Ji;lt 16, 1914. 



The Florists' Review 



13 



e Hardy G a r d e n 



THE HARDY PERENNIAL GARDEN. 



Digitalis, or Foxgloves. 



The foxgloves, or digitalis, have 

 been fine of late. Tliey are good alike 

 in beds, masses in the border, or on the 

 borders of woodlands. They also look 

 well in the woodlands when they can 

 be seen to advantage. The gloxinia- 

 flowered form, Digitalis purpurea glox- 

 iniseflora, is the most striking one to 

 grow and seed should be started now. 

 D. lanata, with creamy or grayish flow- 

 ers on dense spikes, is now at its best; 

 so is D. ambigua, with yellow flowers 

 marked with brown. 



Campanulas, or Bellflowers. 



Of the campanulas the most striking 

 of late have been C. Medium, or Can- 

 terbury bells. The single forms are 

 the best to grow; the doubles are too 

 heav}-. The calycanthema, or cup and 

 saucer varieties, are beautiful and are 

 good for pot culture, but will not stasd 

 up so well in the borders as the true 

 singles. The peach-flowered campanula, 

 C. persicifolia, in several colors, is now 

 in season. Others now blooming are C. 

 rotundifolia, or Scotch blue bell, a good 

 rock plant; C. Trachelium, or Coventry 

 bell; C. glomerata, or clustered bell- 

 flower; and C. Grossekii, dark blue. 

 The little Carpathian bellflower, C. Car- 

 patica, is just commencing to bloom and 

 will persist until October. This is fine 

 for an edging or as a rock plant. 



Phloxes, Asters and Erigerons. 



The perennial phloxes already are 

 showing flowers; in fact, the suffruti- 

 cosa varieties, of which Miss Lingard 

 IS the best, have been blooming since 

 the middle of June. The real phlox 

 display, however, will come later in 

 the month and through August. 



One or two of the dwarf asters have 

 been good of late. The best are A. 

 alpinus Himalaicus, deep blue; A. sub- 

 Cffiruleus, bluish violet; A. speciosus, 

 aeep blue, and A. speciosus albus, pure 

 White. These are good for the rock 

 garden as well as for the border. 



Erigeron grandiflorus elatior, with 

 'arge, solitary, bluish lilac flowers, 

 °"e for cutting; E. speciosus, pale 

 "|auv(., and E. bellidifolius, light blue, 

 ail are now in season. 



Scabiosas, Veronicas and Violas. 



_^''''^^*iosa Caucasica, with its large 

 J°<^ l-eautiful lavender blue flowers, is 

 tinf *^^ ^^est of perennials for cut- 

 ew^i l^ blooms from June until Au- 

 ri/t ^^^'■e also is a pure white va- 

 inc now in bloom. Of the veronicas, 

 thv^t^' ^P^^^t*) rupestris and ame- 

 lo^^ i'"\are now in flower, to be fol- 

 blue V """^ by that beautiful deep 

 Wav' V ^''^Si^olia subsessilis. In the 

 the f "^ ^°*^^ plants or border plants, 

 able v^ of Viola cornuta are unbeat- 



new, but is one of the most useful nov- 

 elties in hardy plants ever introduced. 

 Stokesia cyanea, with its beautiful 

 cornflower-like flowers, will continue 

 to bloom until frost. 



Geums, Lychnis, Lupines, Etc. 



Geum coccineum Mrs. Bradshaw, 

 with rich semi-double scarlet flowers, is 

 a persistent bloomer. This also is a 

 fine novelty. Some of the pentstemons, 

 such as barbatus Torreyi and Digitalis, 

 are now at their best. Among the 

 lychnis, L. Chalcedonica, or London 

 Pride; Flos-cuculi, or cuckoo flower, 

 and Viscaria, single, are the best. Ly- 

 simachia clethroides, with its recurved 

 spikes of pure white flowers, is excel- 

 lent for cutting. It spreads fast and 

 needs replanting every second year. 

 The forms of Lupinus polyphyllus are 

 passing. L. polyphyllus roseus, also 

 called Moerheimi, of a beautiful pink 

 shade, should be grown by everyone. 

 It is easily raised from seed. 



Irises, Hollyhocks and Others. 



The Japanese iris, I. Ksempferi, now 

 makes a truly regal show. It is a 



good border plant if it can be kept 

 watered until it has flowered, but to 

 be seen at its best some means of 

 flooding the beds should be employed. 

 The hollyhocks in a few days will 

 make a notable display. Personally, I 

 prefer the single varieties and anyone 

 who has grown a batch of them will 

 want them again. By the way, this is 

 a good time to sow hollyhocks to flower 

 in 1915. Lilium candidum has just 

 passed. The glorious new varieties, L. 

 Sargentiee and L. myriophyllum, are 

 each, however, coming along and will 

 soon make a glorious show. Of the 

 hemerocallis family several representa- 

 tives are still blooming, while the 

 Shasta daisies, coreopsis, dianthus, 

 Clematis recta and others continue to 

 make the hardy garden attractive in 

 early July. 



NORTHEAST, PA. 



The Review is printed within a few 

 miles of the center of population of the 

 United States, but it has more sub- 

 scribers in New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania than in any other two states. 

 This combination of advantages offered 

 to the trade accounts for such reports 

 as this: 



Please cut out my verbena, single petunia and 

 Rex begonia ads. They certainly did the busi- 

 ness for me; we are all cleaned out ot stoclt and 

 had a very nice business, thanlcs to the little 

 classified ads in The Review. — F. E. Selkregg, 

 Northeast, Pa., July 11, 1914. 



HiUslde, HI. — A large barn and sev- 

 eral outbuildings at the establishment 

 of Eoy P. Bohlander were destroyed by 

 fire recently. The loss is partly cov- 

 ered by insurance. 



Purp 



cornuta alba and V. cornuta 



best S ***® ^*"®'' *^®®P ^^"®' ^'■^ *^® 

 Ihe last named is comparatively 



THRIPS ON FERNS. 



I enclose a leaf from one of my holly 

 ferns and several leaves of Araucaria 

 excelsa. Both holly and pteris ferns 

 seem to act the same way. The leaves 

 become spotted like the one I am send- 

 ing and then turn yellow. The arau- 

 caria leaves turn yellow and fall off or 

 dry up. Is this the result of a disease, 

 or what is the cause! These are the 

 first I have had that acted in this way. 



My Boston ferns are light green in 

 color and faded looking. How can I 

 make them dark green and fresh look- 

 ing? The lowest temperature they have 

 is 50 degrees and they get the full sun 

 in a house that faces south. 



C. H. W. C. 



The holly fern is suffering from a 

 bad attack of thrips, the leaf submit- 

 ted for examination having been ruined 

 by these insects. The best remedy for 

 this trouble is either spraying or fu- 

 migating with one of the nicotine prep- 

 arations, and it may require several ap- 

 plications to clean the plants complete- 

 ly. The araucaria is badly infested 

 with red spider and needs thorough syr- 

 inging every bright day in order to 

 overcome this pest. 



The Boston ferns are being kept too 

 cool for the best results, the night tem- 

 perature of 50 degrees being nearly 10 

 degrees too low. This doubtless is the 

 cause of the light colored foliage. Full 

 sunshine is not beneficial to these ferns 

 at this season. "W. H. T. 



IT IS NEPHROLEPIS CORDIFOLIA. 



Enclosed you will find a frond of 

 some variety of nephrolepis. The fronds 

 are usually from twenty-four to thirty 

 inches long and their growth is rather 

 straight. Kindly let me know what 

 variety this is. What would be the best 

 cultural treatment for itf A. V. C. 



The nephrolepis in question is N. 

 cordifolia, a free-growing species of 

 compact habit, and one that makes a 

 particularly attractive plant in a 6-inch 

 or 8-inch pot. This fern may be propa- 

 gated readily by means of spores and 

 also from young plants formed upon the 

 runners, as in the case of the Boston 

 fern. Similar treatment to that of the 

 Boston fern will suit N. cordifolia ad- 

 mirably, and it will be found to be a 

 good plant to put in porch boxes or 

 vases where it is not exposed to full 

 sunshine for the whole of the day. 



W. H. T. 



