a 



Pay Your Money and Take Your Choice" 



F. M. THOMAS 



Pennsylvania 



AN APPRAISAL OF RECENT OFFERINGS OF NEWER IRIS AND OTHER HARDY PERENNIALS FROM AN AMERICAN 

 GARDENER'S VIEWPOINT— MAKE YOUR SELECTIONS FOR PLANTING NEXT MONTH 



IT IS almost a commonplace that every 

 aspiring garden-enthusiast looks to 

 the catalogues of European firms like 

 Perry, Wallace, Barr, or Goos & Koene- 

 mann for the latest and best developments in 

 hardy perennials. 



Outside of the Iris and the Peony, in both 

 of which plants*we make a fairly good showing, 

 I can at the moment recall only a couple of 

 Phloxes and I think two varieties of Heleniums 

 as constituting the sum-total of our original 

 output in this line. Possessing, as we do, 

 genuinely great plant growers or raisers, 

 there seems to be no reason why, potentially 

 at least, we should not rival any of the 

 European countries. 



However, it is not my intention to examine 

 into the cause of this rather discouraging 

 state of affairs, but rather to discuss its 

 particular result — that the inquiring amateur 

 who looks through the alluring list of novelties 

 is served with descriptions of plants given 

 them by the foreign firms that originated or 

 disseminated them. Now, these descriptions 

 are sometimes quite accurate, sometimes they 

 are altogether inaccurate; but very seldom 

 are they what is needed to help the prospective 

 collector decide whether the particular plant 

 in question is the sort of thing for his garden. 

 Of course this method of procedure on the 

 part of the nurserymen is often unavoidable 

 in cases where no opportunity is to be had 

 for trying out the novelty prior to its introduc- 

 tion; but as the catalogue descriptions rarely 

 vary from year to year, it would seem that the 

 gardening public is not getting quite all it 

 deserves. 



In the hope that my own experiences may 

 perhaps be of some value to others, ,1 shall 

 briefly go over a list of some of the recent 

 novelties, always looking at the subject from 

 the viewpoint of the American flower-gardener. 

 Beyond an accurate description, any strictly 

 impartial rating is of course impossible; 

 the personal equation is bound to enter here — 

 but that is sometimes oddly illuminating. 



/"\F ALL the hardy plants introduced within 

 ^-^ the last few years, the new varieties of 

 Anchusa italica are probably the most meritor- 

 ious. Indeed, their reputation has already 

 spread so far that it may be questioned 

 whether they can be considered in the light 

 of "novelties" at all; so it is only to clear up 

 certain points about them that I have in- 

 cluded them in my list. It is quite true, as 

 the growers claim, that next to Delphiniums 

 the Anchusas are the best hardy plants with 

 blue flowers, but it is quite as untrue that they 

 generally grow six feet high, or that they bloom 

 all summer, or that, strictly speaking, they 

 can be classed as perennials at all! Their real 

 blooming period is six or seven weeks at best, 

 their real height from three to five feet; and, as 

 for their life-time, it is not much longer than 

 that of the Foxglove — at least no one should 

 count on their lasting more than one additional 

 season after they have come into bloom. 

 The immense succulent crowns soon split up 

 with age, water collects in the hollows, and by 

 spring there is nothing left but an unattractive 

 black mass of decay. Encouraging the forma- 

 tion of strong new growth by cutting the stems 

 to the ground immediately after flowering 

 will help to some extent (the same is true of 

 the Foxglove), but it is something of a gamble 

 at best. As for the flowers, one can't praise 



them enough; it is a toss-up between Dropmore 

 and Opal as to which possesses the most 

 delicious shade of blue — I am inclined a trifle 

 toward the latter. Far inferior to either is 

 Perry's Variety, which I am glad to see is 

 already dropping out of the catalogues. It 

 is of a much deeper blue, to be sure, but the 

 flowers are much smaller and the whole plant 

 is of a most disagreeably lank and leggy habit. 

 Proceeding alphabetically let's make the 

 next stop at the Aconitums, two varieties of 

 which the catalogue says are "splendid acquisi- 

 tions." Sparks's Variety, blooming in late 

 June, has a most graceful, branching habit, 

 with finely divided leaves and flowers of the 

 richest deep violet. It is a much taller grower 

 than the old Napellus, and altogether quite 

 supersedes that kind. As a pendant we have 



For August and September bloom there are several varieties 

 of the dwarf Asters (ame)lus section) 



Mr. Wilson's aconite {A. Wilsoni) which, with 

 me, has bloomed in early October, not in 

 September, as has been repeatedly stated. 

 It is a very robust grower — five or even six 

 feet tall, with coarse Delphinium-like leaves 

 and very large, fully inflated flowers, cff the 

 most delightful shade of rich lavender, — ■ 

 a shade that for cool purity of tone recalls cer- 

 tain Irises of the pallida group. It is not so 

 branching as Sparks's, so the older it grows and 

 the more spikes to a clump the better the 

 appearance. 



THOUGH their seasons of bloom do not 

 over-lap quite accurately, Aconitum Wil- 

 soni makes a charming combination with 

 Anemone Queen Charlotte; and let me say 

 that the latter plant is still to my mind 

 the queen of all the pink Anemones. Alice, 

 which has been trumpeted as an improve- 

 ment over Her Majesty, is most decidedly 

 nothing of the sort, though a rather hand- 

 some flower in its own way. It is a deeper 

 pink, but, unfortunately, also a more pur- 

 plish tone; in fact one step more and it would 

 not be far removed from those horrible 

 aniline shades that crop out occasionally in 

 Annual Asters. Kriemhilde and Loreley, 

 two other new-comers, appeal to me much 

 more. Which is which, I have been unable 

 to discover, for they look exactly alike to me, 



17 



but at any rate they have flowers more nearly 

 double than Queen Charlotte, but with 

 narrower petals, stained a deeper pink at the 

 tips. I find them rather variable both in 

 form and color, but never do they attain 

 the "reddish lilac" credited to them by the 

 introducer. 



Artemisia lactiflora is a very robust and 

 rank growing plant, four or five feet tall, with 

 huge, gracefully paniculate heads of flowers 

 something in the style of the Tall Golden-rod. 

 The individual flowers are very minute, and 

 never seem to really open, but the whole plant 

 gives a charming foamy effect of white that 

 is well set off by the fresh green leaves, droop- 

 ing and deeply cut. Its odor, if not exactly 

 that "of Hawthorn," is decidedly pleasant — 

 pungent and mildly aromatic and not at all 

 rank. Artemisia lactiflora is beginning to 

 grow shabby just as the Hardy Asters come 

 into bloom. It is good indeed to see our 

 American flower gardeners at last awakening 

 to the possibilities of these glorious native 

 plants — after they have been appreciated for 

 so long abroad! Prophets in their own coun- 

 try indeed! None of the newer varieties that 

 I have seen are poor; perhaps the best of all 

 is Climax, which has very large daisy-like 

 flowers with soft yellow centres, that fairly 

 load down the big tall plants. Their color 

 is that unapproachable lavender seen only in 

 these plants and in a few Irises, such as the 

 incomparable pallida dalmatica. Feltham 

 Blue is another excellent single; Beauty of 

 Cohvall, generally listed as the "best double," 

 proved something of a disappointment to me 

 — the color and shape of the individual flower 

 are excellent, but they open irregularly, and 

 the plant seemed rather stiff in habit. St. 

 Egivin is not a clear pink, as I had expected, 

 but a delightful lavender-pink. It is a rather 

 short and compact grower, and fairly smoth- 

 ered with bloom. 



Aster grandiflorus is quite all that has been 

 claimed. Blooming in early November, even 

 after Aster tataricus, its rich purple flowers 

 are more than welcome. In color they closely 

 approach the wild New England Aster, but 

 they are a trifle larger and the plant is under 

 three feet in height. The dwarf Amellus 

 section, blooming much earlier in August and 

 September, have never particularly appealed 

 to me, though undoubtedly they give fine 

 effects in large masses. Of these Perry's 

 Favorite is an excellent lavender-pink, and 

 Beauty of Ronsdorf, with less pink and more 

 lavender, is equally good. 



TN THE Delphiniums there is surely an em- 

 "*■ barrassment of riches. Although Kelway 

 and Son had been offering hundreds of varieties 

 for some years back, it is only within the last 

 season or two that we in America have begun 

 to get a taste of the newer hybrids. Of these, 

 Capri, Mrs. Brunton, Moerheimi, Theodora, 

 and Lamartine are generally classed in one 

 group as the "Belladonna Hybrids," and they 

 far surpass their parent in both their graceful 

 branching growth and their wonderful free- 

 dom of bloom. Indeed this freedom of bloom 

 is perhaps their most striking quality; where 

 the older varieties- gave only two crops of 

 flowers, these give at least four. Indeed with 

 me Belladonna Semiplenum bloomed almost 

 continuously from the first of June to the 

 middle of October, one crop of flowers spring- 

 ing up before the others were faded. 



