Almost a Quarter of a century in one place! The Madonna lily is best planted in August and will increase without further trouble 



Tall Perennials for Special Purposes — By Gladys Hyatt Sinclair 



A FEW EASILY GROWN COMMON FAVORITES THAT MAY BE USED FOR SCREENS AND BOLD EFFECTS 

 IN BORDERS — SOME SUGGESTIONS THAT WILL HELP OUT COLOR SCHEMES, AND WHAT TO AVOID 



Mich- 

 igan 



THE places for tall perennials are many 

 and tall perennials are many; yet 

 tall perennials that just fit their places 

 are all too seldom seen. Haven't people 

 even a speaking acquaintance with the 

 numerous tribe of hardy graceful things 

 with long backs and lovely faces, that 

 shrubs must usurp the perennials' places 

 and annual sunflowers stare impudently 

 from hardy borders? Truly it would seem so. 



Perhaps the formal borders and isolated 

 plantings cry for suitable tall perennials as 

 loudly as any place. For these, that must be 

 in best bib and tucker everyday, hardy reeds 

 are excellent decorators. The great reed, 

 Arundo Donax, is the giant of the family; 

 with all it wants to eat and drink it will 

 grow twenty feet high. Its slim straight 

 stalks and slim long leaves with its great 

 height make it an ideal dweller in the 

 centre of formal round beds, at the back of 

 formal borders, in specimen groups on a 

 lawn, at the end of a walk or the corner of 

 a building. If you live where winter is 

 severe be cautious about planting the newer 

 variegated form of Arundo. It is beautiful 

 though, growing only about ten feet high 

 at its best, but it is far from hardy. 



Of the same class of hardv grasses is the 



hardy pampas grass (Erianthus Ravenna). 

 The true pampas grass we of the colder 

 north cannot have, but this cousin leaves 

 little room for regret. It grows higher 

 than the true pampas (about twelve feet) ; 

 its plumes sway just as lazily, it often has 

 thirty to the plant and is very resistant to 

 cold. What more could we ask? Another 

 fine thing about hardy pampas is its decora- 

 tive value in winter. I recently saw, a 

 clump of it planted to soften the angle 

 of an arbor. It had been left standing 

 at the fall clean-up and every graceful 

 drooping leaf and every wonderful plume 

 was white and glittering with hoar frost; 

 that group of grasses was a thing to re- 

 member. 



The plume poppy (Bocconia cordala) is a 

 tall perennial especially suited to single 

 clumps. Its large, poppy-like grayish 

 leaves, its well clothed, seven-foot stems 

 crowned with great creamy pyramids of 

 tiny flowers ; its gr? cef ul growth and eager- 

 ness to do its best make Bocconia a treasure. 

 It needs nothing especial except plenty 

 and plenty to eat. To be sure, Bocconia 

 increases by suckers — "spreads under 

 ground" — but not so rapidly as to be 

 weedy; and your friends will be only too 



303 



glad to take your surplus roots after seeing 

 your plants in July and August. 



Where blue can go with white in the 

 formal bed or border set delphiniums with 

 the plume poppy. King of Delphiniums, 

 Mme. Violet Geslin, and Rembrandt are 

 highly valued hybrids, all tall and with 

 long spikes of beautiful flowers. But 

 unless well stocked, the wisest investment 

 is a reliable mixture of plants at a dollar 

 and fifty cents a dozen, rather than a third 

 as many named plants at the same price. 

 A delightful thing about delphiniums is 

 their ready fashion of growing from seed. 

 The care that will grow pinks will grow 

 delphiniums. 



In the formal spot that you wish to be 

 most ravishing, plant Madonna lilies in 

 front of delphiniums. The two will be 

 indivorcibly wedded in your thoughts 

 ever after and their daughter you will 

 name Delight. Nowhere else, except pos- 

 sibly in front of clipped evergreens, do 

 these lovely white lilies so show their love- 

 liness. Good bulbs of the Madonna (Lil- 

 lian candidum) cost but a dollar and fifty 

 cents a dozen and they increase from year 

 to year. They require only rich light soil 

 and good drainage, though they and their 



