PERENNIALS 



BY F. L. MULFORD 



TJTTITH a yard well planted with trees and shrubs about 

 ' ' the borders and a good turf in the center there is 

 still something lacking to make the home surroundings 

 the most attractive possible. Although green foliage is 

 the most important single factor in landscape adornment 

 flowers wonderfully brighten the effect. Many of the 

 shrubs used for ornamental planting have in their season 

 a wealth of attractive flowers, but, as a rule, they do not 

 last long. For this reason it is frequently advisable to 

 supplement the shrub plantings with other plants that 

 will add to the floral effect. This can be done by putting 



in annuals 



every year, 

 but this re- 

 quires much 

 labor and at- 

 tention to at- 

 tend to all the 

 details at the 

 proper season 

 and the results 

 can only be en- 

 joyed in the 

 summer and 

 fall. The most 

 s a t i s f actory 

 way of obtain- 

 ing additional 

 floral effect 

 about the home 

 grounds is to 

 use herbaceous 

 perennials i n 

 connect ion 

 i t h the 



A BEAUTIFUL BASE PLANTING 



This herbaceous border on the edge of the lawn softens the ground line of the house and is 

 effectively made up of physostegia, or false dragon head, tiger lily and marsh-mallow, with 

 hardy phlox in abundance and the annual portulacca in front. 



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shrubs, and 

 often it is pos- 

 sible to use them in a flower garden at some appropriately 

 secluded place about the grounds. Such a garden need 

 not be large to be enjoyable, but it should be somewhat 

 shut off from the street view so as to have a privacy com- 

 parable to that of the living room of the home. If it 

 can be viewed from the living room, the dining room, 

 the porch or some other much-used portion of the house 

 so much the better. In the case of over nine-tenths of 

 the homes of the country the most important place for 

 a flower garden or other attractive view is opposite the 

 kitchen window, where the housewife stands to do so 

 much of the work for the benefit of the family. 



Such a garden may take many different forms, accord- 

 ing to the conditions and the preferences of the gardener. 

 Some times the garden may be rectangular or square, 

 again it may be round or oval, or it may be irregular 

 in shape or be mere strips on the sides of a path or par- 



allelling a wall or fence. It may appropriately include 

 annuals and also woody plants. Its purpose may be to 

 grow flowers for cutting, it may be an end in itself, or 

 it may be a combination of the two. 



When planting perennials, whether among shrubbery, 

 around the lawn or in a special garden, it needs to be 

 kept in mind that most of them require more care and 

 attention than well-established shrubs need. They do 

 not have the same ability to suppress their undesirable 

 neighbors by shading them to death, so that they require 

 more attention as to weeding and cultivation. Again 



many of them 

 are such ram- 

 pant growers 

 that they may 

 be said to be 

 their own 

 worst enemies, 

 for they so 

 overcrowd 

 t h e m s e 1 ves 

 that they have 

 to be thinned 

 to do their 

 best. Further, 

 they need an 

 abundance of 

 plant food, and 

 this is often 

 best supplied 

 by lifting the 

 plants, spading 

 in a good 

 coating of ma- 

 nure and re- 

 setting the 

 plants. On the 

 other hand, there are many herbaceous perennials that 

 need to be left as severely alone as do rhododendrons. 

 There is a host of kinds with the widest range of pref- 

 erence as to conditions under which to grow. Some pre- 

 fer sun, others shade, some prefer dry situations, others 

 bogs, some clay, others sand, some are tall and others 

 short, some are showy in flower others dainty or incon- 

 spicuous. Of all this multitude of kinds but few are 

 very widely cultivated, but these few kinds have been 

 developed into many varieties, in some cases running 

 into the hundreds, as with peonies. It would seem as 

 though a plant must be available for almost any condi- 

 tions under which is is desirable to grow them. 



The beginner will do well to select at first from those 

 kinds that are most widely grown and are best known 

 and then, as experience is gained, less common kinds can 

 be added. This holds equally concerning varieties of 



