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T II E CARD E N M A G A Z I N E 



355 



One of the prettiest rose-centred phloxes 

 is Josephine Gerbereaux, the ruse centre 

 of unusual size toning exquisitely into 

 the white. A variegated variety of charm- 

 ing coloring, l)e Mirbcl, has the white 

 ground color Hushed and streaked with 

 a copper-rose. 



The hybridizers, doubtless in their efforts 

 to produce a true blue phlox, have been 

 very busy of late with the lavenders. 

 Consequently we have in this color some 

 of the most beautiful phloxes. Nearly 

 every gardener knows Eugene Danzan- 

 villiers, but a variety equally as handsome 

 and quite as large-flowered, Esclamonde, 

 appears to have escaped general notice. 

 A warm lavender flushed with rose and 

 a rose-violet centre encircled by a large 

 white halo, distinguish this charming 

 variety. A plant of fine form, sturdy 

 growth and beautiful coloring, it deserves 

 more attention that it has so far re- 

 ceived. 



Antonin Mercie, a pure lavender with 

 white halo, possesses such slight points of 

 difference from Eugene Danzanvilliers that, 



planted side by side in my garden, the 

 average visitor fails to distinguish between 

 them. Grace, shows a light lilac ground, 

 heavily marbled, and a white centre. The 

 new introduction Wanadis, recalls this 

 variety, but is, I should judge, superior 

 to it in habit and size of flower. It is 

 further distinguished by a deep reddish- 

 purple eye. 



A light lilac phlox shading to a white 

 edge is Chateaubriand. Daniel Lcseur is a 

 better variety of deeper coloring and more 

 distinct border. Duqueslin, reddish-violet, 

 also has a white border. Unique among 

 lavender-lilac phloxes is Cross of Honor, a 

 pretty rose-lilac of medium size, the white 

 border of the petals defining a Maltese 

 cross. 



Gray shades, though frequently cata- 

 logued, are not desirable. Neither are the 

 whites with sulphur eye. A phlox in 

 my garden showed a curious color-varia- 

 tion in one half of its growth. As I find 

 nothing like it catalogued, it seems worthy 

 of mention. The normal color of this 

 phlox is deep rose with crimson shadings 



and red eye. The trusses that, if one 

 may so employ the term, sported, showed 

 flowers with white eye surrounded by a 

 clear medium-light blue halo and a narrow 

 crimson-rose border. The halo appeared 

 nearly the shade of a blue platycodon but in 

 very few of the flowers was the circle 

 symmetrical, on some petals the blue 

 flaring almost to the outer edges, on others 

 scarcely appearing. The flowers opening 

 last showed a more perfect, though slightly 

 contracted halo, which would seem to 

 indicate that the plant is overcoming the 

 tendency to revert to type and that 

 eventually the "blue blood" of this little 

 hybrid will tell. As a rule, phloxes exhib- 

 iting color irregularities are not beautiful 

 or desirable, except to the hybridizer, 

 though many such are listed as high- 

 priced novelties. They seem to me, frank- 

 ly, like premature introductions of unfixed 

 types, curious, but unbeautiful, and with- 

 out real value to the amateur. In phloxes, 

 as in most other flowers, the pure self- 

 colors are at once the most effective and 

 the most artistic. 



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The perennial phlox in Its many varieties is a one stand-by for flower in summer time, and can be used in many combinations, 



color scheme to plant by 



but be sure to have a definite 



