September, 1910 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



59 



Fig. 4. Rambler roses follow on tlie arbor itself 



{Aquilegia chrysantha) I generally tuck 

 quantities of white or purple stocks, those 

 known as Sutton's Perfection. The aqui- 

 legia is cut close to the ground as soon as 

 its seed pods take the place of flowers; and 

 the stocks are then beginning their long 

 period of bloom. Canterbury bells are 

 usually the centres of colonies of annual 

 asters (my great favorites are the single 

 Aster Sinensis, in chosen colors — not 

 to be had in every seed -list, by the way), 

 and of groups of gladiolus bulbs so arranged 

 as to hide the vacancy left when the Canter- 

 bury bells must be lifted from the ground 

 after blooming. 



In four places in the garden where rather 

 low-growing things are desired, are alternate 

 groups of a handsome, dark, velvety-red 

 sweet William • — the seed of which was 

 given me by Miss Jekyll, who described this 

 as the color of the sweet William of the 

 old English cottage garden — and well grown 

 l)lants of Stokesia cyanea. As soon as the 

 fine heads of sweet William begin to crisp 

 and dry, the beautiful lavender-blue flowers 

 of the stokesia take up the wondrous tale, 

 and a veil of delicate blue is drawn over the 

 .spots which a few days since ran red with 

 a riot of dark loveliness. 



Among larkspurs I plant Salvia patens 

 which to look tidy when blooming must be 

 carefully staked while the stems are pliable 

 and tender. Second crops of delphinium 

 bloom seem to me a mistake • — I believe the 

 vitality of the plant is somewhat impaired 

 and the color of the flowers is seldom as 

 clear and fine as in the first crop. Green 

 leaves in plenty should be left, of course: 

 the lower part of Salvia patens is not attrac- 

 tive and its pale blue flowers have added 

 beauty rising from the fresh delphinium 

 foliage. 



The plan of planting the everlasting pea 

 {Lathyrus latifolius, var. The Pearl) among 

 delphiniums, to follow their bloom by clouds 

 of white flowers, is recommended by an 

 English authority. To continue the blue 

 of tall delphinium, the very best succession 

 crop is that of Delphinium Chinensis or 



grandiflora, the lower branching one with 

 the cut leaf; a fine hardy perennial in 

 exquisite shades of pale and deep blue, 

 whose flowers are at their very best imme- 

 diately after the spikes of their blue sisters 

 have gone into retirement. 



The fine new " Dropmore," variety of 

 Ancliusa Ilalica, is exceedingly good placed 

 near the vigorous green spikes of the leaves 

 of the white false dragon head {Physostegia 

 Virginica, var. alba): when the latter is low, 

 the great anchusa leaves nearly cover it; and 

 after the crop of brilliant blue flowers is 

 exhausted, and the robust plants are cut back, 

 the physostegia raises its tall white spikes 

 of bloom a few weeks later, brightening an 

 otherwise dull spot. 



Platycodons, both blue and white, are 

 capital to dwell among and succeed Canter- 

 bury bells; the platycodons to be followed 

 again in their turn by the later-blooming 

 Campanula pyramidalis. 



Will some kind gardem-lover make me his 

 debtor by suggesting a good neighbor and 

 successor to the hardy phlox? This has 

 been a problem in a locality where frost 

 is due in early September, and some of the 

 tenderer things such as cosmos are really 



^ig. 5. Peonies and Canterbury bells take up the 

 succession in the garden proper 



nothing but a risk. If one could raze one's 

 phloxes to the ground once they had 

 finished their best bloom, the case might 

 be different. But the French growers now 

 advise (according to interesting cultural 

 instructions for phlox-growing issued by one 

 speciaUst) the retention of all flower stalks 

 during winter! This makes necessary an 

 immense amount of work in the way 

 of cutting, toward early September, in 

 order that the phloxes may keep some 

 decent appearance as shrub-like plants of 

 green. 



To follow the bloom of Iris Germanica (of 

 which I find two varieties planted together, 

 Mrs. Horace Darwin and Gloire de Hil- 

 legom, to give a charming succession 

 crop of flowers with a change of hue 

 as well), I have already recommended 

 the planting of gladiolus. Lilium can- 

 didum growing back of iris leaves is also 

 effective, and, by carefully considered 

 planting, gladiolus forms a between-crop 

 of no little value. 



Of succession crops to follow each other 

 in places apart, it is hardly worth while to 

 speak. This is an easy matter to arrange; 



the fading of color before one shrubbery 

 group acting as a signal to another place 

 to brighten. The Munstead primroses (Fig. 

 2) are scarcely out of bloom when tulip 

 Cottage Maid and arabis are in beauty as in 

 Fig. 3, in an unused spot under grapes, and 

 these are quickly followed by rambler roses 

 (Fig. 4) and peonies and Canterbury bells 

 in the garden proper (Fig. 5 and 7) . Border- 

 ing on the turf edges of a walk in a kitchen 

 garden three succession crops of flowers 

 have been obtained by the use of these three 

 plantings. Roses stand a foot back from 

 the grass. Between them and the turf long 

 irregular masses of Tidipa Gesneriana, var. 

 rosea, bloom rich rose-red in May. The 

 roses follow in June; and Beauty of Oxford 

 verbena, covers the dying tulip leaves with 

 clusters of wonderful pink bloom which lasts 

 well into the autumn. 



I have sometimes thought that a white 

 garden would be a simple matter to arrange 

 and that, under certain very green and 

 fresh conditions and with plenty of rich 

 shadow to give its tones variety, it should 

 not be monotonous. The procession of 

 white flowers is so remarkable, beginning 

 say with the snowdrop, sweet white violet, 

 and the arabis in its single and double forms, 

 followed quickly by Iberis Gibraltarica and 

 Phlox subulata, white violas — all these for 

 the low early flowers — and followed by 

 larger, taller, and more massive blooms, from 

 peonies on to Canterbury bells, thence to 

 lilies, white hollyhocks, gypsophilas. Pearl 

 achiflea and white phloxes. Dozens of 

 flower names occur at the mere thought. It 

 seems as though every flower must have its 

 white representative. Whether an all-white 

 garden would be truly agreeable or no, I 

 cannot say, but I do hold that sufficient white 

 is not used in our gardens — that a certain 

 brilliancy in sunlight is lost by the absence 

 of masses of white flowers, succession crops 

 of which it is so easy to obtain and main- 

 tain. With the free use of white flowers, 

 there is sure to be a fresh proclamation of 

 beauty, too, at twilight, and under the 

 moon — arguments which must appeal to 

 the amateur gardener of poetic taste. 



Fig. 6. 



A general vie'w showing ho-w green is freely 

 used to display the flowers 



