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APRIL, 1908 
makes a harmonizing point of contact 
for the bits of alyssum still blooming. My 
idea is to make a border of these four, the 
whole length of the bed, forget-me-nots on 
the edge with narcissus behind them and 
back of these two a band of alyssum and 
tulips. To relieve the stiffness of the long 
straight lines the alyssum should jut back 
irregularly into the border, as I have tried 
to illustrate in the accompanying plan. 
Third in order, to usher in the month of 
June, are lemon lilies and German iris. But 
only certain varieties of the iris may be 
used. Closest to the lemon lilies should 
come the fawn-and-violet variety and last 
the purple and violet. A pure purple is 
needed on the end to carry through the 
color scheme, but the only purple variety 
I know blooms too early. The three I 
have described are common unnamed sorts, 
to be found in every nursery. German iris 
grows from two to three feet high and the 
lemon lilies, which are a trifle taller, should 
go diagonally behind it. Both are quite 
over blooming by the fifteenth of June, 
when the glorious display of foxgloves and 
Canterbury bells claims the whole border. 
Don’t wait until autumn to sow seed for 
next year’s blooming —that’s my experience. 
Start the seed not later than the middle of 
May to get strong plants by autumn with 
plenty of crowns from which to send up 
flower stalks in the spring. Well grown 
foxgloves should have flower spikes four to 
six feet in height; Canterbury bells are about 
two feet high, and it is a good plan to set 
them well back from the edge of the border, 
so that the branches of the front row may 
lean to the ground and carry the color all 
the way down. They are, unfortunately, 
biennial and so must be raised every year. 
Foxgloves are perennial, but short lived, 
and it is well to keep a supply of young 
plants in,the nursery bed to replace any the 
winter may kill in the border. 
The first of July gives another blue and 
white combination. By that time the tall 
English larkspurs have sent up their col- 
umns of azure, and it would be hard to find 
a more perfect background for the exquisite 
outlines of the pure white Madonna lily. 
But with all its loveliness the combination 
is a little cold, and a group of delicate pink 
hollyhocks near the larkspur adds the needed 
touch of warmth. As hollyhocks grow 
from six to nine feet they must go at the 
back of the border on a line with the lark- 
spurs. To get them blooming with Madonna 
lilies they must be established plants; 
seedlings raised the preceding summer do 
not come into bloom until later in the 
season. The Madonna lilies go in front of 
the larkspurs as they seldom grow taller 
than four feet. 
The larkspurs have so long a season to 
bloom that they also play a part in the next 
combination with the little russet and gold 
coreopsis. This grows about four feet 
high and is best treated as a biennial. The 
seed is sown not earlier than the first of 
July, as plants started early enough to bloom 
the first year will never make a good show- 
ing the second. Larkspurs, on the other 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
hand, are started as early as possible —April 
out of doors or March ina coldframe. Well- 
grown seedlings will send up several columns 
of bloom five to seven feet high the follow- 
ing year, and I have had established plants 
with as many as twenty-one stalks. Plant 
coreopsis to the front of the larkspur, 
whose solid blue ranks are wonderfully re- 
lieved by its thousands of sparkling blossoms. 
August gives us two combinations. For 
the first half, cardinal flowers and _ tiger 
lilies. Every one who has grown tiger 
White and red foxgloves flowering in company 
with pink Canterbury bells gave the original idea 
for the border 
lilies knows the difficulty of finding anything 
to go with their peculiar yellowish pink 
color, yet when left to themselves they 
seem incomplete. You wonder why they 
are not more beautiful. This problem was 
solved for us by a stray seedling of cardinal 
flower, that sowed itself in a group of the 
lilies. The clear red, free from all suggestion 
of yellow, emphasized the pink tones of the 
tiger lilies and made them more beautiful 
and satisfying than before. Tiger lilies 
and cardinal flowers grow about the same 
height, varying from three to five feet 
according to the moisture of the soil. It 
is best to keep the tiger lilies to the front, 
153 
as their outline is an important part o1 their 
beauty. Though the cardinal flower is a bien- 
nial it self-sows freely and the seedlings are 
easy to transplant in the early spring. In 
my garden tiger lilies have suffered more 
than any other from the “lily disease,” 
but it is so easy to raise new bulbs that I 
have never troubled to treat the old ones. 
If the little black bulbs that grow in the 
axils of the leaves are gathered and sown 
in rows in the nursery in the autumn some 
of them will bloom the second summer, and 
nearly all of them the third. 
For the second half of August there are 
Veronica longifolia and white phlox. A 
comparatively low-growing phlox, like Jeanne 
d’Arc, should be used with the veronica, that 
the grace of its curving blue sprays may be 
emphasized against the white background. 
Veronica is about thirty inches high, to the 
tips of its flower spikes; the phlox should 
not be higher than three feet. Both are 
best increased by division of the root. 
September, as I have already confessed, 
is a blank, but in October the border is 
glorious again with purple and gold. One 
autumn day I brought home from a walk 
three plants of the common purple aster. 
They were a scant three feet tall, but the 
blossoms seemed larger than usual. I 
soaked the roots free from the tangle of grass 
and weeds they were growing in and divided 
them into eight small plants. They re- 
ceived no care the following summer but 
ordinary weeding, and they sent up ten 
stalks between six and seven feet high 
and clothed to within two feet of the ground 
with side branches varying in length from 
two feet at the bottom to six inches near the 
top. Each plant was a pyramid of purple 
and a more perfect background cannot be 
imagined for the great golden and lemon 
and orange globes of African marigolds. 
To carry out the idea of a hardy border 
one might use yellow chrysanthemums in- 
stead of marigolds, but unfortunately, the 
truly hardy chrysanthemums are scarcely 
in bloom kefore November and the asters 
are then gone. Marigolds, of course, are 
easily frosted but the blossoms make a brave 
show long after the leaves are black and 
drooping. 
Such a border as I have been describing, 
has, of course, one obvious disadvantage; 
it is practicable only for a large garden, as 
it must refuse admittance to so many of 
the host of May and June perennials that 
one cannot do without. Who, for instance, 
would have a garden without the great 
flame-colored Oriental poppy ?——but not one 
of its contemporaries can stand beside it. 
The choice is further limited by the over- 
lapping seasons of bloom of the successive 
combinations, making it necessary to choose 
plants that harmonize with those blooming 
immediately before and after them. Much, 
however, can be accomplished by taking 
care not to place successive combinations 
in juxtaposition; the accompanying plan 
illustrates this point and shows the border 
complete, but for the two September com- 
binations. Have the readers of THE GARDEN 
MAGAzINE any suggestions for that month? 
