use evergreen conifers, it is best expressed by box and ilex; though conifers of very small size may be allowed with equal propri- ety to pass as shrubs. Box is the most beautiful edging and normally is very hardy. As shrubs go, it is expensive; but with five-inch edging at three dollars a hundred and five dollars for fine single specimens about four feet high, the price is not prohibitive. Both the English holly (Ilex aqui- folia, var. Hodginsii) and the American holly (J. opaca) may be had in four-foot specimens for about half the price. Clipped California privet of the same size costs five dollars or so for a pyramid or globe; the shrub itself is cheap, but the train- ing has to be paid for. For less formal or wholly unconventional ef- fects there are more than a dozen evergreen shrubs whose worth in the garden itself does not begin to be appreciated. Foremost among them, because superb bloom is added to strongly effective foli- age, are certain rhododendrons and the mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia). These have thrived in a full exposure; but if the garden has no shaded spot, they are safer when planted where the sun does not beat down on them relentlessly in sum- mer and the force of the winter’s winds is broken by protecting trees and shrubs on the North. Moreover, such a situation, perhaps on the edge of the garden, best becomes them. Both require soil made fibrous by peat or leaf mold; also a heavy winter mulch of leaves, to be left on as a SHRUBS 137 means of helping to keep the ground moist in summer. If good stock—fully acclimatized, should it have been imported—is purchased, neither shrub is so difficult as it seems to most who lose them in cul- ture. Generally the losses are due to a lack of common sense. The two big American rhododen- drons, R. Catawbiense and R. maximum, the latter the last of all to bloom, are not excelled by any of the hybrids for massing. They are also hardier. The Catawbiense has. rose shades while the max- imum ranges from pale pink to white. Of the hybrids some of the finest are hardy in England but will not bear the winters here; the tender ones include the majority of those known as red. In -choosing hybrids therefore reject all but the named varieties of well-tested hardiness; there are enough reliable ones. Two-foot rhododendrons and laurel cost about two dollars each. For low evergreen growth, semi-formal or nat- uralistic, there are several good shrubs. The show- iest is Azalea amoena, which is ablaze with little solferino blossoms in May and in autumn has bronzed foliage. Keep the blossoms away from everything not green or white; the color is the fighting kind. Three kinds of cotoneaster, all with gay berries through the winter; as many of the andromedas; Crataegus pyracantha, which has brilliant orange berries; Phyllyrea decora, Rhodo- dendron ferrugineum, Rhododendron hirsutum, Euonymus japonicus and the lovely little garland 118 FLOWER GARDENING flower (Daphne cneorum) are others. The gar- land flower is so low that it drops conveniently into lists of perennials supposed to be herbaceous. Though little known, it is among the choicest of hardy garden plants. The clustered pink blos- soms—coming in May and again, more sparsely, at the end of summer—are deliciously fragrant. For holly-like effects without regularity there are the American and Japanese mahonias, both with early yellow blossoms, and Osmanthus aquifolium, which is quite dwarf. Although evergreen shrubs bloom, it is the de- ciduous ones that, for convenience, are called flow- ering shrubs. Here the riches are so embarrassing that only parks and vast estates can hope to sound very deep the joys of possession. One catalogue lists no less than eighty-eight hardy species and these are sub-divided into nearly four hundred varieties. Ejighty-eight species; yet how many can be called at all common in dooryards? The lilac, snowball, Japan quince, weigela, Philadelphus coronarius, deutzia, Spiraea Van Houttei, Hydran- gea paniculata, forsythia, althea and bush honey- suckle—less than a dozen. No fault is to be found with these eleven shrubs, they will always be among the best; but there are others that deserve to be just as familiar. Nor is this all of the pity. There is much ignorance of the fact that the commonest kinds have not been standing still; new species and new hybrids have been coming along. Once all you SHRUBS 119 had to know about a lilac was that it was either white or purple; nowadays there are double and single ones, with enormous trusses and such fancy names as Comte Horace de Choiseul and Souvenir de Louis Spaeth. White has cream and yellowish shades, while purple is varied by hues styled red, blue, lavender, lilac and violet. Lilacs, too, may be Hungarian, Persian or Rouen and—you must not say lilac but syringa. Once upon a time syringa meant the white flower which is called mock orange in its larger form. Now you have to say phila- delphus for mock orange, and there are double and single named kinds. Snowball is viburnum; if you know a dozen species you are not through with the cultivated list. The old pink and white weigelas have a host of variants, altheas go by name instead of color, spirea and hydrangea spe- cies have multiplied and you are obliged to ex- plain sometimes which one of four forsythias you mean. So, before ordering even these familiar flower- ing shrubs, study the catalogue for a line on the improvements and variations of the type; better still, visit a nursery in the blooming season. Study, in particular, the new lilacs, altheas, weigelas and deutzias, the unfamiliar viburnum, spirea and hy- drangea species, the variety of bush honeysuckles and the double mock orange. The althea, or rose of Sharon, which is being developed largely in the double forms, ought to be on every place, as it blooms later than most shrubs. 120 FLOWER GARDENING - Of shrubs that are not so common, there is an altogether too scant showing of deciduous azaleas, magnolias and flowering crabs (Malus) in the hardy garden. Named varieties of Azalea mollis are strikingly fine for early yellow, red and rose effects, as the bloom precedes the foliage. This azalea will do well in the open, but it and the gorgeous flame azalea (4. calendulacea) are the better for being treated as undergrowth in partial shade. A dozen two-foot plants of either sells for about seven dollars and a half. Magnolias occa- sionally are winter-killed even after standing for so many years that they have become trees of con- siderable size; but often a single season’s bloom is worth the cost. The dwarf species (M. stellata), which costs two dollars and a half for the three- foot size, is a beautiful garden shrub, especially when it blooms by the side of forsythia. The creamy Chinese magnolia (M. conspicua) and the purplish Japan species (M. atropurpurea) are best suited for the edge of the garden unless the layout is an extensive one. The flowering crabs are really small trees. The Siberian crab (Malus baccata) is a good choice; so are the double M. spectabilis alba fl. pl. and the dwarf M. Toringo. Four-foot trees are under a dollar in price. The amygdaline, or almond, group offers, in its way, quite as much beauty. The double pink and white almonds (Amygdalus chinensis) are charm- ing shrubs that are grossly neglected nowadays. These are very hardy. The double pink and white SHRUBS 121 peaches perish more easily, but, like the magnolias, they give in a short life the worth of the money spent. The blood-leaved peach has excellent dark foliage. Another shrub in this group, A. sibirica, begins to bloom in late March or early April. Small trees of laburnum (Cytisus), which need alittle shelter; dogwood (Cornus florida), both the white and the rare pink; the Japan Judas tree (Cercis japonica), silver bell (Halesia tetraptera), witch hazel (Hamamelis japonica), cornelian cherry (Cornus mascula), double English haw- thorn (Crataegus oxyacantha) and white fringe (Chionanthus virginia) all make good garden shrubs. ‘Those that grow large develop slowly; but none of them should be planted without due allowance for future expansion, as transplanting is not so easy as with shrubs proper. What used to be called wallflower (Kerria jap- onica) in the old double form has a great deal of garden effectiveness in the species; the single yellow blossoms have a long season and the green branches are handsome. The white kerria (Rhodotypos kerrioides) is quite as good and it has black berries that last all winter. Other fine white-flowered shrubs, yet rarely seen, are the pearl bush (Exochorda grandiflora) and the dwarf Juneberry (Amelanchier botryapium). One of the unfortunate things about shrubs in the North is the lack of true blue, violet and pur- ple shades in the bloom. There are enough shrubs to supply it, but these colors do not seem to go with r22 FLOWER GARDENING the ability to stand severe cold. The Chinese and Japanese buddleias, which aré fairly hardy in the North when planted in a sheltered location, are in this class. The false indigo (Amorpha fruticosa) and the blue spirea (Caryopteris mastacanthus) have the same relative hardiness. The beautiful blue hybrids of ceanothus are less to be relied upon above the latitude of Washington, though Gloire de Versailles has pulled through the win- ter near New York. This is a fine variety to contrast with the hardy native New Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus), which has white flowers. Several shrubs with pea-shaped bloom are useful for secondary effects. Pink, purplish and white blossoms are furnished by four species of tick tre- foil (Desmodium). These bloom late and their growth is such that they may be placed in any herbaceous border. The bladder senna (Colutea arborescens) will add yellow tinged with red and there are some fine new forms of broom—some- times listed now under cytisus instead of genista. The Schipka cytisus (C. Schipkaensis ), with whitish blossoms, is quite hardy. The dwarf barberries are worthy of a place in the garden for three good reasons—blossoms, fo- liage and fruit. The common European barberry (Berberis vulgaris), either the type or the kind with purple foliage, ought to be grown more on the garden’s edge than it is; in autumn, especially, it is splendidly effective. Then there are the beau- tiful species of elder (Sambucus), of sumac (Rhus) SHRUBS 123 and currant (Ribes), in themselves sufficient te make a garden of great variety; the several tama- risks, some of which are great improvements on the old; the French mulberry (Callicarpa), which has an abundance of showy fruit, as well as grace- ful growth; one or two good aralias, the old-fash- ioned, sweet-scented shrub (Calycanthus) and half a dozen worth-while St. John’s worts (Hyperi- cum). Privet, notably the new Japanese Ligustrum Ibota, has fine white bloom, but the odor is rather strong for the garden. Roses creep into the shrub category of conve- nience, just as some of the trees do. The standard, or tree, roses are serviceable only for formal layouts and without professional care they are apt to be more bother than they are worth. The best roses to consider as shrubs are those that make big bushes, such as the old-fashioned damask and Mad- ame Plantier. Then there is the sweet brier; noth- ing is fairer than the type, but the Lord Penzance hybrids offer darker pink and ecru tones. Coarser single blossoms and foliage are provided by the ramanas rose (Rosa rugosa), which has semi-dou- ble forms now. Harison’s yellow and Rosa mul- tiflora japonica, the latter for massing in loose ef- fect, are two more of the many good bush roses. There can be no rule as to what extent shrubs shall figure in hardy gardens and borders. The only thing to do is to count them as available material of permanence—like the perennials, only not herbaceous—and work with them to the 124 FLOWER GARDENING best advantage. They are very serviceable in small gardens to raise the height of the center or rear of a bed or border, to define entrances and to multiply vistas by blocking a view. In long bor- ders they may be made to form bays for peren- nials; or there may be a dotting of them for ac- cents of flower color or evergreen foliage. Perennials, biennials, annuals and bulbs all work in well with shrubs, if the planting is done with understanding. There is no better place for some of the best lilies than among rhododendrons. And there are perennials that enjoy, if they do not de- mand, the partial shade that planting among or near shrubs gives them. Plant such accordingly; the other perennials in the open spaces. Where shrubs are placed far apart to provide for future expansion, mass perennials—they can be removed later—or use a combination of spring bulbs and annuals or biennials. Often the best results with shrubs are obtained by using them chiefly for a more or less formal massing around the garden. Privet, hawthorn, al- thea, barberry and flowering quince are among those available for clipped hedges. Generally the naturalistic effects are the most beautiful of all. For these plantings, and for shrubberies any- where else on the grounds, draw upon other classes of plants to fill every bit of space that is going begging. Whether the spaces offers full sun, half shade or complete shade, some plant will find it a congenial home. Shrubberies are always a good _Suapavb sduwuns spava ayy ur (v916uv *7) Sha ystjbugq ayy puv (voiuodsiy Tt) Slt ysiuvg g ayy {O Spotshi JAD 2494) poOwG Py. r SHRUBS 125 place for plants that you would like to grow but have not the room for in the garden; or perhaps they do not suit the scheme there. Straight edg- ings are allowable when circumstances warrant them, but naturalistic colonies are best. The space under shrubs of a spreading habit need never go to waste. Under deciduous shrubs it is just the spot’for permanent colonies of small bulbs which it is often risky to grow in the gar- den, where their location in little groups is easily lost sight of. Similarly the foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia) and other shade-loving carpeting plants will gladly cover the ground beneath shrubs. A bulb and a carpeting plant may be used together, or two different bulbs colonized. Shrubs have an April to October range of bloom, with the greatest burst of it in May and June. The sweet gale (Myrica) and Mahonia japonica are due in February and March and Daphne me- zereum in the latter month, while the witch hazel holds off until November; but between October and April color must largely be a matter of fo- liage and fruit. Fortunately shrubs are so gen- erous in these two respects that planning for the entire year is possible. As with perennials, shrubs should be planted for long succession. Thus the forsythia, Spiraea van Houttei, althea and Hydrangea paniculata are a good sequence, that may be lengthened by adding Berberis Thunbergii and Ilex opaca for the com- pletion of a year’s circle. As a rule, especially in 126 FLOWER GARDENING shrubberies, strive to get the successive effects with only one or two species of shrubs. No mixed bloom can begin to make the picture that is cre- ated by a massing of Spiraea van Houttei or pink weigela alone, or laburnum and purple lilacs to- gether. Clashing shrubs need not be discarded if the place is of any size; there is always room for more somewhere. Do not mass all of the shrubs. Now and then isolate one and let it give full play to individuality as expressed in its natural form. If inclined to primness, let it be prim; if rambling, let it ramble. This not merely for specimens in the garden or on the lawn, but one standing out in blooming time from a shrubbery background. A shrub that has a great burst of bloom—a magnolia, flame azalea, rhododendron, Hydrangea paniculata, for- sythia, Spiraea van Houttei, Dentzia corymbiflora, double Philadelphus coronarius (Boule d’ Argent) double white lilac (Madame Casimir Perier), weigela or any of the double-flowered fruit trees— if thus left to itself, will be an annual spectacle, growing in beauty with the fullness of age. In some cases old wood will have to be removed, but keep the pruning down to the appearance of there not being any. There is always a tendency to over-prune shrubs. Where sheer form of a restrained artificial character is desired, there are shrubs trained.in standard, or tree, shape to be had. For the lawn this shape has an advantage in that the grass does not suffer beneath it. The lilac, SHRUBS 127 weigela, Azalea mollis, althea, double hawthorn, forsythia, Hydrangea paniculata, double almond and rose acacia (Robinia hispida) are so trained with particular effectiveness. It is also one of the best ways to use that showy vine, the Chinese wis- taria. The price is based on the age of the head, two dollars and a half to five dollars; the stem height is five or six. feet in any case. CHAPTER XIV SPRING AND SUMMER FLOWERS FROM BULBS No plants are more interesting to grow in the garden than the bulbous ones, especially those that are hardy. There is a peculiar fascination in buy- ing a dry brown, black, white or yellow bulb, sometimes a mere mite of a thing, burying it in the ground, leaving it there all winter and one day in spring finding it doing its share to beautify the earth. And not the change of a seed into a plant seems so marvelous a transition. It is in the springtime that bulbs are of the most value in the garden. At that time of the year they are simply invaluable. Not that there is any lack of perennials for spring, if flower lovers would only cast their eyes about; but in neither form nor color can these perform for the garden the gentle offices of the bulbs. Veritable herba- ceous perennials though they be, they are abso- lutely distinct. A close observation of American gardens for many years has shown that here is a field well- trodden in no more than a few spots. Only the tulip, hyacinth, narcissus and crocus are grown 128 BULBS 129 commonly, and of these it is rare to come across all four in one dooryard. As if this were not bad enough, tulips, to most, remain tulips; hya- cinths are hyacinths, the narcissus is a narcissus and the crocus is a crocus, just as if the horti- cultural world had stood still since the middle of the last century. Single or double, red, blue, pur- ple, pink, yellow or white are still the common differentiations. Of course, these four bulbs can give abundant satisfaction at that, but a greater satisfaction is lost through ignorance of the va- riety that has converted the modern catalogue into a veritable treasure-house. Tulips have been separated into important sub- divisions since the early days of their culture; it is the emphasis on the subdivisions that is modern. You speak now not of tulips in general, but of a particular class. The commonest bedding tulips, known as early-flowering, are both double and sin- gle and the growth is low. While their precise origin is lost in remoteness, they are supposed to have come from Tulipa suaveolens, a species from the southern part of Russia. The old tall single bedding tulips are styled late-flowering, May or cottage tulips. These range from two feet to, in some cases, the height of an ordinary walking- stick and bloom well along in May, immediately following the others—which begin in April. Their parent species is J’. Gesneriana. For many years they were neglected save in the British and Flem- ish cottage gardens—whence they have been res- 130 FLOWER GARDENING cued, to become one of the most admired classes. Late tulips were themselves divided some three hundred years ago into four classes—breeders or self-flowers, that is to say, all of one color: bizarres, bybleemens and roses. A peculiarity of tulips is that in cultivation a seedling blooming for the first time is generally self-colored; then, after a few years—they have been known to wait three dec- ades—there will be a change to a feathered state. The lower part of the petals remains as before, but there will be marginal pencilling and wide and narrow stripes or blotches. Bizarres are the ones with yellow bases and markings of red, maroon | and brownish shades; bybleemens are white, marked with purples that grade to what is called black, and roses are white with many shades of pink and red markings. From this race has come a comparatively new one, the Darwin, which some amateurs regard as the finest of all. Certainly it is a noble race, well calculated to send into ecstasies of delight any one who has seen an exhibition of the star va- rieties—say twenty-five specimens of each, mag- nificent in form and color and the stems more than two feet long. The Darwins are selfs, or nearly so; some of them are shaded, shot or edged with another tone and the centre may be white, blue or black. No tulip colors are more exquisite. When the Darwins “break” into a lasting varie- gation they are known as Rembrandts. These are very strikingly blotched, striped or flamed and vie BULBS 131 in color combinations with the bizarres, byblamens and roses. Parrot, or dragon, tulips are a very old class. The large blossoms have deeply toothed petals and the color variegations are extraordinarily pic- turesque. They remind one rather of macaws than parrots. Golden inside and the outside shaded and feathered with scarlet, purple and green is a summary of the gorgeousness of one variety. The parrot tulips bloom in May. While they are very showy, their somewhat artificial air, weak stems and irregular flowering habit have always kept them out of the foreground. A further classification of English tulips is some- times made. These are the old English florist tulips and are merely another group of breeders that have broken, being sub-divided into bizarres, byblaemens and roses. Then there are the tulip species, a great number of which have been brought into cultivation; there are thirty-four of them in a single English list and of these not one has been more than a rare visitor to an American gar- den. So it is plain that the cup of tulip hap- piness is being only sipped. Of the species, a few are in the American mar- ket. The sweet-scented Florentine tulip (T. syl- vestris, or florentina) is a very pretty yellow one and the little lady tulip (T. Clusiana) is a perfect gem. The latter, which is pale red outside and white inside, will do well in the garden if planted among stones and plant roots in light soil and a 132 FLOWER GARDENING warm, sheltered place. Three red ones, 7. tuber- geniana, T. Greigii and T. oculus solis are all very handsome and there is an early pink or white one, T. Kaufmanniana. : The lack of tulip education is most deplorable in the case of the cottage and Darwin tulips. Any of these, but most of all the selfs, are among the very choicest material for giving the garden beau- tiful May color with sharply defined individuality of form. Such cottage tulips as Glare of the Gar- den, Orange King, Inglescombe Yellow, Mrs. Moon, The Fawn and Black Chief and such Dar- wins as Clara Butt, Baronne de la Tonnaye, King Harold, Mrs. Krelage, Peter Barr and Mrs. Stan- ley are a joy to handle in the making of a garden picture. Of hyacinths there is less to be learned. Only the familiar Hyacinthus orientalis, single and dou- ble, is generally available in gardens north of Washington, but with protection it is possible to grow the dainty Roman hyacinth in the open ground near New York. What is chiefly to be learned about hyacinths proper is that it is idle to keep on in the old way of making mixed plantings; no bulb loses more by such treatment. There is no ex- cuse for this; named varieties of every hue, that have stood the test of time, are to be had and for low spring massing in a solid tone nothing is better. This is a more expensive plan than buy- ing by color alone, but safer, as in the latter in- stance there is likely to be a conglomeration of BULBS 133 shades that makes for indefiniteness of tone. A third species, H. amethystinus, is a dainty alpine hyacinth that ought to be better known. There is now a white variety of it. The feathered, grape, musk and starch hyacinths are not of the same genus; they are muscari. One of them, M. azureum, was formerly Hyacinthus azureus. The deep blue grape hyacinth (M. Botryoides) called bluebell in New England, is the only familiar one here and even that is much more of a stranger than it was years ago; as often as not it is an “escape” in the grass. It is fine for garden massing and so are the light blue and “pearls of Spain” (white). The Trebizond starch hyacinth Heavenly Blue has the gentian color and is very lovely in the garden. The or- dinary starch hyacinth (M. neglectum majus) and the Caucasian starch hyacinth (M. paradoxum) are blue-black. The fragrant musk hyacinth is M. moschatum majus, the tassel hyacinth M. comosum and the plume or ostrich feather hyacinth M. plumosum. The last has been developed into mauve plumes of great size, worthless to the garden save as curiosities. Old gardens knew a few kinds of narcissus. ‘The common ones were the yellow ‘‘daffy” (N. Tele- monius plenus, or van Sion), the orange and yel- low “Butter and Eggs” (N. incomparabilis fl. pl.), the “jonquil” (N. alba plena odorata) and the poet’s narcissus (N. poeticus), all but the last double. Only the first has begun to hold its own 134 FLOWER GARDENING and the chief newcomer is the single yellow daffo- dil (N. pseudo-narcissus ), generally in only a slight improvement of the species form. Yet this is the day of the daffodil—to use the most convenient English name for covering the genus Narcissus. In England there is a daffodil craze, with no parallel save the historic tulip mania in Holland. It is said that £50, about $242, is the top-notch price for a single bulb. In any event prices in excess of ten dollars are tolerably common; some of the 1912 quotations for novel- ties were Challenger, $162; Michael, $90; Em- pire, Jasper and Sheba, $76, and Czarina and Sir Galahad, $50. It is doubtful if the craze will ever cross the Atlantic. Meanwhile daffodils than which none could ask anything more beautiful are not in every garden, though sold as low as half a dollar a dozen. Two of the best single trumpet daffodils, Emperor (all yellow) and Empress (yellow with a white perianth) cost no more than that and will be just as satisfying to the general run of flower- lovers as costly bulbs are to the ardent British collector. The poet’s narcissus and its yellow counterpart, N. incomparabilis Barrii conspicuus, which cost less than half as much, are two more of the best. And these are only four selections of cheap single kinds. The natural hybrid of the poet’s narcissus, NV. biflorus, is very beautiful but is more common from Delaware southward. The double white jonquil, better named now gardenia “Tf there is a stretch of thin grass that is not cut early, naturalize some of the bulbs” BULBS 135 daffodil, is good for massing but rather capricious as to blooming. It exceeds in beauty the four other double ones, Van Sion, “Butter and Eggs” and the remaining two incomparabilis variants, Orange Phoenix (“Eggs and Bacon’’) and Silver Phoenix (“‘Codlins and Cream”). The clustered nosegay daffodil (N. polyanthus) has beautiful forms for the garden, but they are tender and require protection. Their poetaz hy- brids are less tender. The Chinese sacred lily (N. orientalis) is not grown in the open in cold climates. The true jonquils are hardy and it is unfortunate that they have not come to the front more. Both the campernelle jonquil (N. odorus) and the smaller kind (N. Jonquilla) are exceed- ingly graceful yellow flowers. Of the small spe- cies called daffodils the hoop petticoat (Bulboco- dium citrinus) and the rushleaved B. gracilis, last of all to bloom, are deserving of close acquaintance. The angel’s tear daffodil (Triandrus albus) is not very hardy. The crocus is as much of a surprise as the tulip and daffodil to those who find that it is no longer merely a crocus. So many crocus species have come into cultivation that they are the subject of a very remarkable monograph. Nor do they con- tinue to suggest only spring; there are autumn- blooming and winter-blooming ones, so that in some English gardens it is possible to have crocus color from August to March without any interruption. That is work for the collector; the thing for 136 FLOWER GARDENING others to do is to get a better understanding of the superiority of the new named spring crocuses over the old. As with hyacinths, it is inexcusable to buy mixtures when there are such fine named varieties, with larger bloom, for producing sheets of early spring color—at about one cent a bulb by the hundred. These improvements of C. vernus and C. aureus answer ordinary garden purposes so well that there is no special need of extending one’s knowledge of the spring-blooming species. Of the host of other spring bulbs the fritillaries have two very hardy representatives that have been gradually disappearing from old gardens without being asked to enter new ones. Yet one of these, the crown imperial (Fritillaria imperialis) is a grand and stately figure in the hardy garden in spring; the yellow, orange or red bloom is rich in color and the form of the plant unique. The other is the snake’s head fritillary, or guinea-hen flower (F. meleagris). The white or nearly white kinds are best for garden pictures; the dull purple shades do not show up well at any distance. There are many other charming fritillary species, but most of them are for specialized culture. For intense blue in March the Siberian squill (Scilla sibirica) is unrivalled unless it is by the early S. bifolia of the Taurus mountains. These two, which have white varieties, are the most de- sirable of the very low scilla species that are usually called squills. The taller May-flowering species are distinguished as wood hyacinths, though the BULBS 137 English one (S. nutans) is better known as blue- bells. This is a little more than a foot high and very handsome in the garden, as are also the taller Spanish wood hyacinth (S. Hispanica, or campanu- lata) and S. patula. Of the first two there are white and pink variations, but the blue type is preferable to them. The “glory-of-the-snow” (Chionodoxa), which has delicate blue star blossoms with a white center, is another inexpensive bulb that sadly needs recog- nition of its charms. It blooms in March and masses beautifully. There are several species; the one generally planted is C. Luciliae, which now has pink and white varieties. Snowdrops would be worth planting for pos- sible February bloom even if their little white bells were not a welcome sight at any time. The old snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) has a double form that may appeal to some; but it is inferior to the single, and neither is the equal of the giant snow- drop (G. Elwesii) for garden effect: The Crimean snowdrop (G. plicatus) is another tall species, and there are half a dozen more if these do not offer variety enough. The somewhat similar spring snowflake (Leucojum vernum) and summer snow- flake (L. aestivum), the one blooming in April and the other in May, are hardly less useful. Other thoroughly reliable spring bulbs are the spring star flower (Triteleia uniflora), which has deliciously fragrant bluish white blossoms; the In- dian quamash (Camassia esculenta) with tall spikes 138 FLOWER GARDENING of blue blossoms; the golden garlic (Allium Moly), which is about the last of the spring bulbs to bloom, and Pushkinia libanotica. The best star-of-Beth- lehem (Ornithogallum arabicum), the firecracker plant (Brodiaea coccinea), the netted iris (J. re- ticulata) and the “hardy gloxinia” (Jncarvillea Delavayi) are fairly hardy in the North, with pro- tection. Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) responds less readily to culture in the North than any of the bulbs mentioned—none of which calls for any favoring other than as stated in a few instances. Sometimes there is a moist place in a garden under a shrub; there, perhaps, the green foliage tufts and yellow blossoms will show themselves in March or April. The bulbs are cheap. With coddling still more spring bulbs are pos- sibilities in the North, but are materially less risky propositions to the southward. Several of the windflowers that are so beautiful in England every spring, such as Anemone coronaria, A. fulgens, A. St. Brigid, A. hortensis, A. blanda, A. apennina and 4. nemorosa Robinsoniana, are among these— so are Gladiolus Colvillei, the early species that is forced in quantities; the little known but very beautiful deep blue Ixiolirion tataricum, the showy red amaryllis-like Habranthus pratensis and the gorgeous single and double forms of Asiatic ranun- culi. Here is a list that ought to be drawn on more in the nearer South. All of the spring bulbs, of course, are planted BULBS 139 the preceding autumn—generally in October. Only the tulip, hyacinth, narcissus and crocus are very well adapted for general formal planting. For such planting place hyacinths six inches apart, tu- lips, four, daffodils three and the crocus and other small bulbs two. But with any spring bulb the most satisfactory planting is informal. Use clumps and drifts and aim for effects with a few good varieties, so far as the garden proper is concerned. Other varieties may be colonized here and there in the shrubberies. Combine a May tulip with a perennial rather than with another variety so as to secure marked form as well as color contrast. Small or large clumps of tulips (selfs), hyacinths, narcissus, and almost any of the little bulbs are very effective when scattered irregularly through the ‘hardy garden. Use the imposing crown im- perial only when it can be insured permanency of location; it dislikes being disturbed. The little bulbs, however, are best colonized under deciduous shrubs—where a great many kinds can be grown in unutilized space and left to themselves for years. Some of them, especially scillas, spread rapidly by self-sown seed. If there is a stretch of thin grass that is not cut very early, naturalize some of the bulbs; single trumpet daffodils, Tu- lipa sylvestris, May-blooming tulips (selfs), grape hyacinths, snowdrops, scillas, guinea-hen flower and crocus are all willing subjects. Summer flowers from bulbs that withstand the northern winter in the open ground are largely the 140 FLOWER GARDENING contribution of the lilies. These are the most glorious of summer bulbs and fortunately the re- liable species are sufficiently numerous to provide bloom from early June into September. The orange lily (Lilium croceum), the madonna lily (L. candidum), the tiger lily (L. tigrinum), the handsome lily (L. speciosum) and the gold-banded lily (L. auratum) are very hardy, though the last requires frequent renewal, and will carry the season through. All told, there are nearly thirty hardy species from which to make a selection. Two of the bulbous irises would do more if they had the chance. Abroad there are myriads of the Spanish iris (I. hispanica) and the English iris (I. anglica) in the early summer gardens but in the United States, despite their cheapness, they make scant headway. The bulbs are planted like tulips and require no more care. Named varieties of the Spanish iris are only one dollar a hundred; mass the selfs, like Belle Chinoise, King of the Blues and British Queen. The larger and later English iris is similar, but lacks yellow; Othello and Mont Blanc are good selfs. Dahlias and cannas, which are tuberous, and the large-flowered gladioli loom up more prom- inently in the summer garden. All have unques- tioned value there, though they are not very plastic material. They would be of more value if the rule was to plant them with greater care; they are mixed too much. Try one variety—the yel- low Princess Victoria show dahlia, the soft pink BULBS 141 Wawa canna or the vermilion Brenchleyensis glad- iolus—in a rather bold garden grouping and let there be none other in sight. The effect will be a revelation if you are addicted to the variety habit. Or try two varieties harmonized or con- trasted; for a striking violet and yellow combina- tion plant the Blue Jay and Sulphur King gladioli side by side. Two of the most graceful and colorful summer- flowering bulbs, the African corn lily (Ixia) and the monbretia, are nominally hardy with protec- tion—the latter has stood the test well up in New England, but north of Washington it is best to plant the bulbs in the spring and take them up in autumn. Ixias and the closely allied sparaxis have strange color combinations, even seagreen with a black center. Plant by named varieties; a mixture is horrible. Monbretias run the whole gamut of vermilion, orange and yellow shades. These also ought to be planted by named varieties. The new hybrids cost more than the old, but have larger blossoms. The great white summer-flowering hyacinth (Galtonia, or Hyacinthus, candicans) is treated the same way in the North. Being white, it fits anywhere. ‘Try it with the scarlet Gladiolus Brenchleyensis, or one of the primrose or violet Groff hybrids, instead of using two varieties of gladioli. The height is about three feet, but this is doubled in favorable circumstances. The white bugle lily (Watsonia ardernei), from 142 FLOWER GARDENING the Cape of Good Hope, resembles a gladiolus but is taller; it is very fine for the garden. The yel- low calla (Richardia Elliottiana), which masses well in appropriate positions; the Chilian lily (4/- strémeria chilensis), which is not hardy without protection; the brilliant red Scarborough lily (Val- lota purpurea), the pink and white fairly lilies (zephyranthes) and the tiger flower (Tigridia pavonia) are all desirable tender bulbs. A few of the summer bulbs are grown in the North only in tubs or pots, which may be sunk in the ground if desired—to give the effect of plant- ing out. The great crinums, C. longifolium (ca- pense), C. Moorei and C. Powelii and the blue African lily (A gapanthus umbellatus) are conspic- uous among these. The showiest of the autumn-blooming bulbs is the belladonna lily (Amaryllis Belladonna) , whose pink and white bloom is superb when planted out in a sheltered, hardy border as it is in England. Here Washington is about the safe northern limit for this treatment. And even there it should have some attention. It should have warmth and be planted deep, but when flowering it is such a de- sirable addition to the garden that the extra care is of negligible consideration. There is a wide range of shades from white to red and a variety in form and size of the flowers. Other autumn-blooming bulbs are numerous, but while they are usually hardy few of them are for the many. The saffron crocus (C. sativus) and BULBS 143 the blue C. speciosus are easy selections; so are the white meadow saffron (Colchicum autumnale alba) and the lily-of-the-field (Sternbergia lu- tea). Add, perhaps, one of the hardy cyclamens, C. neapolitanum, as an experiment. Winter-blooming species of crocus, iris and cy- clamen are suitable only for mild climates—even then special care will be necessary. CHAPTER XV SEASONAL EFFECTS WITH FLOWERS In the “Royall Ordering of Gardens,’ Bacon held that “there ought to be Gardens for all the Moneths in the Yeare: In which, severally, Things of Beautie may be then in Season.” Though the writer had princely magnitude in mind, this is a suggestion that might be carried out on a place of even moderate size without any appalling difficulties to overcome. All that is nec- essary is to pick out an even dozen spots on the home grounds and see that each has a dominant note characteristic of a certain month of the year. Geographical sequence is quite unimportant. Nor does it matter at all whether in each, or in any, case there is actually a garden. Thus a colony of snowdrops in a warm spot would not be too small to be called the February garden. It is no one’s business but your own how much play you allow your imagination. In a single garden, especially if it be of irregular design, it requires no great amount of ingenuity so to plant the plot that in every month of the year some one spot will have a glory unmistakably 144 SEASONAL EFFECTS 145 associated with it. Or, where space and time at one’s disposal are no barrier, a garden of the year could easily be created in the form of a wheel. The hub should be a good-sized pool, or bird bath, and from the path around it should radiate as many paths as there are months. A rim could be added if precise formality were desired, but very often spokes of unequal length would be bet- ter—and these need not always, or ever, be straight. Such a garden would develop into a perfectly permissible, but rather foolish, fad if it were laid out with the idea that no path was to be a pleasant walk save in the month to which it is dedicated. The point is not that at all; it is simply that the April path shall savor so strongly of April as to make it that month’s particular part of the gar- den. The January path ought to be the way of ap- proach. The chief reason is this: evergreens must be the seasonal note and by the use of these a permanently attractive ‘entrance may be made. Moreover, their green will always be the best of frames for the color that the July path, directly opposite, will bring into the vista. The ever- greens will have to spread into the February path on one side and the December path on the other. So long as it ceases to be dominant, the note may extend to any or all of the other paths. It would be possible in a fairly cold climate, say southern New England, to have at least one dis- 146 FLOWER GARDENING tinguishing flower for each month. But this is a very pretty theory that may or may not come out all right in practice; it depends on the winter, and some other things. Snowdrops are rather re- liable “Fair Maids of February,” if they are planted where the snow is likely to melt soonest, and there is not only the witch hazel for November but a very tardy, and very tiny, hardy yellow chrysanthemum. December and January are the hardest months. The Christmas rose is only tol- erably dependable; sometimes it comes into bloom in October. More likely to appear in either month is a stray pansy, California violet or ‘“Johnny- jump-up,” all of which need no more encourage- ment than a bit of a thaw. Plant Christmas roses for December, ‘“‘Johnny- jump-ups” for January and snowdrops for February, by all means, but for assured seasonal notes use, to again quote Bacon, “such Things, as are Greene all Winter.” The red-cedar for its state- liness, would better be the note of the January path. Holly answers very well for December and the rho- dodendron for February. There is a fairly wide choice of both the narrow-leaved and broad-leaved evergreens, and this after rejecting any of doubtful hardiness, March has the lovely blue of Scilla sibirica and glory-of-the-snow, as well as the bright yellow of Crocus Vernus to denote it. Usually the later white and purple crocuses can be counted on also. Thenceforward, until November, choice may be- A few kinds, planted separately, will give far and In June the rose comes first. “ a away the best results SEASONAL EFFECTS 147 come a matter of preference; so many flowers are available. There is no reason why preference should be kept down to one, two or three kinds of flowers a month; almost any number may be employed, ac- cording to desire and opportunity. As a rule a path will yield the maximum of pleasure if the chief accent is brought about by one or two kinds. This accent need not be employed for the whole month; there can be one, say, for the early part of it and another for the latter part. Thus April might disclose a drift of Arabis albida and another of Alyssum saxatile as a striking early note, with a straggling patch of tulips of one color for later in the month. The two drifts may run into each other; but the third colony would better be some distance away and on the other side of the path. This is partly because the early note will probably not have disappeared when the later one comes on and partly because the isolation of the special pictures permits a wider range of color. In this case, for example, the arabis and alyssum are white and yellow; but pink or red could be used for the tulips. May should have a marked fleur-de-lys note, first with the deep purple /ris pumila and later with one or two self-colored kinds of the germanica type. The Aubrietia deltoidea, Myosotis dissitiflora, Primula veris superba, Doronicum caucasicum, col- umbine and late-flowering tulips are also good for accenting. 148 FLOWER GARDENING In June the rose comes first. A few kinds, planted separately, will give far and away the best results. But the June walk ought not to be without foxgloves, both pink and white,and a generous supply of Canterbury bells; use the pink, lavender or purple with the white. For the very end of the month, always, a clump of Lilium candidum. July’s path might have the tall blue larkspur and a colony of one of the several orange or yellow lilies of the month. And there are the Japanese iris and the Miss Lingard variety of Phlox suf- fruticosa, as well as the imposing hollyhock. Some of the best August notes are furnished by Phlox paniculata, the two kinds of boltonia, Lilium auratum and Lilium speciosum. Various hardy asters, notably 4. novae angliae and 4. Jaevis, the Japanese anemone, Aconitum autumnale and the beautiful new heleniums may be used for September. ; The chrysanthemum i is the unique October note. Fortunately this is a most generous one as to varia- tion in color and duration of bloom. The old- fashioned large yellow, pink and white varieties and the rose and red “buttons” are particularly good for bold groupings. Where a hedge is not used for a rim, shrubs may close the farther end of some of the paths, or of all but the January one. And if the paths diverge until there is a wide space between every two, a few shrubs or small evergreen trees can be planted there. Some of these may be fairly tall in order to SEASONAL EFFECTS 149 create partial shade along a path; that would make a place for shade-loving plants. The shrubs, of course, ought to carry out the seasonal idea. Occasionally a flower runs over from one month into another; in that case let it do the same thing with the corresponding paths. But there must be less consistent straying, too. While the main showing of foxgloves belongs in the June path, let there be a few spires in the January path and so with enough of the other flowers to brighten up bare spots. With some.of the flowers not required for accenting notes it will be just as well to plant the entire stock in a path where it does not belong if bloom is more needed there at a given time. The same idea is readily applicable to a garden of the four seasons. Lay out four paths instead of twelve and name them spring, summer, autumn and winter: The last to be the entrance one. The remaining three may be Y-shaped to advantage: This to break up the wider spaces and to add to the number of vistas. And, in general, what has been said applies to any effort to give the garden seasonal effects. It is not argued that there must be such effects; rather that they add immeasurably to the enjoyment to be derived from the growing of flowers as a pastime, not a little of which enjoyment lies in the planning and the waiting for results. Nor is it argued that seasonal notes are so to concentrate attention as to exclude the following out of ordinary garden desires. One might grow 150 FLOWER GARDENING’ a hundred kinds of flowers and yet use only a single accent—the daffodil in April, the columbine in May, the rose in June, the larkspur in July, the speciosum lily in August, the Japanese anemone in September or the chrysanthemum in October; one covers the ground sufficiently if it is enough for you. It requires no profound knowledge of garden ma- terial to work out these beautiful forms of garden expression ; not infrequently they come without con- scious effort. Blooming season, color, height and habit of growth are the important things to know, after the question as to what plants will do well in a given situation has been decided. The blooming season is easily determined. Color is much more difficult. It must be not only decided in tone but—unless the blossoms are very large—spread so profusely over the plant as to fur- nish solidity of effect. Whether the color is used for harmony, as lavender Canterbury bells with purple ones, or for sheer contrast, as white and pink foxgloves together, matters little, so long as there is no mixture other than the pardonable kind. This is letting, say, a white iris or two stray over into the adjoining colony of purple ones—just as if nature had had the ordering of it. While two kinds of one flower, or two kinds of flowers, are a safe rule it is not one to be adhered to rigidly; good taste can always settle that. Height is mentioned because even carpeting plants, such as Phlox subulata, may be used in “For assured seasonal notes use, to again quote as Bacon, ‘Such things as are Greene all Winter’ SEASONAL EFFECTS Ler _ Spring, whereas later in the season, unless there is absolute isolation, only taller material will stand out by itself. As for habit of growth, foliage and stems may make one plant more desirable than another for a certain spot; thus Yucca filamentosa, for its form, might be a better July note somewhere than Platycodon grandiflorum, for its blue color. Perennials offer the lines of least resistance, because of their permanence; but some of the bien- nials, or plants best grown as such, are invaluable. These include self colored sweet-william and col- umbine, Myosotis dissitifora, Iceland poppy and hollyhock, as well as foxglove and Canterbury bell. Annuals are more useful as summer filllers than as summer accents, though at times not to be despised in the latter capacity. Miss Gertrude Jekyll’s theory of a seasonal gar- den is worth close study because she has put it to a practical test on her English place. ‘“‘I believe,” she says, ‘“‘that the only way in which it can be made successful is to devote certain borders to certain times of year: each border or garden region to be bright for from one to three months.” No doubt this is the best, if not the only, way when striving for the ideal is made a life work, as in Miss Jekyll’s case. But the plan is an admirable one for a place that is either very large or sufficient- ly diversified to permit the division of the garden into segregated sections. Miss Jekyll has an enor- mous summer border, a secluded spring garden and so on. 152 FLOWER GARDENING The plan moreover is one that, like Bacon’s, has suggestions for the least of places if the mind of the flower lover is at all adaptive. Certainly the secluded spring garden is a hint for any one who wants to strike a seasonal note that need mean no more labor than one is disposed to put into it. CHAPTER XVI THE MAKING OF FLOWER PICTURES THERE is a particularly appealing sentence in Miss Jekyll’s “Colour in Flower Gardens.” This reads: “It seems to me that the duty we owe to our gardens and to our own bettering in our gar- dens is so to use the plants that they shall form beautiful pictures.” Her ideal is “gardening that may rightly claim to rank as a fine art.” No garden ideal could be finer. Unfortunately none is more difficult of attainment, in the complete sense that Miss Jekyll has in mind. In gardens, as elsewhere, “‘art is long,” but likewise “‘time is fleet- ing’’—there are other things to do. Most must be content with shooting the arrow high, the while they take a grain of comfort in the thought that though they will inevitably fail to reach the mark they will have something, and be the better, for the striving. So these “beautiful pictures,” even if for long they may exist only as insubstantial visions, ought to be the inspiration of the humblest as well as the - grandest of garden schemes. While not essential, save to the highly sensitized nature, they do put a 153 154 FLOWER GARDENING keener edge on the pleasure to be derived from “the adaptation of things in the natural world to the uses of life’’—to quote one definition of art. Art, by the way, need not be taken so seriously as to make the pursuit of it in the garden at once a worry and a despair. If it seems too much of a bug- bear think of it “‘as the application of skill to the production of the beautiful by imitation or design,” and let it go at that. With good taste and imagi- nation, perhaps with only common sense, you will arrive at a sufficiently artistic goal. Garden pictures have the same beginning as paintings on canvas—composition, always with the idea of adapting nature rather than merely imitat- ing it. Form, which may not overlook so simple a thing as a flower stem; foreground and background are all prominent factors in this. Color, when taken to mean the hue of blossoms, is non-es- sential; it may be left out altogether. But color does not signify that, despite loose usage of the word; else would garden pictures be but patchwork quilts. It is made up of foliage as well, and of sky, rocks, buildings and everything entering into foreground and background. Pictures, of course, may be set down anywhere: again and again this is done with wholly satisfying results. But what makes the pains really worth while is to create these pictures precisely where they ought to be—which is determined by the natural, or potential, advantages of a certain spot. To illustrate; thcre is no law against planting “What makes the pains really worth while is to create these pictures precisely where they ought to be—which is determined by the natural, or poten- tial, advantages of a certain spot’ FLOWER PICTURES 155 larkspur and madonna lilies together on a border and callng the group a blue and white picture— much worse things than that happen in gardens every year. It is far better, however, first to reach the conclusion that a certain spot demands fairly tall plants, which well define themselves. These will, you feel, be more effective if there are two kinds, of not only unequal height but marked dif- ference in the shape of the blossoms and the way they are carried on the stems. Then let personal preference step in and go as far as it likes—consistently. If larkspur and ma- donna lilies are your choice, plant them. But re- member that blue and white are not the everything of color in your picture; the lily foliage is a delicate green, that of the larkspur darker. And you must have brought other colors into your back- ground—perhaps a sky that from dawn to sunset is everchanging. Whether a picture is the whole garden or a par- ticular grouping in it, or an isolated spot on the home grounds, matters very little; the main thing is to have as many pictures as the circumstances warrant. For this is not all of the growing of flowers; it is merely the supreme incident. A garden may be made a well composed picture at all times of the year, but that would mean either being a veritable slave to it to the end of life or expending an amount of money that most gardeners for pleasure could not afford. Even then there would very likely come intervals of imperfection 156 FLOWER GARDENING sorely to try a soul now grown somewhat finicky, if not intolerant. Rather than set one’s self about a task little short of superhuman, the wiser part is to make the most modest of beginnings and let art, to say noth- ing of labor, grow with experience. A simple way is to compose a picture of the gar- den entrance and the vista through it. This en- trance, say, is defined by two slim but shapely ever- greens of moderate height. The path almost im- mediately divides in twain, to form a large bed, be- yond which is a line of shrubbery. A rather bold massing, with an edging, is thought of for the bed. Many combinations there are; but take foxgloves and Canterbury bells. White of the one and pink of the cther will do, with green in the distance. Here are the main features of an extremely simple and uncomplicated garden picture. It is a June picture, but easily made one of a series of half a dozen or so from spring to autumn according to the time one cares to give to planning and planting. And it does not interfere with the creation of any number of pictures inside the gar- den; they may come along later, or not at all. In the garden itself pictures are most easily made by taking the angle where two paths separate, or the end of one, and working out an effect. Very frequently one kind of plant is sufficient and usually two are enough; but there can be no set rule as to that. Simple pictures may be made by planting a rose FLOWER PICTURES 157 at the side of the front door in the old-fashioned way; with a rambler on a porch, arch or gateway; with a woodbine on a juniper or a wistaria on a pine; with a nearly submerged boulder and a patch of Phlox subulata and so on to the end of a chapter, limited in length only by failure to see glorious opportunities. And there are innumerable lesser opportunities. A little patch of the old Campanula rapunculoides or Sedum spectabile close against the gray stones of the foundation of a house makes a picture as charming in its way as many of the more pretentious ones. Again, a small colony of foam flower (Tia- rella cordifolia), or bloodroot, or white violet, in the shade of a shrub, with brown twigs above it and brown earth around, is no less delectable. Do not despise the brown things—even some scat- tered leaves of the garden’s winter blanket. Nor fail to use the least of material; three purple crocus blooms and their grass-like foliage, and only the * soil for a background, will make a miniature at any rate. So far the pictures spoken of have been seasonal —in evidence at this or that time of year and then gone until another twelve months shall have come around. These present the minimum of difficulty and are therefore the best for the beginner. But a great deal of the pleasure of making garden pictures lies in the much more complicated task of arranging a succession of them in a single spot, nature to seem to evolve one from the other as the season pro- * 158 FLOWER GARDENING gresses as lantern views dissolve one into another. This requires an accurate knowledge not of all plants, but of enough to provide adequate working material. If perennials are used, and they are best, it is not a small undertaking to arrange a succession of plants that shall develop four distinct seasonal pictures, with no more bareness between times than san be avoided. It is worth trying, however. If failure comes, that will not rob the gardener of all his joy; some of it will have been the experience in the planning. A good compromise is to use a spot for only two pictures and these quite widely apart as to season. Thus the tall single cottage tulip might be planted behind hardy candytuft for a May effect and aut- umn monkshood for an October one. The candy- tuft is evergreen and the foliage of the monkshood is fine all summer—which illustrates the need in picture composition of knowing much about leaves, as well as blossoms, height, season, habit and so on. Foliage is of untold color, as well as form, value. Besides every conceivable shade of green, there are gray, yellows and whites—with red entering into the death notes of autumn and the life notes of spring. Twigs and stalks, too, are not all green; there are red, brown, yellow and gray ones. And the berries; they may be red, black, blue, yellow or white. Color supplied by blossoms, as has been said, is not indispensable. Its place in a garden picture is FLOWER PICTURES 159 nevertheless so appropriate that it, or the white of colorless blossoms, ought to figure in the majority of compositions. Flower color, which must include white for the sake of phraseological covenience, is employed in two ways—to emphasize individual form and to obliterate it, the latter by means of solid sheets of bloom. For example, in a spring picture of reddish orange crown imperial and white Phlox subulata, ° form is brought out in the one and quite lost in the other. The reddish orange is a selected color note, but it never lets you forget the bells that make the crown. Nor is it by any means so big a note as the green or the white. This combination was ar- ranged because the crown imperial has height—a rare thing in early spring. CHAPTER XVII FLOWERS FOR CUTTING IT is a pretty poor home garden in which no flowers are picked. What are they there for—mere show? Such gardens exist, but happily they are in the minority. There is never any need of robbing perceptibly the garden of its treasures, no matter how small it is. If the cutting is done with judgment here and there, and stems are taken full length, it is seldom that the reduction of bloom is apparent; a moder- ate-sized garden will often stand the loss of a market basket or two of its floral glory. Judg- ment will not err if it has back of it the knowledge that quantity in the case of flowers cut for the house is very unimportant; three stalks of lilies in a vase will be seen in all their beauty of form whereas fifty jammed into a jar together are an un- natural massing. On large estates there are special cutting gar- dens. This is a wholly admirable idea for even the smallest place. It not only relieves the garden proper from too much strain, but where a great many cut flowers are desired for the house the tract 160 FLOWERS FOR CUTTING 161 can be at the same time a reserve garden or nursery. The modern tendency, and it is a good one, is to keep down numerically the variety of material em- ployed in garden pictures. For much, or all, of what is rejected as picture material, though too fondly liked to discard altogether, the reserve gar- den is a convenience amounting to a necessity. It is just as well to isolate this garden, though there is no occasion to do so if ordinary pains are taken to keep it in good condition; there are cutting gardens that are really beautiful, even where the beds are as simple as if the planting were lettuce and there is little that is not in straight rows. Planting in straight rows is best for the sim- ple reason that it lightens labor. No planning is necessary for the planting and if sufficient space is left between the rows most of the weeding and cultivation can be done with a hoe. The work of fertilizing and winter protection is also reduced to a minimum. Grow a few shrubs in the cutting garden if there is room; some of them are readily propagated by cuttings. Shrubs elsewhere on the grounds may, of course, supply enough cut flowers without injury. But these should not be drawn on too heavily; several, like rhododendrons and azaleas, not at all. In the cutting garden plant forsythia, for branches to force in the house in February; the pink-flower- ing almond, or any good deutzia, weigela, viburnum, spirea, hypericum or lilac, These may be growing nursery stock or employed for an in- 162 FLOWER GARDENING formal hedge to screen the planted space from view. Plant hybrid perpetual and hybrid tea roses just as if they were so many cauliflowers or eggplants. Use a large number of one kind in preference to a few of many kinds, so that no mixing wil be neces- sary when cut in quantity for the house. The white Frau Karl Druschki is among the best hybrid per- petuals for cutting with long stems, particularly when partially opened. A dozen plants of this, or Mabel Morrison, or Baroness de Rothschild or General Jacqueminot, is better than three of each. La France is a fine hybrid tea for the purpose; so are Killarney, Griiss an Teplitz and Kaiserin Au- guste Victoria. Such old teas as Isabella Sprunt and Safrano, the very fragrant noisette, Céline Forestier, and the moss rose, Blanche Moreau, are further selections from a wide range; give the teas extra winter protection. Where quick results are desired, buy two-year-old plants—un- less they are novelties, thirty-five cents is a fair price. There are no better perennials for cutting than the German, Siberian and Japanese irises, brief as the life of the blossoms is. The selfs are by far the best—the purple, pale, blue, straw-colored and pearl German, the blue Siberian and the kindred white I. orientalis and the purple and clear white Japanese. The two Japanese kinds go well to- gether in vases and blue cornflower is a good accompaniment for the straw-colored German, DIYIF Ia]JOIUS IYJ UIdI 410f papl ajqvaimupo Apjoym v si siy pf “suapsv6 buipjna po1sads a1v a4ay} $94v4Sa ab4v] UC), = . Te RGA SINS Sos TSATT reese PR ADE eS aS Be SNES o cee x FLOWERS FOR CUTTING 163 Plant not only the light and dark blue tall lark- spur but the lower and much more graceful Del- phinium chinensis. The latter has both of the blue shades and white as well. It is highly desirable for cutting, but unfortunately does not last long in the house. Phlox of the tall late kinds has the same fault of soon beginning to shed petals on the table or floor. Of the P. suffruticosa type choose Miss Lingard and of the later P. decussata any of the well-defined shades—Mrs, Jenkins, Sie- bold and Madame Paul Dutrie are all good va- rieties. The old double clove-scented grass pinks and the newer Marguarite carnations; the double Lych- nis viscaria, the salmon and mulberry shades of oriental poppy, Pentstemon barbatus Torreyi, white or clearly defined colored herbaceous peonies, Funkia subcordata, feverfew, Aconitum autumnale, sea holly, Anemone japonica, all the hardy asters, boltonia, fraxinella (dictamnus), doronicum, Core- opsis lanceolata, Centaurea montana, pompon chrys- anthemums, pyrethrum, Baptisia australis, Cam- panula persicifolia, Campanula trachelium, antheri- cum, anthemis, amsonia, trollius,, helenium, Val- eriana officinalis, Statice latifolia, Gypsophila pan- iculata, bleeding heart, Scabiosa caucasica, Ranun- culus aconitifolius fl. pl., Primula veris superba, Primula cortusoides Sieboldii, the California violet, Phlox divaricata, Monarda didyma, Lychnis Haageana, lupine and Helleborus niger are among the other perennials that are desirable. 164 FLOWER GARDENING The Canterbury bell, iceland poppy, sweet-wil- liam, columbine and the gloxinoides type of pent- stemon are the best of the biennials, or plants treated as such. The foxglove is less satisfactory only because the bells fall quickly. Among the annuals and plants so classed the pansies, ordinary and tufted, are very choice cut flowers if grown by varieties and in sufficient quan- tity to permit the removal of branches; pansy blos- soms with only their own little stems are not them- selves in vases. China asters, both double and single; scabiosa, nasturtium, sweet peas, nigella, Shirley poppies, clarkia, sweet alyssum, African marigold, larkspur, Arcotis grandis, cornflower, chrysanthemum, nemesia, Drummond’s phlox, schizanthus, mignonette, candytuft, cosmos, sweet sultan, coreopsis and salpiglossis are all equally desirable in their way. Grow the nasturtium on poor soil. For early risers the Japanese, Heavenly Blue and other morning glories may be added; besides they are especially beautiful on the break- fast table. Of the hardy bulbs, plant only the lilies whose odor is not too strong for the house. The best of easy culture are L. candidum, L. speciosum, L. longiflorum, L. tigrinum and L. croceum. Any of the May-flowering tulips, single hyacinths, all kinds of narcissus, Fritillaria meleagris, Scilla nutans, the giant snowdrop, Allium Moly, quamash, Span- ish iris, English iris and the Trebizond starch hya- cinth, Heavenly Blue, are other selections of the FLOWERS FOR CUTTING 165 highest merit, both for culture and beautiful bloom. The dahlia and gladiolus are nowhere so valua- ble as in the cutting garden. Choose free-flowering dahlia selfs, with the habit of long stems, and plant the gladioli at fortnight intervals to secure a longer season of bloom. Both the montbretias and the ixias are superior cut flowers and neither is expensive excepting for the newest kinds. The single tuberose is very good indeed for cutting, though rarely used. Tigridias are showy, but per- ishable. Although variety is better relegated to the cut- ting garden, the advantage of keeping it well re- duced in the case of plants grown primarily for cut flowers cannot be too strongly emphasized. Favorite flowers first and then the favorite vari- ety or varieties of these should be the rule. Buy bulbs and seed by name, to avoid mixture in a row: sometimes the solid effect in the cutting gives you just the idea you want for the house or the hardy garden. Some of the herbs, notably the common sage, wormwood and burnet, furnish beautiful foliage for cutting—the first two in silvery sprays. The south- ernwood (Artemisia abronatum), Roman worm- wood (Artemisia pontica) and lavender cotton (Santolina Chamaecyparissus) are similarly useful. One plant of che lemon verbena and another of rose geranium there ought always to be. With a coldframe a much longer season of. California violets is possible. This is also the 166 FLOWER GARDENING best way to grow the beautiful Anemone St. Brigid in the North for cutting—as well as other perilous- ly tender bulbs and perennials. The planting of the cutting garden, of course, should be so arranged as to give it the longest possible season. April to October, inclusive, is not a difficult range for bloom, and during the remainder of the year evergreen foliage and ber- ries are easily available. The common black alder, or winterberry (Ilex verticillata) has excellent red berries for cutting, CuHaprTer XVIII THE MOST DEPENDABLE FLOWERS ANY true amateur would find the growing of flowers only along lines of least resistance intoler- ably tame sport. To him no small part of the charm of the pastime lies in the overcoming of difficulties. Whatever is not easy to do, even the seemingly impossible, renews his zeal and spurs him to fresh endeavor. But true amateurs are not the greater contingent of those who grow flowers for pleasure; they are relatively few. Most have not the time, or, lack- ing the necessary enthusiasm, do not care to take it. The really dependable flowers are good enough for them. This is a very sensible attitude—above all for the beginner, who has ahead years enough in which to graduate into the amateur class if the light of greater experience shall make such a change de- sirable. Better have prime poppies than consump- tive calichorti. Dependable flowers are flowers that can be de- pended upon to thrive in ordinary garden conditions and with ordinary care. With this distinction, ordinary is not to be taken to mean precisely uni- 167 168 FLOWER GARDENING form conditions and care. That would be absurd. A great many of the most dependable flowers, it is true, will thrive in common circumstances; but the sweet pea and lily-of-the-valley, though both are perfectly dependable, differ decidedly in their re- quirements. The following lists are made up of some of the most dependable flowers, including a few plants that are grown for the foliage and fruit rather than the blossoms. Only hardy plants that it is believed are reliably so a little above the latitude of Boston are mentioned. The arrangement, for greater convenience, is according to use as well us season—which necessi- tates occasional repetitions. Among shrubs are listed some slow-growing trees used in the same way. Perennials imply herba- ceous perennials exclusive of bulbs, and the bien- nials and annuals include any other plants grown as such. All hybrids, strains and varieties mentioned be- low the species are supplementary to the latter. Usually these signify an improvement of the spe- cies, but occasionally merely a color variation is noted. The named varieties indicated are some- times only a few out of many equally as good. In most instances novelties that are still expensive have been rejected in favor of old varieties of tested merit. DECIDUOUS SHRUBS—For profuse spring bloom before the foliage comes, or virtually so. FLOWER LISTS Amelanchier Botry- apium Amygdalus chinensis fl. pl. Amygdalus persica fl. pl. Azalea gandavensis (pontica) Daviesi Géant des Batailles Nancy Waterer Unique Azalea mollis Anthony Koster J. C. Van Tol Azalea nudiflora Cerasus avum fl. pl. Cerasus hortensis fl. pl. Cercis canadensis Cornus florida Corylopsis spicata Cydonia (Pyrus) japonica Candida Malardi Maulei Forsythia Fortunei Forsythia suspensa Laurus benzoin Magnolia atropurpurea Magnolia conspicua Magnolia stellata 169 Dwarf juneberry Double almond Double peach Ghent azalea white red yellow copper Japanese azalea orange red Pinxter flower European double cherry Japanese double cherry Judas tree Dogwood Flowering hazel Japanese quince pure white rose orange Golden bell Weeping golden bell Spice wood Japanese magnolia Chinese magnolia Starry magnolia 170 FLOWER GARDENING Prunus triloba Double plum DECIDUOUS SHRUBS—For more or less broad effects of white and colored bloom with foliage; spring to early summer. Amorpha fruticosa False indigo Azalea viscosa White swamp honey- suckle Chionanthus virginica White fringe Cytisus laburnum Laburnum Deutzia corymbiflora Flat-clustered deutzia Deutzia crenata rosea plena Double pink deutzia Candidissima pure white Deutzia gracilis Slender deutzia Lemoinei single Pride of Rochester double Diervilla florida hybrida "Hybrid weigela Amabilis pale pink Candida pure white _ Eva Rathke carmine red Exochorda grandiflora Pearl bush Halesia tetraptera Snowdrop tree Kerria (Corchorus) japonica Japanese rose Flore-pleno double yellow Ligustrum Ibota Japanese privet Lonicera tatarica Tartarian honeysuckle Malus baccata Siberian crab Malus Nedzwickiana Pink-flowering crab Malus Scheideckeri Double apple FLOWER LISTS = Philadelphus coronarius Boule d’Argent Lemoinei Erectus Rhodotypos kerrioides Ribes aureum Ribes sanguineum Sambucus canadensis Sambucus maxima pubescens Sambucus nigra aurea Spirea prunifolia Spirea sorbifolia Stellipeda Spiraea Van Houttei Syringa persica Syringa vulgaris Marie Le Graye Madame Casimir- Perier President Grevy Souvenir de Louis Spaeth Tamarix africana Viburnum opulus Viburnum opulus sterilis Viburnum plicatum Viburnum lantana Xanthoceras sarbifolia 171 Mock orange double white single white White kerria Flowering currant Crimson currant Common elder Giant elder Golden elder Bridal wreath Mountain ash-leaved spirea finer than type Van Houtte’s spirea Persian lilac Common lilac single white double white double bluish single rosy lilac Tamarisk High-bush cranberry Snowball Japanese snowball Wayfaring tree Chinese flowering chestnut DECIDUOUS SHRUBS—For more or less rye FLOWER GARDENING broad effects of white and colored bloom with foliage; early summer to early autumn. Althea frutex (Hibiscus syriacus ) Duchesse de Brabant Jeanne d’Arc Rubis Totus Albus Andromeda arborea Aralia japonica Aralia spinosa Buddleia variabilis Veitchii Ceanothus americanus Clethra ainifolia Colutea arborescens Hydrangea arborescens Grandiflora Hydrangea paniculata Grandiflora Hypericum prolificum Pavia matrostachya Paonia Moutan Archiduc Ludovico Docteur Bowring Regina Belgica Reine des Violettes Rhus alba Rhus cotinus Rubus odoratus Spirea bumalda Rose of Sharon double deep rose double white single deep rose single white Sorrel tree Japanese angelica Hercules club Veitch’s buddleia New Jersey tea Sweet pepper bush Bladder senna Snowball hydrangea improved type Panicled hydrangea improved type Prolific St. John’s wort Buckeye Tree peony pink cerise salmon violet White sumac Purple fringe Flowering raspberry Crimson spirea FLOWER LISTS 173 Anthony Waterer magenta Tamarix hispida a@stivalis Tamarisk EVERGREEN SHRUBS—With especially good bloom. Andromeda floribunda __Lily-of-the-valley shrub Azalea amena Evergreen azalea Crategus pyracantha (P. coccinea) Fiery thorn Lalandi improved type Kalmia latifolia Mountain laurel Mahonia aquifolium Holly-leaved mahonia Mahonia japonica Japanese mahonia Rhododendron Catawbiense Catawba rhododendron Boule de Neige pure white Fastuosum fl. pl. double bluish James Macintosh deep rose C. S. Sargent cerise Purpureum Grandi- florum violet purple Rhododendron maximum Great laurel EVERGREEN SHRUBS—For foliage only. Buxus sempervirens Box Euonymus japonica Spindle tree SHRUBS—With more or less showy fruit. Berberis Thunber gii Japanese barberry Berberis vulgaris Common barberry Callicarpa purpurea ‘Beauty fruit Cornus florida Dogwood 174 FLOWER GARDENING Cotoneaster buxifolia Crategus crus-galli *Crategus pyracantha Lalandi Eleagnus edulis Eunonymus europaeus *Tlex aquifolia Hodginsii Box-leaved cotoneaster ‘Cockspur thorn Fiery thorn improved type Silver thorn Burning bush English holly improved type (Hardy in sheltered spot.) *Tlex opaca Laurus benzoin Lonicera tatarica *Mahonia aquifolium *Mahonia japonica Malus baccata Malus Nedzwickiana Malus Scheideckeri *Myrica cerifera *Phillyrea decora Pyrus arbutifolia Rhodotypos kerriodes Rhus typhina Laciniata Sambucus canadensis Sambucus maxima pubescens Sambucus plumosa laciniata Symphoricarpus *Evergreen, American holly Spice wood Tartarian honeysuckle Holly-leaved mahonia Japanese mahonia Siberian crab Pink-flowering crab Double apple Bayberry Brood-leaved filaria Red chokeberry White kerria Staghorn sumac improved type Common elder Giant elder Plume Elder “Garden pictures have the same beginning as paintings on cgnvas—composition, always with the idea of adapting nature rather than merely imitating it” FLOWER LISTS racemosus Symphoricarpus vulgaris Viburnum acerifolium Viburnum alnifolium Viburnum cassinoides Viburnum opulus Viburnum lantana 175 Snowberry Coral berry Maple-leaved viburnum Withe rod High bush cranberry Wayfaring tree Hobble bush SHRUBS—With fragrant blossoms. Azalea nudiflora Buddleia variabilis Veitchit Calacanthus floridus Clethra ainifolia Crategus oxycantha Diervilla florida hybrida Ligustrum Ibota Lonicera fragrantissima Magnolia conspicua Malus baccata Philadelphus coronarius Ribes aureum Ribes Gordonianum Rubus odoratus Sambucus canadensis Syringa vulgaris Viburnum lentago Pinxter flower Veitch’s buddleia Strawberry shrub Sweet pepper bush English hawthorn Hybrid weigela Japanese privet Fragrant upright honeysuckle Chinese magnolia Siberian crab ‘Mock orange Flowering currant Gordon’s currant Flowering raspberry Common elder Lilac Sheepberry SHRUBS—Suitable for hedges. Althea frutex Berberis Thunbergii Berberis vulgaris Rose of Sharon Japanese barberry Common barberry 176 FLOWER GARDENING Crategus crus-galli Cockspur thorn Crategus oxycantha English hawthorn Cydonia japonica Japanese quince Ligustrum ovalifolium California privet Rhamnus cathartica Buckthorn SHRUBS—That may be trained on a wall for a flat effect. These three are extraordinarily beautiful so trained. Crategus pyracantha Fiery thorn Cydonia japonica Japanese quince Robinia hispida Rose acacia SHRUBS—That are particularly suitable for planting on places at the seashore. Baccharis halimifolia Groundsel tree Berberis Thunbergii Japanese barberry Enonymus japonicus Spindle tree Genista scoparia Scotch broom Hydrangea paniculata __ Panicled hydrangea Ligustrum ovalifolium California privet Prunus maritima Beach plum HARDY CLIMBING PLANTS—That bloom from May to early summer. *Akebia quinata Akebia vine Celastrus scandens Common bittersweet Celastrus orbiculatus Oriental bittersweet Clematis coccinea Red leather flower Clematis hybrida Large-flowered hybrid clematis Duchess of Edinburgh double white Jackmani deep purple Ville de Lyon carmine FLOWER LISTS Clematis montana *Clematis virginiana Ipomea pandurata Lathyrus latifolius White Pearl *Lonicera Halleana Wristaria sinensis Alba 177 Mountain clematis Virgin’s bower Hardy moonflower Everlasting pea pure white Hall’s honeysuckle Chinese wistaria pure white HARDY CLIMBING PLANTS—That bloom from early summer to October. *Apios tuberosa ‘Aristolochia sipho Bignonia (Tecoma) radicans *Clematis paniculata Dioscorea Batatas Lonicera sempervirens Lycium barbarum Polygonum multiflorum Pueraria Thunbergiana Schizophragma hydran- goides Groundnut Dutchman’s pipe Trumpet creeper Japanese clematis Cinnamon vine Coral honeysuckle Matrimony vine Many-flowered knot- weed Kudzu vine Climbing hydrangea HARDY CLIMBING PLANTS—That are grown mostly for foliage and fruit. Actinidia chinensis Chinese actinidia (Rarely blooms in cultivation.) Ampelopsis Veitchii Ampelopsis quinquifolia *Fragrant. Virginia creeper Boston ivy 178 Uristolochia sipho Celastrus scandens Celastrus orbiculatus Euonymus radicans Variegata Hedera helix Humulus lupulus Aurea Lycium barbarum Periploca greca Vitis humulifolia FLOWER GARDENING Dutchman’s pipe Common bittersweet Oriental bittersweet Creeping euonymus green and white English ivy Hop yellow foliage Matrimony vine Silk vine Hop-leaved vine PERENNIALS—For low massed effects of white or colored bloom in spring, late March to early May. Adonis amurensis Adonis vernalis Ajuga genevensis Ajuga reptans alba Alyssum saxatile Arabis albida Flore Pleno ‘Armeria maritima Aubrictia deltoidea Eyri Liberty Lloyd Edwards Epimedium nivium Epimedium sulphureum Erinus alpinus Iberis sempervirens Tris cristata Amur bird’s eye Spring bird’s eye Blue bugle White bugle Basket of gold White rock cress. double Thrift False wall cress dark violet soft violet purple White barrenwort Yellow barrenwort Alpine erinus Candytuft Crested iris FLOWER LISTS 179 Tris pumila Eburnea Florida Formosa Tris reticulata Phlox amena Phlox procumbens Phlox stellaria Phlox subulata Lilacina The Bride Primula auricula Primula polyantha Dwarf iris white lemon violet Netted iris Hairy phlox Creeping phlox Chickweed phlox Moss pink pale lilac white Auricula Polyanthus Munstead bunch primrose is a fine strain Primula veris Superba Primula vulgaris Viola odorata Alba Californica Cowslip improved type English primrose Sweet violet white purple PERENNIALS—For low massed effects of white or colored bloom from early May through June. Anemone sylvestris Aster alpinus Albus Campanula carpatica Cerastium tomentosum Convallaria majalis Dianthus cesius Dianthus deltoides Dianthus plumarius Snowdrop windflower Alpine aster pure white Carpathian harebell Snow-in-summer Lily-of-the-valley Cheddar pink Maiden pink Grass pink 180 Excelsior Her Majesty Lithospermum pros- tatum Heavenly Blue Phlox ovata Polemonium reptans Primula cortusoides Sieboldii Robert Herold Pulmonaria saccharata Ranunculus repens fl. pl. Sedum acre Thymus serpyllum Coccinea Tiarella cordifolia Veronica gentianoides Veronica rupestris FLOWER GARDENING Double light rose white Gromwell turquoise Mountain phlox Greek valerian Siebold’s primrose deep rose, white eye Lungwort Double creeping buttercup Golden moss Creeping thyme scarlet Foam flower Gentian-leaved speedwell Rock speedwell PERENNIALS—For low massed effects of white or colored flowers from late June to the end of summer. Nierembergia rivularis (Enothera caspitosa Gnothera fruticosa Youngii Plumbago larpentae Prunella (Brunella) grandiflora Saponaria ocymoides Cup flower Evening primrose Sundrops improved type Leadwort Self-heal Soapwort FLOWER LISTS 181 PERENNIALS—That throw up flower stalks twelve to thirty inches tall in April and May. A quilegia canadensis A quilegia chrysantha Aquilegia flabellata nana alba Aquilegia vulgaris Asperula odorata Astilbe japonica Queen Alexandra Dielytra (Dicentra) formosa Dielytra (Dicentra) spectabilis Doronicum caucasicum ‘Doronicum Clusii Tris Germanica Florentina Mrs. H. Darwin Madam Chereau Pallida Dalmatica Plicata Tris ochroleuca Iris orientalis Snow Queen Tris pseudacorus Tris sibirica Alba Common American columbine Yellow columbine Dwarf white columbine Common European columbine Sweet woodruff Astilbe rose Plumy bleeding-heart Common bleeding-heart Caucasian leopard’s bane Clusius’ leopard’s bane German iris pearl color white, violet markings white, blue markings lavender violet purple Straw-colored iris ‘Oriental iris white Yellow water flag Siberian iris white, lilac markings 182 Lychnis dioica fl. pl. Mertensia virginica Phlox divaricata Alba grandiflora Laphami Saxifraga cordifolia Trollius asiaticus Flore croceo Helios Leuchtkugel Trollius europaeus FLOWER GARDENING Ragged Robin Virginian cowslip Wild sweet-william white improved blue Heart-leaved saxifrage Asiatic globeflower deep orange yellow orange red European globe flower PERENNIALS—That are at their best in June and July. Achillea millefolium roseum Achillea ptarmica Boule de Neige Achillea tomentosa Actaa spicata alba A grostemma coronaria Amsonia tabernemon- tana Anchusa italica Dropmore Anthemis tinctoria Alba Anthericum Liliago Anthericum (Paridisea) liliastrum Giganteum Asphodelus luteus Rosy milfoil White milfoil improved double Yellow yarrow Baneberry Mullein pink Amsonia Sea bugloss improved type Golden marguerite cream-colored St. Bernard’s lily St. Bruno’s lily improved type Asphodel FLOWER LISTS Baptisia australis Campanula glomerata Dahurica Campanula grandis Campanula persicifolia Campanula rapunculoides Campanula rotundifolia Campanula trachelium Centaurea montana Chrysanthemum max- inum hybridum Alaska Chrysanthemum par- thenium fi. pl. Clematis recta Coreopsis lanceolata Grandiflora Coronilla varia Delphinium chinense Album Delphinium formosum Delphinium hybridum Bella Donna Dictamnus fraxinella Alba Caucasicus Gaillardia grandiflora Geranium cinerium album Geranium sanguineum 183 False indigo Clustered bellflower improved type Great bellflower Peach bells Blue bells Harebell Coventry bells Hardy cornflower Shasta daisy Burbank improvement Double feverfew Shrubby clematis Hardy coreopsis improved type Crown vetch Chinese larkspur white Old blue larkspur Hybrid larkspur turquoise blue Gas plant white improved type Blanket flower White crane’s bill Red crane’s bill 184 Geum chiloense (coccineum) Mrs. F. Bradshaw Geum Heldreichi Hesperis matronalis Alba Hemerocallis flava Hemerocallis Midden- dorfi Hypericum Moserianum Inula montana Tris lavigata Sakata Shishi-odori Tokyo Linum flavum Linum perenne Lupinus arboreus Snow Queen Lupinus polyphyllus Beauty Nellie Taplow Purple Yellow Boy Lychnis chalcedonica Lychnis viscaria fl. pl. Ononis hircina Paonia hybrida Festiva Maxima Jenny Lind Richardson’s Rubra FLOWER GARDENING Scarlet avens fine double Orange avens Sweet rocket pure white Custard lily Middendorf’s day lily St. John’s wort Mountain inula Japanese iris three-petaled lavender six-petaled purple six-petaled white Yellow flax Hardy blue flax Tree lupine pure white Many-leaved lupine lavender white purple yellow London pride Double German catchfly Rest harrow Double hybrid peony white rose FLOWER LISTS Superba Paonia hybrida Dog Rose Pride of Langport Silver Rose Paonia officinalis Alba Rosea Rubra Paonia tenuifolia fl. pl. Papaver orientale Bracteatum Goliath Mrs. Perry 185 red Single hybrid peony pink pink white Old-fashioned peony white rose deep red Fine-leaved peony Oriental poppy red, black markings scarlet salmon rose Many new rose, salmon and mulberry shades. Penstemon barbatus Torreyi Pentstemon glaber Phlox suffruticosa Hercules Miss Lingard White Swan Platycodon grandi- florum Album Mariesi 'Polemonium Richardsonii Alba Pyrethrum hybridum Carl Vogt Coral drops Smooth pentstemon Early tall phlox lilac white, with lilac eye pure white Japanese bellflower white dwarf blue Jacob’s ladder white Painted daisy double white 186 James Kelway Mrs. William Kelway Queen Mary Snow White Ranunculus aconitifolius pl. Ranunculus acris fl. pl. Salvia pratensis Scabiosa caucasica Spiraea filipendula fl. pl. Stachys Betonica Stachys lanata Stokesia cyanea Thalictrum aquile gi- folium Superbum Tradescantia virginica Valeriana officinalis Veronica spicata Yucca filamentosa PERENNIALS—That are at their best between FLOWER GARDENING single red single pink ‘double pink single white Fair-maids-of-France Double buttercup Meadow sage Blue bonnet Double dropwort Wood betony Woolly woundwort Stokes’ aster Meadow rue double mauve Spider lily Garden heliotrope Speedwell Adam’s needle late July and early September. Acanthus mollis Aconitum napellus Albus A denophora polymorpha Adenophora Potannini Asclepias tuberosa Bocconia cordata Boltonia asteroides Bear’s breech -Monkshood white Gland bellflower Potannini’s bellflower Butterfly weed Plume poppy White false chamomile FLOWER LISTS Boltonia latisquama Calimeris incisa Centaurea macrocephala Centranthus ruber Cimicifuga racemosa Clematis Davidiana Coreopsis rosea Echinops banaticus Erigeron glabellus Eryngium amethystum Eupatorium ageratoides Eupatorium calestinum Funkia caerulea Funkia Fortunei Funkia subcordata Gypsophila paniculata Helianthus decapetalus Soleil d’Or Helianthus mollis Heuchera sanguinea Pluie de Feu Virginal Hibiscus moscheutos Crimson Eye Liatris pycnostachya Lobelia cardinalis Lysimachia clethroides Lythrum roseum Superbum Monarda didyma Pardanthus sinensis , 187 Pink false chamomile Starwort Golden thistle Red valerian Snake root David’s clematis Pink coreopsis Globe thistle Fleabane Sea holly Thoroughwort Blue thoroughwort Blue day lily Fortune’s day lily White day lily Baby’s breath Hardy sunflower double Hairy sunflower Alum root red cream white Swamp mallow white, red center Gay feather Cardinal flower White loosestrife Rose loosestrife improved type Oswego tea Blackberry lily 188 Penstemon ovatus Phlox paniculata Antonin Mercier Coquelicot Le Prophéte Mrs. Jenkins Siebold Vesuvius Pyrethrum uliginosum Physostegia virginica Alba Polygonum cuspidatum Potentilla atrosanguinea Camellia Miss Wilmott Rudbeckia laciniata f. pl. Rudbeckia (Echinacea) purpurea Sedum Sieboldi Sedum spectabilis Senecio pulcher Statice eximia Statice latifolia Veronica incana Veronica longifolia subsessilis FLOWER GARDENING Ovate pentstemon Panicled phlox lilac scarlet rose white improved Coquelicot cerise Giant daisy Obedient plant white Giant knotweed Scarlet potentilla double red cerise Golden glow Pink cone flower Lover’s wreath Live-forever Groundsel Lilac sea lavender Giant sea lavender Hoary-leaved speedwell Long-leaved speedwell PERENNIALS—That bloom in September and October. Aconitum autumnale Anemone japonica Autumn monkshood Japanese anemone FLOWER LISTS Alba Queen Charlotte Whirlwind Aster acris Aster levis Aster nove anglie Beauty of Colwell Mrs. F. W. Raynor Chrysanthemum indica Baby Julie Lagravére 189 single white semi-double pink semi-double white Dwarf violet aster Smooth-leaved aster New England aster semi-double lavender crimson purple Pompon chrysanthemum lemon red All old-fashioned kinds very hardy. Gentiana Andrewsii Helenium autumnale Riverton Beauty Riverton Gem Helianthus Maximiliani Helianthus rigidus Miss Mellish Wolley Dod Tricyrtis hirta Closed gentian Sneezewort lemon reddish orange Maximilian’s sunflower Hardy sunflower golden dark yellow Japanese toad lily PERENNIALS—With evergreen foliage or vir- tually so. *A grostemma coronaria Ajuga genevensis Ajuga reptans alba *Alyssum saxatile Anthemis tinctoria *Arabis albida Arenaria cespitosa Armeria maritima Mullein pink Blue bugle White bugle Basket of gold Golden marguerite White rock cress Sandwort Thrift 190 *Artemisia pontica *Aubrietia deltoidea *Cerastium tomentosum Dianthus deltoides * Dianthus plumarius Geum chiloense Geum Heldreichi Helianthemum vulgare Helleborus niger Hesperis matronalis Heuchera sanguinea Iberis sempervirens Pachysandra terminalis Phlox amena Phlox divaricata (cana- densis) Phlox ovata Phlox subulata Primula auricula Primula polyantha Primula veris Primula vulgaris Ranunculus repens fl. pl. Santolina Chamaecy- parissus Satureia montana Saxifraga cordifolia Sedum album Sempervivum tectorym FLOWER GARDENING Roman wormwood False wall cress Snow-in-summer Maiden pink Grass pink Red avens Orange avens Rock rose Christmas rose Sweet rocket Red alum root Hardy candytuft Japanese evergreen spurge Hairy phlox Wild sweet-william Mountain phlox Moss pink Auricula Polyanthus Cowslip English primrose Creeping double buttercup Lavender cotton Winter savory Heart-leaved saxifrage White stonecrop House leek -a40u piva Butytsjs v sv vpiqip siqvip fo jfiap v asojzrsip quoi piadp sny 7, FLOWER LISTS *Stachys lanata Thymus serpyllum Tiarella cordifolia Yucca filamentosa *Veronica incana Veronica rupestris Vinca minor Alba Igl Woolly woundwort Creeping thyme Foam flower Adam’s needle Hoary-leaved speedwell Rock speedwell Periwinkle white *Gray, or grayish, foliage. PERENNIALS—That, in species forms, are suit- able for naturalizing, or planting in broad nat- uralistic effect. *Achillea tomentosa Acanthus mollis Aconitum autumnale Actaa spicata Alba Rubra Adonis amurensis Adonis vernalis Aegopodium podograria *Ajuga genevensis *Ajuga reptans alba *Alyssum saxatile Amsonia Tabernemontana Anemone pennsylvanica Anemone japonica Anemone Pulsatilla Anthericum liliago Anthericum liliastro Yellow yarrow Bear’s breech Autumn monkshood Baneberry white berries red berries Amur bird’s eye Spring bird’s eye Bishop’s weed Blue bugle White bugle Basket of gold Amsonia Pennsylvanian anemone Japanese anemone Pasque flower St. Bernard’s lily St. Bruno’s lily 192 *Arabis albida *Arenaria montana *Armeria maritima *Aquilegia canadensis A quilegia chrysantha Aquilegia vulgaris Ascelpias tuberosa Asperula odorata Asphodelus luteus *Aster alpinus Aster acris Aster laevis Aster nove anglia Baptisia australis Bellis perennis Bocconia cordata Boltonia asteroides Boltonia latisquama *Campanula carpatica Campanula glomerata Campanula rapunculoides Campanula rotundifolia Cassia marilandica Centaurea montana Cimicifuga racemosa Clematis recta Convallaria majalis Coronilla varia FLOWER GARDENING White rock cress Sandwort Thrift Common American columbine Yellow columbine Common European columbine Butterfly weed Sweet woodruff Asphodel Alpine aster Dwarf violet aster Smooth-leaved aster New England aster False indigo English daisy Plume poppy White false chamomile Pink false chamomile Carpathian harebell Clustered bellflower Blue bell Harebell American senna Hardy cornflower Snakeroot Shrubby clematis Lily-of-the-valley Crown vetch FLOWER LISTS “Dianthus deltoides *Dianthus neglectus Dielytra formosa Doronicum caucasicum Epimedium niveum Erigeron coulteri *Erinus alpinus Eupatorium ageratoides Gentiana Andrewsii Geranium grandiflorum *Geum coccineum *Geum Heldreichi Helianthemum vulgare Helianthus tuberosus Helenium autumnale Helleborus niger ‘Heracleum giganteum Hesperis matronalis Hemerocallis flava Hibiscus moscheutos Hieracium aurantiacum Hypericum Moserianum *Iberis sempervirens Inula montana *Iris cristata Iris germanica Iris levigata Tris ochroleuca Iris pumila Iris sibirica Iris pseudacorus 193 Maiden pink Glacier pink Plumy bleeding-heart Leopard’s bane Barrenwort Fleabane Alpine erinus :Thoroughwort Closed gentian Lilac crane’s bill Red avens Orange avens Rock rose Jerusalem artichoke Sneezewort Christmas rose Giant parsnip Sweet rocket Tawny day lily Swamp mallow Hawkweed St. John’s wort Hardy candytuft Mountain inula Crested iris German iris Japanese iris Straw-colored iris Dwarf iris Siberian iris Yellow water flag 194 Iris versicolor Lamium maculatum Liatris pycnostachya *Linum perenne Lobelia cardinalis Lysimachia clethroides Lysimachia nummularia Lychnis flos cuculi Lychnis semperflorens Lychins vespertina Lychnis viscaria Lythrum roseum Mertensia virginica Mimulus luteus Monarda didyma Monarda fistulosa Myosotis palustris semper florens *Ocnothera cespitosa Ocenothera fruticosa Ononis hircina Opuntia polycantha Orobus superbus Cypripedium acaulz Cypripedium spectabile Pachysandra terminalis Pardanthus (Belem- canda) sinensis *Penstemon barbatus Torre yii FLOWER GARDENING Blue water flag Babe-in-the-cradle Gay feather Hardy blue flax Cardinal flower White loosestrife Creeping Jenny Cuckoo flower Rose campion White campion German catchfly Rose loosestrife Virginian cowslip Yellow monkey-flower Oswego tea Wild bergamot Forget-me-not White evening primrose Sundrops Kest harrow Prickly pear Bitter vetch Pink moccasin flower Showy moccasin flower Japanese evergreen spurge Blackberry lily Torrey’s pentstemon FLOWER LISTS Petasites japonicus *Phlox amena *Phlox divaricata *Phlox ovata Phlox paniculata 195 Japanese coltsfoot Hairy phlox Wild sweet-william Mountain phlox Panicled phlox (Old-fashioned pink and white) Phlox pilosa *Phlox subulata Physostegia virginica *Plumbago larpente Podophyllum peltatum Polygonatum majus *Polemonium reptans Polygonum cuspidatum *Potentilla formosa *Potentilla pyrenaica Primula elatior Primula japonica Primula veris Primula vulgaris Rhexia virginica Rudbeckia purpurea Salvia pratensis *Sanguinaria canadensis Sanguisorba canadensis *Saponaria ocymoides *Saxifraga cordifolia *Saxifraga virginiensis *Sedum acre *Sedum album *Silene pennsylvanica Downy phlox Moss pink Obedient plant Leadwort May apple Solomon’s seal Greek valerian Giant knotweed Red cinquefoil Pyrenean cinquefoil Oxlip Japanese primrose Cowslip English primrose Meadow beauty Pink cone flower Meadow sage Bloodroot Canadian burnet Soap wort Heart-leaved saxifrage Rock saxifrage Golden moss White stonecrop Wild pink 196 Smilacina racemosa Tanacetum vulgare Thalictrum adiantifolium *Thymus lanuginosus *Thymus serpyllum *Tiarella cordifolia Tradescantia virginica Tricyrtis hirta Trillium grandiflorum Trollius europaeus Tussilago farfara Valeriana officinalis Veronica rupestris Veronica spicata Vinca minor Viola pedata *Yucca filamentosa FLOWER GARDENING False Solomon’s seal Tansy Meadow rue Woolly-leaved thyme Creeping thyme Foam flower Spider lily Japanese toad lily White wood lily European globe flower Coltsfoot Garden heliotrope Rock speedwell Spiked speedwell Periwinkle Bird’s foot violet Adam’s needle *Well adapted for pockets of soil on rocky ground. PERENNIALS—That will do well in partial shade. Aconitum napellus Aconitum autumnale Actaa spicata Aegopodium podograria Ajuga genevensis Ajuga reptans alba Anemone pennsylvanica Anemone japonica A quilegia canadense Monkshood Autumn monkshood Baneberry Bishop’s weed Blue bugle White bugle Pennsylvanian anemore Japanese anemone Common American FLOWER LISTS Asperula odorata Chelone Lyoni Cimicifuga racemosa Convallaria majalis Cypripedium acaule Cypripedium pubescens Cypripedium spectabile Dielytra spectabilis Dodecatheon Meadi Doronicum austriacum Eryngium amethystinum Funkia cerulea Funkia Fortunei Funkia subcordata Gentiana Andrewsii Globularia tricosantha Helleborus niger Hesperis matronalis Hepatica triloba Lobelia cardinalis Lysimachia nummularia Marshallia trinervis Monarda didyma Myosotis semperflorens Pachysandra terminalis Phlox divaricata Podophyllum peltatum Polemonium reptans Polemonium Richardsonii 197. columbine Sweet woodruff Pink turtle-head Snakeroot Lily-of-the-valley Pink moccasin flower Yellow moccasin flower Showy moccasin flower Bleeding-heart Shooting-star Austrian leopard’s bane Sea holly Blue day lily Fortune’s day lily White day lily Closed gentian Globe daisy Christmas rose Sweet rocket Liverwort Cardinal flower Creeping Jenny Marshallia Oswego tea Forget-me-not Japanese spurge Wild sweet-william May apple Greek valerian Jacob’s ladder 198 Primula japonica Primula vulgaris Prunella grandiflora Prunella incisa Saxifraga cordifolia Saxifraga umbrosa Sedum album Smilacina racemosa Tiarella cordifolia Tricyrtis hirta Vinca minor FLOWER GARDENING Japanese primrose English primrose Large flowered self-heal Rose-flowered self-heal Heart-leaved saxifrage London pride White stonecrop False Solomon’s seal Foam flower Japanese toad lily Periwinkle PERENNIALS—That are suitable for planting by the waterside or in other moist places. Anemone japonica Anemone pennsylvanica Astrantia carniolica Calthra palustris Flore plene Cornus canadensis Gentiana Andrewsii Houstonia serpyllifolia Tris levigata Iris pseudacorus Lobelia cardinalis Lythrum roseum Marshallia trinervis Mimulus luteus Mimulus ringens Myosotis semperflorens Petasites japonicus Physostegia virginica Japanese anemone Pennsylvanian anemone Masterwort Marsh marigold fine double Bunchberry Closed gentian Bluets Japanese iris Yellow water flag Cardinal flower Rose loosestrife Marshallia Yellow monkey flower Blue monkey flower Forget-me-not Japanese coltsfoot Obedient plant FLOWER LISTS Polygonum cuspidatum Primula japonica Primula vulgaris Rhexia virginica Spiraea ulmaria Thalictrum adiantifolium Trollius asiaticus Trollius europaus Veronica repens 199 Giant knotweed Japanese primrose English primrose Meadow beauty Meadow sweet Meadow rue Asiatic globe flower European globe flower Creeping speedwell BIENNIALS—That are good for one season in perfection. Althea rosea Hollyhock Single kinds are best. Antirrhinum majus Bellis perennis Alice The Bride Campanula Medium *Campanula pyramidalis Dianthus barbatus Newport Pink Dianthus “Marguerite” **Digitalis ambigua **Digitalis purpurea **M yosotis dissitiflora Alba Papaver nudicaule Tragopogon porrifolius Snapdragon English daisy double pale pink double white Canterbury bell Chimney bellflower Sweet-william salmon Garden carnation Yellow foxglove Common foxglove Forget-me-not white Iceland poppy Oyster plant (A vegetable, but beautiful in gardens.) **Fine for naturalizing *Best in pots 200 FLOWER GARDENING Verbascum Wiedmannianum Violet mullein ANNUALS—For bold massing in white and colors; low effects. Ageratum mexicanum Floss flower Blue Perfection dark blue Princess Pauline sky blue Alyssum maritimum Sweet alyssum Little Gem very compact Brachycome iberidifolia Swan River daisy Cacalia coccinea Flora’s paintbrush Calendula officinalis Pot marigold Orange King double orange Pure Gold double yellow Callirhoé involucrata Poppy mallow Callistephus hortensis China aster Non Plus Ultra dwarf type Celosia cristata Cockscomb Queen of the Dwarfs dark rose Convolvulus minor Dwarf morning-glory Roseus Superbus pink Delphinium ajacis Larkspur Dwarf Rocket double various Dianthus chinensis Chinese pink Crimson Belle single red Fireball double red Salmon King double salmon Salmon Queen single salmon Snowball double white Vesuvius single vermilion FLOWER LISTS Violet Queen Dimorphotheca aurantiaca 201 double violet Namaqualand daisy Very fine new hybrids. Eschscholtzia californica Alba Dainty Queen Godetia (Oenothera) Whitneyi Duchess of Albany Gloriosa Rosamond Gomphrena globosa Nana Compacta Alba Heliotropium peruvianum Lemoine’s Giant Iberis coronaria Empress Lobelia erinus Emperor William Prima Donna - White Gem Matthiola incana annua Dwarf Bouquet Nemophila insignis grandiflora Nigella damascena Miss Jekyll Portulaca splendens California poppy white pink Godetia white red. pale pink Globe amaranth dwarf white Heliotrope improved type Rocket candytuft white Lobelia sky blue maroon white Ten-weeks’ stock dwarf type Love grove Love-in-a-mist improved type Sun plant Especially double varieties. 202 FLOWER GARDENING Petunia nyctaginiflora hybrida Rosy Morn Star Snowball Veilchenblau White Pearl Phlox Drummonat Nana compacta Tagetes patula Little Brownie Tom Thumb Tom Thumb Verbena erinoides Verbena hybrida Viola cornuta hybrida Bridal Morn Lutea Splendens Maggie Mott Swan Viola tricolor hybrida Emperor William Faust Golden Yellow Snow Queen Viscaria cardinalis Zinnia Haageana Zinnia elegans Red Riding Hood ANNUALS—For bold massing in white and col- Hybrid petunia pink, white throat rose, white throat compact white velvety purple white Drummond’s phlox dwarf type French marigold single yellow and maroon double lemon double yellow Moss verbena Hybrid verbena Tufted pansy violet yellow lavender white Pansy blue black yellow white Rose of Heaven Mexican zinnia Common zinnia dwarf red FLOWER LISTS 203 ors; medium to high effects. Amaranthus cordatus Calliopsis tinctoria Nigra Speciosa Callistephus hortensis Daybreak Purity Violet King Love-lies-bleeding Calliopsis maroon China aster shell pink branching white branching violet branching Queen of the Market is a fine early strain. Celosia cristata Empress Celosia plumosa Golden Plume Centaurea americana Centaurea cyanus Cockscomb crimson Plumy cockscomb yellow Basket flower Cornflower Blue and mauve are best. Centaurea imperialis Centaurea suaveolens Cheiranthus Cheiri Paris Extra Early Chrysanthemum ino- dorum plenissinum Chrysanthemum carinatum hybridum Evening Star Morning Star Northern Star Clarkia elegans Salmon Queen Cosmos bipinnatus Klondike Sweet sultan Grecian cornflower Wallflower various Double mayweed Summer marguerite golden yellow cream, yellow center white, yellow center Clarkia double salmon Mexican aster yellow 204 FLOWER GARDENING Lady Lenox pink Dahlia rosea Single dahlia Giant Perfection is a good tall strain. Jules Chretien is a good dwarf strain. Delphinium ajacis Larkspur Gaillardia amblyodon Red blanket-flower Gypsophila elegans Baby’s breath Alba Grandiflora improved type Hunnemannia fumariafolia Bush eschscholtzia Impatiens Balsamina Common balsam Prince Bismarck double salmon Lavatera trimestris Annual mallow Grandiflora rosea improved type Linaria maroccana Morocco toad flax Very fine hybrids. Linum coccineum Scarlet flax Matthiola bicornis Evening-scented stock Matthiola incana annua Ten-weeks’ stock Colossal is a good early strain. Continuity is a good late strain. Nicotiana affinis Tuberose-flowered tobacco Sandere hybrids white to deep rose Nicotiana sylvestris Tasseled tobacco Papaver glaucum Tulip poppy Papaver rheas Corn poppy Shirley various Papaver somniferum hybridum Opium poppy Cardinal double red FLOWER LISTS 205 Charles Darwin single dark mauve Shell Pink double pink White Swan double white Rhodanthe Manglesii | Swan River everlasting Salvia farinacea Meally sage Salvia splendens Scarlet sage Saponaria vaccaria Pink soapwort Scabiosa atropurparea | Mourning bride Especially flesh pink, rose and lilac. Schizanthus Wisetonensis Butterfly flower Dwarf large-flowered. Tagetes erecta African marigold Phlox cuspidata Star phlox Phlox Drummondi Drummond’s phlox Vinca rosea Madagascar periwinkle Xeranthemum annuum Immortelle ANNUALS—Tall kinds for bold special effects. Cleome pungens Spider flower Datura cornucopia Trumpet flower Double Golden . yellow Helianthus annuus Sunflower Russian improved type Helichrysum monstrosum Strawflower Very fine planted by colors. Kochia tricophylla Summer cypress Mirabilis jalapa Four-o’clock Polygonum orientale Prince’s feather ANNUALS—That are especially good for cut- ting. 206 *Alyssum maritimum Arctotis grandis Calendula officinalis Callistephus hortensis Queen of the Market Peony-flowered Late branching Centaurea americana Centaurea cyanus *Centaurea imperialis *Centaurea suaveolens Cheiranthus Cheiri Chrysanthemum ino- dorum plenissima Chrysanthemum carinatum hybridum Clarkia elegans Cosmos bipinnatus Dahlia rosea Delphinium ajacis Dianthus chinensis Gaillardia amblyodon Gypsophila elegans Helichrysum monstrosum *Heliotropium peruvianum Iberis coronarium Jacobeaa (Senecio) elegans fl. pl. *Lathyrus odoratus FLOWER GARDENING Sweet alyssum African daisy Pot marigold China aster early bloom August bloom September bloom Basket flower Cornflower Sweet sultan Grecian cornflower Wallflower Double mayweed Summer marguerite Clarkia Mexican aster Single dahlia Larkspur Chinese pink Red blanket-flower Baby’s breath Strawflower Heliotrope Candytuft Groundsel Sweet pea “Immense ones of marvelous form and growing on plants exceeding eight feet in height are only to be had as the result of cultural skill” FLOWER LISTS 207 Black Knight Spencer = maroon BlancheFerry Spencer __ pink and white Frank Dolby lavender Gladys Unwin pale rose Primrose Spencer yellow White Spencer white Lavatera trimestris Linaria maroccana * Matthiola bicornis *Matthiola incana annua Ten-weeks’ stock Especially white, flesh and mauve. *Nicotiana affinis Tuberose-flowered tobacco Tasseled tobacco Love-in-a-mist Annual mallow Morocco toadflox Evening-scented stock Nicotiana sylvestris Nigella damascena Papaver glaucum Tulip poppy Papaver Rheas (Shirley) Shirley poppy Papaver somniferum Opium poppy Phlox Drummondi Drummond's phlox Rehmannia angulata Rehmannia Blooms first year if started early. *Reseda odorata Mignonette Rhodanthe Manglesii | Swan River everlasting Salpiglossis sinuata Painted tongue Saponaria vaccaria Pink soapwort Scabiosa atropurpurea Mourning bride Schizanthus Wisetonensis Butterfly flower Tagetes erecta African marigold 208 *Tropaolum majus Vinca rosea Viola cornuta hybrida *Viola tricolor hybrida Viscaria cardinalis Viscaria cerulea Zinnia elegans *Fragrant. FLOWER GARDENING Nasturtium Madagascar periwinkle Tufted pansy Pansy Rose of Heaven Blue viscaria Common zinnia ANNUALS—That are climbers. Adlumia cirrhosa Allegheny vine Biennial, but blooms first year. Cardiospormum Halicacabum Cobea scandens Coccinea indica Cucurbita Pepo Dolichos Lablab Darkness Daylight Echinocystis lobata Ipome@a coccinea Ipomea grandiflora Ipomea imperialis Ipomea major Ipomea Quamoclit Ipomea rubra coerulea Ipomea setosa Maurandia Barclayana Momordica balsamina Momordica charantia Balloon vine Cup-and-saucer vine Scarlet-fruited climber Gourd Hyacinth bean purple white Wild cucumber Red morning-glory Moonflower Japanese morning-glory Common morning-glory Cypress vine Heavenly Blue morn- ing-glory Brazilian morning-glo Maurandia roa Balsam apple Balsam pear FLOWER LISTS Phaseolus multiflorus Phaseolus multiflorus papilio Thunbergia alata Tropaolum canariense Tropazolum Lobbianum Asa Gray Brilliant Roi des Noirs Tropazolum majus 209 Scarlet runner Butterfly runner Black-eyed Susan Canary-bird vine Lobb’s nasturtium pale yellow scarlet garnet Tall nasturtium BULBS AND TUBERS—For spring bloom, late February to June. Plant all of them in autumn. Allium Moly Anemone thalictroides Bulbicodium citrinus Bulbicodium gracilis Camassia Cusickii Camassia esculenta Chionodoxa Lucilie Chionodoxa sardensis Crocus aureus Crocus vernus Hero May Crocus versicolor Eranthis hyemalis Erythronium albidum Erythronium americanum Erythronium citrinum Golden garlic Rue anemone Hoop petticoat daffodil Rush-leaved daffodil Cusick’s quamash Indian quamash Glory-of-the-snow Sardian-glory- of-the-snow Yellow crocus Spring crocus purple white Cloth of silver crocus Winter aconite White dogtooth violet Common dogtoothviolet Yellow dogtooth violet 210 Fritillaria imperialis Fritillaria meleagris FLOWER GARDENING Crown imperial Guinea-hen flower White is finest. Galanthus Elwesii Galanthus nivalis Galanthus plicatus Hyacinthus amethystinus Hyacinthus orientalis (Pink) Baron von Thyll Bird of Paradise Czar Peter La Grandesse Lord Wellington Minerva Miss Nightingale Van Speyk Leucojum estivum Leucojum vernum Muscari Botryoides Album Narcissus biflorus Narcissus incomparabilis Barrii Conspicuus Orange Phoenix Silver Phoenix Narcissus Jonquila Narcissus odorus Narcissus polyanthus Giant snowdrop Common snowdrop Crimean snowdrop Amethyst hyacinth Common hyacinth single pink single yellow single blue single white double pink double yellow double white double blue Summer snowflake Spring snowflake Grape hyacinth white Primrose peerless Star daffodil yellow, red-rimmed cup double, orange shades double cream Jonquil Campernelle jonquil Nosegay daffodil FLOWER LISTS Queen of Yellows 211 yellow, orange cup Hardy if well protected. Narcissus poetaz Narcissus poeticus Gardenia Narcissus pseudo- narcissus Emperor Empress Narcissus Telemonius plenus Ornithogallum nutans Ornithogallum umbellatum Puschkinia scilloides Sanguinaria canadensis Scilla bifolia Scilla hispanica (campanulata) Scilla nutans Scilla sibirica Triteleia uniflora Tulipa Clusiana Tulipa gesneriana hyb. Black Chief Blushing Bride Bouton d’Or Glare of the Garden Inglescombe Pink Mrs. Moon Poetaz daffodil Poet’s narcissus double Trumpet daffodil yellow yellow, white perianth Double yellow daffodil Drooping Star of Bethlehem Johnny-go-to-bed Lebanon squill Bloodroot Taurus squill Spanish wood hyacinth English wood hyacinth Siberian squill Spring star flower Little lady tulip Cottage (single) tulip maroon pink and white yellow dark red rose yellow 212 FLOWER GARDENING Orange King The Fawn Vitellina Tulipa gesneriana hyb. Ariadne Baronne de la Tonnaye Clara Butt Early Dawn King Harold Peter Barr Salmon King The Sultan Violet Queen Tulipa gesneriana dracontia Monstre Cramoisie Margraf van Baden Lutea Major Tulipa Greigii Tulipa Kaufmanniana Aurea Tulipa oculus solis Tulipa suaveolens hyb. Blue Flag Cottage Maid Couronne d’Or Fire Dome orange, tinged scarlet pinkish fawn yellow Darwin (single) tulip crimson rose rose rosy violet maroon maroon salmon deep maroon light violet Parrot tulip crimson yellow and scarlet yellow Greig’s tulip Kaufmann’s tulip yellow, streaked scarlet Sun’s eye tulip Early-flowering tulip double violet single rose, flushed white double yellow, flushed orange double scarlet FLOWER LISTS 213 La Candeur double white Maas single scarlet Ophir d’Or single yellow Pottebakker White white Rose d’Amour double flesh pink Duc van Thol dwarf early type Tulipa sylvestris Florentine tulip Tulipa Tubergeniana Tubergen’s tulip BULBS AND TUBERS—For summer bloom, June to early autumn. Those marked * are not reliably hardy; in the North they must be planted in spring and taken up in autumn, though in favored positions a few are hardy with ample protection. *Allium neapolitanum Neapolitan garlic *Alstremeria chilensis Peruvian lily *Amaryllis Belladonna Belladonna lily *Canna hybrida Hybrid canna Alsace cream Buttercup yellow Duke of Marlborough dark crimson Jean Tissot : vermilion Colchicum autumnale Meadow saffron Alba white Crocus sativus Saffron crocus Crocus speciosus Blue autumn crocus *Dahlia rosea Single dahlia Anemone white St. George yellow Wildfire scarlet *Dahlia rosea hyb. Cactus dahlia 214 FLOWER GARDENING Countess of Lonsdale Flora Kriemhilde Mrs. George Stevenson Roland von Berlin *Dahlia rosea hyb. Black Beauty Eureka Perle Sylvia *Dahlia rosea hyb. Darkness Snowclad Vivid *Dahlia rosea hyb. Charles Lanier Hero John Walker Susan *Galtonia candicans salmon pink white pink, shaded white yellow red Decorative dahlia maroon deep rose white mauve Pompon dahlia maroon white scarlet Show dahlia yellow red white shell pink Summer-flowering hyacinth (Hardy with protection.) * Gladiolus brenchleyensis *Gladiolus Colvillei Ackerman Bride Peach Blossom Vermilion gladiolus Colville’s gladiolus salmon white light pink (Early flowering; hardy with protection.) *Gladiolus gandavensis Ghent gladiolus FLOWER LISTS Augusta Canary Bird Contrast Octoroon *Gladiolus hybridus Childsii America Blanche Doctor Sellew Henry Gilman *Gladiolus hybridus La Luna Mrs. Francis King Victory *Gladiolus hybridus Lemoinei Lafayette *Gladiolus nanceianus *Gladiolus primulinus *Gladiolus princeps Salem *Incarvillea Delavayi white yellow scarlet salmon Childs’ gladiolus flesh white crimson salmon-scarlet Groff’s gladiolus purplish blue pale salmon pale yellow salmon rose pale yellow Lemoine’s gladiolus cream, flushed rose Giant gladiolus Maid-of-the-mist gladiolus Princeps gladiolus salmon pink Hardy gloxinia (Hardy with protection) Tris anglica Mont Blanc Othello Proserpine English iris white dark blue purple 215 216 FLOWER GARDENING Iris hispanica (Xiphium) Belle Chinoise British Queen King of the Blues *Ixia hybrida Queen of Roses Vulcan *Ixiolirion tataricum Lilium auratum Lilium Brownit Lilium canadense Lilium candidum Lilium chalcedonicum Lilium croceum Lilium dauricum Diadem Sappho Lilium elegans Alice Wilson Batemanniae Orange Queen Prince of Orange Lilium Hansoni Lilium Henryi Lilium Martagon Album Lilium monadelphum Lilium pardalinum Lilium speciosum Album Spanish iris yellow white dark blue African corn lily cerise red Ixiolirion Gold-banded lily Brown’s lily Canada lily Madonna lily Scarlet Martagon lily Orange lily Davurian lily crimson, yellow band orange, tipped red Thunbergian lily pale yellow late apricot orange early apricot Hanson’s lily Henry’s lily Martagon lily white Caucasian lily Panther lily Handsome lily white FLOWER LISTS Melpomene Lilium superbum Lilium tenuifolium Lilium testaceum Lilium tigrinum Splendens *Montbretia crocosmeflora *Ornithogallum arabicum 217 pink Swamp lily Coral lily Nankeen lily Tiger lily improved type Blazing star Arabian Star-of-Bethlehem (Hardy with protection) *Polyanthus tuberosa *Richardia Elliottiana Sternbergia lutea *Tigridia pavonia *Tropaolum speciosum *Vallota purpurea *Zephyranthes atamasco *Zephyranthes rosea Tuberose Yellow calla Lily-of-the-field Tiger flower Hardy nasturtium Scarborough lily Atamasco lily Fairy lily ROSES—Hybrid perpetuals, for June bloom; only stray blossoms later in season. Baroness de Rothschild Frau Karl Druschki General Jacqueminot Mrs. John Laing Ulrich Brunner pink white red pink red ROSES—Hybrid teas, for bloom all summer and into autumn. Arthur R. Goodwin pale apricot 218 FLOWER GARDENING Bessie Brown creamy white Caroline Testout pink Griiss an Teplitz red Kaiserin Auguste Victoria white Killarney pink La Detroite rose La France pale pink Madame Abel Chatenay carmine rose OTHER BEDDING ROSES—For bloom all summer; hardy with slight protection. Baby rambler, Jessie cerise Bengal, Agrippina red Bengal, Hermosa pink Polyantha, Jeanne d’Arc white Polyantha, Madame Turbat pale pink Polyantha, Mrs. W. H. Cutbush pale pink Tea-scented, Bon Silene bright rose Tea-scented, Francisca Kruger coppery yellow Tea-scented, Safrano saffron yellow Tea-scented, White Maman Cochet white ROSES—For bush effect in garden or border; unlike bedding roses, they are not pruned se- verely. FLOWER LISTS 219 Austrian brier hyb., Austrian Copper reddish copper Austrian brier hyb., Austrian Yellow deep yellow Austrian brier hyb., Harison’s Yellow double yellow Austrian brier hyb., . Persian Yellow double yellow Austrian brier hyb., Rayon d’Or double yellow Austrian brier hyb., Soleil d’Or double yellow Damask, Cabbage pink Damask, Madame Plantier white Damask, White Provence white Moss, Blanche Moreau white Moss, Gloire des Mosses blush Rosa rubiginosa Sweet brier pale pink Lord Penzance (Penzance hybrid) ecru Meg Merrillies crimson Rosa rugosa Wrinkled rose rose Alba white Nova Zembla double white Single rose, Simplicity white 220 FLOWER GARDENING CLIMBING ROSES—For pillars, arbors, screens and old trees. Alberic Barbier American Pillar Baltimore Belle Carmine Pillar Dorothy Perkins Dorothy Perkins Excelsa Gardenia Garland Hiawatha Lady Gay Prairie Prairie Queen Tausendscheen Yellow Rambler double pale cream deep rose, white eye double blush single red double pink double white improved crimson rambler double cream pale citron carmine, white eye double pink light rose double deep rose soft pink semi-double yellow WEEPING ROSES—For use in overhanging ef- fects. Dorothy Perkins Excelsa Lady Godiva Rosa Wichuraiana both pink and white improved crimson rambler flesh pink Single white AQUATICS—Plants suitable for tubs of water set in the ground up to the rim, but better in small ponds. Acorus japonica varie gata Aponogeton Distachyon Variegated sweet flag Cape pond weed FLOWER LISTS Calthra palustris — Nelumbium luteum Nelumbium speciosum Nuphar advena Nymphaea odorata Sulphurea Nymphaa tuberosa rosea Peltandra virginica Pontederia cordata Sagittaria japonica fl. pl. Zizania aquatica Marsh marigold American lotus Egyptian lotus Yellow pond lily White water lily yellow Pink water lily Water arum Pickerel weed Double arrowhead Wild rice 221 CHAPTER XIX FLOWERS FOR SHADED GARDENS Ever since gardens began the value of shade as a means of refreshment to man has been recog- nized, all manner of devices, from the natural to the sheer artificial, being employed to create it. Only in the failure to make the most of existing shade has there been a lamentable lack of recog- nition. There is a feeling that flowers and shade will not gohandinhand. The feeling is so strong that when flowers are found growing in garden shade it is usually through neglect rather than intel- ligent intent. Full sunshine and the open sky are essential to gardens only in a general way. Nature shows that. Many of her most beautiful gardens are par- tially shaded; not a few havea leafy screen be- tween them and the sun the livelong day. Shade, in some measure, is as grateful to numer- ous cultivated flowers as it isto man. Having had it naturally, they crave it in the garden—even though they are frequently good natured enough to live happily without it. 222 SHADED GARDENS 223 The deliberate planning of any scheme intended to make for shade should therefore not leave flow- ers out of complete consideration. No matter what the degree of shade, something there is that will find a particular spot congenial. To make the point of complete consideration more clear, it is not enough to grow roses, wistaria or honeysuckle over a pergola or arbor, with per- haps a_ hardy border outside where there is a sunny exposure. So far as the flowers are concerned these are sun propositions. The important thing to learn is that other flowers may flourish in the created shady places—flowers that will utilize waste spaces and sometimes prove no more trouble than grass or weeds; for something must grow in them, be sure of that. Call the pergola or arbor such if you will; but let it be secondarily a shaded garden. So, in a wider sense, with the whole place. If the garden proper be endowed with shade, necessar- ily or preferably, seize upon its shade advantages and develop them to the utmost. Or it may be that shade is upon one side of the garden, or the garden leads into shrubbery or thin woodland; then follow out the same idea. But do not overlook the lesser possibilities. Once a very pretty little shade garden not more than ten feet long and three feet wide was made along the stone foundation on the north side of the house. Though it had the sun only a little while in the morning, a couple of doz. en kinds of native plants flourished there. No 224 FLOWER GARDENING possibility is too small; there are plenty of them under trees, between shrubs or in the shadow of hedges and buildings. Thin woodland on the outskirts of the home grounds is the finest of all opportunities, for the reason that here there may be a liberal planting of appropriate flowers in a fashion approximating nature. In England there are woodland gardens of the rarest charm, but wholly unstudied appear- ance, and in them it is easier to find some of the choice American plants than at home. Here, for- tunately, there is an awakening and in a few in- stances most praiseworthy efforts have been made to bring naturalistic shade gardens to a high degree of perfection. The list of flowers that may be drawn upon for shaded gardens is far longer than is supposed. Few, for example, take into account the fact that it is made materially more numerous by a small host of spring flowers that may be said to flourish in the shade, though they bloom in full sunshine in pre- cisely the same spot. This is a most important point to understand; many plants like to grow under deciduous trees and shrubs, where they may bloom in full sunshine before the foliage is out on the branches over their heads. The remainder of the season they are shade-loving, or at any rate shade- enduring. Plant always in irregular colonies, even in a square foot or two of waste dooryard space, except- ing in the rare instances when such a space as the ,gsoujn ayy 07 ways dojaaap pup sabpjuv2rpv appys sqt uodn aztas ‘hjqnsafasg 40 Aplipssajau ‘apDYys YIM panaopud oq aadoagd uapsvb ay? f{T,, SHADED GARDENS 225 inner line of a pergola, or parts of a formal gar- den, would seem to make conventionality desirable. Shaded gardens, as a rule, ought to be naturalistic. For early spring, when branches are still leafless or nearly so, there is nothing more beautiful than several forms of the hardy primrose (Primula). The loveliest is the English primrose (P. vulgaris ) —which has been slow making its way here, consid- ering the fact that it is one of England’s commonest wildflowers and that with a proper degree of mois- ture and summer shade it is quite hardy here. The cowslip (P. veris), the oxlip (P. elatior), any yel- low polyanthus (P. polyantha) and the Japanese primrose (P. japonica) are easier of culture and also are in every way desirable for massing on any scale. The pink P. cortusoides Sieboldit and P. farinosa, the lilac P. denticulata, the violet P. cap- itata and the (type) P. auricula are finely suited for shaded gardens but require more care. Of the spring bulbs there are the snowdrop, Si- berian squill, glory-of-the-snow, grape hyacinth, wood hyacinth, common hyacinth, crocus, tulip, crown imperial, daffodil and guinea-hen flower that may be planted where shade comes later. Any of them will grow in the thin grass under the trees of an old orchard and all are the better for a ground cover. This need not be grass and asa rule would better not be, though daffodils look par- ticularly well in it. Snowdrops, for example, will come up through a carpet of periwinkle or bishop’s weed, Siberian squill and lily-of-the-valley may be 226 FLOWER GARDENING used together for double-cropping shaded ground, tulips thrive among ferns and so on. Avoid all double forms and bizarre color notes in naturalistic planting. Red is not a spring color in the North; so beware of red tulips. The best tulips are the yel- low species and the cottage white and yellow selfs; the best daffodils the yellow trumpet and the poet’s narcissus. Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), which nat- uralizes well in rocky places, is excellent for early spring; so are Dutchman’s breeches (Dielytra cu- cullaria) and Squirrel corn (D. canadensis). Then there are the foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia), heart-leaved saxifrage (Saxifraga cordifolia), Lon- don pride (S. umbrosa), blue bugle (Ajuga genev- ensis) white bugle (4. reptans alba), liverwort (Hepatica triloba), white stonecrop (Sedum al- bum ) and, later, the perennial forget-me-not (My- osotis semperflorens) for similarly carpeting the ground. The first three lose their foliage after blooming; so may be double-cropped with ferns and other plants. For higher growth—a foot or so—in partial shade the wild sweet-william (P. divaricata), sweet woodruff (Asperula odorata), Greek valerian '(Polemonium reptans), common American colum- bine (A quile gia canadense) and Pennsylvanian ane- 'mone (4. pennsylvanica) are admirable when spring is getting ready to merge into summer; closed gentian (Gentiana Andrewsii) in September and the evergreen Christmas rose (Helleborus SHADED GARDENS 927 niger) and Pachysandra terminalis the year round. The pink, white or yellow foxgloves, which are glorious on the edge of thin woods, for June; monkshood (Aconitum napellus ) and cardinal flow- er (Lobelia cardinalis), for late summer, and Japanese toad lily (Tricyrtis hirta) and Japanese anemone (4. japonica) for early autumn are fine for still higher growth. Other plants that may be grown in more or less shade are three of the best day lilies, Funkia sub- cordata, F. coerulea and F. Fortunei; the big bleed- ing-heart (Dielytra spectabilis) and the little one (D. formosa), banebery (Actaea spicata), May apple (Podophyllum peltatum), snakeroot (Cim- icifuga racemosa) and false Solomon’s seal (Smil- acina racemosa). Good shrubs are all the native rhododendrons, laurels and azaleas, which do better with the pro- tection; Cornus florida and the shad bush (Amelan- chier canadensis). Last, but not least, the true lilies. Some of the best of them like partial shade and low growth cov- ering the ground around them as well. Moreover these look better so placed than in any other way. Such lilies include L. speciosum, L. superbum, L. longiflorum, L. auratum and L. tenuifolium. To return to the matter of double-cropping, see that shaded ground is covered in summer unless tree or shrub branches are so low as to do this. There are combinations for all places—-even those where grass refuses to grow. CHAPTER XX THE JOY OF A FLOWER HOBBY Ir you would add joy in the flower garden, make a hobby of some particular flower—or flowers. Here is the crowning touch that raises garden pleasure to the last degree of height. To the ordinary joy of the collector—any garden is a collection, pure and simple—it adds the joy that can come only through selection, as distinguished from mere aggregation. The aim may be, but generally is not, the ex- clusion of all save the subject of specialization. The usual plan is likened fairly to the way of a man who collects books, but makes Burns his hobby; who collects paintings, but prides himself on the accumu- lation of Corots, or who collects postage stamps, but lays chief stress on United States issues. Cer- tainly there is no need of exclusion; it is possible to have numerous friends and yet prefer one, or a few, above others. A peculiarly happy note to this hobby is the fact that it is open virtually to all; rich and poor, in some way, may ride it to their heart’s content. Prob- ably none who has played the game with much 228 A FLOWER HOBBY 229 money has got more real enjoyment out of this sort of specializing than some Lancashire weaver with his auriculas—the pride of what little time he could call his own. He knows well enough that so far as the sheer pleasure of playing for ‘‘points” is con- cerned, his ‘“‘bob”’ is quite as good a coin as his rich neighbor’s “‘quid.” An American prototype of the Lancashire weav- er, in spirit, is a hard-working young business man. He happens to have a special liking for China asters; so, while he grows other flowers, he makes a hobby of his favorite one. The result is a really absorbing outdoor interest from May all through the summer—a little while in the morning and a little while in the evening, on week days, he potters with his China asters and on Sundays he studies his crop at leisure. He would not miss the little money that he expends for seed, but, as a matter of fact, he comes out with a profit. Living as he does, in the suburbs of the city of moderate size in which he is employed, he is able to sell to a florist at a fair price all the cut blooms that he cares to bring to town on summer mornings. China asters, of course, are a case of making a hobby of a single species—or, more strictly, a glori- fied species, the form as developed through cultiva- tion being known botanically as Callistephus hor- tensis. It is a hobby that may be tolerably expensive if one cares to ride it to the limit. This is because there are so many strains, each with its several col- or divisions. The assortment offered in three 230 FLOWER GARDENING American catalogues would cost from six to ten dollars for the seed alone, while one English list— the prices run higher—totals above thirty dollars. It would be a pleasant task to grow all strains in all colors, if only the fittest were intended to sur- vive in the end. Completeness, however, is not everything to a collection of flowers; it might be subspecialized to great advantage, even going so far as to reject, say, all save a certain strain of China asters. A hobby that gives you the reputa- tion of growing the finest Early Market, Ostrich Plume or late branching asters for miles around is certainly something. Just now the single China aster, which is an intentional reversion toward the original species (Callistephus sinensis), offers a fas- cinating subject for a restricted flower hobby. This new race has a grace that the double kinds lack and, both for bedding and cutting, the pink, mauve and white kinds are exceeding beautiful acquisitions. With the bold golden center, the crimson is at least a better mixer than the unfriendly double of the same shade. The other extreme of flowers hobbies is concen- tration on a genus rather than on a single species. In many cases this, taken literally, might be the despair of even the largest botanical gardens, let alone the amateur; not only do numbers sometimes mount up appallingly, but a genus may be so distrib- uted geographically as to render it next to impossi- ble to keep a complete representation flourishing in a given group of outdoor and indoor gardens. For- A FLOWER HOBBY 231 tunately it does not have to be taken literally—least of all by those to whom the growing of flowers is more a matter of recreation than of botany. Make your interpretation liberal, not literal, and just as liberal as you choose; it is your hobby, no one’s else. Look over the principal genera that have come into garden cultivation and then decide on the one that most appeals to you. Maybe that very one already is represented by a species or two. If it is not, make a start with one or more of the easiest species—which you may be sure are those most commonly catalogued—and then add others from time to time. Study, the while, this genus from the botanical point of view; see what Bailey’s Cyclo- pedia of Horticulture has to say, for one thing. The more you study the more you will become ab- sorbed, and it will not be unusual if your desires show a disposition to get way ahead of your time and money conveniences. But do not let them; you can ride your hobby slowly and sanely and have just as good a time. Perhaps it is the lily genus that is decided upon. This would be a fortunate decision indeed; for American gardens are so badly in need of more lilies that every one who makes a hobby of them is a benefactor to this and future generations. You find the genus catalogued as Lilium, the particular species being indicated by a second Latin word; thus the botanical name of the tiger lily is Lilium tigrinum. Make a start with some of the easy species, such 2.32 FLOWER GARDENING as L. tigrinum, L. croceum and L. speciosum. At the same time that you are learning to grow these to perfection, familiarize yourself with the way that lilies separate themselves into groups, largely ac- cording to the form of the blossom, and get a clear understanding of the reasons why some lilies are more difficult in culture than others, and to what ex- tent such difficulties can be overcome. There are eighty or more species of lilies in culture, but with a little research—that will be a great pleasure—it will not be troublesome to separate them into zones of difficulty, through which you may care to venture farther and farther as the years go by. Very likely it will not be many years before you find yourself trying to persuade those lovely, but tender, pink lilies, L. japonicum and L. rubellum, to stay with you by guaranteeing special attention to their wants in the way of food and winter bedclothing. The iris offers just as fascinating a field as the lily, with the advantage of being a less expensive hobby within the zone of easy culture. “The poor man’s orchid” has the further advantage of a mate- rially greater variation of species. One could easily make a hobby of the German, the Japanese, the Spanish or the English iris, so many are the varie- ties of each. No less than fifty-six named varieties of Japanese iris are in a single American list. An- other offers forty-two German irises, while in a British list are thirty-five Spanish irises and thirty- two of the English—and all these are only selec- tions from larger nursery collections. A FLOWER HOBBY 233 Of the easiest irises there are a dozen or more species; and as these bloom in April, May, June and July, the hobby opportunities are enough to bring contentment without going in for those that require coddling. The latter are a small army. There are more than thirty bulbous and tuberous- rooted species that are hardy in England where they bloom from November to June, and fifteen of the cushion irises, mostly from Palestine. Some of these, J. reticulata, I. pavonia, I. alata and I. susiana, have been wintered outdoors in this country and there are others that would survive with the protection that they get abroad. The truth is that more plants would prove hardy in American gar- dens if they were given the care that they have in England. There the gardeners not only take all pains to place tender plants in sheltered spots and to give them winter protection to suit their individ- ual needs, but small glass frames—hand ones— are used freely in winter and spring and also to enable bulbs and tubers to secure their required “dry season” after blooming. The rose genus is a fascinating field for a flower hobby along lines that have seldom been tried by the amateur. There are a great many species, both bush and climbing; and if the space is available, a fair representation of these will make a collection of practically assured permanence. Anyone who takes up species in this way will find their beauty a revelation and will not wonder that single roses stand so high in culture today. Ora species may be 234 FLOWER GARDENING taken up with some of its variations; perhaps the sweet brier(Rosa rubiginosa) and Lord Penzance’s famous hybrids, of which there are at least fifteen. In time add the other briers, notably the Austrian; there are some wonderful yellow and coppery tones. Going in for double bedding roses as a hobby means, of course, concentrating on one of a few classes and then selecting from a bewildering array of names. The hybrid tea, now the chief bedding rose, has two hundred and fifty varieties in one catalogue and a third as many hybrid perpetuals, neither list being more than the especially desirable varieties. In the same catalogue the dwarf polyan- tha roses number about thirty and the Rosa rugosa variations fourteen. A combination of carefully selected hybrid teas and the best of the climbing roses would be an excellent one. One amateur divides his hobby interest very agreeably by concentrating on the hardy primrose (Primula) for spring and the hardy chrysanthe- mum for autumn. He rather envies a Scotch phy- sician who grows more than one hundred and twenty-five primulas, with any number of varieties, and a friend nearer home whose named chrysanthe- mums are above two score. But this amateur wisely limits himself for the present to about a dozen of the hardiest primula species and less than twenty varieties of chrysanthemums. When he has the time to take proper care of more he will possess them, not before. The primulas are among the most charming of subjects for a flower hobby. “The primulas are among the most charming subjects for a flower hobby” A FLOWER HOBBY 235 Another very charming subject is the bellflower (Campanula). There is an endless number of bell- flowers, but not all are of interest unless one is col- lecting for numbers. A dozen or so perennial spe- cies, with the biennial Canterbury bell and the an- nual Campanula Loreyi, are distinctly worth while. Others are the phlox, with its species blooming over a period of six months; the pink (Dianthus), which has a long season also and some beautiful dwarf species that the garden seldom sees; the violet (Viola), which has some fine foreign species other than the ones that are the forebears of the pansy and tufted pansy and several native ones that de- serve more garden culture; the speedwell (Veronica), with profuse bloom over a long sea- son; the morning-glory (Ipomea), which has several fine species; the peony (Paconia), both tree and herbaceous; the columbine(Aquilegia), the poppy (Papaver), the stonecrop (Sedum), the saxifrage (Saxifraga) and the windflower (Anem- one). Among the bulbs and tubers there are more temp- tations to stroll down pleasant paths. The dahlia, in its well-defined classes, and the gladiolus, in the species and the choicest representatives of their hybrids, rank with the best flowers for hobbies be- cause of their quality possibilities. The tulip genus (Tulipa) and the daffodil (Narcissus), by either _species or classes; the crocus, the fritillary (Fritil- laria), the butterfly, globe and star tulips (Calo- chortus) and the dogtooth violet (Erythronium) 236 FLOWER GARDENING are extremely interesting, though the task will be found a very difficult one in the northeastern part of the United States excepting in the first two instances. Shrubs, too, are hobby subjects. The lilac (Syringa), of which there are several species and a great many varieties, is one of the best of them. The rhododendron and azalea are quite as good in their showier way. Permanence of investment con- sidered, none of these can be called an extravagant hobby. The viburnum forms an interesting group of considerable size; so do the barberry (Berberis), the dogwood (Cornus), the hawthorn Crategus), the St. John’s wort (Hypericum), the honeysuckle (Lonicera), the mock orange (Philadelphus), the bramble (Rubus), the spirea, the elder (Sam- bucus), the sumac (Rhus) and the currant (Ribes). A few of the annuals are to be had in various species, though this point is generally overlooked by the grower of flowers. Half a dozen species of annual chrysanthemum are on the market and as many of candytuft (Jberis) and centaurea. The great annual for specializing is the sweet pea. Too many think the sweet pea (Lathyrus) easy. Indif- ferent blooms, it is true, are not very hard to bring into the garden; but immense ones of marvelous form and growing on plants exceeding eight feet in height are only to be had as the result of cultural skill. Any one who grows even a dozen of the best named varieties of a choice strain will find that he A FLOWER HOBBY 237 has no small hobby on his hands. This dozen can be chosen from a list of one hundred and sixty-five varieties; doubtless from longer lists also. Aside from Bailey’s monumental work, there are many books of reference that can be used as the means of education in the pursuit of a flower hobby. The rose, iris, daffodil, lily and crocus have all had books written about their species and hybrids. Cat- alogues, too, frequently are of incomplete botanical assistance, but now and then there is needless con- fusion of name. It must be borne in mind also that common names are not always to be relied upon for establishing the genus of a plant. Thus the Christmas rose belongs to the genus Helleborus, not Rosa; the Guernsey lily to Nerine, not Lilium; the grape hyacinth to Muscari, and so on. If your hobby is roses, however, and you think that you would like Christmas roses with others, just let them come in and say nothing; botany can be dread- fully elastic in the gardens, sometimes. : Whether the hobby serves any marked decora- tive purpose is of minor importance. The prime ob- ject is the production of perfect individuals and very often it is much more convenient to put the plants in rows in a secluded part of the grounds, using, perhaps, the surplus for special display else- where. In such a place the raggedness incidental to seed-saving does not matter and there is plenty of room for experimenting with cuttings and seed- lings, as well as hybridizing—if one has the time for that. CHAPTER XXI KNOWING THE FLOWERS BY NAME Every little while you hear this remark: “I never can remember the names of flowers.” Change “can” to “do” and it would be nearer to the truth. Many do not remember the names of flowers, that is lamentably apparent; but anyone can remember them, if sufficiently interested. It is only a ques- tion of training the mind, consciously or uncon- sciously. The memory will be helped a great deal if the striking similarity of the rules of naming flowers and civilized human beings is grasped clearly. In the botanical world the natural orders are divided into genera. Each genus or family has a name, which corresponds exactly to the surname of a man or woman. But the generic name always comes first, a plan which has much in its favor. A genus, in turn, is divided into species. This necessitates a christian name, so to speak; in botany it is called specific. Usually there is only one specific name; but, as with the human race, there may be another that is still more specific. Thus, to make the cor. respondence clearer: 238 KNOWING FLOWERS BY NAME 239 ORDER GENUS SPECIES Crucifere Iberis Gibraltarica American Jones Hezekiah Latin is used for orders, genera and species, for the reason that it is the universal language of sci- ence. The order and specific names are translat- able into any language; the generic name not always, as in the case of wistaria, which is coined from Wistar. In the instance just mentioned the plant is Gibraltar candytuft and it belongs to the order of cross-bearers. Candytuft is doubtless a corruption of Candia tuft, as the first species culti- vated (I. umbellata) was discovered on that island. Gibraltar implies habitat, but not a geographical restriction of range. Cross-bearers are so called because the four petals of the blossoms of plants in this order form a cross. As plants come into cultivation, frequently in the wild, they generally acquire a common name, which may be a literal translation or something suggested by a fancied resemblance or a mere notion. Lit- erally Viola tricolor would be the tri-colored violet, but that is not its customary name; in Europe and in this country the plant has numerous popular names. So the correspondence may be carried still farther by the statement that flowers, as well as human beings, frequently have nicknames—some- times strikingly appropriate and again quite unfath- omable as to the reason therefor. If only the correspondence had stopped right there! But flower names change; by force, not 240 FLOWER GARDENING volition, Someone says to Bignonia radicans, “Here, you; from this time on your name will be Tecoma radicans and don’t mind what So-and-So says to the contrary. Understand?” Or to Geum coccineum, ‘‘A mistake was made at your christen- ing, it seems. You are not G. coccineum but G. chiloense.’ So in looking over the pages of the floral directory you occasionally have reason to wish that well enough had been let alone. Fortu- nately the confusion is only here and there. The common names are most important to re- member, provided that they are either the best possible rendering into the vernacular or, if fanci- fully descriptive, are sufficiently distinctive. Dog rose (Rosa canina), in the one class, and Chinese lantern plant (Physalis Francheti), in the other, are sufficiently definite. London pride is not, nor is bluebell; the former is Saxifraga umbrosa in Eng- land and Lychnis chalcedonica here, while the latter is applied to more than one plant on each side of the Atlantic. Jerusalem cross is really a much better common name for the lychnis, as each blos- som suggests the red cross of the Crusader. It is well to inquire into the reason for every common name. The result is generally to create in the mind an association between the name and the plant. Moreover the inquiry leads one into a very pleasant field of folklore study, as well as greater intimacy with the garden. Look at a blossom of any aconitum on the plant and it is apparent from the shape of it why it is called monkshood and hel- “Look at the blossom of any aconitum on the plant and it is apparent from the shape of it why it is called monkshood and helmet flower” KNOWING FLOWERS BY NAME 241 met flower. Pluck it, when fully open, and hold it with the back of the helmet down and it will be no less apparent that the little boys and girls of seven- ty years ago did not overstrain their imagination when they spoke of it as Pharaoh’s chariot. It is just as well to know all these names; also that the best is aconite, because it is an English rendering of the generic name, aconitum. Learn all the common names that you can, for the pleasurable side of it, but hold to the best for ordinary use. Choose white rock cress (Arabis albida), for example, in preference to welcome- home-husband-be-he-never-so-drunk and_prince’s feather (Polygonum orientale) to kiss-me-over-the- garden-gate. Not that these names are so foolish as they might seem at first glance. The arabis— also one of the stonecrops(Sedum album), which appears to have been given the same name—has a mass of white blossoms well calculated to enable a man to locate his doorstep at night, and as for the knotweed, it hangs its deep rose plumes over a gate in a most inviting way. Having associated the common name with the plant, try to associate the botanical name with both. Use the dictionary, as well as botanical works, for reference. Such things as finding out that true bell- flowers have the generic name of Campanula (little bell), that a windflower is Anemone (from the Greek word for wind), that the pink is Dianthus (Greek for Jove’s flower), that any spring prim- rose is Primula (from the Latin for first), that the 242 FLOWER GARDENING finger-shaped blossoms of foxglove are the digit of Digitalis, and so on, help the memory. Adding spe- cific names you get, Campanula persicifolia (peach- leaved bellflower) Anemone pennsylvanica (Penn- sylvanian anemone), Dianthus neglectus (neglected pink), Primula vulgaris (common primrose) and Digitalis purpurea (purple foxglove). Pair off the various worts with the respective generic names and note the close relationship in some cases—such as Saponaria (soapwort), Plum- bago (leadwort) and Pulmonaria (lungwort). Woundwort (Stachys) has reference to the use of the woolly leaves to stop the flow of blood. Some of the other worts are more difficult; so are the banes—wolf’s (Aconitum), leopard’s (Doroni- cum) and flea (Erigeron or Inula). Labels are always a good aid to the memory, but should be relied upon less and less for species. For varieties they will always be necessary to a certain degree, as it would be foolish, even if possible, to burden the mind beyond a reasonable limit in that direction. Keep all labels out of sight wherever the planting is decorative; if there is a reserve gar- den use such tags on the memory there, so far as this can be done. CHAPTER XXII BIRDS AND THE FLOWER GARDEN Moke birds would frequent the flower garden if there were fewer cats and dogs roaming around. These much too numerous domesticated animals, because it is their nature, and children, because they are innocently unthoughtful, frighten away—if they do not kill—some of the birds that would be only too glad to call from time to time, and perhaps settle down for the summer. For one, there is that most sociable of spring’s harbingers—the song sparrow. He will come in February to stay until November, if you do not let him be frightened away. And he will sing the while, day after day, as if his very soul were in the doing of it for you. But you must give him a bit of nearby thicket wherein to let him hide a nest—or imagine that he is hiding it. Then he and his mate and their little ones will run around the garden and feel quite at home in every part of it. The catbird, who is a fine singer when he takes the notion, may also be persuaded to nest close by the garden if there is a higher thicket; he likes housekeeping in a bush of the common barberry. 243 244 FLOWER GARDENING Different birds require different kinds of encour- agement. The black-winged yellow bird, or Amer+ ican goldfinch, is sure to come in summer if there are cornflowers going to seed. So long as the seeds are good pickings, count on his company. And among the blue blossoms he is one of the prettiest of garden sights. Always have some cornflowers for the goldfinches. Later the juncoes and chicka- dees will be frequent visitors if you have been con- siderate enough to plant a few sunflowers for them. The big Russian sunflower is best and with careful arrangement is not inimical to beauty in a garden picture. Have enough of them somewhere on the place to attract the birds until late autumn. In the spring the male purple grackle, with the lustre fresh on his plumage, is a beautiful figure in the garden. The grackles and starlings walk leisurely over the beds and borders and the robins hop about—all in search of earth food, and not over-timid. The chipping sparrow, whose nest may be in the clematis vine that shades the piazza, and the yellowhammer are likewise neighborly; the rose-breasted grosbeak and great-crested flycatcher drop in occasionally; the bluebird, warbling vireo, kingbird, bluejay, downy woodpecker and Balti- more oriole spend much time in the trees overhead; the ruby-throated humming bird buzzes around the flowers day in and day out, resting at long intervals on a branch, and it may be that the screech owl, looking for his prey, is in the garden of a night. The starling is very fond of the fruit of the com- “Water is always a great attraction to the birds; they like to drink it and they like to bathe in it” BIRDS IN THE GARDEN 245 mon elder, which makes a handsome shrub, and the robin of the Russian mulberry and wild cherry. The mulberry and cherry are trees, but not too large to be worked into a garden scheme. These three fruits ought to be on every place for the birds —not only to encourage them to stay around and feed on insects but to keep their minds off choicer fruit. South of Washington the china tree (Melia azederach) isa fine attraction for the birds. In the North the mountain ash, red cedar and dogwood are sure to keep robins and other birds around late in the year. Always the English sparrow stays by the garden; he does some good there and no particular harm. He is pugnacious, but is less responsible for keeping other birds away than are the presence of disturb- ing cats, dogs and the absence of attractive food and shelter. If food be placed in the garden in winter the junco, chickadee, blue jay, tree sparrow, fox sparrow, song sparrow and starling will all share the spread with the English sparrow; the downy woodpecker also, when the table is a piece of board fastened to a tree. For the birds in win- ter tie a piece of suet on a tree or shrub, out of the reach of cats, from time to time and throw on the garden walk or on an elevated bird table, bread- crumbs and mixed bird-seed. Water is always a great attraction to the birds; they like to drink it and they like to bathe in it. Running water is best, but a still bird basin will do if properly cared for. Fill it every night and place 246 FLOWER GARDENING it where there is shade. The water must either be very shallow or be made so in places by the use of stones; garden birds bathe, they do not swim. Hedges, especially untrimmed ones, and all shrubbery in the form of thickets appeal strongly to birds. To them birds can run or fly to cover, they are good for nesting and roosting purposes and the ground beneath is just the place for scratch- ing. Wherever circumstances permit, it is an ex- cellent plan to create thickets as bird coverts; the company of the songsters, let alone the destruction of insect pests, will pay for the trouble over and over again. What birds are willing to do, even without the allurement of water, is easily proven by what they did in one instance. Either within a few feet of the garden or in a tree just above it the starling, purple grackle, song sparrow, English sparrow, chipping sparrow, robin, bluebird, English gros- beak, yellow hammer and screech owl have all nested at one time or another in a space of less than six years. Adding the mere callers, the bird guests have exceeded thirty—and this where conditions are suburban rather than rural. INDEX INDEX Accumulating, 72 Back yard, 68 Adapting ideas, 4, 6, 9, 16 Hardy, 71 Bulbs—General, 27, 29, 35, Alpine garden, 12 Annuals—General, 26, 27, 28, 41, 42, 55, 71, 84; 109, 124, 86, 87, 102, 164, 200 Bold massing, 200, 202 Climbing, 208 Cutting, 205 Fragrant, 205 Garden, 107 Low massing, 200 Specializing, 236 Tall effects, 205 April work, 36, 40 Aquatics, 220 Association garden, 14 Autumn planting, 53 Autumn work, 51 Beds, 5, 62, 96 125, 164, 209, 235 Autumn, 142 51, 53, 57, 86, 108, 128, Spring, 16, 108, 128, 209, 225 Summer, 139, 213 Tender, 139, 213 141, Canna, 57, 140, 213 China aster, 71, 103, 164, 200, 203, 206, 229 Coldframe, 41, 49, 53 Colonial garden, 16 Colony, 101, 102, 104, 105, 125, 139, 157 Color, 26, 92, 104, 106, 120, Best garden, 3, 81 124, 126, Biennials, 27, 28, 53, 71, 77, 141, 148, 108, 110, 151, 164, 199 154, 158, Birds, 13, 243 173, 176, Bog garden, 14 180, 181, Bonfire, 34, 35, 61 188, 199, Border—General, 21, 22, 209, 213 63, 107 Color garden, 15 249 132, 150, 142, 136, 153, 171, 179, 186, 202, 226 250 INDEX Common name, 237, 240 Compost heap, 36, 38, 61 Crocus, 54, 135, 209, 213, 225, 235, 237 Cultivation, 37, 47 Cutting garden, 160, 205 Cuttings, 50, 98 Dahlia, 57, 140, 204, 213, 235 Dependable flowers, 19, 168 Division, 37, 52, 96, 98 Drift, 66, 101, 103, 107, 147 English garden, 7 Evergreens, 10, 26, 69, 85, 115, 145, 146, 173, 189 Failure, 30 February work, 73 Fertilizer, 33, 38, 52, 60, 61, 62, 85 Fillers, 46, 102, 124 Flower hobby, 228 Flower pictures, 147, 153 Flowers for cutting, 160 Four-seasons’ garden, 149 Fragrance, 175, 176, 177, 205 French garden, 6 Friendship garden, 14 Frost, 37, 55 Fruit garden, 16 Garden—And home, 1, 17, Annual, 107 Alpine, 12 Association, 14 Best, 3, 81, 160, 205 Bog, 14 Colonial, 16 Color, 15 English, 7 Four-seasons, 149 French, 6 Friendship, 14 Fruit, 16 Hardy, 51, 80, 103 Herb, 11 Italian, 5 Japanese, 8 Iris, 10 Medicinal, 12 Month, 144 Moraine, 13 Name, 14 Old fashioned, 16 Personality of, 4 Phlox, 10, 11 Rock, 12, 191 Rose, 9 Shaded, 196, 221 Spring, 16, 151, 178, 196, 209, 221, 224, 226 Wall, 13 Walled, 7 Water, 13, 198, 220 Wild, 16, 191, 196, 198, 220, 224 INDEX Generic name, 238, 241 Ground cover, 10, 125, 225, 227 Hardy garden, 51, 80, 103 Hedge, 124, 162, 175, 224, 246 Herb garden, 11 Herbaceous perennial, 27 Home and garden, 1, 3, 17, 18 Hyacinth, 132, 139, 164, 210, 225 Insects, 43, 44 Intelligent labor, 31 Tris, 29, 45, 55, 67, 71, 140, 147, 150, 162, 164, 175, 179, 181, 184, 193, 194, 198, 215, 216, 233, 237 Iris garden, 10 Italian garden, 5 Japanese garden, 8 June work, 44 Kinds of gardens, 3 Knack, 25, 93 Knowing plants, 29 Labels, 242 Larkspur, 31, 52, 97, 100, 104, 155, 163 Laying out, 17 ea | Lily, 11, 15, 51, 52, 53, 124, 140, 148, 150, 155, 164, 216, 217, 227, 231, 237 March work, 34, 35 May work, 42 Medicinal garden, 12 Memory, 31, 37, 238, 242 Month garden, 144 Moraine garden, 13 Mulch, 46, 47, 116 Name garden, 14 Names, 238 Narcissus, 54, 133, 139, 150, 164, 210, 211, 225, 226, 235, 237 Naturalistic effects, 84, 95, 103, 124, 139, 191, 224 Nature, 26, 81, 83, 221 Nursery, 40, 93, 161 October work, 57 Old fashioned garden, 16 Paper plan, 20 Peony, 36, 51, 86, 99, 100, 163, 172, 184, 185, 235 Perennials—General, 13, 26, 27, 29, 33, 41, 42, 49, 50, 52, 54, 60, 71, 77, 86, 87, 88, 124, yA 151, 158, 178 Bedding out, 96 Evergreen, 189 July to Sept., 186 June and July, 182 Naturalizing, 191 Shade, 196 Spring, 178, 179 Summer, 180 Sept. and Oct., 188 Tall early, 181 Wet places, 198 Personality, 3, 4 Phlox, 52, 55, 98, 100, 104, . 163, 179, 182, 185, 188, 190, 195, 202, 205, 207, 235 Phlox garden, 10, 11 Plan to scale, 20 Planning, 19 Planting, 39, 53, 86, 87, 95, 139 Potted plants, 48, 56, 99, 110 Primula, 11, 52, 54, 60, 99, 179, 180, 190, 195, 198, 199, 225, 234 Prolonging bloom, 45, 46 Protection, 36, 53, 55, 59, 90, 233 Pruning, 33, 34, 44, 126 Right start, 2, 17 Rock garden, 12, 191 Root system, 28, 39 INDEX Rose—General, 36, 60, 62, 86, 150, 217, 237 Bedding, 217, 218, 234 Brier, 219, 234 Bush, 34, 38, 123, 218 Climbing, 34, 38, 220 For cutting, 10, 162 Hybrid perpetual, 34, 38, 162, 217, 234 Hybrid tea, 34, 162, 217, 234 Insects, 43, 44 Pruning, 34 Specializing, 233 Weeping, 220 Rose garden, 9 Rubbish, 33, 35, 61 Scilla, 136, 139, 164, 211, 225 Seasonal effects, 144, 157 Seed—Annual, 109, 110 Biennial, 7 For birds, 244 Gathering, 48 Perennial, 77, 97 Purchasing, 97 Seedbed, 49 Self-sown, 105 Sowing, 40, 49 Thinning, 42 September work, 51 Shaded garden, 196, 222 Shrubs—General, 38, 60, 62, 68, 113, 161, 168, INDEX Berries, 173 Evergreen, 116, 173 Flowering, 118, 108, 170, 173 Fragrant, 175 . Seashore, 176 Specializing, 236 Wall, 176 Winter, 115 Snowdrops, 137, 144, 146, 210, 225 Specializing, 14, 228 Specific name, 238 Spring garden, 16, 128, 151, 168, 178, 209, 224, 226 Spring work, 34 Success, 25 Succession of bloom, 84, 89, 92, 125, 144, 157 Summer work, 44 Sweet pea, 206, 236 Taking pains, 30 Transplanting—General, 28, 253 38, 39, 46, 51, 52 Annuals, 42 Biennials, 53 Perennials, 39, 51 Roses, 38 Spring flowers, 40 Trial bed, 22, 93, 106 True garden, 2 Tulips, 109, 129, 139, 147, 158, 164, 211, 212, 213, 225, 226, 235 Uncovering, 36 Various gardens, 3 Vines, 60, 62, 176, 177, 208 Wall garden, 13 Walled garden, 7, 176 Water garden, 13, 198, 220 Watering, 40, 42, 47, 52 Weeds, 37, 42, 44, 58 Wild garden, 16, 191, 196, 198, 220, 224 Winter-killing, 37 Wintering plants, 57 ew YORK STAT. ~OLLEGE OF AGRICULTUP! BEPARTMENT OF FLORIGULTIRE AND OMMAMENTAL ROATIGULTURE CORNELL UNIVERSITY ITHACA, Fi Y. Wea at, nls ast t