COMMON HARDY FLOWERS. 



59 



Tarious ways Nature may go to work, aided by man, 

 to perform the task of " doubling" a flower; and at 

 the very start we learn, from one of the simplest 

 examples, how much light even a very little study 

 can thi'ow upon the natm-e and development of our 

 garden flowers. 



Still, it is slow work- converting the Daisy of the 

 field into those of the garden ; and as so many good 

 garden Daisies already exist, and seeds of these 

 produce a fair percentage of doubles, and as almost 

 every separate atom of a Daisy root-stock can be 

 converted into a separate plant, it is hardly worth 

 while hieing back to the Daisy of the field in search 

 of either newer or better garden varieties. 



The Daisy has been much improved of late years, 

 the German nurserymen especially having directed 

 much attention to it ; some of them offer as many 

 as from twenty-five to thirty named varieties. In 

 this country, the varieties of Daisy are less nume- 

 rous, still the red and white may be had in many 

 strains, varied in regard to size and colour. For 

 the whites are not all equally white, while the 

 coloiH- of the reds ranges from soft red to crimson. 

 Pink Beauty is one of the best pink Daisies, while 

 Victoria is one of the largest and most striking of 

 all the red-and- white mottled varieties. Rob Roy is 

 one of the most brilliant of all red Daisies ; while 

 B. perennis acnhcefolia well deserves its name, being 

 almost as richly vaiiegated with gold as the old- 

 fashioned well-known showy shrub, Acuba Japonica. 

 This beautiful variety has crimson flowers, but it 

 seldom blooms so freely as the plain-leaved vaiieties, 

 and the leaves become more richly variegated when 

 the flowers are picked off; and this, in fact, is the 

 most effective way of cultivating this interesting 

 variety of Daisy. 



But the most singular and beautiful of all Daisies 

 remains to be noted. This is popularly known as the 

 Hen and Chickens Daisy, and is known botanically 

 as the B. perennis prolifica, from the fact that from 

 the base of the flower, or calyx, other flowers on short 

 stems are produced, the general effect being somewhat 

 like the spokes of a wheel proceeding from the nave ; 

 each spoke, however, at its furthest point from the 

 centre, being finished off with a tiny Daisy, as shown 

 in the illustration. Hence also the appropriateness 

 of the name, Hen and Chickens. The Hen, or large 

 Daisy, and the Chickens are in this variety gene- 

 rally of unequal sizes (see illustration), distributed 

 at tolerably equal distances from the calyx all round. 

 It is very seldom indeed that any other variety or 

 species of Daisy manifests any tendency to produce 

 "chickens" in this way; neither is this interesting 

 feature reproduced from seeds ; nor can it be deve- 

 loped by high cxdture, though it may be lost and 

 disappear for lack of care and attention. 



The most common variety of the Hen and Chickens 

 Daisy is striped red-and-white. But there is also 

 said to be a red and a white strain, although the 

 latter is rare. This proliferous variety is the very 

 choicest of Daisies, and from a botanical point of 

 view is one of the most interesting plants in cul- 

 tivation. 



Culture. — The culture of the Daisy is of the sim- 

 plest kind, and half a dozen or a dozen plants may be 

 grown on a square foot of ground. It is, therefore, 

 one of the very best plants for small gardens. It 

 thiives well either as an edging around small beds or 

 borders, or in single patches or groups. Beds are 

 also often filled with them, and if smaU they are most 

 striking in masses of one coloiu-. Larger beds may 

 be mixed with the different colours, or with other 

 hardy flowers of similar height, such as the dwarf 

 Anhrietia, Arabis, or Forget-me-nots. No garden, 

 however small, should be without its patch or its 

 beds, or window box, if there is no other place for 

 Daisies, and in large gardens there cannot well be 

 too many of them. Few plants can match them in 

 long and continuous blooming, or in rich and telling 

 effects. To have them at their best they should be 

 partially divided every year, immediately after they 

 have finished blooming. The time varies, according 

 to treatment, season, and locality. As a rule. Daisies 

 flower from April to June, or even Jidy. They will 

 thrive in almost any soil ; but light, rather rich soil 

 suits them best. Their greatest enemies are slugs 

 and shade. Overrun with larger and coarser plants 

 in the spring and summer, they simply perish ; and 

 aU the sooner as the shade shelters the slugs, and 

 assists them in hastening through their work of de- 

 struction. The groimd also gets Daisy-sick, partly 

 perhaps from the rapid growth and enlai'gement of 

 the root-stock, and also probably from the enormous 

 number of flowers produced in succession ; hence the 

 importance of fi-equent division of root-stock and 

 annual autumnal planting in flowering quarters. 



The Daisy is, perhaps, the most divisible plant in 

 the garden. Each separate branchlet may be re- 

 moved with its modicum of root, and every such 

 morsel of Daisy will form a plant. A small space in 

 an open border, naturally light, rich, and partially 

 shaded, is the best place in which to plant divided 

 Daisies about midsummer. It is a good plan to 

 dibble the plantlets in pretty firmly. Water them 

 home, and see that the plants never lack water 

 during the season ; for though the Daisy enjoys the 

 sun when in bloom, it grows faster in partial shade, 

 and with its roots well watered dm-ing the droughts 

 of dry summer or autumnal weather. If allowed to 

 become parched, red spider attacks them, and they 

 do but little good. 



For early spring fiowering, Daisies thus treated 



