270 The American Flower Garden 



give away a barrelful of roots. With no cultivation whatever they 

 thrive prodigiously and will readily choke to death every choice 

 thing near them in a garden. But planted along an old stone wall, 

 or naturalised along the edge of a copse in a meadow, the lilies, 

 that are almost as richly coloured as the butterfly milkweed, rise 

 on slender stems above the grasses with splendidly decorative effect. 



After the pansies and early tulips have finished blooming, and 

 lovely masses of colour are wanted to fill their beds throughout the 

 summer, no plants can equal the tuberous begonias, which, like 

 azaleas, reflect all the tints of sunset. Exquisite large waxy flowers 

 appear in unwearied succession for months above the clean broad 

 leaves. Start the tubers in shallow boxes of leaf-mould or cocoa- 

 nut fibre in the hotbed in spring and set them out in rich, moist, 

 cool soil where they are shaded from noonday sun. Not a breath 

 of frost can they endure. Their tubers should be the first lifted. 



What shall be done with cannas ? They give bold, brilliant 

 colour effects which are at once their glory and the despair of anyone 

 who tries to reconcile the tropical-looking plants to the vegetation 

 in a northern garden. Certainly they shall not be placed in a 

 circular bed, with or without "elephants' ears" that so frequently 

 accompany them, in the centre of a lawn where they form an 

 island, a spot of colour, entirely unrelated to all other planting. 

 Shall they intrude among the perennials ? The effect of their big, 

 broad leaves there is quite as bad. For a quick-growing screen 

 they are admirable, but only if it be a necessary detail in a good 

 planting plan; or for an isolated corner where tropical effects 

 with bamboo, eulalias, and other tall, decorative grasses are 

 wanted. Their rich bronze green or brownish maroon leaves 

 are as valuable as their gorgeous flowers, haunted by humming- 

 birds that feast in the deep nectar-filled tubes. 



