BORDER PLANTS 71 



port ant plants. It luxuriates in deep, moist, but well- 

 drained soils, yet when given adequate moisture it thrives 

 on light land. Prolonged drought tries it severely, 

 causing the leaves to droop as though the plants were 

 disease-stricken ; a few cans of water soon revive them. 

 While I am ready to acknowledge that the finest plants 

 are produced in deep, rich, somewhat heavy soil, I 

 believe that they are prone to disease. On light, rather 

 poor ground I have never had diseased plants. I advise 

 growers to attach very little importance to manure, 

 but a great deal to plain water ; I believe that they will 

 then have healthy plants quite sufficiently large, and 

 likewise abundance of bloom. I have been surprised 

 at the enormous rootstocks made by individual Phloxes 

 in hungry chalk soil, and can only attribute it to liberal 

 watering. These stools have been quite large enough 

 to bear splitting up in consecutive years, and still make 

 fine clumps. Their varied and brilliant colours, combined 

 with their long period of flowering, make the tall her- 

 baceous Phloxes even more valuable as border plants 

 than their great compeers the Delphiniums and Paeonies. 

 They form magnificent groups, and are well worth 

 bedding where there is abundance of bloom. What 

 may be termed the standard varieties Coquelicot, 

 Eclaireur, Etna, Attraction, Eugene Danzanvilliers, 

 Flambeau, L'Aiglon, Le Mahdi, Mrs. Jenkins, Sheriff 

 Ivory, Sylphide and Tapis Blanc are still quite good 

 enough for any garden ; but the connoisseur will find 

 splendid quality in some of the new Contenental Phloxes, 

 such as Baron von Dedem, which many good judges 

 consider to be superior to that splendid orange-red 

 Coquelicot ; Flora Hornung, white with carmine eye ; 

 G. H. Strohlein, orange with crimson eye ; General 

 Von Heutsz, salmon ; Gruppenkonigin, flesh with carmine 



