432 



AUTUMN-GARDENING 



AUTUMN-GARDENING 



to save vegetables and flowers as long as possible by 

 protection and by choosing hardy kinds. Second, gar- 

 dens tend to look unattractive and seedy in September, 

 because this is nature's time for ripening fruits; there- 

 fore he desires fresh flowers. The popular demand is for 

 fresh vegetables as long as possible, color in the garden 

 right into the teeth of winter, cut-flowers after frost, 

 home grounds that will be attractive even after a sum- 

 mer's absence, and a note of welcome to the children 

 in every school-yard. Also, there are enthusiasts who 

 wish gardens devoted exclusively to autumn beauties. 



Prolonging the vegetable-garden. 



The ideal way to prolong the yield of fresh vegetables 

 in late autumn is by means of greenhouse, hotbeds and 

 coldframes. In frames, which are the cheapest, it is 



441. A good autumn landscape for color effects. 



easy to have in November lettuce, spinach and radishes. 

 The next best plan is to shelter the garden from cutting 

 winds and frost by a windbreak, e.g., wall, fence, hedge, 

 natural wood, or group of evergreens. Sheltered gar- 

 dens often yield fresh vegetables two to six weeks after 

 adjacent unsheltered gardens have been devastated by 

 frost. It is also possible to prolong the season by rais- 

 ing late-growing varieties and by starting the ordinary 

 kinds later in the year. 



Freshening the flower-garden. 



Parks and the grounds of wealthy people often rely 

 chiefly on tender or temporary bedding plants, e.g., 

 cannas, dahlias, scarlet sage, gladioli, geraniums and 

 Pfitzer's torch-lily, for their largest masses of autumn 

 color. This method gives the greatest show the first 

 year, but is costly in the long run. Moreover, these 

 plants are killed by frost, leaving gaps too large to fill. 



A grade higher is hardy bedding, which has become 

 popular since 1900. The favorite plants are long-bloom- 

 ing shrubs and perennials, e.g., Baby Rambler rose, 

 garden and tree hydrangeas, Miss Lingard phlox, gail- 

 lardias, stokesia, Napoleon III pink, double ragged 



robin, Veronica longifolia var. subsessilis, Conoclinium 

 (Eupatorium) caelestinum. 



Unfortunately, the flowers of the two preceding lists 

 do not really freshen the garden, because they are sum- 

 mer flowers or are being made so by the irresistible 

 tendency to exploit earlier varieties of everything. As 

 taste improves, there is a reaction against excessive use 

 of long-blooming plants, and a desire has arisen for 

 "season markers." Among the finer plants of this real 

 autumn sort are Colchicum Parkinsonii, Crocus zonatus, 

 C. speciosus, C. sativus, Crinum PoweUii, Sternbergia. 

 lutea, Chrysanthemum uliginosum, gordonia, and the 

 rarer plants to be mentioned hereafter. They are, how- 

 ever, plants of the skilled amateur. 



For beginners, the favorite hardy autumn flowers 

 include the following annuals or plants treated as such, 

 China asters, pansies (sown outdoors about May 

 10 in latitude of New York City), snapdragons, and 

 cosmos; bulbs, Colchicum autumnale; perennials, 

 sneezeweed, Helianthus orgyalis and H. Maximilianii, 

 and pompon chrysanthemums. 



Another way of providing fresh color in autumn is to 

 make a second or June sowing of favorite annual flowers, 

 e.g., sweet alyssum, candytuft, love-in-a-mist, common 

 and pot-marigold, mignonette, nasturtium, phlox, 

 California poppy, portulaca and zinnia. These usually 

 fail in September from the April sowing. The June 

 sowing will carry them beyond a hard frost, except 

 nasturtium and portulaca. 



Flowers after frost. 



In early November, after frost had devastated the 

 gardens in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, the fol- 

 lowing flowers were in condition at one of the largest 

 nurseries of perennials. Only those are mentioned that 

 gave decided masses, not mere dots or remnants of 

 color: Aconitum columbianum, A. Fischeri, alyssum, 

 antirrhinum, Aster grandiflorus. A. tataricus, Cimicifuga 

 simplex, Napoleon III dianthus, Erigeron glabettus, 

 gaillardias, gladioli, Helianthus Maximilianii, hunne- 

 mannia, kniphofias, pansies (sown in May), Miss Lin- 

 gard phlox. 



Nearly all the flowers in the two preceding lists are 

 available for home decoration, although the quality 

 may not be equal to that of early September. If long- 

 stemmed, long-lasting flowers are needed in quantity, 

 the most satisfactory, perhaps, are chrysanthemums, 

 snapdragons, Miss Lingard phlox, gaillardias. To this 

 list may be added delphiniums, Baby Rambler rose 

 and Catananche cserulea. 



Gardens based on the dominant color. 



It is feasible to make a garden that changes its color 

 every three or four weeks, based upon the idea that a 

 garden may well reflect the dominant color in the land- 

 scape produced by the wild flowers of each season. 

 Since yellow is the dominant color of autumn (witness 

 the goldenrods, sunflowers and other composites) such 

 gardens may be rich in sneezeweed and perennial sun- 

 flowers (especially Helianthus Maximilianii, H. orgyalis, 

 and H. multiflorus var. plenus) since these are partic- 

 ularly appropriate to season and country. The following 

 yellow flowers of summer may be prolonged into 

 autumn by seed-picking, cutting back, fertilizing, and 

 watering: Tufted pansies, snapdragons, Golden Glow 

 rudbeckia, gaillardia, Iceland and horned poppies, 

 Anthemis tinctoria and Lepachys columnaris. 



Gardens of perennial asters. 



The English make an exceedingly showy, yet artistic, 

 garden based upon what they call "Michaelmas dai- 

 sies" (asters), of which 137 species and varieties are 

 catalogued by a single dealer. It consists of a double 

 border devoted to the early kinds that bloom during 

 the first three weeks of September; and a separate bor- 

 der for the October- and November-blooming species. 



