84 MY GROWING GARDEN 



important barberry I have — ^the common or "vul- 

 garis" — blooms; and I'm glad when it is through 

 flowering, for it has a bad breath. Of course the 

 mock oranges are with us; and it is of possible 

 interest to note that Breeze Hill has varieties of 

 Philadelphus enough to give us more than a month 

 of their fine blooms, not counting on the new 

 Chinese sorts, yet unbloomed. Few garden-makers 

 yet know what the mock oranges will do for them. 

 A late visit to the Arnold Arboretum showed me, 

 last year, what I might hope for. 



In the Arboretum bed are a half-dozen new 

 barberries from China, looking quite interesting, 

 and one of them devilish, for it has thorns of steel 

 an inch and more long. Here, too, is the earlier- 

 mentioned Spircea Henryi^ one of Wilson's pets, 

 delightful in its first bloom. 



The herbaceous plants give fife and light to 

 the growing garden, into which we are constantly 

 transplanting annuals and perennials these May 

 days. Arabis, in the early weeks, is hke a hold- 

 over snow-drift, and the yellow alyssum is a real 

 golden glow. Another note of yellow is sounded by 

 the doronicum — I wish I had more of them. A 

 biennial, the old-fashioned "honesty," planted in 

 the fall, is for weeks a blaze of pink and magenta. 

 The first of the peonies, the lovely tenuifolia. 



