THE FORWARD MOVEMENT IN HORTICULTURE. 423 



Do not neglect the ■uiburnums, or snowballs. There are over 

 twenty of these, among which are your high bush cranberry and 

 black haw. These with the old-fashioned snowball make a fine 

 group, and they are also famous for their fine autumn coloring. 



Perennial Flowers. — In the springtime the west is the busy end of 

 the world, and we want to plant those things that will stay planted. 

 Annuals require too much care. They cannot stand dry weather, 

 not being so deeply rooted. 



First you have pansies and tulips, then come the beautiful col- 

 umbines. I should have a large bed of mixed ones. You have then 

 almost infinite shadings of color. There are over fifty native sorts, 

 and these planted together give you a perfect charm. They readily 

 hybridize. The bumblebees seem almost intoxicated with the nectar, 

 and they mix the pollen, and you are greeted with perfect surprises 

 of beauty. You have here a succession of bloom lasting six weeks. 

 Oriental Poppies. — These are but little known. They are peren- 

 nial, having roots like a small parsnip. They are hardy. I saw 

 them growing without protection in a garden in the Yellowstone 

 Park. They are flame color and of dazzling splendor ; flowers often 

 six inches across, and inside the most delicate penciling and tracery 

 you ever saw. New varieties are now coming out, and there will 

 doubtless be a great improvement. 



Gaillardias. — These have flowers two and one-half inches across, 

 petals brown edged with gold. They are wholesale bloomers — at it 

 from spring till fall. The blooms are much used for cut flowers. 

 Great improvements are being made. There are now some eighty 

 kinds. In England they claim to have some with blooms five inches 

 across, but I understand these highly improved ones are not hardy. 

 Then we have the queen of all the flowers, not excepting the 

 rose — the modern paeony in 2,000 varieties. They are the hardiest, 

 most prolific of all — wonderful in form and splendor, while over 

 them hang billows of fragrance. By choosing different sorts you 

 have six to eight weeks of bloom, and with care you can have them 

 all summer. 



Then we have the dazzling phloxes with rich variety. These 

 commence the first of July to bloom and reach down to the hard 

 frosts. You can so arrange it that w^hen you look out of doors from 

 early spring till late in the fall there wall be a procession of beauty 

 on dress parade. 



The Future of Horticulture. — We are on the verge of great pos- 

 sibilities. Certain facts have been established and certain laws dis- 

 closed which give us' data for the future. I confess I have been 

 caught with the fascination and zest of new discoveries. After 

 years of patient toil our native phlox, under the manipulation of 

 European florists, has now become a marvel of splendor, and it has 

 reached that stage where it is ready to launch out into new and mar- 

 velous developments. Already we have these with single blossoms 

 an inch and a half in diameter. I get the finest foreign ones that 

 money will buy and plant the seeds, and I have now quite a number 

 which vie with the finest we can import. Columbines have a sur- 

 prising variation, and soon those will be evolved which will be mar- 

 vels of beauty. 



