Herbaceous Perennials that Are Positively Hardy — By c. L. Meller, sssl 



POPULAR GARDEN FAVORITES THAT EVERYONE MAY HAVE — SOME ACTUAL EXPERIENCES IN THE TRYING 

 NORTHWEST IN FINDING EFFECTIVE IRONCLAD PERENNIAL PLANTS THAT SURVIVE MOST TRYING FROSTS 



[EDITORS' Note. — The past winter proved a very trying one. and shook confidence in many "really hardy" plants. Strange vagaries occurred, and we shall be 

 glad if our readers urill favor us with any actual observations that seem to run counter to normal experiences. The exact conditions should be noted as to soil, moisture, 

 etc., in sending in any records.] 



THE word "hardy" as applied to per- 

 ennials is relative; that which the 

 gardener in Virginia rinds hardy, the man 

 in the Northwest will find just the opposite. 

 We feel that up here in North Dakota we 

 have found a more restricted application 

 of the word "hardy" — have brought 

 it, as it were more nearly to its 

 precise definition — and designate the 

 following perennials as hardy because 

 they have passed unprotected through 

 winters in which zero weather continued 

 for weeks at a time and then through 

 summers when rain was almost unknown. 

 A plant that lives through these con- 

 ditions may well lay claim to being 

 "hardy." 



For the extreme difficulty with which 

 roses can be grown in the Northwest, we 

 are compensated in a measure by the ease 

 with which the peony will flourish. It seems 

 to be alike indifferent to cold and heat, 

 shade and sunshine. Xo plant responds 

 more readily to culture and manure; the 

 man who desires immediate results for his 

 efforts should plant peonies. As far as 

 the Northwest is concerned, a fortune 

 awaits him who can bring forth varieties 

 of this perennial so as to extend the bloom, 

 for, let us say, another month. The market 

 awaits such and a grower can sell them at 

 his own price. According to my note book, 

 peonies start into bloom out here in the 

 Northwest about June 4th and on June 

 25 th are very near their last blossom. 



Equally as hardy and equally as prolific 

 in its bloom is the German iris. There is 

 scarcely a location where one cannot grow 

 this plant. Its only drawback is its 

 somewhat restricted period of bloom, 

 especially since the Japanese iris is an 

 altogether unreliable bloomer in the 

 Northwest. The iris even more than the 

 peonies tend to crowd themselves out, and 

 will need to be lifted and thinned out 

 even* fourth or fifth year for best results. 



A peony the fourth, summer from planting a two- 

 eyed root. It had practically no after care 



Larkspur flourishes and its blue color is a welcome 

 note in June 



The iris and peony may be used together 

 provided there are other factors in the 

 composition. The peony will then carry 

 the floral display two to three weeks farther 

 into the season. The iris can be counted 

 on for but very little after the first week 

 in June — June 12 th I find as a definite 

 date in my note book. 



The tiger lily, being a native, is conse- 

 quently hardy. It is a plant that you 

 may abuse as you will, stick it in clay or 

 sand, in sunshine or shade. It looks 

 equally pretty when peering out among 

 the foliage of the shrubbery group or when 

 massed together against the green back- 

 ground of shrubs and trees. It is a summer 

 bloomer; the hotter the sun, the more 

 joyous seems its color. The bloom is at 

 its best when the early phlox makes its 

 first appearance. When the last forlorn 

 iris drops from its stem, the yellow lilies 

 begin to unfold their petals. They are 

 earlier than the tiger lilies. Holding their 

 flowers well above the foliage, the effect 

 they produce is distinct from that of the 

 tiger lilies whose equal, however, they 

 are in rugged vigor. It is surprising in 

 what tough soil both these lilies will thrive. 

 A w r eed could scarcely show a more rugged 

 constitution. 



Dianthus furnishes two species that 

 laugh to scorn the winters of the North- 

 west. These are sweet William and gar- 

 den or grass pinks. Both are in their full 

 floral array around the middle of June. 



305 



Where the average plant will grow, these 

 will grow, in clay or sandy soil, and be little 

 the worse for an extended period of drought. 



The oriental poppy nears the end of its 

 bloom just when the garden pinks, the 

 sweet Williams and the yellow lilies are in 

 their prime. It strikes one as somewhat 

 odd that this plant, with its tender looking 

 foliage and its tropical intensity of color, 

 should be hardy in a climate as rigorous 

 as that of the Northwest. At times a 

 trifle hard to start, if once established it is 

 in the garden to stay. When the oriental 

 poppies drop their large red petals, they 

 are followed by the larkspur. They are 

 some of the tallest perennials of which the 

 Northwest can boast and afford a welcome 

 addition to the somewhat rare blue tints 

 of summer. Larkspurs start into bloom 

 around the 18th of June when the colum- 

 bines are about at an end with their 

 blossoms. These latter are native, flour- 

 ishing alike in partial shade and full 

 sunlight. They work in well with ferns 

 to the north of a house where the morning 

 and evening sun reaches them. The 

 untidy appearance of the herbage after the 

 plant is out of bloom should be hidden by 

 more enduring foliage of other plants. 



Phlox, North America's very own flower, 

 seems to be especially at home in the North- 

 west. Flame is the Greek meaning of the 

 word phlox and taking the family as a 

 whole, annuals and perennials, this name 

 is suggestive; the floral flames of the South 

 moderated to the North, as it were. When 

 the tiger lilies are at their best, the earlier 

 phloxes begin their bloom which lasts 

 until Jack Frost arrives. They are in 

 flower when the woodbine is in fruit and 

 some are still in bloom when the foliage 

 of the vine is turning crimson. Much 

 the same note that the peony brings into 

 early summer, the phlox brings into fall. 

 Any garden soil and almost any situation 



Garden pinks are among the most reliable low 

 growers, doing equally well in all kinds of soils 



