Mat, 1909 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



219 



They cry, "Away with tender plants and 

 carpet bedding!" and talk as if there were 

 something high and holy about hardy- 

 plants per se. I do not believe in going to 

 extremes in anything, and I defy any 

 shouter for "old fashioned flowers" to 

 name any hardy plant that will do as much 

 for the money as the geranium. Here we 

 have good color, three months of bloom, 

 beauty of form in leaf and flower, fragrance, 

 and extraordinary ease of culture. It is 

 not necessary to use the varieties with 

 piercing colors and leaves marked like 

 Joseph's coat, for even the geranium is 

 capable of quiet and cool effects. 



In other words, tender bedding plants 

 are not wrong in themselves, as many 

 writers say; it is only the abuse of the 

 bedding system that is wrong. Even in a 

 private garden, a few beds of tender plants 

 are usually desirable, because every garden 

 needs at least one spot of color every day 

 throughout the growing season, and I gladly 

 acknowledge that tender plants will usually 

 solve this problem better than hardy ones. 



But now that the treasures of the Far 

 East are lavished upon us we have hardy 

 plants suitable for practically every purpose 

 the most exacting gardener can conceive. 

 And whenever we have any special object 

 to accomplish we ought to try nine times 

 to find a hardy plant that will do the work 

 before falling back on a tender one. And 

 this for two reasons: First, hardy plants 

 harmonize better with our climate and en- 

 vironment than tropical plants. Second, 

 as a rule, they are cheaper to maintain. 

 And in the long run, those effects which 

 grow naturally out of the soil and out of 

 true economy will be recognized as the 

 most artistic. 



An artistic border, with bold, irregular 

 outlines and strong mass effects, is better 

 than any formal arrangement nine times 

 out of ten, because a border has more 

 variety throughout the season than a bed. 

 But granting that you really need beds of 

 formal shape, do you not prefer the effects 

 here pictured to any that can be had with ten- 

 der plants ? Do they not harmonize better ? 

 Are they not cheaper in the end? Are they 

 not a relief fromthe flatness of carpet beds ? 



It would be unfair and childish for me 



Tamarisk (not tamarack), showing the exquisite 

 harmony between feathery foliage and plumy 

 flowers, which are a tender pink. Tall tamarisk is 

 weak and thin ; this is kept low and dense 



to rhapsodize about the flowers of hardy 

 perennials, as opposed to mere foliage 

 plants, because the real question is: "Are 

 there any hardy plants with beautiful 

 foliage that are suitable for bedding?" 

 The answer is, dozens of them — dozens 

 that will not grow tiresome when seen daily 

 for five months. There is no need of 

 getting five months of raw color from plants 

 with commonplace foliage, like coleus and 

 alternanthera and acalypha, of which we 

 use millions in America. A better idea is 

 to make sure of beautiful foliage for at least 

 five months, and in addition have exquisite 

 flowers, even if they only last a fortnight. 



THE LONG-BLOOMING EFFECT 



We now have at least twenty-five peren- 

 nials and low shrubs that will bloom as 

 long as tender bedding plants — say two 

 months or more, e. g., gaillardias, Miss 

 Lingard phlox, Stokes's blue aster, the 

 Napoleon III. pink, the Baby Rambler 

 rose, two kinds of hydrangea, Eupatorium 

 cozlestinum, and certain varieties of Veronica 

 and ragged robin with names a foot long. 



But I place no emphasis on "everbloom- 



ing " plants, because they are somewhat like a 

 thirty-cent dinner with wine — they give 

 rather too much for the money. It is an 

 excellent idea to use a bed or two of them, 

 so as to be sure of color always, but to 

 make them dominant is to destroy one of 

 the keenest pleasures, viz., a sense of the 

 procession of the seasons. I hope the 

 great majority of hardy plants will always 

 definitely mark certain months, for the best 

 thing to live with is not a "continuous 

 performance" by flowers. Much better 

 is a broken series of dramatic floral events. 

 Therefore, let us turn from these "harpers 

 on a single string," and see how we can 

 have a variety of flowers at different times. 



FOUR CROPS IN EVERY BED 



Anybody can have four crops of hardy 

 flowers in every flower bed, and I think 

 most of us ought to be satisfied with that, 

 provided the foliage does not become 

 shabby. For instance, let the main feature 

 be peonies. Between these plant bulbs of 

 Lilium speciosum. Edge the bed with 

 trailing myrtle. Then under this plant 

 daffodils. Thus you will get a small 

 show of daffodils in April, a good display 

 of peonies in June, scattering flowers 

 from the myrtle all spring and summer, 

 and a fair show of lilies in September. 

 This bed may last ten or even twenty 

 years without radical change. You avoid 

 all the expense and ugliness of annual 

 digging. You have perfect foliage in 

 peonies and myrtle, and the deficiencies of 

 any lilies you may plant will be hidden. 

 For most lilies are thin or stiff in foliage 

 effect, and are hard to arrange effectively, 

 but here they have a good background. 



Dozens of good combinations like the 

 one given above can be made from the plants 

 mentioned in this article, with the help of 

 these four rules: 



i. Try for an early and a late spring, 

 a summer, and an autumn flower. Simul- 

 taneous effects are appropriate in the border, 

 but for a bed, successive effects are better. 



2. Select first the centre-piece, prefer- 

 ably a low shrub or a perennial that grows 

 two or three feet high. 



3. Next choose the filler for the centre- 

 piece, preferably a bulb. 



A forsythia bed carpeted -with glory of the snow, which blooms in March, 

 Forsythias have golden bells in March. F. viiidusima has green branches. 



A bed of Magnolia Stetlata. showing the white flowers in March, two months 

 before tender bedding plants are set out. Edged with grape hyacinths 



