PLANTING 



autumn and to be stored in a cool place until the return 

 of spring, which is their planting season. These dor- 

 mant tubers should then be divided and cut up like 

 potatoes, leaving two or three eyes to a tuber, and 

 then planted so that an eye may show near the surface 

 of the ground. The practise of starting their tubers 

 indoors in boxes in March or April is also pursued and 

 then setting the plants out in the open when the earth 

 has become warm. Their increase, like that of dahlias, 

 is very rapid. Gladioli, on the contrary, do not mul- 

 tiply their corms to any great extent, and are therefore 

 more costly members of the garden. 



The French varieties of cannas have long been 

 thought the most beautiful, though many of the Amer- 

 ican hybrids have now equaled if not surpassed them 

 in size, color, and striking beauty. In fact, cannas 

 have been so greatly improved of late that even those 

 who have cared little for them in the past have been 

 won over to a recognition of their many attractions. 

 They are par excellence plants for formal mounds and 

 beds, and in some cases appear to advantage at the 

 backs of borders. They love the full sun and a deep, 

 moist soil well enriched with manure. 



At various seaside homes, I have seen beds of cannas 

 so well situated that they added to the general beauty 

 of their surroundings; more often, however, I have 

 seen them where other styles of planting should have 

 prevailed. The sea, when it approaches a garden, 

 especially one by a rocky coast, seems often so 

 elemental and wild that plants which show the florist's 

 art strongly are somewha' out of tune in its vicinity. 



[ 37] 



