THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE 



OfutfPor ojT'/tyS'arcferfancf 't^ihrmJtfy&arcfeti * 



Out of the snow snowdrops, 

 Out of Death comes Life. 



— David Gray 



Peace! 



Back through the garden gate! This is 

 joyful summons to those of us who marched out 

 at our country's call two years ago and turned 

 our steps into the straight and narrow paths 

 between rows of vegetables, or betook ourselves 

 to walks of industry far from the flower-strewn 

 ways, winding and sweet, wherein it had been our 

 happy privilege to spend our days. Gladly we 

 went forth to bear our part in the great en- 

 terprise and thankfully we return to make 

 ready our gardens for the country-wide fes- 

 tival of flowers which shall bear testimony to 

 our heart-felt relief that War is back on the 

 other side of Winter and that before us lies Spring 

 and Peace. 



Surely never before have we been so ready to 

 open our hearts to the "vital, hopeful rapture" 

 held out to us by the Young Year and surely 

 never before has it been so plainly our duty to 

 give this rapture happy expression. For a 

 gardener, to express himself adequately is to add 

 unto his possessions a tree or shrub, to consign 

 seeds to the earth, to plant flowers and again to 

 plant flowers. 



Across the sea upon the battle fields of 

 France and Belgium and throughout the devas- 

 tated lands Nature is proudly drawing across 

 her torn and wasted breast a garment of fresh 

 verdure and smiling flowers that the signs of 

 war be blotted out. So shall we here strive to 

 make of the Home Land so glad and beautiful 

 a place that the men who come back to us will 

 forget what they have seen of horror and evil 

 and suffering. This is not a sentimental idea; it 

 is as plainly practical and important as any 

 occupation that has engaged us during the period 

 of the war! The gaiety of flowers never jars 

 upon the most sensitive condition of mind and 

 they constantly suggest freshness and renewal. 

 There is ample testimony too, to their soothing 

 effect upon the men suffering from shell shock 

 or otherwise worn and broken by their terrible 

 experiences. 



And then, as Mr. Barron told us in December, 

 a new period is opening to American horticulture 

 and each should seek to make his part in it a 

 worthy one. Let us realize that gardening 

 is at once an exact science and a high art and 

 should not be treated as a haphazard pastime. 

 The very best that is in us is not too much to 

 dedicate to its pursuance. 



For myself, I am glad that the snow lies deep 

 upon the garden; glad that no dear, audacious 

 green thing thrusts through the mold to enchain 

 my attention, that no bud of tree or shrub rends 

 its winter jacket in warning of Spring's approach. 

 I need time to adjust myself to the new order; 

 time to study the catalogues* more attentively 

 than ever before, to go over my hasty notes of 

 the past two busy years and to make and re- 

 make lists and plans to create a beauteousness 

 within my garden walls such as has never before 

 shown there. Winter should be to the gardener 

 what it is to the plants themselves — a time of 

 rest and preparation. 



The Pale Corydal. 

 Last autumn I saw 

 in a hill-side garden in 

 Westchester Co., N. Y., this fine little native, 

 Corydalis glauca, most delightfully naturalized. 

 It was sprouting up along the paths, between the 

 stones that bound the borders, in the rose bed, 

 and its fresh, gray leafage was most attractive 

 where all about it was brown and flowerless. It 

 is at home in rocky woods where the soil is cool 

 and rich, but apparently takes up its quarters 

 easily where stones and some shade are provided. 

 Its blossoms are tiny sacs hung upside down and 

 smartly tipped with yellow and its leaves are 

 pale gray, delicately divided into finely-cut 

 leaflets. It blossoms throughout the greater 

 part of the season arid is quite worthy a place 

 in any rock garden. 



It belongs to the same engaging family as 

 the Bleeding Hearts, Squirrel Corn, Dutchman's 

 breeches and Fumatory, and though an annual 

 or perhaps a biennial, sows itself freely and is 

 quite hardy. 



Bright Stems. 



We take little notice of the stems of trees 

 or shrubs during the flowery months but now 

 when the earth is white or brown and the branches 

 leafless, one's eye is alert for color wherever it 

 may be found. Here is a list of gay or otherwise 

 conspicuous stems that I have noted this winter 

 growing wild or in gardens: 



Betula populifolia (White Birch) silver-white, Native. 



" alba (European White Birch) silvery. 

 Fagus americana (American Beech) gray. Natica. 

 Cornus alternifolia (Panicled Dogwood) bright green. Native. 

 " alba (Siberian Dogwood) red. 

 " asperifolia, Warm reddish-brown. Native. 

 " stolonifera (Red Osier) dark red. Native. 

 " sanguinia (European Red Osier) red-purple. 

 " Amomum, purple. Native. 

 " racemosa (C. paniculata) gray. Native. 

 Salix vitilina aurea (Golden Willow) orange. Native. 

 *" " Britzensis, reddish. 



*' purpurea (Purple Osier) purple. 

 " babylonica (Weeping Willow) warm olive. 

 Ilex verticillata (Black Alder) clouded gray, Native. ("With coral 



beads the prim black alders shine"). 

 Kerria iaponica (Jew's Mallow) bright green. 

 Rubus odoratus (Purple-flowering Raspberry) purplish. Native. 

 " occidentalis (Black Raspberry) Plum-color with whitish 

 bloom. 

 Comptonia peregrina (Sweet Fern) Copper-brown. Native. 

 Benzoin aestivale (Spice Bush) warm grayish-brown. 



It is so pleasant to meet with these warm- 

 colored trees and shrubs in walking about the 

 country that it is a wonder we do not make more 

 use of them about our homes to "cheer the un- 

 genial day." 



A Fall-Flowering Iris. 



I should be interested to hear of the experience 

 of any one with Iris lurida. With me it blooms 

 twice during the year; once in May and once in 

 October and I have not heard of its behaving 

 thus anywhere else. Neither Iris books nor 

 Iris catalogues known to me mention it and 

 I should think if so valuable and unusual a char- 

 acteristic were common to any Iris attention 

 would certainly be drawn to it. An Iris flower 

 after the month of July is most uncommon and 

 if my plants are peculiar in this respect I should 

 like to know it. Mr. W. Richardson Dykes, 

 the Iris expert in a note recently seen, mentions 

 a Hungarian form of I. aphylla as always flower- 

 ing twice (in May and again in August) and also 

 a hybrid of I. Chamaeiris and I. trojana but the 

 habit even in his wide acquaintance among 

 Irises is evidently unusual and he makes no 

 mention of I. lurida. 



I know that an Iris whose regular blossoming 

 is interrupted by its being moved or by some 

 other disturbance, will often give a flower or two 

 at a later season; but with I. lurida the habit is 

 a fixed one, my plants having been in the same 

 place for at least eight years and the October 

 display has never failed. The late flowering 



170 



is quite as free as the earlier one, that is, the 

 plants are well set over with dark plum-color 

 buds but in October these are sometimes frozen 

 before they fully expand. 



Iris lurida is a member of the Bearded Group 

 of Irises and is, according to Mr. Irwin Lynch, 

 very close to I. sambucina and I. squalens. It 

 is, however, quite without the fine perfume of the 

 first and is considerably dwarfer than either. 

 The flowers scarcely overtop the leaves. The 

 standards are a bright plum color with copper 

 lights and the falls are a darker, duller shade. 

 The stem is three or four headed and the spathe 

 three flowered. It is a very handsome and easily 

 grown Iris for the front of the border. With 

 me it grows luxuriantly in a dry situation and is 

 one of my favorite Irises. It would be interesting 

 to hear if there are any other Irises with the fall- 

 flowering habit. 



Annuals for the Rock Garden. 



Rock gardeners are as a rule, I find, rather 

 sniffy about annuals. One seldom hears them 

 mentioned in circles where mountain plants are 

 discussed and even the best books on the subject 

 give us no suggestion* as to the utilization of this 

 valuable class of plants. Perhaps it is argued 

 that things so ephemeral as annuals and so 

 enduring as rocks are out of place in each other's 

 company, but the fact is that they are as indis- 

 pensable there as elsewhere. Casualties occur 

 in the rock garden for the same reasons as in the 

 level borders and the rock plant is far less easily 

 replaced than the ordinary hardy perennial. 

 Then too the blossoming of the majority of 

 mountain plants is a most fleeting affair; a mo- 

 ment of vivid beauty and then a serene greenness 

 or grayness for the rest of the year; and as the 

 festal season of most of them is in spring or early 

 summer, there is little to reward the eye in search 

 of a gay snatch of color after June, save for cer- 

 tain of the Campanulas and a few such constant 

 bloomers as Vitidenia triloba andTunica saxifraga. 



Of course to sow such every-day dwarf an- 

 nuals as Sweet Alyssum, Candytuft, or French 

 Marigolds in the rock garden would not seem at 

 all fitting. They must have other qualities than 

 mere dwarfness to recommend them for these 

 high circles. But there are numerous small 

 annuals, compactly tufted or circumspectly 

 creeping, that have quite a proper "Alpine air" 

 that should certainly be used to brighten our 

 rock gardens in late summer and to refurnish 

 the corner of some dear departed or the resting 

 place of small Tulip or Daffodil. A list follows: 



One of the prettiest of these is Gypsophila muralis, whose greenery 

 is of the lightest and most feathery character and whose blossoming 

 is like a tiny sunset cloud. I have had it serenely flowering in chinks 

 between stones long after its more hardy appearing companions 

 had been sent to rest by the frost. Its seed is perfectly hardy so 

 there it is year after year with no trouble at all to me. Its height 

 is about four inches. — Sedum coeruleum, with all the characteristics 

 of its important family in miniature, is another of great charm. 

 Its height in my garden is about four inches and its pale lilac-blue 

 blossoms are produced over a long period. Poor soil and full sun. 

 — Ionopsidium acaule, the dainty Violet Cress with pale violet-tinted 

 blossoms is a mite of about two inches that thrives best in shade 

 or where it will not suffer from drought. Its seed is hardy and it 

 blooms a few weeks from the time of sowing. — Campanula attica 

 has all the charm of its lovely race, a height of three inches and blue 

 or white blossoms. Full sun or half shade. — Kaulfussia amelloides 

 (Charieis heterophylla) is a small South African bearing lavender 

 Daisies with a warm purple disc. — Veronica glauca is a lovely little 

 four inch plant from Greece with bright blue flowers. — Abronia 

 umbellata (Sand Verbena). This is a perennial too tender for our 

 climate but blooms the first year from seed if sown early. It is a 

 graceful, lax trailer with heads of lavender-pink blossoms withthe- 

 fragrance of vanilla. Poor soil and sun. — Grammanlhes gentianoide s . 

 A little three inch annual with bright orange colored flowers. Full 

 sun. Limnanthus Douglasii. A charming California poppywort 

 with slender half trailing stems carrying frail yellow "poppies." 

 — Eichscholtziatenuifolia. Primrose colored blossoms and gray leaves. 

 — Liptosiphon densifiorus liybridus is four inches high and bears small 

 brilliant blossoms over a long period. Half shade. — Silenc pendula 

 bijou, makes a stout little tuft and bears bright pink blossoms 

 over a long season. — Saponaria calabrica is another pink flowered 

 annual of half trailing habit. Bright sun and ordinary soil. — Sanpi- 

 talia procumbent is a stout little trailer with tiny sunflower-like 

 blooms produced in great profusion. Full sun.— Other annuals 

 suited to this use are various diminutive Gilias t Nemesia Blue Gem, 

 Mesembryanlhemum tricolor, Anagallis lini/oha and A. Bre-jjerii, 

 Nemophila insignis, (shade), Asperula azurea jetosa and Flatystemon 

 colifornicus (Cream Cups). 



