profusion of bloom, wonderful range and richness of color, and
long-continued flowering period make them indispensable and favorites
everywhere. They are most effective when grown in large masses or
groups. If they are prevented from ripening seed, they will bloom
throughout the greater part of the season. The single varieties are of
the tallest, stateliest growth, therefore admirably adapted to back rows
in the border. The double kinds work in well in front of them. These are
the showiest members of the family because their flowers are so
thickly set along the stalk that a stronger color-effect is given, but
they are really no finer than the single sorts, so far as general effect
is concerned. Indeed, I think I prefer the single kinds because the rich
and peculiar markings of the individual flower show to much better
advantage in them than in the doubles, whose multiplicity of petals
hides this very pleasing variegation. But I would not care to go without
either kind.
[Illustration: OLD-FASHIONED HOLLYHOCKS]
Coreopsis _lanceolata_ is a very charming plant for front rows,
especially if it can have a place where it is given the benefit of
contrast with a white flower, like the Daisy. In such a location its
rich golden yellow comes out brilliantly, and makes a most effective
point of color in the border.
Perennial Phlox, all things considered, deserves a place very near to
the head of the list of our very best hardy plants. Perhaps if a vote
were taken, it would be elected as leader of its class in point of
merit. It is so entirely hardy, so sturdy and self-reliant, so
wonderfully floriferous, and so rich and varied in color that it is
almost an ideal plant for border-use. It varies greatly in habit. Some
varieties attain a height of five feet or more. Others are low
growers,--almost dwarfs, in fact,--therefore well adapted to places
in the very front row, and close to the path. The majority are of medium
habit, fitting into the middle rows most effectively. With a little care
in the selection of varieties--depending on the florists' catalogues to
give us the height of each--it is an easy matter to arrange the various
sorts in such a way as to form a bank which will be an almost solid mass
of flowers for weeks. Some varieties have flowers of the purest white,
and the colors of others range through many shades of pink, carmine,
scarlet, and crimson, to lilac, mauve, and magenta. The three colors
last named must never be planted alongside or near to the other colors,
with the exception of white, as there can be no harmony between them.
They make a color-discord so intense as to be positively painful to the
eye that has keen color-sense. But combine them with the white kinds and
they are among the loveliest of the lot. This Phlox ought always to be
grouped, to be most effective, and white varieties should be used
liberally to serve as a foil to the more brilliant colors and bring out
their beauty most strikingly.
[Illustration: THE PEONY AT ITS BEST]
Peonies are superb flowers, and no border can afford to be without them.
The varieties are almost endless, but you cannot have too many of
them. Use them everywhere. The chances are that you will wish you had
room for more. They bloom early, are magnificent in color and form, and
are so prolific that old plants often bear a hundred or more flowers
each season, and their profusion of bloom increases with age, as the
plant gains in size. Many varieties are as fragrant as a Rose, and all
of them are as hardy as a plant can well be. What more need be said in
their favor?
In order to attain the highest degree of success with the Peony, it
should be given a rather heavy soil, and manure should be used with
great liberality. In fact it is hardly possible to make the soil too
rich to suit it. Disturb the roots as little as possible. The plant is
very sensitive to any treatment that affects the root, and taking away a
"toe" for a neighbor will often result in its failure to bloom next
season. Keep the grass from crowding it. Year after year it will spread
its branches farther and wider, and there will be more of them, and its
flowers will be larger and finer each season, if the soil is kept rich.
I know of old clumps that have a spread of six feet or more, sending up
hundreds of stalks from matted roots that have not been disturbed for no
one knows how long, on which blossoms can be counted by the hundreds
every spring.
Dicentra, better known as "Bleeding Heart," because of its pendulous,
heart-shaped flowers, is a most lovely early bloomer. It is an excellent
plant for the front row of the border. It sends up a great number of
flowering stalks, two and three feet in length, all curving gracefully
outward from the crown of the plant. These bear beautiful
foliage--indeed, the plant would be well worth growing for this
alone--and each stalk is terminated with a raceme of pink and white
blossoms. It is difficult to imagine anything lovelier or more graceful
than this plant, when in full bloom.
The Aquilegia ought to be given a place in all collections. It comes in
blue, white, yellow, and red. Some varieties are single, others double,
and all beautiful. This is one of our early bloomers. It should be grown
in clumps, near the front row.
[Illustration: A BIT OF THE BORDER OF PERENNIAL PLANTS]
The Iris is to the garden what the Orchid is to the greenhouse. Its
colors are of the richest--blue, purple, violet, yellow, white, and
gray. It blooms in great profusion, for weeks during the early part of
summer. It is a magnificent flower. It will be found most effective when
grouped, but it can be scattered about the border in such a way as to
produce charming results if one is careful to plant it among plants
whose flowers harmonize with the different varieties in color.
Color-harmony is as important in the hardy border as in any other part
of the garden, and no plant should be put out until you are sure of the
effect it will produce upon other plants in its immediate neighborhood.
Find the proper place for it before you give it a permanent location.
The term, "proper place," has as much reference to color as to size. A
plant that introduces color-discord is as much out of place as is the
plant whose size makes it a candidate for a position in the rear when it
is given a place in the immediate foreground.
Pyrethrum _uliginosum_ is a wonderfully free bloomer, growing to a
height of three or four feet, therefore well adapted to the middle rows
of the border. It blooms during the latter part of summer. It is often
called the "Giant Daisy," and the name is very appropriate, as it is the
common Daisy, to all intents and purposes, on a large scale.
The small white Daisy, of lower growth, is equally desirable for
front-row locations. It is a most excellent plant, blooming early in
the season, and throughout the greater part of summer, and well into
autumn if the old flower-stalks are cut away in September, to encourage
new growth. It is a stand-by for cut flowers for bouquet work. Because
of its compact habit it is a very desirable plant for edging the border.
It is difficult to imagine anything more daintily charming than the
herbaceous Spireas. _Alba_, white, and _rosea_, soft pink, produce
large, feathery tufts of bloom on stalks six and seven feet tall. The
flowers of these varieties are exceedingly graceful in an airy,
cloud-like way, and never fail to attract the attention of those who
pass ordinary plants by without seeing them.
The florists have taken our native Asters in hand, and we now have
several varieties that make themselves perfectly at home in the border.
Some of them grow to a height of eight feet. Others are low growers. The
rosy-violet kinds and the pale lavender-blues are indescribably lovely.
Nearly all of them bloom very late in the season. Their long branches
will be a mass of flowers with fringy petals and a yellow centre. These
plants have captured the charm of the Indian Summer and brought it into
the garden, where they keep it prisoner during the last days of the
season. By all means give them a place in your collection. And it will
add to the effect if you plant alongside them a few clumps of their
sturdy, faithful old companion of the roadside and pasture, the Golden
Rod.
It hardly seems necessary for me to give a detailed description of all
the plants deserving a place in the border. The list would be too long
if I were to attempt to do so. You will find all the really desirable
kinds quite fully described in the catalogues of the leading dealers in
plants. Information as to color, size, and time of flowering is given
there, and you can select to suit your taste, feeling confident that you
will be well satisfied with the result.
Just a few words of advice, in conclusion:
Don't crowd your plants.
Allow for development.
Don't try to have a little of everything.
Don't overlook the old-fashioned kinds simply because they happen to be
old. That proves that they have merit.
Keep the ground between them clean and open.
Manure well each spring.
Stir the soil occasionally during the season.
Prevent the formation of seed.
Once in three or four years divide the old clumps, and discard all but
the strongest, healthiest portions of the roots. Reset in rich, mellow
soil. Do this while the plants are at a standstill, early in spring, or
in fall, after the work of the season is over.
THE GARDEN OF ANNUALS
In preparing the garden for annuals, the first thing to do is to spade
up the soil. This can be done shortly after the frost is out of the
ground. This is about all that can be done to advantage, at this time,
as the ground must be allowed to remain as it comes from the spade until
the combined effect of sun and air has put it into a condition that will
make it an easy matter to reduce it to proper mellowness with the hoe or
iron rake.
Right here let me say: Most of us, in the enthusiasm which takes
possession of us when spring comes, are inclined to rush matters. We
spade up the soil, and immediately attempt to pulverize it, and of
course fail in the attempt, because it is not in a proper condition to
pulverize. We may succeed in breaking it up into little clods, but that
is not what needs doing. It must be made fine, and mellow,--not a lump
left in it,--and this can only be done well after the elements have had
an opportunity to do their work on it. When one comes to think about
it, there is no need of hurry, for it is not safe to sow seed in the
ground at the north until the weather becomes warm and settled, and that
will not be before the first of May, in a very favorable season, and
generally not earlier than the middle of the month. This being the case,
be content to leave the soil to the mellowing influences of the weather
until seed-sowing time is at hand. _Then_ go to work and get your garden
ready.
If the soil is not rich, apply manure from the barnyard or its
substitute in the shape of some reliable fertilizer.
Do this before you set about the pulverization of the soil. Then go to
work with hoe and rake, and reduce it to the last possible degree of
fineness, working the fertilizer you make use of into it in such a
manner that both are perfectly blended.
There is no danger of overdoing matters in this part of garden-work. The
finer the soil is the surer you may be of the germination of the seed
you put into it. Fine seed often fails to grow in a coarse and lumpy
soil.
In sowing seed, make a distinction between the very fine and that of
ordinary size. Fine seed should be scattered on the surface, and no
attempt made to cover it. Simply press down the soil upon which you have
scattered it with a smooth board. This will make it firm enough to
retain the moisture required to bring about germination.
Larger seed can be sown on the surface, and afterward covered by sifting
a slight covering of fine soil over it. Then press with the board to
make it firm.
Large seed, like that of the Sweet Pea, Four-o'-Clock, and Ricinus,
should be covered to the depth of half an inch.
I always advise sowing seed in the beds where the plants are to grow,
instead of starting it in pots and boxes, in the house, early in the
season, under the impression that by so doing you are going to "get the
start of the season." In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, plants from
seed sown in the house will be so weak in vital force that they cannot
stand the change which comes when they are transplanted to the open
ground. In the majority of cases, there will be none to transplant, for
seedlings grown under living-room conditions generally die before the
time comes when it is safe to put them out of doors. Should there be any
to put out, they will be so weak that plants from seed sown in the
beds, at that time, will invariably get the start of them, and these are
sure to make the best plants. A person must be an expert in order to
make a success of plant-growing from seed, in the house, in spring.
There will be too much heat, too little fresh air, too great a lack of
moisture in the atmosphere, and often a lack of proper attention in the
way of watering, and unless these matters can be properly regulated it
is useless to expect success. Knowing what the result is almost sure to
be, I discourage the amateur gardener from attempting to grow his own
seedlings under these conditions. If early plants are desired, buy them
of the florists whose facilities for growing them are such that they can
send out strong and healthy stock.
Do not sow the seeds of tender plants until you are quite sure that the
danger from cold nights is over. It is hardly safe to put any kind of
seed into the ground before the middle of May, at the north.
If we wait until all conditions are favorable, the young plants will get
a good start and go steadily ahead, and distance those from seed sown
before the soil had become warm or the weather settled. Haste often
makes waste. If the soil is cold and damp seed often fails to germinate
in it, and this obliges you to buy more seed, and all your labor goes
for naught.
To the method and time of planting advised above, there is one
exception--that of the Sweet Pea. This should go into the ground as soon
as possible in spring. For this reason: This plant likes to get a good
root-growth before the warm weather of summer comes. With such a growth
it is ready for flowering early in the season, and no time is wasted.
Dig a V-shaped trench six inches deep. Sow the seed thickly. It ought
not to be more than an inch apart, and if closer no harm will be done.
Cover to the depth of an inch, at time of sowing, tramping the soil down
firmly. When the young plants have grown to be two or three inches tall,
draw in more of the soil, and keep on doing this from time to time, as
the seedlings reach up, until all the soil from the trench has been
returned to it. This method gives us plants with roots deep enough in
the soil to make sure of sufficient moisture in a dry season. It also
insures coolness at the root, a condition quite necessary to the
successful culture of this favorite flower.
Weeds will generally put in an appearance before the flowering plants
do. As soon as you can tell "which is which" the work of weeding must
begin. At this stage, hand-pulling will have to be depended on. But a
little later, when the flowering plants have made an inch or two of
growth, weeding by hand should be abandoned. Provide yourself with a
weeding-hook--a little tool with claw-shaped teeth--with which you can
uproot more weeds in an hour than you can in all day by hand, and the
work will be done in a superior manner as the teeth of the little tool
stir the surface of the soil just enough to keep it light and open--a
condition that is highly favorable to the healthy development of young
plants. I have never yet seen a person who liked to pull weeds by hand.
Gardens are often neglected because of the dislike of their owners for
this disagreeable task. The use of the weeding-hook does away with the
drudgery, and makes really pleasant work of the fight with weeds.
If seedlings are to be transplanted, do it after sundown or on a cloudy
day. Lift the tender plants as carefully as possible, and aim to not
expose their delicate roots. Get the place in which you propose to plant
them ready before you lift them, and then set them out immediately. Make
a hole as deep as their roots are long, drop the plants into it, and
press the soil firmly about them with thumb and finger. It may be well
to water them if the season is a dry one. Shade them next day, and
continue to do so until they show that they have made new feeding roots
by beginning to grow. I make use of a "shader" that I have "evolved from
my inner consciousness" that gives better satisfaction than anything
else I have ever tried. I cut thick brown paper into circular shape,
eight inches across. Then I cut out a quarter of it, and bring the edges
of this cut together, and run a stick or wire through them to hold them
together. This stick or wire should be about ten inches long, as the
lower end of it must go into the soil. When my "shader" is ready for use
it has some resemblance to a paper umbrella with a handle at one side
instead of in the middle. This handle is inserted in the soil close to
the plant, and the "umbrella" shades it most effectively, and does this
without interfering with a free circulation of air, which is a matter of
great importance.
If thorough work in the way of weeding is done at the beginning of the
season, it will be an easy matter to keep the upper hand of the enemy
later on. But if you allow the weeds to get the start of you, you will
have to do some hard fighting to gain the supremacy which ought never to
have been relinquished. After a little, the hoe can be used to
advantage. If the season happens to be a dry one, do not allow the soil
to become hard, and caked on the surface, under the impression that it
will not be safe to stir it because of the drouth. A soil that is kept
light and open will absorb all the moisture there is in the air, while
one whose surface is crusted over cannot do this, therefore plants
growing in it suffer far more than those do in the soil that is stirred
constantly. Aim to get all possible benefit from dews and slight showers
by keeping the soil in such a sponge-like condition that it can take
advantage of them.
It is a good plan to use the grass-clippings from the lawn as a mulch
about your plants in hot, dry weather.
Do not begin to water plants in a dry season unless you can keep up the
practice. Better let them take the chances of pulling through without
the application than to give it for a short time and then abandon it
because of the magnitude of the task.
Furnish racks and trellises for such plants as need them as soon as they
are needed. Many a good plant is spoiled by neglecting to give attention
to its requirements at the proper time.
Make it a rule to go over the garden at least twice a week, after the
flowering season sets in, and cut away all faded flowers. If this is
done, no seed will come to development, and the strength of the plants
will be expended in the production of other flowers. By keeping up this
practice through the season, it is possible to keep most of them
blossoming until late in the summer, as they will endeavor to perpetuate
themselves by the production of seed, and the first step in this process
is the production of flowers.
What flowers would you advise us to grow? many readers of this chapter
will be sure to ask, after having read what I have said above about the
garden of annuals.
In answering this question here, it will be necessary, in a measure, to
repeat what has been, or will be, said in other chapters, where various
phases of gardening are treated. But the question is one that should be
answered in this connection, at the risk of repetition, in order to
fully cover the subject now under consideration.
There are so many kinds of flowers offered by the seedsmen that it is a
difficult matter to decide between them, when all are so good. But no
one garden is large enough to contain them all. Were one to attempt the
cultivation of all he would be obliged to put in all his time at the
work, and the services of an assistant would be needed, besides. Even
then the chances are that the work would be done in a superficial
fashion. Therefore I shall mention only such kinds as I consider the
very best of the lot for general use, adding this advice:
Don't attempt too much. A few good kinds, well grown, will afford a
great deal more pleasure than a great many kinds only half grown.
This list is made up of such kinds as can properly be classed as
"stand-bys," kinds which any amateur gardener can be reasonably sure of
success with if the instructions given in this chapter are carefully
followed.
_Alyssum._--Commonly called Sweet Alyssum, because of its pleasing
fragrance. Of low growth. Very effective as an edging. Most profuse and
constant bloomer.
_Aster._--This annual disputes popularity with the Sweet Pea. Very many
persons would prefer it to any other because of its sturdy habit, ease
of culture, profusion of bloom, and great variety of color. It is one of
the indispensables.
_Antirrhinum_ (Snapdragon).--Plant of profuse flowering habit. Flowers
of peculiar shape, mostly in rich colors. Very satisfactory for autumn.
[Illustration: A BED OF ASTERS]
_Balsam._--Splendid plant for summer flowering, coming in many colors,
some of these exceedingly delicate and beautiful. Flowers like small
Roses, very double, and set so thickly along the stalks that each branch
seems like a wreath of bloom. It is often necessary to trim off many of
the leaves in order to give the blossoms a chance to display themselves.
Some varieties are charmingly variegated. Being quite tender it should
not be sown until one is sure of warm weather.
_Calliopsis_ (Coreopsis).--A very showy plant, with rich yellow flowers,
marked with brown, maroon and scarlet at the base of the petal. A most
excellent plant where great masses of color are desired. Fine for
combining with scarlet and other strong-toned flowers. An all-the-season
bloomer.
_Candytuft._--A free and constant bloomer, of low habit. Very useful for
edging beds and borders. Comes in pure white and purplish red.
_Celosia_ (Cockscomb).--A plant with most peculiar flowers. What we
_call_ the flower is really a collection of hundreds of tiny individual
blossoms set so close together that they seem to compose one large
blossom. The prevailing color is a bright scarlet, but we have some
varieties in pink and pale yellow. Sure to please.
_Cosmos._--A plant of wonderfully free flowering habit. Flowers mostly
pink, white, and lilac. A tall grower, branching freely, therefore well
adapted to back rows, or massing. Foliage fine and feathery. Excellent
for cutting. One of our most desirable fall bloomers. We have an early
Cosmos of rather dwarf habit, but the large-growing late varieties are
far more satisfactory. It may be necessary to cover the plants at night
when the frosts of middle and late September are due, as they will be
severely injured by even the slightest touch of frost. Well worth all
the care required.
_Four-o'-Clock_ (Marvel of Peru--Mirabilis).--A good, old-fashioned
flower that has the peculiarity of opening its trumpet-shaped blossoms
late in the afternoon. Bushy, well branched, and adapted to border use
as a "filler."
_Escholtzia_ (California Poppy).--One of the showiest flowers in the
entire list. A bed of it will be a sheet of richest golden yellow for
many weeks.
_Gaillardia_ (Blanket-flower).--A profuse and constant bloomer, of rich
and striking color-combinations. Yellow, brown, crimson, and maroon.
Most effective when massed.
_Gypsophila_ (Baby's Breath).--A plant of great daintiness, both in
foliage and flowers. Always in demand for cut-flower work. White and
pink.
_Kochia_ (Burning Bush--Mexican Fire-plant).--A very desirable plant, of
symmetrical, compact habit. Rich green throughout the summer, but
turning to dark red in fall. Fine for low hedges and for scattering
through the border wherever there happens to be a vacancy.
_Larkspur._--Another old-fashioned flower of decided merit.
_Marigold._--An old favorite that richly deserves a place in all gardens
because of its rich colors, free blooming qualities and ease of culture.
_Nasturtium._--Too well known to need description here. Everybody ought
to grow it. Unsurpassed in garden decoration and equally as valuable for
cutting. Blooms throughout the entire season. Does well in a rather poor
soil. In a very rich soil it makes a great growth of branches at the
expense of blossoms.