THE GREENING LANDSCAPE 



PERENNIAL FLOWERS 



FOR OLD-FASHIONED HARDY GARDENS 



THIS class of plants has man}^ practical merits. Being peren- 

 nial they grow year after year without renewal, and when 

 once established will li\'e for a generation or more with very little 

 care. They bloom so freely that they are unsurpassed for cut- 

 flowers; and their ^'ariety is so great that the garden is full of 

 interest, from the little white Helleborus and Trillium which come 

 to us as the first resurrection song of spring, on through the grand 

 overtures of June and early summer, to the last, long recjuiem of 

 fall when nature softly drops her pall of leaves above her dead. 



And they have great artistic merits. The range of color, 

 form, size, and time of blooming is so varied that there is no linn't 

 to their possibilities as garden material for the flower border and 

 formal garden ; whilst for the mixed border they are invaluable to 

 color and liven up the shrubber}- during the midsummer dearth 



of bloom. ^rt, n 1,1,, 



ihese flowers made glad the hearrs 



GRANDMOTHER'S of our grandmothers, and many of us 



GARDEN have childhood memories of the miracles 



of beauty they created. But for some 



unexplained reason they have been neglected for a number of years. 



In our vain search for something better many gardeners have 



planted tender exotics, with much loss of money and good feeling, 



with the result that there has come about a return to the old-time 



favorites. Meanwhile hybridists have been at work producing 



new strains and varieties, so that much progress has been made 



and, if they liuild gardens in the better land, the dear dames who 



mothered our mothers — and our fathers — must envy us, so great 



has been the impro\'ement. It is enough to cite the case of the 



gorgeous Shasta Daisies which Luther Burl^ank has e\'olved from 



the little field daisies of earlier days. 



Elsewhere in this book I publish a 

 COIOR EFFECTS color chart as a guide to color composi-- 



tions, and the reader is advised to consult 

 it in ])lanning his perennial garden, so 

 as to avoid inharmonious combinations; for an assemblage of 

 plants is not artistic unless relatedly connected in the grouping. 

 It is unfair to affront the fair fame of flowers with improi)er 

 arrangement. 



It is also well to remember that each fanflly has certain habits 

 and peculiarities of its own. Some, like Sweet William, Achillea, 

 Anemone, Columbine, and Coreopsis are low-growing and ex- 

 press themselves naturally in the foreground of the taller kinds. 



COMPANY, MONROE, MICHIGAN 



31 



IMjUc 1!» 



NARCISSI IN THE WOODS 

 A driveway through a park bordered with Pheasant's Eye or Poet's 

 Narcissus. In the background is the natural growth of woods — a fine 

 combination of the natural and cultivated landscape. 



Others, like Holl3'hock, Helianthus, Boltonia and Rudbeckia are 

 naturally tall-growing, and should be in the background where they 

 serve as a foil for the lower plants, and have the breadth and scope 

 of earth and sky to properly develop. Others still are of medium 

 growth, like the Phlox and Delphinium, and fit in nicely between : 

 but it is well to guard against planting them with such archi- 

 tectural precision that they form banks or steps or terraces, but 

 rather should they be billowed in broken swells like the cheery 

 abandon of the ocean-waves. 



I append a few diagrams showing the proper grouping of 

 perennials, and also a tabulated list of varieties according to 

 height. For descriptions, see the Plant List at the end of this book. 



