VARIETY IN ANNUAL FLOWERS 35 



" Thalictrum dipterocarpum and Buddleia with Clematis Jack- 

 mannii superha or C. Gipsy Queen, you get a magnificent piece 

 of color, but it is helped by the addition of Althea ficifolia sul- 

 phurea, or by a good pale yellow form of Gladiolus primulinus" 

 And again, "There are some flower colors which one is always 

 trying to conquer — colors which are wisely discarded as almost 

 impossible to use well in the garden. Chief among these are the 

 colder pinks, inclining toward violet, and the color which the 

 Victorians wisely enjoyed when it was called 'magenta,' and 

 which the post-Impressionists have also made good use of under 

 the name of 'fuchsia.' Some of the magenta and the purple- 

 violet phloxes can be made to look magnificent if they are 

 properly treated; they ought to be in half shadow with bluish 

 or leaden greens and creamy white. The cool pinks, such as the 

 pink China rose and Anemone Queen Charlotte, are also good 

 company for them." 



Authoritative advice such as this, for the use of phloxes re- 

 verting to magenta, is not often forthcoming; and this is par- 

 ticularly valuable and stimulating. Why is it, though — this 

 reversion of Phlox decussata to the color of the type? One ex- 

 planation is that, if seeds of phloxes are allowed to fall, they 

 drop between stems of the parent plant and produce the next- 

 year seedlings, whose flower has a magenta hue. Pinch out, says 

 Mr. Henry Wild, the centre-flowers of your phloxes before they 

 seed, if you want to keep your varieties true. It is my own ex- 

 perience that this is wise; I am in the habit of cutting all bloom 

 of hardy phlox before seeds are formed, but my motive is dif- 

 ferent — it is the producing of more bloom, and the preventing 

 of that untidy brownish look given by the seed pods to any 

 quarter of the garden where they become too plentiful. How- 

 ever, the result is good in the direction of color too, for I very 

 seldom have in bloom any but true types of named phloxes. 



