THE WELL-CONSIDERED GARDEN 



a garden expedient, as indeed it may, one other 

 faithful flower may aspire to the like honor. The 

 zinnia has during these last years of gardening 

 furor come into its own. Among all the charm- 

 ing things for garden and for house it holds high 

 place. If one buys, as has before been hinted, 

 packets of seed of white and flesh-color only, 

 almost all the softer tones of creamy white and 

 pink, with often wonderfully arresting hues hardly 

 describable, are forthcoming. A flower of splen- 

 did form and substance, a flower of great rigidity 

 of stem, a flower of generous freedom of bloom, 

 a flower of the most fascinating decorative possi- 

 bilities, where would my garden my September 

 garden be without the zinnia ! 



As for other planting expedients, to my think- 

 ing, none are better than that of alternate planting 

 in the row. This, of course, is for formal effect. 

 Two periods of bloom are so easily thus secured 

 in practically the same spot. My first experi- 

 ment in this matter was with Michaelmas daisies, 

 early and late, as has been told in a former chap- 

 ter; my next was with a close-set row of pent- 

 stemon barbatus coccineus and hardy phlox; the 

 latest and most ambitious was with a border of 

 spring flowers arranged with the idea of securing 

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