English Effects with Hardy Perennials— By Wilhelm Miller, £j 



WHAT [KIND OF PICTURES THE ENGLISH MAKE WITH NEW AND INTERESTING HARDY 

 FLOWERS— IF YOU WISH TO SEE THE LATEST IMPROVEMENTS, NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT 



[Editor's Note. — This is the ninth of a series of twelve articles that explain how we waste about a million dollars a year in trying to copy English garden effects literally, and 

 the only way in which we can excel England. This series is devoted to the ma'.erials of ga r dzning, such as trees, shrubs, vines, etc. A companion series in Country Life in America 

 deals with the different kinds of gardening, such as landscape, formal, rose, rock, water, and wall gardens. Both series began in January]. 



HPHE most striking fact about perennial 

 ■*■ flowers in England is that the English 

 people know and love a far greater variety 

 of them than we do. One English catalogue 

 offers 2,700 kinds of perennials. We once 

 had an American catalogue that listed half 

 as many, but whether more than one-fifth 

 of them were really available "I hae' me 

 doots." The average English nurseryman 

 seems to cultivate from five to ten times as 

 many different species as the average Ameri- 

 can. This means that if you wish to see 

 the latest improvements in irises, phlox, 

 larkspurs, oriental poppies, etc., you will 

 probably have to send to Europe for plants 

 during the last half of August or else next 

 March. Only the commoner perennials 

 are available in America. For new and 

 rare plants we must still look to Europe. 



Another striking difference between the 

 two countries is that the English have a 

 deeper passion than we for "collecting." 

 Everywhere you find someone who grows 

 fifty or more varieties of his favorite flower, 

 e. g., German or Japanese iris, or peony, or 

 the florists' pentstemon. One English cata- 

 logue contains 346 varieties of phlox, 224 

 of border carnations. 180 of chrysanthe- 

 mums, etc. — fully three times as many as 

 you can get in America. Some amateurs 

 whom I saw had the passion for complete- 

 ness and stuck to one flower throughout 

 their lives; others liked to weed out the 

 varieties they did not care for, concentrate 

 on the best, and then take up another flower 

 in the same way. Some used the knowledge 

 gained by collecting to produce new varieties, 

 others were content with the joys of possess- 

 ing flowers that no one else has and of being 

 appealed to as authorities. Everyone has his 

 favorite sport, but he has a favorite flower too. 

 There is loads of fun in collecting perennial 

 flowers and I expect to see Americans take it 

 up with gusto. Have you ever collected 

 fifty varieties of any hardy flower — say 

 pinks or Japan iris or phlox or bellflowers, or 

 sedum or veronicas or peonies? If not, I 

 hope you will and if I can help with addresses, 

 or in any other way, shall be glad to be of 

 service. 



The third great fact about perennials that 

 struck me is that the English understand 

 better than we how to make beautiful pic- 

 tures with perennials. Cultivated people 

 will discuss at the table the best color 

 schemes for borders, how to hide the 

 deficiencies of hardy plants after they bloom, 

 what flowers look well together, and the 

 right and wrong way of using the latest 

 novelty. The designing of garden pictures 

 jeems to me a higher pleasure than merely 

 loving each flower separately for its own 

 sake. At any rate I shall not try to describe 



all the new and wonderful plants I saw in 

 England, for that would be a labor of Sisy- 

 phus. I shall merely tell about a few artis- 

 tic ways I saw of using hardy flowers, 

 especially those that bloom between the 

 first of June and middle of August. 



PERENNIALS FOR SHOWY MASSES 



The showiest border flowers that I saw 

 in England were peonies in June and 

 larkspurs in July. It is right to plan for 

 the showiest features first, but the worst 

 possible way to do it is to get a catalogue, 

 select the flowers you love best, and arrange 

 the plants after they come. The best way 

 is to draw a diagram of the border to scale, 

 dividing it into five-foot sections, so that you 

 can locate every plant on paper. Next you 

 make a list of the months and ask yourself, 

 " What shall be my main reliance in June; in 

 July, and so on?" Thus you decide on 

 your big masses first and the "fillers" last 

 — as any artist does. The most pictorial 

 borders are designed in this way in England 

 and it is thought best to have only one mass 

 of the dominant flower for each period, in- 

 stead of repeating that flower in the same 

 border. 



Peonies are certainly the showiest border 

 flowers in early June (or after the German 

 iris) and double peonies are more massive 

 than single ones. The best possible asso- 

 ciates for peonies are lilies — not the madonna, 

 but really permanent ones that bloom later — 

 elegans, Henryi, and speciosum. By using 

 these bulbs as fillers you hide the defic- 

 iencies of the peonies and get two crops of 

 flowers in the same bed. 



The peony and lily idea is now familiar 

 in America, but I have never seen peonies 

 used in America for wild gardening. At 

 first the idea seems absurd, because double 



An elm-leaved spirea, example of trie bold picture 

 that can be made on lawns by using robust peren- 

 nials with attractive foliage 



64 



flowers cannot possibly look wild when 

 viewed near by. But if you put peonies 

 at the edge of a wood at so great a distance 

 that you cannot distinguish form and can only 

 enjoy their color, they make a wonderful effect, 

 especially in the early morning, at twilight, 

 or when they light up some dark corner. 

 I should like to see this notion tried on some 

 great estate in America. I believe the paint- 

 ers would like it. The horticultural justi- 

 fication for this idea is that peonies are 

 about as long lived as shrubs. 



After the peonies, the next showy flower 

 is the perennial larkspur. It is certainly 

 the queen of the border in July. The most 

 artistic way to use larkspurs is to place them 

 where they will be seen in combination with 

 strong vertical lines in architecture, e. g., the 

 columns of a pergola or summer house. 

 Against rounded bushes they may not look 

 so well. Most people mix all the different 

 shades of blue and purple together. Mr. 

 J. William Barr's idea is to have about six 

 pale blue larkspurs in one group, six dark 

 blue in another and six purple ones in a third. 

 And he would chose varieties that come one 

 after another instead of all together. Per- 

 sonally I cannot "go" the double larkspurs, 

 especially those with blue petals and purple 

 centres. 



The English have made a great exhibition 

 flower of the larkspur and lords and ladies 

 flock to see three-foot spikes of the variety 

 called Monument, while individual flowers 

 of the Duke of Connaught are said to attain 

 two and a half inches in diameter (I meas- 

 ured one that was two inches across.) These 

 large flowered varieties, however, are not 

 always the most effective in the garden. 

 They need a rather open spike in order to 

 show their individual flower to advantage. 

 In the garden, the long, dense spikes of small 

 flowers suit me best, because the soul of the 

 larkspur seems to be aspiration and this 

 idea is most clearly suggested when the 

 flowers approximate the spire in form and 

 the sky in color. The fashionable idea, 

 however, is to make the larkspur a collector 's 

 flower. People often import fifty varieties 

 at a time from England, but such collections 

 often disappear in a few years because of 

 the black spot — a disease unknown in 

 England. The only way to perpetuate these 

 improved varieties is by cuttings. 



PERENNIALS FOR ARCHITECTURAL EFFECT 



A moment ago I spoke of the pleasant 

 harmonies produced by larkspurs when 

 they repeat the vertical fines of porch or 

 pergola. Other flowers with long spikes 

 are foxgloves, monkshoods, chimney bell- 

 flowers (a great favorite in England), 

 eremurus, Verbascum pklomoides and the 



