766 



HORTICULTURE 



May 29, 1909 



HARDY PERENNIALS AND THEIR 

 VARIOUS USES. 



By Koiit-rt Ciimcn.;i. 



Corittnufil Jretn page 7y^ Issue i}/ May 22. 



The Rock Garden. 



There are many estates and gardens 

 which have natural rocky banks or 

 hillsides which' can be made very at- 

 tractive with a rock garden and, in 

 fact, there are many hardy perennials 

 that give better satisfaction than 

 when grown in any other part of the 

 garden. A well constructed and taste- 

 fully arranged rock garden can ba 

 made one of the most pleasing features 

 of our grounds. 



The meaningless mounds of stones 

 Buch as we see in our public garden is 

 by no means the best conception of a 

 rook garden. In fact, a rock garden 

 should be a close imitation of a rocky 

 mountain, though, of course, on a very 

 small scale. It should have crevices 

 and pockets, and these should be filled 

 with soils to suit the requirements of 

 the various plants. 



The plants used should be largely the 

 low growing kinds, such as aubrietias, 

 creeping phloxes, houseleeks, sedums, 

 columbines, pinks, ajugas, arabis and 

 many others too numerous to mention 

 here. 



Other Uses for Hardy Perennials. 



There are many other places besides 

 the herbaceous border and rock gar- 

 den where hardy perennials can bs 

 used with good effect. Lilies are at 

 their best when planted in rhodod?n- 

 dron beds. Along water margins there 

 are many plants which lend themselves 

 very pleasingly and give excellent ef- 

 fects, such as irises, cardinal flowers, 

 lythrums and many kinds of grasses. 



Another use which the large grow- 

 ing perennials are adraiiably adapted 

 for, is to produce sub-tropical effects. 

 There are quite a number of plants 

 which can be used in this way. For 

 example, sunflowers, compass-plants, 

 bocconias, Arunda donax, Eulalia Ja- 

 ponica and its varieties, aralias, acan- 

 thuses, polygonums, rheums, heracle- 

 ums, centaureas, eryngiums and eohi- 

 nops. 



There are many hardy perennials 

 which make showy and attractive beds 

 on the lawn. Phlox procumbens. P. 

 subulata and P. reptans are all good 

 for early work. Stellaria Holostea is 

 very good in early summer. The tall 

 growing phloxes, peonies, irises and 

 the tall, graceful gi-asses — all lend 

 themselves readily to this kind of 

 work. 



Care is Needed to Be Successful. 



Many people make a great mistake 

 when they imagine that herbaceous 

 plants, when once planted, will take 

 care of themselves afterwards. There 

 is no class of plants, that I know of, 

 which will give good results if con- 

 stant attention is not paid to them. 

 Herbaceous plants are just like other 

 plants — their wants and needs must be 

 carefully looked alter. An imporlant 

 matter is that of staking and support- 

 ing. The stakes or sticks ought never 

 to show. They must be so arranged 

 to give the needful support, while al- 

 lowing the plant its natural freedom. 

 The only time when stakes are toler- 

 ated is for the short time when they 

 have been put in for plants which at- 

 tain a great height There is a great 



.Ahabis albida. 



Pholo by Robert Car 



knack in staking and it takes some 

 experience to do it properly. 



A newly planted border is not always 

 satisfactory the first year. Many of 

 the plants do not grow vigorously 

 enough and do not fill up the space 

 allotted to them. 



Annual Plants Are Useful. 



There are many annuals which blend 

 very pleasingly with the perennials 

 and can be used to fill up the vacan- 

 cies, but care must be given to select- 

 ing the proper color so that it a color 

 scheme has been conducted it will not 

 be Injured. Annuals are used to fill 

 up the vacancies, where the spring 

 bulbs have been growing in the bor- 

 der. I know there are some who ob- 

 ject to using annuals among peren- 

 nials, but there is no other class of 

 plants which harmonize so pleasingly 

 with them. One of the best w-riters 

 in England on this class of plants even 

 advocates the use of bedding plants 

 and the plunging of plants in pots to 

 give the proper effects. I certainly do 

 not agree with her, but I see no harm 

 in using annuals quite liberally. In 

 nature we see no strict lines drawn be- 

 tween perennials and annuals in her 

 grouping of plants. 



Select List of Good Perennials. 



There is almost an endless supply 

 of showy hardy perennials, and it 

 would be useless to give a very long 

 list of them, as they can be found in 

 most of the fine catlogues sent oirt by 

 the different nurserymen. All I will 

 do is to give the names of a few of 

 the best things for spring, summer and 

 fall. 



The earliest plants to flower are the 

 snowdrops, of which the best kinds are 

 Galanthus Elwesii and G. nivalis. 

 Next come the crocuses, of which the 

 yellow kinds bloom fiist — then the 

 whites and blues follow. In the early 

 flowering squills the best are Scilla bi- 

 folia and S. bifolia alba, S. Sibirica 

 and S. Sibirica alba. The glories-of- 

 the-snow are charming. Chiouodoxi 

 Luciliae and its variety graudiflora 

 and sardensis are the ones which give 



the best satisfaction. Fritillaria impe- 

 rialis and its various varieties are 

 good, so is Fritillaria meleagris. The 

 most pleasing of the grape hyacinths 

 are Muscari botryoides, M. botryoides 

 album, M. commutatum and M. com- 

 pactum. 



A few of the most satisfactory tulips 

 for the border are in the early kinds, 

 Artus, La Belle Alliance, Yellow 

 Prince, I.,a Precleuse, Joost von Vondel, 

 white, Duchesse de Parma, Chrysolora. 



A few of the best Darwins are Clara 

 Butt, rosy salmon; Galatea, vivid ver- 

 milion; Glory, fiery scarlet; Gretchen, 

 silvery white; Harry Veitch, deep ma- 

 roon; Isis, fiery crimson, one of the 

 very best; Kate Greenaway, very soft 

 flesh-colored nearly white; Madame 

 Krelage, a perl'ect beauty, soft rosy 

 pink edged light rose. Mr. Farncome 

 Sandars is all right, dazzling crimson 

 red; Mrs. Cleveland, a charming flow- 

 er, soft rosy pink. Pride of Haarlem 

 beats them, all, cerise-scarlet; Psyche, 

 most lovely flower, delicate pink. 

 Queen Wilhelmina, the best of all the 

 rose-colored Darwins. Sieraad van 

 Flora, one of the earliest to 

 flower and very good indeed, vivid 

 rosy-red. Torch is very nice fiery red. 

 Most of the Darwin tulips are lovely 

 things and we have grown thirty vari- 

 eties, the above being the best kinds. 



Cottage or late May flowering tulips. 

 Out of thirty kinds we have grown the 

 following ai'e the ones we liked the 

 best. Bouton d'Or, deep yellow, very 

 pleasing; fulgens, very long stems, 

 dark scarlet crimson; Gesneriana, color 

 brilliant carmine and its forms are 

 probably some of the most satisfactory 

 tulips. We have some bulbs growing 

 in the same place for twenty years. 

 Golden Crown, very fine yellow; In- 

 gltscome, scarlet, is very good. Isa- 

 bella or Shandon Bells are good tulips, 

 pleasing color creamy yellow changing 

 to dark magenta; La Candeur, very 

 handsome white. La Merveille is one 

 of the largest tulips and probably the 

 most fragrant, salmon-orange color. 

 Pieotee, or Maiden's Blush, one of the 

 most satisfactory cottage tulips, white 



