40 



A PLEA FOR HARDY PLANTS 



I have placed hardy roses at the head of the list of plants, although 

 they are really shrubs, but they belong in the flower garden and not 

 in the shrubbery. None will dispute their right to the place of honor; 

 but, notwithstanding the universal admiration that is expressed for them, 

 they are grown in but comparatively few gardens. It requires consid- 

 erable effort to have them in perfection, but the results amply reward 

 the labor. I cannot go into cultural directions; but I wish to say, and 

 with considerable emphasis, that in my experience in growing roses, 

 which has been as an amateur, I have found roses on their own roots 

 much more satisfactory than budded plants. 



I know that Japanese irises and a dozen other herbaceous plants 



have as strong claims perhaps for 

 consideration as the white Japanese 

 anemone, which has my unqualified 

 admiration. It has so many good 

 qualities — individual beauty of flow- 

 ers; great effectiveness in the gar- 

 den, shrubbery, or border ; good 

 foliage at all seasons ; a long sea- 

 son of bloom, and flowers that will 

 endure a degree of frost that 

 destroys almost everything else. 

 Its only limitation is that it will 

 not thrive in light, sandy soil, but 

 in a heavy, rich soil it grows with 

 great vigor. I have often seen it 

 five feet high, and that, too, in 

 places where it had been natural- 

 ized and received no attention 

 after planting. 



Why is it that single hollyhocks 

 are not offered for sale or grown by 

 nurserymen and plantsmen? Surely 

 they are the most stately, pictur- 

 esque, and decorative herbaceous 

 plants in cultivation, and I have 

 never met anybody who did not 

 greatly admire them ; but, so far as 



P^WLOfVNlA JMPERI.-iLIS 



Showing effect of growth when cut to the ground 

 every spring 



