THE PERENNIAL GARDEN 11 



THE PERENNIAL GARDEN 



PLANTS which hve year after year in the garden are known as 

 perennials. They include some of the old-fashioned flowers such 



as Peonies, Phloxes and Larkspurs. It is a comphment to a 

 flower to call it "old-fashioned," for that indicates that the flower was 

 popular with our grandparents and was so worth while that we grow 

 them even today. Each nationahty coming to our shores has brought 

 with it the old favorites of the ancestral home. Here these flowers 

 have often become veritable weeds. The Eglantine, or Sweet Brier 

 Rose, is thought by many to be a wild Rose, but not so. It was intro- 

 duced by the English, perhaps even the Pilgrims. Such also is the 

 case with Bouncing Bet, Tansy and the Orange Day Lily. LIundreds 

 of real wild flowers are seldom considered such because they have been 

 in our gardens for years. The Bee Balm, Kentucky Blue BeU, Llelen's 

 Flower and the Blanket Flower are examples of native flowers found 

 about our own country in woods and gardens. 



But of the vast array of flowers we should give a Httle thought to 

 their origin. Someone has greatly admired each of our plants where 

 they have transplanted them from the wild forest, the green meadow, 

 the shelving mountain ledge, the rocky brookside, the watery lowlands 

 or the level prairies. Someone has brought these flowers from flowery 

 Japan, tropic Africa, or from the home woodlot. Many have re- 

 sponded to care, but not a few others have had to be carefuUy bred. 

 Men have crossed and recrossed these plants, saved their seeds, fondled 

 their ofl'spring, chosen the best, and finaUy have, perhaps, named them 

 for friends or other men whose work or interest in flowers has earned 

 for them this signal honor. 



Someone has truly written that the most beautiful gardens are 

 in the mind, not in the soil. The flowers in your own garden are always 

 more interesting than those in the gardens of another. They are the 

 results of your labor; there is the enjoyment of ownership; they are 

 your flowers. 



Who is there with a flower garden who does not share these blooms 

 with his neighbor ? We should never fear to break up our clumps of 

 plants and give to our friends. Most plants need such division at 

 regular intervals. That garden becomes interesting which is made up 



