HARDY FLOWER CULTURE. 81 



shrubs. Besides these are many others and if you would take the 

 species and make a tulip garden of them, tulip time would bring 

 you such varied beauty and refinement of form that you would no 

 longer be satisfied, in fact, you would wonder why you had for so 

 long been content with the ordinary garden tuUp. 



Sprinfj floioering jjerennial plants. The bulbs, numerous as 

 they are, only comprise a part of spring's contribution to the floral 

 gayety of the earth. Another type of vegetation, of perennial 

 characteristics, offers to the garden a wealth of beautiful material. 

 Alpine flowers we used to call them, and a rockery or rock garden, 

 was considered an essential adjunct, in fact a necessity before 

 attempting their cultivation. Too often they perished from 

 drought or starv^ation when planted upon ill-constructed rockeries. 

 Many of these gems from the high mountain ranges of the world 

 are just as happy if suitably planted and cared for upon the level 

 ground such as the garden affords. Because the}' are indigenous 

 to high altitudes it does not follow they must be strangers to gar- 

 dens. These little gems are there because they are able to exist 

 and raise their tiny heads in a zone where storms allow no life of 

 tree and shrub. In association with trees and shrubs they would 

 perish in the unequal conflict, but with the open sky above them 

 they live and endure continuously — examples of the fitness with 

 which all things are ordered in nature. 



From these lowly types of high mountain life we can gather an 

 assemblage of pretty, easily grown plants and make a spring gar- 

 den of exceeding beauty. Here are some of the important families : 

 Alyssum, Arabis, Avibrietia, Phlox, Sedum, Saxifrage, Semper- 

 vivum, Iberis, Epimedium, Silene, Pulmonaria, Primula, Armeria 

 and many others. 



To see and enjoy these to the fullest measure we must not be 

 content with them as units, we should have them in hundreds 

 and thousands if room permits. The cushion pink or dwarf phlox 

 is often seen in gardens. It covers the ground with a mossy 

 carpet of perennial verdure, but what a picture in spring when it 

 covers itself with a mantle of white, or rose, or pink, according to 

 variety. This is but one. Suppose you get an association of 

 types allied in needs and characteristics and see what a spring 

 picture can be created therefrom. Some of them are admirable 



