HERBS 



nurserymen and collectors of native plants, nearlj' 

 3,000 species and varieties, exclusive of the many gar- 

 den forms that are distinguished chiefly by the color of 

 their flowers. 



In use, the species and varieties of herbaceous peren- 

 nials may be broadly separated into three groups. 



HERBS 



733 



1044. One may hide the ground line with 

 Herbs or Shrubs. 



First, plants for the garden that require the favorable 

 conditions of a highly cultivated ground, and careful 

 attention to attain perfection and to persist and increase 

 from year to year. This would include many exotics, 

 some native species and most of the horticultural varie- 

 ties. Many of such species which would find a congenial 

 place ouly in the garden have attractive flowers which 

 are so fugitive that they can ouly be enjoyed on the 

 plant. Other species which are suitable to cut flowers 

 from can hardly be grown in the flower garden in suffi- 

 cient quantity to liberally meet the floral requirements 

 of the home, and they should be grown in quantity in 

 the kitchen garden or in a special cut-flower garden, for 

 their crops of flowers. Included among plants of diffi- 

 cult cultivation with fugitive flowers are the rock or 

 alpine plants, many of which are offered in European 

 catalogues but few of which will thrive here, and for 

 such as will succeed more favorable conditions are usu- 

 ally found in a well-drained border than in an artificial 

 rockery. 



Second, plants for the shrubbery, having aggressive 

 habits, which make them rather objectionable in the 

 flower garden, but fit them to withstand successfully the 

 crowding of shrubs. This class of plants will give va- 

 riety and prolong the flowering season of shrub borders 

 about lawns, and would be made up chiefly of strong 

 growing natives and a few of the more persistent 

 exotics. 



Third, plants for the wild garden, including the spe- 

 cies that require for success some one of the many 

 special conditions prevailing in uncultivated or uncul- 

 tivable land, or which are so rampant as to require 

 the restraint that some one of these natural conditions 

 will provide. This class of plants would be made up 

 chiefly of natives and a few of the more persistent ex 

 otics, and they would bs used to enrich groups of native 

 plants under woods, in meadows, streams and ponds and 

 on hedges and poor soil. These are attractive 

 plants that will and do grow successfully under 

 all these conditions without special cultivation, 

 and many of then; may hs already on the ground. 

 If every plant in a group of natives is watched 

 for at least a year, it will be found that many are 

 so attractive at on% season or another that they 

 will be retained and developed in beauty by the 

 gradual removal of the less desirable kinds, for 

 which others that are more desirable maybe sub- 

 stituted. (See also the article Wild Oardevnig.) 



In arranging plants in new plantations, or in 

 modifying existing plantations in gardens, lawns 

 or woods, much more effective landscape compo- 

 sitions and more agreeable color effects can be 



secured by using large quantities of a few sorts than by 

 using a few individuals of many kinds. Groups of dif- 

 ferent species should be selected that will give from 

 period to period during the flowering season ^ective 

 and dominating masses of foliage and color, and all 

 other plants of the garden which appear at the same 

 time should be made subordinate to these. (Consult, 

 also, the article Border.) 



Herbaceous perennials are propagated by divisions 

 and from offsets, cuttings and seed. Some kinds, as 

 dictamnus and papaver, may be propagated by root 

 cuttings. The exotic species of g.<irdens and many of the 

 more readily grown natives can be obtained in wholesale 

 quantities from nurserymen. A few exotics and a very 

 large number of attractive native species can be pro- 

 cured in wholesale quantities from collectors of native 

 plants, many of whom also offer nursery-grown plants 

 of the best natives and of a few exotics. The attractive 

 native plants in any region can be transplanted with 

 littie difficulty if they are collected with a good sod of 

 earth about the roots. Warren H. Manning. 



The Culture op Herbaceous Perennials. — A good 

 number of the herbaceous perennials in cultivation are 

 exceedingly easy of cultivation, .hriving well in any 

 moderately rich soil of suitable physical condition, and 

 enduring our winter cold and changeableness and sum- 

 mer heat and drought. There are, however, other spe- 

 cies which do not grow well in our American climate, 

 except during more moderate seasons or when placed 

 where the climate is locally modified. Whether the 

 plants one desires to grow be easy or difficult of culture, 

 one should aim first of all for a luxuriaut growth, for any 

 time or labor saved by poorly preparing the soil, or any 

 money saved by the use of weak or stunted plants, will 

 be regretted later. Unless it is intended to imitate the 

 effect of certain barrens in nature, a garden without 

 luxuriance is lacking in an essential quality. 



The preparation of ground forplantingconsists, in the 

 order of their importance: in making the soil by open- 

 ness and fineness suitable for root penetration to a depth 

 of from 18 in. to 2 ft. ; in providing underground drain- 

 age at a depth of at least 2% ft. ; in making the soil suf- 

 ficiently fertile ; and in making the surface soil not liable 

 to "baking." 



Depth and physical condition of soil are very important, 

 and should be one's first care. If the season is short and 

 work must be rushed, it is better to omit the manuring 

 and to devote all one's energy to securing a deep feeding 

 area for the roots and a fine physical condition of the soil. 

 In the hardy border the roots of pitints are able to pene- 

 trate far more deeply into the soil than they do usually 

 in a wild state or Inordinary field culture. This vigor 

 of root growth reaching to good depth, as compared with 

 that of equal vigor but nearer the surface, gives not 

 only greater endurance of drought but aids the plant to 



i'SP,'^}^'^^ 





1045. A Eood effect with Rhubarb. 



