68 



The Garden Magazine, September, 1919 



How Perennial 

 Foxglove? 



Is a 



THE one in the photograph 

 is now in its fourth season. 

 It is one of the maculata Iveryana 

 strain, the throat handsomely spot- 

 ted although it doesn't show in 

 the photograph. It has fourteen 

 spikes of bloom this year although 

 some of them are so close to- 

 gether they are not distinct in the 

 picture and some have been cut. 

 It is three feet across, covering the 

 width of one section of the cold- 

 frame where it appeared as a waif 

 and was allowed to remain. That 

 accounts for its longevity, no doubt . 

 The tallest spike was a little more 

 than four feet seven inches in 

 height! Although this particular 

 plant has lived in a coldframe all 

 its life, I have had good success 

 in making my Foxgloves live for 

 at least three seasons at which 

 time they are at their best. The 

 chief complaint against this very 

 decorative plant is that it is so 

 short lived, being regarded usually 

 as a biennial. Here is the method 

 I use to prolong its life for more 

 than one blooming season. 



When the best of the bloom 

 has fallen and while there is still 

 a tuft of flowers at the top and 

 just as a quantity of seed pods are 



forming, I cut the stems off close to the ground and then give the 

 plants a few doses of weak liquid hen manure. Side shoots develop 

 and grow luxuriantly, forming good sized tufts. I grow my Fox- 

 gloves in straight rows for convenience in protecting them. When 

 the ground is well frozen, I place planks supported by bricks of suffi- 

 cient height just to clear the foliage without crushing it along the rows 

 and then put on a mulch of straw or leaves. In this way I bring a 

 majority of them through although a certain percentage dies. The 

 trouble with the Foxglove is that the central crown is inclined to rot 

 under the thawing and freezing of an ordinary winter. If it can be 

 kept fairly dry and well drained it will pull through vigorously. — 

 Sherman R. Duffy, Illinois. 



HERE'S A STURDY FOUR-YEAR-OLD 

 The popular Foxglove sometimes disappoints by dying out in winter. 

 If it must be given protection, see to it that moisture cannot settle in 

 the crown and so cause rot 



teresting I mean) Sedum list. 

 This glaucous Sedum of mossy 

 growth, may be had, however, with 

 other good things in the Sedum 

 line of the Julius Roehrs Company, 

 Rutherford N. J. I am told that 

 R. & J. Farquhar, of Boston, carry 

 "besides the varieties usually of- 

 fered, three or four pleasing sorts, 

 Maximowiczii amongthem." And 

 I know from experience that the 

 Wyomissing Nurseries Company, 

 ofWyomissing, Pa., (Mr. Bertrand 

 H. Farr) is another excellent source 

 of supply for these little plants 

 that you and I like so much. I 

 have also found in Mr. Edward 

 Gillett, of Southwick, Mass., a 

 reliable plantsman whose Sedum 

 list is to be considerably ex- 

 tended another year, he writes 

 me. My little collection has been 

 increased this season, it may be 

 worth recording, by S. replexum, 

 sexangulare, and ternatum from 

 Mr. Gillett's, and by most unex- 

 pected gifts of roseum, telephoi- 

 des, pulchellum and more tera- 

 tum. I am finding the Annual 

 Stonecrop (Sedum caeruleum) 

 very interesting to grow. The 

 only one I know of whom seed 

 may be obtained is A. T. Bod- 

 dington Company, New York 

 City. — Alice Rathbone, Chat- 

 bam, N.Y. 



Sowing Annuals in 

 Summer 



Help for Sedum 

 Hunters 



REQUESTS for help in locating Se- 

 dums as a result of my recent 

 article have been forwarded me by 

 the editor of The Garden Magazine 

 and I am glad indeed to guide others, as far as I can, to the 

 plantsmen who list Sedums in their catalogues. So kindly 

 have I been looked after myself in this respect, because of my 

 desire for S. pulchellum, that some of the information is but a 

 passing along of what has come to me. The most comprehensive 

 catalogue recommended is that of the Wolcott Nurseries, Jackson, 

 Michigan, which carries the most unusual list among American 

 nurserymen; pulchellum may there be found, and at Bobbink & 

 Atkins, Rutherford, N. J., as well; here also, Stahlii and Mid- 

 dendorffianum are listed and I think their S. lydium may be lydium 

 glaucum, a favorite which I had of Henry A. Dreer, Inc., of Phila- 

 delphia, but it has recently disappeared from his fairly good (in- 



T THINK that if I lived as far south 

 A as A. H. Botsford does (Delaware) 

 I would not need to sow seeds of 

 annual flowers in summer for the 

 next season, but would depend on a volunteer crop. Possibly, 

 though, the climate does not have the effect that I imagine. I am 

 here in western New York, fairly overburdened with self-sown 

 annuals. I recall a sparing growth of Snapdragon, Aquilegia, 

 Arabis, Aster, Cleome, Coreopsis, Evening Primrose, Feverfew, 

 Foxglove, Kenilworth Ivy, Lychnis chalcedonica, Pansies, Petu- 

 nias, Pinks, a good showing of Balsams, Campanula medium, Candy- 

 tuft, Cosmos, blue Flax, Forget-me-not, Morning Glory, Portulaca, 

 Sweet William, Vinca, and a profusion of Bachelor-button, Esch- 

 scholtzia, Calendula, Calliopsis, Hollyhocks, Larkspur, Nicotiana, 

 Poppies, Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan), Sunflowers (yellow 

 and red, annual and perennial) Sweet Alyssum, Wild Cucumber. 

 The Polygonum orientale became such a weed that I had to discard 

 it, as I did the Ranunculus Ficaria. The Marigolds, Nasturtiums, 

 Phlox, Salvia, Stocks and Zinnia seldom self seed. These plants 

 flower earlier than from hand-sowed seed. Here ought to be var- 

 iety enough to satisfy any one. The difficulty is that the cultivator 

 seldom thins the plants out or arranges them by transplanting 

 enough to keep them from overrunning the ground, which makes 

 cultivation difficult and encourages weeds. The best plan is to thin 

 out as soon as blossoming begins, so as to be able to save the best. 

 It is also necessary to buy new seeds now and then, as it always is 

 with the amateur. I was at first astonished to find that tender 

 sorts like Poppies would winter like a Dandelion if the seed came up 

 in the fall. The California Poppy tries to be a perennial with me, 

 or a wintering annual, but it usually freezes. The Annual Larkspur is 



