CHOICE GARDEN FLOWERS 43 



mens of the modern peony is thrilled with their 

 breath-taking loveliness; even those who know 

 well all the fascinations of the flower are stirred 

 by it to new wonder and delight each recurring 

 year." The rose, she declares, "fine, exquisite, 

 and fragrant as it is, must yield first rank to 

 the modern peony, which by reason of its sheer 

 wealth of splendor and majesty of presence is 

 now entitled to be called the Queen of Flowers." 



Long ago the Chinese called it Sho Yo, which 

 means the "most beautiful" of flowers. 1 



From Texas, the connecting link between the 

 United States and Mexico, comes one of our 

 most dazzling colored annuals Phlox Drum- 

 ncLondii; one of its names, indeed, is Pride of 

 Texas. It is so popular that one of our leading 

 seedsmen, James Vick, alone has a crop of 

 twenty-five acres of it in separate colors 

 white, salmon, pink, scarlet, rose, eyed or 

 striped or plain but always dazzling; the 

 Greek word phlox means flame. Vaughan con- 

 siders it "the showiest and most easily raised of 

 all annuals." Much of its rainbow splendor is, 

 of course, due to the efforts of hybridizers, but 

 even as it grew wild in Texas a century ago the 



1 Full cultural directions, etc., are given in Mrs. Harding's volume. 

 She warns against mulching with manure in the fall. Use bone 

 meal and wood ashes to enrich the soil. Henry A. Dreer of Phila- 

 delphia has issued, for 25 cents, a pamphlet of 78 pages, Hints on 

 the Growing of Bulbs, which gives all necessary cultural direc- 

 tions for peonies, phloxes, irises, lilies, begonias, gladioli, and the 

 favorite other plantis grown from bulbs and roots. A good book to 

 have on your shelves is Mrs. Ely's A Woman's Hardy Garden. 



