104 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



SO that a border well stocked is rich 

 in colour all summer-time, and shows 

 a few patches of lively green all 

 winter. Let us see what we have in 

 this class worthy to be described as 

 " everybody's flowers." Let us begin 

 with — 



Blue. — For a sunny border of good 

 loam Delphinium formosum and 

 Hendersonii give magnificent spikes 

 of blue. When they are half gone, 

 and before much seed is formed, cut 

 the flower-stems away, and they will 

 bloom again, and make two displays 

 instead of one. The bee larkspur, 

 which is a perennial Delphinium, is 

 as common as a weed, and almost 

 grand when its tall stems are loaded 

 with pale blue flowers. See it in the 

 beds on the lower terrace at the Crys- 

 tal Palace, or in the herbaceous 

 borders at Kew, and say is it not at 

 once a prince's and a poor man's 

 flower? Tradescantia Virginia, blue 

 again, always in bloom, and a grace- 

 ful gra3S-like foliage, very common, a 

 cottage plant, but who would be 

 without it ? Aconitum napellus is 

 rather coarse, but bold and showy, 

 and a fine clump of it looks grand in 

 the rear of a border, and no garden 

 can very well do without it. Aqui- 

 legias produce deep blues, and blue 

 and pink shades, and when large and 

 double are not only border but 

 florists' flowers, and have been im- 

 proved with assiduous care, so that 

 to have any but the best would be a 

 folly. The perennial borage, though 

 a coarse-looking plant, puts on a blue 

 livery in its short summer season 

 that cannot be surpassed in all the 

 retinue of Flora. The dwarf Campa- 

 nulas come into the front line for 

 patches of blue and white — exqui- 

 sitely beautiful ; and the Canterbury 

 bell everybody knows, but how rarely 

 do we see a row of it, and what can 

 beat a row of it if supported with 

 other colours of good herbaceous 

 plants ? Honesty, an ancient bien- 

 nial, is one of the first and most 

 cheerful of spring flowers ; colour a 

 bluish-lilac, and when the flowers 

 are gone it will amuse you to watch the 

 growth of the seed-pods. If we make 

 the Lupins end the list of blues, it is 

 not because the list of blues is at an 



end,but because it will suffice so far for 

 people who don't want to have their 

 heads turned. We ought to add the 

 squill, for the sake of its spring 

 flowers, for though it is a bulb, it 

 will grow anywhere in the shade 

 along with violets and forget-me- 

 not. 



Crimsons and reds are more plenti- 

 ful, but we shall specify only a few. 

 You remember the French willow or 

 French stock, Lythrum salicaria, 

 blooming so gaily in your grand- 

 mother's garden ; why is it not in 

 your garden also, in a damp place, to 

 comfort you with its tall spikes of 

 rosy-purple flowers, when the sum- 

 mer heat makes you too idle to trouble 

 about any plant that cannot take care 

 of itself, as that will, if you only leave 

 it alone ? The scarlet Lychnis, where 

 is that? dug in and destroyed when 

 the borders were " done up." Send 

 to the nursery for a dozen, and plant 

 them in the third row at equal dis- 

 tances, you shall have compact heads 

 of deep scarlet flowers for your little 

 pains. The Oriental poppy is posi- 

 tively too gaudy and too fleeting to 

 be worth many words ; but it must 

 elicit admiration ; how it glows like 

 a little clinker just raked out of a 

 furnace, and mounted on a "green wire 

 to mock the sun. Agrostemma flos 

 Jovis, the real Jove's flower — lovely 

 flowers of soft deep rose, and foliage 

 hoary like frosted silver. It will 

 grow anywhere, and sow its own 

 seeds by dozens. The columbines 

 come in again here for dull reds and 

 lively pinks ; so do the pinks them- 

 selves, and the Indian pink is one of 

 the best border plants known. The 

 Potentillas, especially P. sanguinea, 

 will either sprawl over a bank, or, by 

 the help of a few neat sticks, make 

 pretty upright stem3 of rich crimson 

 and blood- coloured flowers. Fox- 

 gloves are not to be depended on in 

 gardens ; but where they do thrive, 

 they produce charming spikes of rose, 

 pink, and flesh-coloured flowers. If 

 you can grow them to look equal to 

 those in the hedgerow, you may con- 

 sider you have done something. 

 What shall we say of Dielytra spec- 

 tabilis, the most beautiful'of all hardy 

 herbaceous plants, esteemed as furni- 



