16 



The Garden Magazine, September, 1921 



them when snow is imminent. The old plant does not increase, 

 but it survives, and furnishes a few blooms each year. Before 

 it has lost its whiteness, an army of Bloodroot springs up, hand- 

 some in leaf and flower; while along the stone edge Megasea 

 cordifolia is throwing up tall stalks of pink, from large leathery 

 leaves handsome every day throughout the year. On the east, 

 too, starts the primrose path, Primula veris superba hugging 

 the stone edges of the house border, the pointed young leaves 

 rising erectly through the waning snow, and by April furnishing 

 forth foot-high stems of fragrant blooms, each a bouquet in 

 itself. This primrose path surrounds the house, the gold and 

 honey-colored flowers on the east opening first, followed by the 

 maroon Gold-laced Polyanthus on the south, to the whites and 

 creams on the west and north. This planting provides a seven 

 or eight weeks' succession. 



While the eastern Primroses are at their prime a line of mauve 

 and lavender unfolds behind them, the native Phlox divaricata, 

 brought in from the woods. The primrose path on the west 

 is similarly backed by native Christmas Ferns, refreshingly 

 green all winter, and bronze-leaved Hepaticas cuddling many 

 tinted beauties. On the cold north border the irrepressible 

 Myrtle (Vinca minor) starred with its periwinkle blue, links the 

 foundation walls with the shrubbery. 



RETURN to the south side, in spring the best side, and see 

 the Hyacinths, which almost overnight follow Crocus and 

 Snowdrops, blooming lustily before their fellows of the open 

 beds have more than poked green shoots through the leaf 

 mulch. Every one of these Hyacinths first served as pot plants 

 in the house. Aubretia violacea and purpurea (avoid its 

 magenta forms in this connection) serve as a carpet to keep 

 mud stains from the Hyacinths, besides furnishing its own mass 



of color. It needs some flat stones to run over, while clipping 

 after bloom keeps it in bounds. 



In front of these are big patches of hardy Candytuft (Iberis 

 sempervirens), green all winter, but in March and April each 

 shoot tufted with softer green ending in flat bunches of blue- 

 white bloom. They last for weeks, and in the little bays of 

 their edges are the earliest Daffodils, yellow bunched Jonquilla 

 and Campernelle, Barri conspicuus, as handsome as early. 

 The bare spot to the left is In Memoriam, where a superb Bleed- 

 ing-heart long reigned, but which some vandal dug up and 

 carried away in the height of its adult beauty. Much as 1 miss 

 it from the super-spring garden 1 cannot bear to replace it with 

 the inevitably poorer specimen. 



BY THIS time, however, Daffodils are lighting up every bed 

 and border in the garden, the spring succession is on, and 

 the tale of the superspring garden is properly brought to a close. 

 1 must not ignore, however, three shrubs allowed in this confined 

 area, a Forsythia intermedia, kept small by replacement each 

 third year; a Spirea Thunbergii, dainty in leaf and bloom; and 

 Lonicera fragrantissima, whose exquisite clustered flowers 

 remind me somehow of the Arbutus, blooming at the same 

 time, but alas far distant from the borders where in my zeal and 

 ignorance I once tried to make it happy. 



Editor's Note: This article is abundant in suggestion for the pres- 

 ent planting of a border for earliest spring color. Some of the effec- 

 tive bulbs needed cannot now be brought into the country, on account 

 of "Quarantine yj," and it suggests the husbanding of such supplies 

 as do exist; for instance Siberian Squill may be raised from seed very 

 easily if the crop is planted as soon as gathered; indeed it self sows, but 

 theseedlings are cut down by cultivation and the perpetual "clean-up." 





THE WREATHING SHRUBBERY IN SPRING 



Spireas, Golden-bells, and the fruit trees do then share in painting the spring picture, when all 

 nature seems dancing with joy. But do not forget to plant other things for summer succession 



