SOBER SUMMER 



133 



bud necessary to set up for itself. The next digging- 

 out was as thorough as that required for aehillea, 

 or bocconia, or physahs. I put the plants in a 

 broad border where they seem to be in better 

 place, and where they do fair service. 



It would be hard to find a garden plant more 

 generally pleasing than the hardy perennial del- 

 phinium. Rich ground — really rich; plenty of 

 water; an annual fall covering of the crowns with 

 sifted coal-ashes to ward off some bugs Mrs. Ely 

 tells about; and the result is bloom from June until 

 frost, and after frost. When I did not cut the 

 bloom heads before seed formed, and indeed cut 

 down the plant to the ground after the first burst 

 of bloom, I had just ordinary blooming; but now 

 that I keep cutting, there is continual flowering. 

 And such flowering ! Great long heads of sky-blue, 

 of ultramarine, of deeper blue, held up in a most 

 attractive fashion over good foliage; what more 

 could be asked? The first growth in the spring is 

 very strong, and the plant must be kept tied to 

 supports. Later, these may be withdrawn. 



In this same blue bed, later August sees the 

 opening of Conoclinium ccelestinum, a perennial not 

 well known. It is in Bailey's big Cyclopedia now 

 classed as a eupatorium, in the boneset family of 

 fine wild things; but it came to me as conoclinium. 



