June, 1914 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



295 



was one with pure yellow flowers, unique 

 and very pretty. 



A yellow variety frequently catalogued 

 and sometimes recommended is D. Zalil, 

 variously described as pure sulphur yellow, 

 creamy yellow and yellowish white. I 

 strongly suspect the last to be the true 

 description, but I cannot speak from 

 experience, as my plants died without 

 blooming. I can, however, bear witness 

 to its habit, which is very poor. The stems 

 are weak and the whole plant straggles. 



Perhaps the most interesting of all the 

 larkspurs, in point of color, is Delphinium 

 trieste. Nearly everyone has heard of the 

 ''mourning iris," with its funereal mark- 

 ings, but few, even of larkspur enthusiasts, 

 know the "sad larkspur." The flower is 

 dark brown slightly lightening to red at 

 the edge of the petals, with a brownish 

 violet spur. The sad larkspur is a native 

 of a cold climate, Siberia, and should do 

 well in our northern states. 



Of the garden hybrid varieties the 

 one known as D. speciosum glabratum, a fine 

 dark blue, has the delightful gift of frag- 

 rance. For this reason, as well as for its 

 handsome flowers, it should be grown more 

 extensively than it is. Another very de- 

 sirable variety little known to the amateur 

 is Barlow's larkspur, a large flowered dark 

 blue. 



But of all the larkspurs, foreign or 

 native, that I have seen, there is none 

 that, to me, is more beautiful than the 

 well-known, always magnificent Del- 

 phinium Formosum. The plant's habit is, 

 unfortunately, rather poor. It has not 

 the stately growth of D. elatum and its 

 hybrids, yet its rich dark foliage is very 

 pleasing in tone and it holds itself well if 

 staked early in growth. But all deficiencies 

 of habit and height are overlooked when 

 from the long, crapelike, crinkled spurs 

 the splendid petals of wonderful blue — 

 a blue like no other in the world of flowers 

 — unfold, a blue brilliant, yet deep, over- 

 laid in full sunshine with a glistening frost- 

 like sheen indescribably beautiful. The 

 large double eye of pure white heightens 

 the effect. 



Among the English and French hybrids 

 there are some charming combinations 

 of color. These are so well known as 

 hardly to need description, but perhaps 

 the most distinct of those within the 

 financial reach of ordinary mortals are: 

 Queen Wilhelmina, delicate lavender blue, 

 flushed with rose; King of Delphiniums, 

 fine deep blue of splendid habit; Lizzie, 

 azure-blue with yellow eye, a very tall 

 and strong growing sort; Beatrice Kelway, 

 a beauty in several shades of blue; Geneva, 

 pale porcelain, very delicate; Rembrandt, 

 sky-blue, inner petals flushed, silver sheen; 

 Sceptre d'Azure, azure blue, flushed and 

 tipped; Marconi, deep sky-blue, veined 

 with rose; Millet, blue with white centre 

 and white tipped petals; Rev. E. Lascelles 

 and Goliath, the rival giants of the race, 

 contending with each other for supremacy 

 in point of height and size of their immense, 

 dark blue flowers. 



The Formosum larkspur is delightful with its combination of pure white and brilliant deep blue. It naturalizes 



easily and is useful for cutting 



A pure white hybrid delphinium that, 

 in my opinion, promises to be of great 

 value is D. hybridum, var Mcerheimi. Large 

 flowered, vigorous in habit and absolutely 

 pure in its coloring, it would seem to be the 

 ideal white toward which the hybridizers 

 have been long striving, though, in my 

 opinion, a semi-double white with very 

 large bronze eye is fully as beautiful and 

 perhaps even more effective. 



Nor can we pass by that delightful 

 hybrid Belladonna, blue of the skies, which 

 was saved to gardens by the lucky chance 

 of an original plant having been sent to 

 America. The originator lost his stock, 

 but the one here gave seed from which the 

 "belladonna seedlings" of to-day are there- 

 fore descended. It is a clear azure blue 

 and quite hardy. 



While the delphinium is fast coming to 

 its own in the herbaceous border, its utility 

 and effectiveness in wall-planting is not, 

 in this country, appreciated, yet it may be 

 used with artistic effect massed against a 

 housewall or in the angles of buildings. 

 Such planting would be very desirable 

 on the average city lot where the building 



line is frequently not more than twenty 

 feet from the street. It is a well-known 

 principle of landscape gardening that 

 blues must be used where it is desirable to 

 lengthen perspective. If your lot is shal- 

 low, plant delphiniums at the back; it 

 will seemingly add many feet to the depth. 

 If your house is too close to the street, 

 plant delphiniums again in the shrubbery 

 near the house wall; you will find to your 

 surprise that, to use the artist's phrase, 

 it "puts back" your house, besides invest- 

 ing it with an indescribable air of enchant- 

 ment. 



To the gardener with the "seeing eye," 

 the peculiar harmony of its color with the 

 season in which it flowers is not the least 

 fascinating characteristic of the perennial. 

 Especially is this true of delphiniums, be- 

 ginning to flower, as they do, when the first 

 waves of summer heat overtake us and the 

 longing for ocean and mountains begins. 

 Next to green, blue is the color suggestive of 

 coolness and shade; and in no other species 

 of plant, annual or perennial, are the blues 

 so rich and so varied as in the hardy lark- 

 spur or delphinium. 



