24 
CARL PURDY, UKIAH, CALIFORNIA 
Nepeta Myersii is a pretty blue Mint which grows a foot or two high and for months 
is covered with azure-blue flowers. It likes rich soil and abundant moisture. 20 cts. each. 
OENOTHERA. See Primroses, page 28. 
ORIGANUM hybridum is a most attractive, low, bedding plant. The foliage is a 
gray-green and the flower-racemes are erect cones with bright lavender bracts. The 
flowers themselves are lavender, but hardly show. The bracts last long in beauty and it 
is a most hardy plant. Plant in fall or winter and do not disturb and at a foot apart the 
plants soon meet to form a colony. 15 cts. each, $1.25 per doz. 
PANSIES need no description. In California the best results are had by putting 
out strong plants ready to flower about October 15. They will flower profusely with 
the incoming of real spring and to some degree in open winters. Sit., sun or light shade. 
Well-worked soil with well-rotted manure, worked into top layers; a manure mulch. 
PI., October to May. That is the price of good Pansies. Strong plants in October, in 
a fine mixed strain, at 40 cts. per doz., $2.50 per 100, $15 per 1,000, or at any time- 
thereafter until May. Small plants, $1.50 per 100, $10 per 1,000. 
PENTSTEMONS are, from the garden standpoint, the best perennials that Cali- 
fornia has, for they are not only handsome, many colored, and hardy, but they thrive 
either in our hot interior or our seaside climates. They flower with little intermission 
the entire open season, with some bloom even in winter. Standing from 18 inches to^ 
2 feet high, their full panicled masses are most lovely. I advise using one color only in 
a group. Sit., sun or sun part of the day. Any garden soil, but a loose, well-manured 
soil will repay in results. PL, October to May, but spring is better than winter. Prop.,. 
seeds or plants. Plants from seeds flower late in the year. 
In well-rooted small plants from pots I carry the following colors: Southgate Gem,, 
a deep glowing red; Light Pink with almost white throat; Dark Pink with white throat; 
Scarlet; Purple and Maroon; Soft Pinks, Mixed, from a very fine strain; all at 10 cts. 
each, 75 cts. per doz. Large plants, 15 cts. each, $1.25 per doz. 
P., California Blue Bedder, grows about 10 inches high and produces a profusion 
of gentian-blue flowers. A good thing. Strong plants, 10 cts. each, $1 per doz. 
PEONIES when well grown cannot be surpassed. They bloom in May, and the 
flowers are simply glorious. The Peonies at "The Terraces" are admitted to be the 
finest on this coast. I have a very fine set. Some are named, others not. There are no 
finer varieties to be had nor better plants. 
Good divisions at 25 cts. each; fine plants at 35 cts.; and very fine plants at 50 cts.. 
A. Laurias. Very double; deep red; fine. 
Carnea elegans. Late; pink. 
Delache. Deep rose. 
Duchesse de Nemours, opening white, tinged lilac and becoming pure white; very 
full. 
L'Esperance. Soft rose. 
Marie Lemoine. Pure white; extra-fine late sort. 
Solfatare is the nearest to a yellow Peony. Light canary at first, but becoming 
nearly white; exquisite. 
Tenuifolia fl.-pl. Narrow leaves; dazzling crimson; full-double. 
Japanese, single and semi-double, in pink, white and shades of red. 
Fine Unnamed to color at 25 cts. each, for divisions; heavy plants, 35 cts. and 50 
cts. each. 
Peonies cannot be grown successfully in California in the same manner that they 
are grown in the East. The plants themselves grow admirably, but as they flower at a 
time when the weather is very hot in California, either the flowers are burnt or the 
plants are pushed to early maturity and very poor bloom results. In a cold, foggy sea- 
son they are fine. This difficulty can be overcome by planting the bed where there is 
either a light shade most of the day, or in a position that is shaded heavily from 12 to 4 
o'clock each day. 
The plants demand a deep, well-prepared bed. If the soil is dug over to the depth 
of 3 feet and manure is worked in, the trouble will be well repaid, for when we plant 
Peonies they last many years. They improve season after season, and at six or eight 
years are simply grand, if the rooting-space was well prepared. During their growing 
and flowering season liberal watering is demanded, but after that very little is neces- 
sary. The first year's bloom is comparatively poor, no matter how good the plants 
are. In planting do not cover the crowns (buds) over 3 inches deep. Every winter the 
Peony bed should have a liberal coat of half-rotted manure. Give them all the atten- 
tion you can. 
