166 MY GROWING GARDEN 



entirely decorative. The scabiosa, or "mourning 

 bride," is another of the really good annuals I have 

 enjoyed this year, as it nods its graceful stems in 

 the breeze, its odd but richly colored round blooms 

 at the tips. For cutting, no annual is better; the 

 flowers last long in the house. Arctotis grandis, 

 a newer annual, has given us many weeks of good 

 daisy-like flowers, and the splendid annual gail- 

 lardias seem not to know how to be out of bloom 

 at any time. But of all the annuals — and these 

 I am growing seem perennial — ^the wallflowers 

 are the most enduring and persistent. Blooming 

 now, and exceedingly sweet they are, in their 

 smoky browns and crimsons and dull yellows; and 

 they will probably be blooming xmder the snow at 

 Christmas, if there is snow then. The wallflower 

 is a sweetly scented and somewhat inconspicuous 

 member of the garden family with which I am 

 inclined to a much closer acquaintance. 



All the garden standards are at their best in 

 October, as I have written. Particularly does the 

 lowly verbena enjoy the cool nights. Where it 

 grows, there were planted after July first some 

 gladioli bulbs, with the result that now the 

 stately spikes of scarlet "War" glow from a ver- 

 bena carpet, while white "Peace" and lovely 

 "America" rise in company. I know that a cer- 



