THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



learn that there are any which will survive 

 a northern winter. Yet a better rule of 

 action would be to assume that every tropical 

 type has its northern representative. And in 

 my experience the northern plant is often 

 more beautiful than anything of the kind 

 in the tropics. What maidenhair can the 

 tropics ■' boast that has the beauty of our 

 own Adiantnm pedatum? And is there any 

 plant in the immense family of aroids which 

 has so innocent and boyish a prettiness as 

 our own Jack-in-the-pulpit ? 



So with bamboos. There are six very 

 fine species that are hardy at Philadelphia and 

 and I described many others in Country Life 

 in America for March, 1905. Indeed, bam- 

 boos are nothing more nor less than grasses, 

 though they flower only after a long time and 

 then die. 



Among flowering grasses the most cele- 

 brated is pampas grass, great specimens of 

 which are sometimes wintered in cellars as 

 far north as Philadelphia. But I would 

 rather have something that is hardier, even 

 if not so showy, e.g., the giant reed {Arundo 

 Donax) and Ravenna grass. Eulalias I 

 never loved but sometimes they fit well. 



There is a noble reed which raises its 

 spears in serried ranks all summer, on the 

 great salt meadows near New York, and in 

 the autumn its military hosts are crowned by 

 myriads of waving plumes. The name of this 

 reed is Phragmites communis. No nursery- 

 man sells it. I wonder why? 



OTHER "FEMININE" EFFECTS 



Bamboos and other plants of feathery 

 character are generally considered to have a 

 feminine type of beauty. But beauty is, of 

 course, wholly subjective, and therefore it 

 would be absurd to follow such consider- 

 ations far. I rail, therefore, merely give a 

 list of hardy plants with pinnate leaves, in 



order to show that we have plenty that fit 

 our own climate, without importing plants 

 from the tropics for summer use in gardens. 



COMMON NAME 



NURSERY NAME 



Ash 



Fraxinus 



Hickory 



Hicoria 



Japan varnish tree 



Kcelreuteria 



Mountain ash 



Sorbus 



Sumach 



Rhus 



Tamarisk 



Tamarix 



Tree of heaven 



Ailanthus 



Walnut, butternut 



Juglans 



Trumpet creeper 



Tecoma 



Bleeding heart 



Dicentra 



Feathered columbine 



Thalictrum 



Fraxinella 



Dictamnus 



Hardy gloxinia 



Incarvillea 



Jacob's ladder 



Polemonium 



Oriental poppy 



Papaver 



Peony 



Pa^onia 



Roses, especially R. rugosa, multiftora, Wichuraiana 

 and their improved varieties. 



CUT-LEAVED EFFECTS 



Closely allied to pinnate beauty is the cut- 

 leaved type of which cosmos and marigold 

 are familiar examples. I shall mention only 

 a few examples that give soft, misty effects 

 and require less care than annuals. 



COMMON NAME 



Milfoils 

 Pyrethrums 



Giant fennel 

 Tamarisk 

 Thunberg's spirea 



NURSERY NAME 



Achillea 

 Chrysanthemum ct 



eum 

 Ferula 

 Tamarix 

 Spircea Thunbergii 



It is needless to pursue these analogie, 

 but there is one great misconception 

 about plants with highly colored foliage that 

 should be corrected. 



HIGHLY COLORED FOLIAGE EFFECTS 



There are some enthusiasts about hardy 

 plants who make a fetich of the idea of hardi- 

 ness. They see nothing objectionable in a 

 lawn peppered with copper beech, purple 



plum, golden elder and variegated weigela 

 because the plants are hardy. But I can 

 see no reason why hardy plants with gaudy 

 foliage are any better than tender ones. 

 Strangely enough, there are some fifty hardy 

 plants now used in conventional bedding 

 because they have purple or metallic foliage 

 or something else to "frizzle the eyebrows", 

 as Dean Hole used to say. The great lesson 

 we should learn is that abnormally colored 

 foliage is too different to be in good taste, 

 as a rule. The most objectionable bedding 

 effects are those produced by such unnatural 

 looking foliage as coleus, horse-shoe geran- 

 iums, alternantheras, acalyphas, and such 

 foreign-looking flowers as lantanas, and 

 mesembryanthemums. Moreover, all violent 

 contrasts and intricate patterns are in 

 questionable taste. 



I said that there was a sweeter and purer 

 way of getting brilliant color and a long 

 season of bloom. It is by means of hardy 

 flowers such as ever-blooming pinks, tufted 

 violets, forget-me-not, woolly chickweed, 

 evening primroses, pyrethrums, bugles, stone- 

 crops, and many others that I mentioned last 

 May. And if, for any reason, they will not 

 do the required work, we can go back to the 

 loveliest of annual flowers for bedding pur- 

 poses, such as heliotrope, verbena, stocks, 

 nasturtiums, catchfly and scarlet sage. 



I would not rule tropical plants entirely 

 out of northern gardens for summer effect 

 for I would not be extreme in anything, but 

 we lean on these plants altogether too much. 

 We should make them incidental as England 

 does. Until the desire for showiness gives 

 way to the desire for appropriateness our 

 gardens will lack charm. And until we stop 

 looking to Europe for material and discover 

 our own hardy plants we shall only make 

 poor copies of Old-World gardens instead 

 of achieving a national style of our own. 



tLDREN'S GARDENS 



Window Boxes 



T^HE most satisfactory way to grow 

 A plants in the schoolroom and, in 

 many cases, at home, is in the window-box. 

 The window-box means the possibility of 

 easily caring for a number of plants in a 

 small space. Plants in pots take much more 

 space than the same number of plants in a 

 window-box. 



THE CHILDREN'S WINTER FARM, THE 

 BULB POT AND WINDOW-BOX, PRESENT 

 AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PARENTS, 

 WOMEN'S CLUBS, PARK COMMISSIONS — 

 IN FACT, ALL OF US — TO LEND A 

 HAND. A GROWING PLANT IN WIN- 

 TER IS AN EDUCATION IN ITSELF 



Conducted by 

 ELLEN EDDY SHAW 



New York 



It is the cleanest way, too. We are all 

 familiar with the sight of a pot covered with 

 crepe paper stained and discolored from 

 water spilt upon it and moisture given 

 off from the porous pot. 



The window-box, if properly watered, 

 need never leak. Its fresh-painted sides 

 need never be covered with any material. 

 It stands for just what it is — a well-made, 

 well-painted wooden box. 



It is quite impossible to give dimen- 

 sions for the construction of the window- 

 box since it must fit the space one wishes 

 to use. It is wise to keep in mind this — 

 that these boxes when filled with soil 

 are very, very heavy and awkward to 

 handle. So if your window is large, why 

 not have two small boxes for the space 

 rather than one large one? When these 

 are placed end to end the effect is of one 



