For May, 1921 



579 



the \ello\v variety marked with red, known as Legion 

 of Honor. We Hke to wear one of these on our lapel as 

 we go to business. 



We planted Calliopsis or Coreopsis, call it which you 

 please, but we are not going to plant it this year ; we 

 used to think it pretty, but somehow we do not care for 

 it any more. 



JNIignonette, of course, we planted, you will never be 

 taken into the tlorists' church or go to the t^orists' heaven 

 if you do not plant mignonette in your garden of annuals, 

 and tell in superlatives how you love it. We care little 

 for the giant varieties without any fragrance ; mignonette 

 without fragrance is like "The play of Hamlet with Ham- 

 let left out," therefore we plant Machette, a dwarf var- 

 iety, very fragrant, and Allen's Defiance which is a rather 

 large variety as well as deliciously fragrant. This also 

 lasts well into the .\utumn. Right here we will say that 

 in making a selection for our garden of annual flowers. 

 we choose cliiefly those which are hardy and bloom well 

 into the Autumn. 



In asters there are so many attractive types and colors 

 that in choosing what to plant one cannot easily miss 

 getting something fine. These are some of the types : 

 Crego ; Comet ; Ostrich Plume ; all of which are some- 

 what irregular in their build and whose effect is delight- 

 fully soft and pleasing ; Invincible, a good type ; King, 

 too stiff" and formal to please our taste ; several varieties, 

 which are known as American Asters, namely, American 

 Beauty, Autumn Glory, Pink Enchantress, Peach Blos- 

 som, Lavender Gem and others, a magnificent strain ; 

 besides these there is the later flowering "Giant Branch- 

 ing" strain, and the good old Truffaut's Peony-Flowered 

 Perfection, and \'ictoria from whicli apparently so many 

 of the more recent types w^hich w-e have mentioned have 

 sprung. We do not plant "Extra Early Asters" though 

 they are pretty; we prefer the mid-season and late. Our 

 asters give us our best cut flowers in a wide range of 

 colors and shades, some strong, some delicate, and some 

 medium, asters, too. bloom well into the cool days of 

 Autumn. 



We plant several kinds of "Everlastings." We are a 

 little old-fashioned : we like to have in our house winter 

 bouquets of Helichrysums (Strawflowers), the prettiest 

 in color and in form and the most lasting of all the ever- 

 lastings; Lunarla (Honesty) for its silvery seed pouches; 

 Gomphrena (Globe Amaranth; also called Bachelor's 

 Buttons) ; Acrodiniuiii ; Rhodanthe, the most delicate 

 and refined of all the everlastings; Xeranthemums ; 

 Physalis Francheti (Chinese Lantern Plant) for its gay- 

 colored fruit husks. We gather all of the flowers when 

 in the bud, tie them in bunches and hang them in a dry 

 shady place to cure. 



The plumed type of Celosia is the only one for which 

 we care : of this' we plant two strains, Thompson's mag- 

 nifica, and Castle Gould; when we get seeds gathered 

 from flowers representing the highest type of those 

 strains, as w-e have sometimes, we hke our celosias, but 

 when we get just mediocre seeds, as we did last season, 

 we do not care for celosia. Next to the plunied type we 

 like that new unique form named "Chinese Wool 

 Flower." 



For blue flowers we plant the annual larkspurs and 

 find them highlv satisfactory ; we do not care so much for 

 the pink and white varietie's though they arc pretty, and 

 we plant a few of these, but mostly the shades of blue. 

 This too is a hardy annual. 



Zinnias, we plant largelv, though they succumb to 

 the early frosts. We plant all colors, but like best the 

 crimson, the scarlet, the orange, the Salmon pink_ aiid 

 flesh shades of color. The long stems on which Zinnia 

 l)looms are carried make them a good flower for cutting. 



Zinnia blooms, when you Ioo'k at the blooms alone, are 

 pleasing to the eye, but when we observe them in connec- 

 tion with their stiff' stems, we cannot by any stretch of 

 imagination call them a graceful flower. 



Scabiosa (Mourning Bride, Pincushion Flow'er, Scab- 

 ious) is an excellent cut flower. In fact we usually culti- 

 vate only those plants whose flowers are good for cut- 

 ting. We do not under value the pretty little flowers 

 (indeed we almost love them) which can be used in edg- 

 ing beds and borders or for the body of beds, where a flat 

 eff'ect is desired, the dwarf Sweet Alyssum and Agerat- 

 ums and Lobelias, and I'ortulacas and Forget-me-nots. 

 Had we time to plant annuals for design effect, we would 

 use all these little gems of the flower kingdom. The 

 name Mourning Bride, given to Scabiosa, reminds me 

 that when I was a small boy and helped my Mother in 

 her flower garden, she cultivated Mourning Brides, and 

 that all of the blooms were a black-purple color. Per- 

 haps that was why the name Mourning Bride was then 

 given to the flower. We plant just for "Auld Lang 

 Syne" a few of the black-purple color, but largely the 

 beautiful flesh color, and lavender and scarlet varieties 

 of this very satisfactory, hardy annual. Our experience 

 teaches us that we should plant scabiosa seed in the 

 open garden, if we cannot start it in a flat in a hot bed, 

 and transplant outside when frosts are over, a little ear- 

 lier than the seeds of other flowers as it seems to need a 

 long season to give us a full crop of flowers. 



The delicious fragrance of the flowers of the several 

 types of Stocks would lead us to plant these even if 

 their flowers were not beautiful. The beauty and fra- 

 grance of their flowers combined, and their vigorous 

 habit of growth makes Stocks to us among the most 

 desirable of annuals. To have these in bloom early, we 

 must plant the seeds in March in flats or seed pans and 

 place these under glass, and when the plants are large 

 enough transplant these into other flats and later after 

 frosts are over into the open garden. We find, however. 

 that planting the seeds about May 10 to 15 in the open 

 garden that we have Stocks blooming freely in the cool 

 davs of Autumn, ^^'e plant all types, but chiefly the 

 Dresden Perpetual or liranching and Ten Weeks. 



At the end of our bed of annuals where the soil was 

 poorest we sowed broadcast poppy seeds of several kinds, 

 but the Shirley seemed to be the only kind to germinate. 

 From these we plucked many lovely delicate blooms 

 throughout tlie Autumn. We were really amazed to see 

 how these seemingly tender plants, and delicate flowers 

 withstood the cold of the November nights. We picked 

 our last bouquet of dainty blooms from our Shirley Pop- 

 pies on Friday. November 19. The plants were the very 

 last to succumb to the severe frosts of late November. 



LATE TULIPS ON MAY DAY 



{Continued from page 575) 

 course. Pride of Haarlem, with Ouida, however, by no 

 means outclassed. How poor a day it was for the light 

 shades was illustrated by Gretchen, which appeared quite 

 faded and washed out ; but Clara Butt was attractive and 

 in everv wav as lovely as ever. 



.Among the Cottage tulips the yellows of richer shades 

 were pleasing. The crowning masterpiece was found 

 among the Breeders. No more splendid flower do I ex- 

 pect ever to see than the group of one hundred fine 

 blooms of Louis XIV, the Breeder tulip which at I^fay- 

 fair, too, represented the acme of loveliness among tulips. 



Character is made up of small duties faithfully per- 

 formed, of self-denials, of self-sacrifices, of kindly acts 

 of love and dutv. — Selected. 



