V.\RIETY IN NEWER FLOWERS 67 



I have before me a photograph which shows a spring border 

 in a Sussex garden — evidently a new border, for the box edg- 

 ing is very small, and the little evergreen hedge beyond is also 

 yomig. The one defect, to me, is the use of smooth stone balls 

 with the rough wall. The ornament is not quite in place; also 

 the stiff flagged walk would have been more nearly related to 

 the rest if made of broken stone — or I may be wrong in this. 

 It is all, perhaps, personal taste. 



Who does not constantly seek more pure blue in gardens, and 

 who that knows the new Ipomoea from Mexico does not rejoice 

 in the blue mornings that this gives the garden? To be sure, it 

 is only morning beauty, but the leaves and the heavy twining 

 stems add an all-day interest to the Clematis recta or the old 

 Delphinium stalks over which these are twined. New, I called 

 them just now; it has been known to horticulture for a century 

 and over, but only as a greenhouse plant in northern climates. 

 A word of the history of this amazing contribution to our gar- 

 dens may be given here. Twenty years ago Michel received 

 from the Sierra Madre in Mexico the seed of this Ipomaa. He 

 got it to bloom and even to form seed in his garden near Geneva 

 in 1900. Then, years after this, the Vilmorins in their establish- 

 ment at Antibes produced from this strain an early-flowering 

 variety, which during the last few years has bloomed near Paris 

 as early as the end of August. 



There are three reasons for growing this Ipomoea as opposed 

 to the common variety : its flowers are far larger than any other, 

 mine measuring to-day five inches across; its blue is miequaled; 

 and toward autumn its vines become more and more floriferous. 

 It is a thing to wait for. It supplies the clearest blue possible 

 for the late August borders. For those who live with their gar- 

 dens, who see them during the morning as well as in the later 

 hours, it is a boon in flowers. Vilmorin in Paris, Sutton in Eng- 



