NOTEWORTHY PERENNIALS 185 



flower, which is larger, finer and better in color. The buds should be 

 removed when small. 



Propagation. Peonies are usually propagated by division of 

 the clumps, but it is a slow process, taking from three to five years 

 for characteristic blooms to appear. The tubers or roots resemble 

 those of Rhubarb. The best time to divide them is during September 

 or October. However, they may be divided and transplanted any 

 time from the middle of August until the ground freezes in the Fall. 

 If the plants are well estabhshed they will improve every year. Peonies 

 may be propagated by seeds which are sown as soon as they are ripe 

 in coldframes where they should be kept for a year before transplant- 

 ing. The seed should never be allowed to become throughly dry, 

 for when once thoroughly dried it may take two years or longer for 

 the seeds to germinate. The first blooms are never typical of the 

 plants; it takes from four to eight years to produce characteristic 

 blooms. One must remember that growing Peonies from seed is in- 

 teresting, not practical. 



Pentstemon — Beard Tongue 



The Pentstemons are beautiful border plants but do not do as well 

 in the Northern States as in the Southern ones, where the climate is 

 milder and the season of blooming is longer. They are very showy, 

 growing from 2 feet to 4 feet high, are rather bushy and have very long, 

 slender spikes which bear many trumpet-shaped flowers with hairy 

 throats from whence the name "Reard Tongue" comes. The colors 

 range from white, pale rose, azure blue, hlac, coral, scarlet, violet and 

 purple. Pentstemon barbatus Torreyi has slender, deep scarlet-red 

 flowers. The fohage is fight green and the stems are wiry and thin, 

 giving an airy appearance to the whole plant. P. gloxinioides Sensa- 

 tion has Gloxinia-fike flowers of varying colors — rose, filac, cherry, 

 crimson and purple. It grows about 2 feet high and is in bloom nearly 

 all Summer. P. Digitalis has white flowers with a purple throat, grows 

 2 or 3 feet high and blooms during June and July. The Pentstemons 

 somewhat resemble the Snapdragons, both in flower and in growth. 

 Often the flowers are two-colored, the petals being of one color and 

 the throat of another. The flowers last from June through October. 



Uses. Pentstemons are very free blooming and are good for 

 cutting purposes. Their graceful growth and variety of colors make 

 them easily adaptable to almost any pereimial border. The dwarfer 

 ones are grown in rockeries. 



