Perennials: TKe DacKbone of Manitoba Gardens" 



Dr. H. M. SpeecKly, Pilot Mound, Manitoba 



IN busy Manitoba, where so few can 

 spend all the time they would like 

 in the engrossing pleasure of culti- 

 vating flowers, it is easy to make good 



T^ ' tTSn?^ 



A Beautiful Garden Spot in Manitoba 



the claim that perennial plants form the 

 backbone of our gardens, especially if 

 we are amateurs. It is surprising, in- 

 deed, after all that has been written on 

 this subject in the farming papers, that 

 so few perennials are to be seen in farm 

 gardens, where the house-wife is usually 

 the gardener and nearly always has 

 plenty of domestic duties as well. For, 

 indeed, quite apart from the cheapness, 

 the hardiness, and durability of peren- 

 nials, there is another most valuable 

 characteristic about this class of plants 

 in the fact that amongst them are found 

 some of the earliest bloomers that we 

 can raise in this cHmate. Therefore, if 

 wc can grow plants which are hardy 

 enough to live for years and yet will give 

 you flowers as early as May and June, 

 surely they are the very plants we need. 

 Moreover, many of these plants will 

 easily divide at the roots so that you 

 can multiply your stock without further 

 expense; and better still, you can give 

 roots away to your friends so as to start 

 them in the good, old-fashioned cult of 

 gardening. A great part of the pleasure 

 of gardening lies in the friendly habit of 

 giving away some of the results of your 

 care and labor. Often, too, a mutual 

 exchange will take place between a 



• A portion o( a paper read at the last convention of 



tlif Western Horticultural Society. 



fellow-gardener and yourself, so that 

 each has the benefit of the other's 

 garden. 



The object of this paper, then, is to 



exhibit the 

 fine qualities 

 of some of our 

 standard per- 

 ennial plants 

 as early 

 bloomers, as 

 hardy bloom- 

 ers, and as 

 free, generous 

 bloomers. It 

 will enable us 

 to handle the 

 subject a little 

 more plainly 

 if we consider 

 perennials in 

 two classes — 

 the first being 

 the bulbs or 

 bulbous-root- 

 ed, and the 

 second being 

 the fibrous- 

 rooted peren- 

 nials. It must 

 not be sup- 

 posed, how- 

 ever, that this 

 paper aims at 

 being exhaus- 



tive in its treatment of the subject. Far 

 from it. Rather the aim of the present 

 writer is to be suggestive and stimula- 

 tive, so that others who have not taken 

 much interest in these fine plants may 

 be induced to pay some attention to 

 them. 



BULBOUS-ROOTED PERENNIALS 



Taking then first the bulbs and bulb- 

 ous-rooted, we may readily recall that 

 the earliest wild flowers on our prairies 

 are those of the bulbous-rooted Anemont 

 patens. It is not surprising, therefore, 

 that amongst the most satisfactory of 

 our perennials are just such plants. 

 Earliest of all seems to be the Siberian 

 squill, a dark, reddish-purple bulb, 

 which may be planted out-of-doors in 

 October either in a flower-bed or, better 

 still, in the sod of your lawn, where 

 early in the following May, or even in 

 late April, its green spike will push 

 through the sod, open, and push for- 

 ward its sky-blue hanging bells well in 

 advance of the leaves. I am trying the 

 grape hyacinth to see if it can equal the 

 squill in earliness of bloom. The depth 

 at which these bulbs should be planted 

 is from three to four inches. It is well 

 to put them where you will not need to 

 mow the grass too soon in the spring, 

 so that the flowers may seed and the 

 leaves come to full maturity. Then the 

 squill will naturalize, especially if the 

 spot is sheltered from the wind, which 



A Corner of Dr. Speechly's Garden in Pilot Mound 

 The hcdze is Manitoba Maple. Neaundo aceroidcs 



189 



