48 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



September, 1912 



These have been selected from some- 

 thing like twenty-five varieties we have 

 tried. The New York asters are being 

 introduced in such quantities that a list 

 of the best ones cannot be named with any 

 certainty, but the above I know to be good. 



The New England asters, Aster Nova- 

 A ngliee, are the tallest growing and the chief 

 criticism against them is that the foliage 

 is rather coarse. They are the largest 

 flowering of the natives. I have been 

 disappointed in the named varieties of this 

 section and my own selected seedlings seem 

 fully as good. The alleged pink and crim- 

 son varieties occur rarely in seedlings, and 

 the two I have found satisfactory are Mrs. 

 J. F. Rayner, a purplish red, and Ryecroft 

 Pink, described as soft rose in catalogues; 

 but if mine is soft rose, my idea of the color 

 is most erroneous. It looks to me like 

 light purplish pink. 



There are a number of named varieties 

 in the type or purple forms but from a lot 

 of seedlings (and there will be hundreds of 

 them if a plant is allowed to mature), it is 

 an easy matter to select colors. There is 

 considerable variety ranging from light, 

 washed-out purples to deep, dark ones and 

 also quite a variation in the size of the 

 flowers. 



The heart leaved asters, Aster cordi- 

 folius, offer a number of very attractive 

 varieties. Two especially good ones are 

 A. cordif otitis, variety Photograph, which 

 has airy sprays of pale blue, and Ideal 

 which has small lavender flowers. These 

 plants are of slender habit and they grow 

 to about three feet high. 



The heath leaved asters, Aster ericoides, 

 for misty beauty are rivals of the gypso- 

 philas. The leaves are small and, as the 

 name indicates, something like the heath, 

 and the plant is smothered with myriads 

 of tiny flowers mostly white turning pink 

 with age. Nearly all the asters have 

 yellow centres at the start which turn pink 

 or purple. The variety Enchantress is 

 extra good. 



The Italian asters, Aster amellus, are 

 low growing midsummer bloomers, the 

 individual blooms being larger than the 



New York asters as a rule and much more 

 refined than those of the New England 

 types. They do not grow over two feet 

 high and have few flowers to a stem. A 

 mass of these asters is very showy and 

 they introduce the main crop. I have the 

 varieties elegans, a deep purplish; Perry's 

 Favorite, sometimes described as red, but 

 in my plants a pure deep rose, quite the 

 handsomest of this section; and Preziosa, 

 a deep blue. 



A number of exotic asters have been 

 introduced in the last few years but none 

 of them will displace our native varieties 

 for gardening effects. 



Aster mesa grande speciosa grand [flora 

 ("sounds like one of the royal family" 

 according to Friend Neighbor) is a beauti- 

 ful species and seems hardy. It is one of 

 the Asiatic asters lately introduced. It has 

 big deep blue flowers and is in bloom in 

 July. It should make a gorgeous mass. 



Aster diplostephloides, var. Leichtlini is 

 another attack on the maxillaries which has 



The tan growing New York aster needs one of the 

 lower kinds In the foreground 



come into notice in the aster family. The 

 individual flowers are very large, somewhat 

 suggesting a pyrethrum, and of a pale 

 lavender, but it did not survive the winter 

 for me. 



Aster ibericus, var. Ultramarine is one of 

 the best of its color, a beautiful deep blue. 

 The flowers come in clusters and it seems 

 one of the best of the new introductions. 



Aster sub-cceruleus differs considerably 

 in style of growth from other members of 

 the family. It has no superstructure, as 

 it were, the surprisingly large bluish purple 

 blooms springing from a rosette of root 

 leaves. It did not do well for me and, as 

 I have been unable to learn its likes and 

 dislikes, it is as yet merely an experiment. 



Aster Beauty of Colwell advertised as a 

 new double type, is a disappointment as I 

 have it. It is not double in the true sense 

 of the word but a freak, the doubling being 

 by fasciation in a few of the terminal 

 blooms while later ones are single. It is 

 straggling in growth. 



The alpine asters do not do well for me 

 as the hot summer seems to be too much 

 for them. I like the little Himalayan aster, 

 Aster alpinus, var. Himalaicus, but can 

 only grow it by nursing it carefully during 

 the summer. It is a tiny plant not over 

 two inches tall and the blossoms are out of 

 all proportion to the rest of the plant. 



The asters mentioned here are only a 

 few out of hundreds and the development 

 of this fine perennial seems only just begun. 

 Its chief advantage is that it is one plant 

 anybody may have for the digging, for 

 every community in Illinois has some aster 

 or another in profusion during late summer 

 and autumn. No perennial that I know 

 of responds so quickly and satisfactorily 

 to cultivation and good treatment. The 

 better the soil the better the aster. The 

 individual bloom is not so much affected 

 by soil conditions but the number of blooms 

 is vastly increased. 



The great point is to develop blooming 

 surface and the aster will proceed to cover 

 it with hundreds of blossoms and give more 

 value received in the way of beauty over 

 a longer period than most hardy perennials. 



Buying the Suburban Home — A Warning— By l. j. Doogue, 



THE DANGER OF PURCHASING A SITE WITHOUT PROPER RESTRICTIONS — HOW YOUR IN- 

 VESTMENT MAY BE DEPRECIATED BY NEIGHBORING BUILDERS— MAKING THE BEST OF IT 



Mass- 

 achusetts 



IN THE suburbs of any large city to build 

 a house on a street that is not wholly 

 built up, is to take a great chance. Even 

 though there are restrictions as to the class 

 and character of houses that can be built, 

 there are always possibilities which may 

 make the investment not as desirable as 

 the owner at first supposed it to be. 



My experience under these conditions 

 well illustrates this point. Eleven years 

 ago I took a house in a very desirable 

 neighborhood and the street was then 

 restricted for a period of ten years to single 



houses costing not less than $5,000 each. 

 No more attractive prospects could be 

 found anywhere and everyone predicted 

 an immediate building campaign on the 

 street. It was just the "cock sureness" that 

 was the undoing of the brilliant future, for 

 such prohibitive prices were asked that 

 buyers hung back and the years slipped by 

 without the expected building boom ma- 

 terializing. Three months after the re- 

 striction expired, no less than thirty-three 

 three-flat monstrosities, with their fright- 

 ful bird cage back verandas, were thrown 



together, seemingly in a night, and before 

 the plastering was dry, those unmistak- 

 able signs of occupancy, lace curtains, were 

 flapping in the evening breeze. 



What a change! For ten years I had 

 looked out of my windows across tree- 

 dotted fields and heard the twittering of 

 the birds. Now if I look out of my window 

 I see a painted wall and instead of the birds 

 I hear the rum-tum-tum of a mechanical 

 piano or the rasping falsetto of a choking 

 phonograph. By depreciating the value 

 of my house the change has cost me $2,000. 



