94 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



April. 1914 



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paeonies, ten phloxes, ten lilies, twenty 

 dahlias, and twenty gladiolus bulbs. 



The gladioli and dahlias were saved 

 for spring planting ; the rest were plant- 

 ed immediately and, ine fall work t>e- 

 ing now completed, 1 staked, labelled, 

 and mulched the various plants in pre- 

 paration for their winter rest. 



Early in April the mulching was re- 

 moved ; every one of my plants had sur- 

 vived the winter and sent up fine strong 

 shoots. I had the bed covered once more 

 with a layer of good manure and dug 

 it in thoroughly, being careful not to dis- 

 turb the plants, after which I worked 

 and pulverized the top soil and smoothed 

 the surface ready for planting. The last 

 week in April I put the gladioli bulbs and 

 dahlia tubers into the ground and on the 

 first of May I planted quantities of poppv 

 seed, the pompone variety, just scatter- 

 ing it and raking it lightly into the 

 ground, between and around the peren- 

 nials and in a solid strip two feed wide 

 in front of them. It was a risk planting 

 poppies so early in this climate, but I 

 had plenty of seed saved from my own 

 garden the previous year and could re- 

 plant if the frost cut down the first seed- 

 lings. Fortunately they were spared, 

 and I consequently had poppies in bloom 

 nearly a fortnight earlier than usual. 



In front of the poppies I planted a 

 single, perfectly straight row of dwarf 

 nasturtiums, and at the edge of the bed 

 as a border I set out plants of dwarf 

 sweet alyssum. These latter I had 



planted early in March in the house and 

 later transferred to the hotbed so that at 

 the time of setting out they were already 

 starting to bloom and kept right on with- 

 out setback, making a solid white border 

 from the middle of May until after the 

 heavy fall frosts had killed every other 

 flower in the garden. 



By the middle of May, when the pop- 

 pies were up, the bed was well covered 

 with green; besides the alyssum, a few 

 paeonies were in blossom, the delphin- 



iums were sending up promising flower 

 spikes and the border began to be at- 

 tractive to the eye. It was quite con- 

 trary to all rules and to my better judg- 

 ment to allow the paeonies and delphin- 

 iums to bloom the first year after setting 

 out, but it was very gratifying to see 

 something of what was coming, and 

 served to endourage my efforts. 



The real show began about the middle 

 of June when the pompon poppies came 

 into bloom, and for nearly three weeks 

 they were one glorious profusion of 

 beautiful paeony-like flowers forming one 

 of the most magnificent masses of color 

 that I have ever seen, and that, too, at 

 a time of the year which, in this part 

 of the country, is an "off^ season" in the 

 flower garden. Earlier we depend upon 

 the paeonies, delphiniums, and spring- 

 dowering bulbs for massed color eff'ects ; 

 later we have phlox, asters, nasturtiums, 

 Jahlias and a wealth of other heavy 

 jloomers, but in between are a couple of 

 Weeks when the poppies fill a felt want 

 and are aimost alone. 



As soon as the glory of the poppy-bed 

 began to show signs of departing, and 

 the plants began to yellow at the base, 

 although many were still in blossom, I 

 ruthlessly rooted up every poppy plant, 

 worked a little more fertilizer into the 

 soil and set out in their place the asters 

 which I had planted in the house early 

 in March, cherished in the hotbed, and 

 finally potted off and plunged into a 

 cold frame to await their turn in the 

 border. By this time, the first of July, 

 the plants were already branching freely 

 in preparation for the flowering season, 

 and, receiving no setback from careful 

 transplanting, they were soon in bloom, 

 and gave abundance of beautiful flowers 

 from mid-July till killed by severe frosts 

 in the late fall. They were of the Os- 

 trich Plume variety which, to my mind, 

 are the most satisfactory where a long- 

 continued, showy mass of bloom is de- 

 sired—I have counted forty to sixty good 

 flowers on a single plant. 



In the meantime the dahlias, phlox, 

 gladioli, and lilies grew and blossomed, 

 making a very fair show indeed for th. 

 first year's planting, while the dwan 

 nasturtiums, according to their wont, al- 

 most obscured their own foliage com- 

 pletely with their wealth of blossom, 

 throughout the entire season. 



At no time from May to late October 

 did my border fail to show abundant 

 color. A study of the accompanyin 

 diagram will show how, by careful pla 

 nmg and taking into account the habit „. 

 growth of each variety the plants were 

 placed quite close to one another with- 

 out, in the least, interfering with one 

 .mother above ground or crowding each 

 other for root room. Of course, care 

 should always be taken to see that taller- 

 growing sorts be placed behind those ot 

 smaller growth so as not to obscure 

 them, also that deep-rooted plants be 

 alternated with those requiring little 01 

 shallow root room ; finally one should 

 plan to have plants flowering at the same 

 season to harmonize in color so as not 

 to "kill" one another. For that reason 

 I have not yet ventured to introduce in- 

 to my border the gorgeous oriental poppy 

 which I have known to ruin many other- 

 wise charming borders of more delicately 

 tinted flowers. 



SUOCESSION OF BLOOM 



The following table will show the suc- 

 cession of bloom : Late May and June, 

 delphineums, paeonies, alyssum, pop- 

 pies; July, nasturtiums, dahlias, alys- 

 sum, gladioli, asters; August, asters, 

 alyssum, elder hedge, lilies, dahlias, nas- 

 turtiums; September and October, as- 

 ters, alyssum, nasturtiums, dahlias, 

 phlox. 



Now to consider the cost of that 

 eighty-foot bed : Two loads manure, five 

 dollars; digging of ground in fall, two 

 dollars fifty cents; hired help on elder 

 hedge, two dollars; ten delphineum 

 plants, one dollar twenty-five cents; ten 

 phlox plants, one dollar fifty cents; ten 

 paeony plants, two dollars fifty cents; 

 ten lilies, one dollar; twenty gladiolus 

 bulbs, one dollar fifty cents ; twenty 

 dahlia tubers, three dollars fifty cents; 

 seeds, one dollar; total, twenty-one dol- 

 lars seventy-five cents. 



Thus at the small initial cost of twenty- 

 one dollars seventy-five cents (which 

 could have been even more reduced had 

 I been willing to wait a year or two and 

 raised some of the plants from seed) I 

 established an entirely satisfactory per- 

 ennial bed eighty feet by eight feet, 

 which made a splendid showing from the 

 very first year of planting, and which has 

 greatly increased in beauty and value 

 during the two years that have passed 

 since it was planted. 



In the meantime, in a sheltered, sunny 

 corner of the kitchen garden. I establish- 



mt i 

 :rej 



