HERBS 



HERBS 



733 



colle 



of native plants, nearly 



nurserymen 



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

 den forms that are distinguished chiefly by the color o: 

 their tiowers. 



In use, the species and varieties of herbaceous peren 

 nials may be broadly separated into three groups 



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 jiersist 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 only in the garden have attractive flowers which 

 are so fugitive that they can only be enjoyed on the 

 plant. Other species which are suitable to cut flowers 

 from can hardly be grown in the fl"\\ I]" L' II li' II I'l -i>;ll- 

 cient quantity to liberally meet the- il- 



of the home, and tliey should be gi ,: ii> 



the kitchen garden or in a special cm 'Iia ■ r l;h ii n, i >r 

 their crops of flowers. Included amoug plants of dim- 

 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 ob.iectionable 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 be 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 them may be 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 one season oi anothei that they 

 ■will be retained and developed in beauty by the 

 gradual removal of the less desirable kinds, foi 

 which others that are more desirable maj be sub 

 stituted. (See also the article Wild GairUxinq ) 



In arranging plants in new plantations or m 

 modifying existing plantations in giidens, lawns 

 or woods, niuch 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 effective 

 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 Sorder.) 



Herbaceous perennials are propagated by divisions 

 and from offsets, cuttings and set-d. Some kinds, as 

 dictamiius and pap.m i , mi i' impugated by root 

 cuttiBus. Tbeexotii- -, n, and many of the 



more readily grown II I uned in wholesale 



quantities from nui-. i i n n v i. . \otics and a very 



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 

 little difliculty if they are collected with a good sod of 

 earth about tlie roots. Warren H. Manninc. 



The Culture op Herbaceous Perennials.— A good 

 number of the herbaceous perennials in cultivation are 

 exceedingly easy of cultivation, Ariving 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- 

 oies 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 aluxuriantgrowth, forany 

 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 for planting consists, in the 

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

 ness Olid finenesssuitablefor root penetration to a depth 

 1 [I ■! l^iii.to2ft.; in providing underground drain- 

 I :. [ithof atleast2^^ ft.; inmakingthesoilsuf- 

 I: Il rtile; and in making the surface soil not liable 



Dept h 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 plants 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 



''l^)f 





1045. A good cffe 



vith Rhubarb. 



