JULY PROBLEMS 105 



created among which Harkness Hybrid, four feet tall 

 with yellow flowers, is one of the best. Miss Willmot is a 

 beautiful long-lasting variety bearing large white flowers 

 on stems six feet high, and Caledonia is a lower growing 

 sort with sulphur-yellow flowers suffused with bronze 

 and purple. There are two verbascums, namely densi- 

 florum and newryensis, which are said to be true 

 perennials, but I have not yet procured them. 



The Mulleins are splendid plants for our American 

 gardens for they love a warm, dry soil and this we can 

 certainly give them. They are easily raised from seed, 

 perfectly hardy, and as they self-sow freely it is not 

 necessary to keep up a stock in the nursery. The Greek 

 Mullein, V. olympicum, which is my favourite, takes 

 three years to develop its blooming ability with me, so I 

 keep the great rosettes in the nursery for the first two. 

 The tall-growing Mulleins are splendid plants for the 

 back of the border and are lovely as a background for 

 blue and silver Sea Hollies and Globe Thistles. 



The handsome Yarrow family offers several strong- 

 growing and drought-resisting subjects for the July 

 garden. They present no difficulty in the way of cultiva- 

 tion and will grow in poor, dry soil if they must, but 

 require yearly division. Achillea filipendulina (syn. 

 Eupatorium), in a variety known as Parker's, is the 

 flower of the flock. It grows in strong clumps throwing 

 up stems four feet high nicely clothed with feathery 

 foliage and terminating in broad corymbs of golden 



