PERENNIALS
Some of the perennials to be sown yearly in the seed-bed from about
April first to tenth, are the following:
_Columbines_ of all varieties, yellow, white, shading from pink to red
and from pale blue to darkest purple.
Of Columbines every garden should have plenty. Blooming about May
twentieth for three weeks, they are a perfect delight. They are very
hardy, germinate readily in the seed-bed, are easy to transplant and
need but little care. I have never been able to get them much over
three feet in height, but then I have often a dozen stalks of bloom
on a single plant, which is very satisfactory. The first dozen plants
were sent to me by a friend from his garden on Long Island; now I have
hundreds of them,--single and double, white, yellow, all shades of red
and pink, pale blue, and a blue one with a white center almost like an
Orchid; many shades of purple, also purple and white.
_Hollyhocks_, single and double, of all colours. In order to get the
desired colour effect with these, keep each variety separate.
[Illustration: Hollyhocks in blossom
July twelfth]
No one can have too many Hollyhocks. Plant them at the back of the
borders among the shrubbery, along fences, and in great clumps in any
odd corner, or around buildings; they are never amiss, and always
beautiful. I find that a Hollyhock cannot be counted upon to bloom
more than three years. First-year stalks are about four feet high;
afterwards, if in good soil, they will be from six to eight feet. There
were hundreds of this size in my garden last summer, each plant with
from three to five towering stalks of bloom. As soon as they have gone
to seed, I save what seed I want and the stalks are then cut down and
burned. By sowing the seeds as soon as thoroughly ripe and dry, plants
can be raised which will be large enough to transplant in October, and
will bloom the next year. These young plants should be given a slight
covering the first winter, that they may not be winter-killed.
When in a border, the Hollyhock, which will flourish in any soil, grows
to such an extent that Lilies or Phloxes, or anything else near by, are
likely to be crowded out, unless care is taken to cut off the lower
leaves, which become enormous. I have this done usually three times
before they bloom, beginning early in May, and great wheelbarrow-loads
of leaves are taken away at each cutting.
_Sweet Williams_, red, white and pink. These will grow from eighteen
inches to two feet. The stems are straight and stiff, and the trusses
of bloom about five inches across, with individual flowers as large as
a nickel; they keep well in water and make a beautiful edging for a
border, or give great effect when planted in masses. They bloom for
three weeks or more, and make fine decorations for church or house.
_Platycodon Mariesi_, beautiful blue; they resemble Canterbury Bells,
and, as they blossom after the Canterbury Bells, are valuable in
continuing the period of blue flowers, with the advantage of being
perennials.
_Delphiniums_, perennial Larkspurs, all varieties. These seeds I have
found more difficult to make germinate than any others, so I do not
rely upon what I raise, but purchase many plants. My best results have
come from saving the seeds from the first crop of blossoms, drying
thoroughly, and then sowing at once. I have found these seeds more sure
to germinate than those bought in early spring. Perhaps nature intends
them to be sown in this way, instead of nine months later.
[Illustration: A single plant of Delphinium (Perennial Larkspur)
June twenty-first]
One can never say enough in praise of Delphiniums. Three-year-old
plants will send up eight to ten beautiful great spikes of the richest
blue, four feet high. The moment a blossom withers, cut the stalk down
to the ground; another will immediately spring up. I had four crops of
blossoms from some of my Delphiniums last summer, so that, from the end
of June until the middle of October, there were always some of them in
blossom. Some varieties of tall English Delphiniums are very beautiful.
Among them is one, Coelestinum, of the loveliest shade of light blue,
with very large, double individual flowers. As I have said before, the
Delphinium blossoms at the same time as _Lilium candidum_, and should
be planted near by. Great bunches of these two flowers, in tall vases,
are lovely as well as unusual.
There is a horrid small white worm which attacks the roots of the
Delphinium, and gives no sign until you see the plant dying. I have
found that keeping the soil around the plant well covered with coal
ashes is a preventive. Delphiniums are hardy and long-lived (unless the
worm gets them), and, once planted, they live a dozen years.
_Coreopsis_ (Grandiflora). Every one knows the Coreopsis, which, by
continual cutting, will give abundant bloom for three months. The
variety with velvety maroon centers is particularly fine.
_Hibiscus_ is very easy to raise, and should be planted among and along
the edge of shrubbery. The plants are quite hardy, grow four feet high,
and masses of them in pink or white are fine. They bloom in August and
September.
_Rockets_, white and purple. These increase tremendously from
self-sowing, so be careful or they will suffocate all that grows near
them. I have many plants, all of which have come from a single one that
a colored woman gave me a few years ago. She is a nice comfortable old
"mammy," black as the ace of spades, with a great love for flowers and
a nice patch of them. We have exchanged plants several times. Some of
the nicest things I have in my garden came to me in this way, and it is
great fun.
Whenever, in driving about, I see a particularly fine plant in a
dooryard, I make friends with its owner, and later suggest that if she
(it is usually "she") will give me a small root of this or that, I will
bring her some plants or bulbs from my garden, of a kind which she has
not. So we are both equally benefited. In this way I was once given a
plant of _Valerian_, which has a tall, beautiful white flower with a
most delicious odour like vanilla. It blooms for three weeks in late
May and early June. From this one plant there are now in the garden a
number of large clumps several feet in diameter, and I have given away
certainly fifty roots. Valerian is a small white flower in good-sized
clusters on long stems, seen now-a-days only in old-fashioned gardens.
I am told it cannot be bought of horticulturists.
One must have _Chrysanthemums_, but where the thermometer falls below
zero there are not many to be bought, other than the pompon varieties,
that will blossom in the garden before being killed by frost, or that
will survive the winter. Year after year I have bought dozens of the
so-called "September-flowering Chrysanthemums," and have only succeeded
in making them blossom by the middle of October, by planting them on
the south side of a building, in richest soil, giving abundance of
water, and covering on all cold nights. But I have beautiful plants of
perfectly hardy, good-sized blossoms of yellow, white, pink and red,
the roots of which have come from the gardens of my farmer friends.
I have never been able to buy this old-fashioned hardy kind. In the
spring, as soon as the plants begin to sprout, divide them, setting out
three or four sprouts together. In this way the stock will increase
wonderfully.
Chrysanthemums require very rich soil, must have sun, and do best
against a building or a wall. About the first of July and the first
of September have a couple of trowelfuls of manure carefully dug in
about the roots of each plant. Buds should not be allowed to form
until September, and the new shoots should be pinched back until then,
to make the plants strong and bushy. I do not envy any one who has
only the great, solemn, stiff flowers of the prize-show variety. An
armful of the hardy garden ones, with their delicious odour, is worth
a green-house full of the unnatural things which are the professional
gardener's pride. When you can keep twenty or more vases filled from
your own garden with these last blossoms of the year, in all their
lovely colours, and not miss one of them from the plants, you will
agree with me that they are the only kind to raise.
Perennials, sown in rows in the seed-bed in April, will be nice little
plants by July, when they should be lifted and transplanted some six
inches apart. The portion of the seed-bed where the annuals were raised
can be used now for the purpose. This is particularly necessary for
Larkspur, Columbines, Monkshood, Platycodon, Coreopsis, Hibiscus and
Pinks. If, when transplanting, each plant is set with a trowelful
of manure, the result will be plants twice as large by the first of
October, when they can be again transplanted to their permanent places.
_Oriental Poppies_ and _Pinks_ should also be sown in the perennial
seed-bed.
Oriental Poppies, with great blossoms as large as a tea plate borne on
strong stems, make a grand show about the end of May and beginning of
June.
Pinks, too, should be in every garden, if only for their delicious,
spicy odor. The Chinensis, or China Pinks, are the best.
Sweet Williams and Oriental Poppies need not be moved from the time
they are sown until finally transplanted in the autumn.
[Illustration: Yuccas in blossom
July twelfth]
_Yucca filamentosa_, the hardy native of Mexico, sends up, about the
tenth of July, great stalks six to eight feet high, bearing masses of
white flowers. The individual blossoms are of creamy waxy texture and
as beautiful as an orchid. A single stalk of Yucca, in a tall vase,
will last nearly a week, and is as unusual as it is beautiful for house
decoration. Yuccas are perfectly hardy, need no protection in winter,
no fertilizer, no water in dry weather. In my garden, at least, they
have not been attacked by insects and have grown placidly on, needing
absolutely no care but to have the stalks cut down when they have
finished blossoming. They are most effective when grown in clumps, but
look very well along a fence with Hollyhocks at the back. The plants
are so inexpensive that I have bought mine, but see no reason why they
cannot be raised from seed. Small plants form near the parent stem,
and these can be separated and transplanted. A late spring frost will
sometimes nip the flower stalk that has just started, and there will be
no bloom that year. To avoid such a disaster, whenever, in late spring,
a frosty night is suspected, cover the plants with a piece of burlap.
_Tritomas_ (Red-hot Poker Plant) bloom in September and October, and
should always be planted in masses, and in full sun. They must be well
covered with leaves or stable litter late in November, or they will be
winter-killed. They increase rapidly.
_Gaillardias_ bloom all summer, and keep fresh in water for days. The
plants are covered with long-stemmed, yellow flowers with dark crimson
centers, and should also be protected in winter.
_Veronica longifolia_, a most beautiful dark blue flower, which grows
in long spikes. Veronica remains in bloom during the month of August,
and is one of the most showy flowers in the garden at that time.
_Iris_, Japanese and German, do well when naturalized in the grass.
These plants increase so, that every four years they can be separated.
Beginning with the German Iris, flowering the end of May, they can be
had in bloom until the Japanese Iris finishes blossoming the middle of
July. No Orchids are more beautiful than the Japanese Iris. A couple
of weeks before and during the period of bloom they must be kept very
moist.
Both the German and the Japanese Iris are perfectly hardy and increase
rapidly. The English Iris, of which the white variety, known as
Mont Blanc, is the most beautiful, and the Spanish Iris, in all its
varieties, are not hardy. But with careful winter covering, about equal
to that given to the everblooming Roses, they will generally survive,
and are well worth the trouble. The roots of all varieties of Iris are
very long, and care must be taken to give them plenty of room and to
plant deep.
_Peonies._ For beauty and usefulness Peonies rank with Phloxes. Large
plants will frequently bear twenty great blossoms. By raising both
early and late varieties, their period of bloom can be continued for
a month. The old, dark crimson variety is the first to bloom; the
old-fashioned double pink and double white are beautiful enough to
satisfy any one, but the new varieties give immense choice as to colour
and form.
The Japanese Tree Peonies do not die to the ground every year, like
the herbaceous kinds, but form woody branches and grow like a small
shrub. The blossoms of these Tree Peonies are truly wonderful; the only
care needed is a little fertilizer in the autumn and a slight winter
covering. They are best grown in front of the shrubbery. They blossom
before the herbaceous varieties. The herbaceous Peonies can be grown in
large beds by themselves, in borders with other plants, or as single
specimens in the grass or among the shrubs.
Peonies start so early in the spring that they should be manured in the
fall, or there is danger of breaking the tender shoots.
[Illustration: Bed of Peonies on edge of lawn
June sixth]
_Phlox._ There is no flower in the garden more beautiful, more easily
cultivated, or giving so much bloom as the Phlox. I could certainly
never have a garden without it. In mine there must be a couple of
thousand. I have a great mass, of probably two hundred herbaceous
Phloxes, growing together in one corner of my garden, the very tall
varieties over four feet high. About the fifteenth of July, every year,
this corner is a superb sight. Most of these plants are over fifteen
years old. They have been kept fine by heaviest top-dressing every
year, and by lifting all the plants every three years and digging in
quantities of manure, and also by separating each plant into three, by
cutting the roots with a spade, or pulling apart with the fingers.
The newer varieties of Phlox come in the most beautiful colours,--dark
crimson, fiery scarlet, many shades of pink, pink striped with white,
and pink with a white eye; all shades of lilac, lilac with white and
purple, the beautiful pure white, and the white with the scarlet
eye. Of all the varieties, my favorites are the snowy white, and the
salmon-pink with the dark red eye. Buy fifty large field-grown plants;
at the end of three years separate them, and you have a hundred and
fifty. They present a picture of progression much surer than the tale
of the eggs that were to do so much.
Many of the individual blossoms of my Phloxes are larger than a
fifty-cent piece; a number of them larger by measurement than a silver
dollar, and the heads also are very large. Always erect, neat and
smiling, never needing to be staked (such a task in a large garden),
when once grown they must always be dear to a gardener's heart. By
breaking off the heads of Phlox immediately after blooming, a second
crop of flowers will appear in about three weeks. The heads will not be
so large as the first, but they will amply repay the slight trouble.
Every owner of a garden has certain favorites; it really cannot be
helped, although the knowledge that it is so makes it seem almost as
unfair as for a mother to have a favorite child.
A real lover of flowers finds it difficult to cast away a plant that
has bloomed its best, even though the blossom is unsatisfactory. In my
garden there are, at present, some plants that I am longing to dig up
and burn. There are two climbing Roses that came by mistake in a large
order and were set out. They have thriven as no others, cover a very
large space on a trellis, and in June bear thousands of a most hideous,
small, purplish crimson Rose. The other plant is _Scabiosia Caucasica_.
Beware of the same. The description of it in a catalogue caused me to
feel that without it the garden was nothing. A dozen were ordered and
set out in a border, in two clumps. They grew and waxed strong, and
fairly clambered over everything within several feet of them, seeming
to be like gigantic thistles. Finally in August, on stems two feet
long, the eagerly looked-for blossoms appeared. These were described
in the catalogue as "a large head of pale blue flowers." But, to
my despair, it developed a round green ball about three inches in
circumference, with white thistle-like petals. And yet the plants had
surpassed themselves. It seems a poor reward to turn them out to die.
_Lychnis_ (London Pride). I cannot now recall any perennial except
the Cardinal Flower, which has blossoms of so brilliant a scarlet as
Lychnis, or London Pride, growing tall and erect, with its bright
colour. It is most effective when grown in large clumps.
_Monkshood_ (_Aconitum Napellus_) grows four feet high, and has a
beautiful blossom of rich blue growing in quite large clusters. The
name must come from the resemblance each individual blossom bears to
the capuchin of a monk. These plants should be grown under tall trees,
for they cannot stand too strong sun, and will blossom very late in the
autumn if protected by the trees from frost. I gathered them last year
in November.
Phloxes, Rudbeckias, Monkshood, Valerian, Lychnis, Tritomas, Iris,
Peonies and Veronica are best raised, not from seed, but by buying the
plants, and then after a time, as I have said before, dividing them.
For instance, take a fine large plant of Phlox of some choice variety,
divide all the roots and set out each one separately. From one plant
you may, in two years' time, get twenty splendid ones, and the same
with the other varieties I have mentioned.
_Rudbeckias_, of the Golden Glow variety, grow from six to eight feet
high, and must be staked, or when heavy with blossoms they will blow
down or be beaten down by the rain. Each plant will bear quantities of
long-stemmed double yellow blossoms, which resemble a double Dahlia.
These will keep nearly a week in water. When the plant has finished
blossoming, cut down the tops, and in October there will be a second
crop of blossoms just above the ground.
The Golden Glow should be divided every other year, and in this way it
is even more remunerative than the Phlox. I started with fifty plants,
and think it will soon be possible to have a farm of them.
LIST OF HARDY PERENNIALS, WITH HEIGHT, COLOUR AND TIME AND PERIOD OF
BLOOMING, ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY.
_Aquilegia_, or Columbine, all colours; one to two and one-half feet;
tenth of May to first week in June.
_Chrysanthemums_, all colours but blue; three feet; end of September
until very cold weather.
_Delphiniums_, all shades of blue; three to four feet; July; later
crops after cutting down.
_Dianthus barbatus_ (Sweet William), red, pink, white; one to two feet;
June.
_Dicentra spectabilis_ (Bleeding Heart), red and white; one to two
feet; May.
_Gaillardia_, yellow, red center; two feet; July, August and September
until killed by frost.
[Illustration: A single plant of Phlox
August twenty-fifth]
_Helianthus multiflorus plenus_, hardy double Sunflower; yellow; four
to five feet; all summer.
_Hibiscus_, pink, white; four to five feet; August and September.
_Hollyhocks_, all colours but blue; single, double, four to eight feet;
tenth of July to middle of August; two to five stalks on a plant.
_Hyacinthus candicans_, white; four feet; last three weeks of August.
_Iris Germanica_, all colours; two to three feet; end of May to first
of June.
_Lychnis_ (London Pride), scarlet; two and one-half feet; July.
_Oriental Poppy_, scarlet, also pink; three feet; end of May and first
of June.
_Peonies_, all colours but blue; two to two and one-half feet; end of
May, for three weeks.
_Pentstemon_, many colours; three feet; August and September.
_Phlox_, all colours; two to four feet; early July until killed by
frost, if the heads are cut as soon as finished flowering.
_Platycodon Mariesi_, blue; one and one-half feet; August.
_Rocket_ (_Hesperis Matronalis_), white and purple; two feet; May.
_Rudbeckia_ (Golden Glow), yellow; five to eight feet; middle of July
to September first; second crop in October.
_Tritoma_ (Red-hot Poker Plant), orange-scarlet; three to four feet;
September and October until killed by frost.
_Valerian_, white; three feet; May and June.
_Veronica longifolia_, blue; two feet; August.
_Yucca filamentosa_, white; three to five feet; second and third weeks
in July.
[Illustration: Vase of Canterbury Bells
June twenty-first]
BIENNIALS AND A FEW BEDDING-OUT PLANTS