8 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 



In consequence of this disastrous summer, I forebore fur- 

 ther planting of annuals for two years, and allowed several 

 beds to revert to grass, and filled the few we retained with 

 shrubs and native perennial flowers that would take care of 

 themselves. This ignominious compromise was bitter, for I 

 did not realize that the value of those abandoned beds was not 

 lost; that the discipline of heretofore unused muscles was a 

 permanent possession, and that, in gradually hardening my- 

 self, outdoor exercise had become a pleasure and a necessity. 

 A few flowers more or less were of no consequence compared 

 with this definite gain. Only a single bed remains of that re- 

 constructive era. It is one lying under the sitting room win- 

 dows, with a hot dry southern exposure. Next to the house 

 was planted a thick row of purple German iris which blooms 

 in May. A discreet number of pink cinnamon roses are al- 

 lowed to flourish at one end, and they bloom in June. In 

 front of the iris is a row of Helen flower, Helenium autumnale 

 superbum, which is nipped back when the plants are a foot 

 high to induce a low bushy growth; and in front of this rich 

 green background the yellow Rudbeckia alternated with 

 white Chrysanthemum maximum make a gorgeous showing 

 through July and August. By September these fade and are 

 cut away and the Helen flower breaks into a mass of golden 

 bloom, which is margined at the very edge of the bed by a low 

 thick border of the native immortelles with gray cottony 

 leaves and close heads of creamy white flowers. As a perma- 

 nent background the cottage walls are completely covered 

 with Virginia creeper, and when all else is gone, its flaming 

 red foliage is more decorative than any flower. The only 

 attention this bed requires is to dig in fresh compost in 

 the spring, and an occasional division and resetting of the 

 plants. The vine has to be pruned severely each autumn, 

 but nothing has to be watered; and for this slight care 



