The Perennial. Border and a Fevr of Its Best Flowers 



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F. £. Buck, B.S.A., Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa 



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THE flowers best adapted for use in a 

 perennial border may be divided 

 into groups in several different 

 ways. Although I have prepared a list 

 of what are generally considered the best 

 for our Canadian climate and have di- 

 vided this list into three sections as fol- 

 lows: "Best low growing flowers for the 

 front of a perennial border," and "Best 

 flowers of medium height for the middle 

 of a perennial border," and "Best tall 

 flowers for the back of a perennial bor- 

 der," and have given the different color, 

 height and time of floweing in each of 

 almost 130 different varieties, I do not 

 intend reading such a list on an occasion 

 like this, but shall content myself with 

 very brief references to several well re- 

 cognized groups of perennial flowers, 

 discussing each group in its seasonal 

 order. 



FOUE PLOWEE GEOUP8 



Early in the year when the eye 

 is greedy for color after the long 

 colorless winter, come radiant tulips 

 stimulating everyone to an awakened 

 interest in Nature. But lest they might 

 shock us with their gay attire, they 



•Ooncluding part of a paper on the "Perennial 

 Border" read before the Quebec Pomologioal So- 

 ciety. 



bring along as companions the deli- 

 cate creamy-white narcissi and the 

 yellow daffodils. These heralds of the 

 flower tribes should be always grown. 

 They are inexpensive to purchase and 

 last for several years in a perennial bor- 

 der before they need to be moved or re- 

 newed. Most of them come to us from 

 foreign lands, and the tulips are gener- 

 ally called Dutch bulbs. They are not 

 the very first flowers of spring, the snow- 

 drops and crocuses appearing a week or 

 two earlier, but on account of the great 

 display of color which they produce it is 

 well to think of them as forming the first 

 great group of the season's flowers. They 

 blossom from late April till June. 



THE ARDENT FL0WEB8 



A second great group is that of the 

 peonies, the old-fashioned "piney," 

 changed in form, color and fragrance, 

 but essentially the same in that quality 

 of "ardent appeal" which in the old days 

 gave to it its charm. The modern peony 

 is a close rival of the queenly rose. Won- 

 derful flowers are these beautiful named 

 peonies. There are three varieties, one 

 w'hite called Avalanche, a red named 

 Felix Crousse, and a pink named Mag- 

 nifica, which, if there were no others to 

 rival them, would rank among the im- 



mortal flowers of the twentieth century. 

 But about a thousand named varieties, of 

 peonies claim our attention and fill our 

 gardens with magnificent masses of color 

 during the month of June. They are 

 ideal flowers for a perennial border. 



While the peonies form the second of 

 the great groups, the irises might rightly 

 be given that place, as perhaps they 

 would be by some people, and the peonies 

 shifted up a place to group three. The 

 iris is the "rainbow flower" and has few 

 rivals. I am really sorry to pass it by. 

 There are, however, so many beautiful 

 flowers of this period that it is impossible 

 to do more than just mention it as being 

 worthy of a much longer reference. Of 

 the other flowers, there are the quaint 

 columbines, which are very numerous in 

 variety and color ; the sweet low-grow- 

 ing plants as violets, pansies, and forget- 

 me-nots, and the. woodsy flowers as the 

 trilliums, spring beauties, spring ane- 

 mones, Solomon's seal, lilies, lady's slip- 

 per, and many others that might be 

 mentioned. The roses, of course, occupy 

 a place by themselves. They come in at 

 the end of June and last through July. 



THE SHOWY FLOWERS 



The phlox, or third group, I have call- 

 ed the showy flowers, because they come 



At the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa. The New Perennial Border 450 Feet Long, by 12 Feet Wide 



Note the great show of color In this picture whioh wa« taken August, 1912. The border looked at Ita best in the months of May and June, when great 

 displays of color were in evidence from groupings of tulips, irises and paeoniee. Later color effects were produced by many selected plants, 

 together with the beautiful perennial phloxes and fall asters. This border was planted in September and October of 1911 



