FLOWERS FOR CUTTING 165 
highest merit, both for culture and beautiful bloom. 
The dahlia and gladiolus are nowhere so valua- 
ble as in the cutting garden. Choose free-flowering 
dahlia selfs, with the habit of long stems, and 
plant the gladioli at fortnight intervals to secure 
a longer season of bloom. Both the montbretias 
and the ixias are superior cut flowers and neither 
is expensive excepting for the newest kinds. The 
single tuberose is very good indeed for cutting, 
though rarely used. Tigridias are showy, but per- 
ishable. 
Although variety is better relegated to the cut- 
ting garden, the advantage of keeping it well re- 
duced in the case of plants grown primarily for 
cut flowers cannot be too strongly emphasized. 
Favorite flowers first and then the favorite vari- 
ety or varieties of these should be the rule. Buy 
bulbs and seed by name, to avoid mixture in a 
row: sometimes the solid effect in the cutting gives 
you just the idea you want for the house or the 
hardy garden. 
Some of the herbs, notably the common sage, 
wormwood and burnet, furnish beautiful foliage for 
cutting—the first two in silvery sprays. The south- 
ernwood (Artemisia abronatum), Roman worm- 
wood (Artemisia pontica) and lavender cotton 
(Santolina Chamaecyparissus) are similarly useful. 
One plant of che lemon verbena and another of 
rose geranium there ought always to be. 
With a coldframe a much longer season of. 
California violets is possible. This is also the 
