124 MY GARDEN 



the early hardy Asters and Sunflowers. The spreading 

 proclivities of this plant are a drawback, but it is easily 

 gotten rid of and I have come to the point when I can 

 callously pull it out and throw it away. 



A beautiful though rather coarse-growing composite 

 of the late summer is Vernonia arkansana, tall and 

 strong and gorgeously magenta as to its great flower 

 heads. The everyday name of this plant is Ironweed, 

 and a low-growing form is wild about here, creating a 

 splendid glow over the damp, rocky meadows in August 

 and September. In borders where there is room for 

 it Polygonum compaction, with cream-coloured, fleecy 

 flowers, is a good companion for the Ironweed, but the 

 great Polygonum is such an indomitable spreader that 

 it should be admitted with caution. Groups of Kansas 

 Gay Feather (Liatris pychnostachya) are pretty rising 

 from among bushes of Rue or Lavender Cotton. Their 

 colour is certainly magenta, but these flowers are very 

 graceful and effective, and if carefully companioned the 

 colour is no drawback but very beautiful. The Gay 

 Feathers like a dry soil and full sunshine; in rich, heavy 

 soils they are short lived. The before-mentioned one is 

 the better, but two others, L. spicata and scariosa, are 

 similar and serve to prolong the blooming season. From 

 a tuft of leaves these plants send up wandlike stems, 

 about four feet in height, feathered with delicate foliage 

 and terminating in a spike of bloom about ten inches 

 long. It is one of those plants, like Lilies and Asphodels, 



