April, 1917 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
167 
Put hard wooded plants in a frame to rest up before planting 
out 
dition to move into the dwelling house 
in fall. 
WINDOW BOXES AND HANGING BASKETS 
Start filling window boxes, hanging baskets, 
etc., using plenty of plants, especially of the 
trailers, and don’t neglect to provide plenty of 
drainage in the bottom of the boxes. Keep in 
the greenhouse a while to get growth well 
started. One of the greatest factors to suc- 
cess in the greenhouse is a good compost heap. 
It really does not pay to be satisfied with “some 
soil” simply because it is easy to get. Take a 
spade, get a good turfy top sod, and stack 
it up using one load of manure to every 
three loads of topsoil and mix in about one 
shovelful of crushed bone to every twelve of 
compost. Stack it up well and round the top 
so the rains won’t leach out the good quali- 
ties of the manure. This heap can be chopped 
and turned several times and will then be 
ready for use, if the soil is heavy and in- 
clined to sour a little lime added will be 
beneficial. 
Root Violet cuttings now and be careful to keep them 
clean and healthy 
Perennials for Succession of Bloom 
Massachusetts 
PRESENT PLANTING IN THE HARDY BORDER TO GIVE SUCCESSION OF FLOWERS WITH CHANGE OF COLOR EFFECTS 
E VERY kind of garden has its problem of 
succession, and in the perennial border 
the question becomes acute. Many 
— in fact, most — annuals are practically 
mid-summer bloomers, while perennials seem 
to have each its month or two’ of flowering 
after which, unless the plant has some foliage 
beauty that commands attention, it assumes 
the shabby-genteel appearance of a human 
being who has seen better days. 
To judge from magazine articles, and from 
gardens that I have visited, annuals (especially 
the quick-flowering sorts), are relied upon al- 
most entirely to achieve the desired effect of 
continuous bloom. Yet annuals, howsoever 
beautiful, have always seemed to me, with 
their hint of transitoriness, out of place in 
the perennial garden, whose dominant note, 
as its chief charm, is permanence. 
Yet I admit that many of the annual-filler 
combinations are very alluring. A lover of 
Poppies, I pounced with avidity on a garden- 
er’s suggestion that Shirley Poppy seed, 
scattered between clumps of Papaver orien- 
talis, would give one a delightful Poppy planta- 
tion for summer flowering. The Shirley seed 
was duly scattered over a considerable space 
between forty large clumps of the Perennial 
Poppies. But, alack and alas! the spring rains 
beat down the heavy frondlike foliage of the 
Orientals, and the little Shirleys, hundreds of 
them, drooped, yellowed and died. The 
survivors, a scant three dozen, were weak, 
sickly plants that made a very poor show in 
bloom for the desert place they were scheduled 
to make to blossom. 
The trouble I experienced in obtaining 
summer bloom on the ground occupied by the 
Oriental Poppies turned me back to peren- 
nials. Surely, I thought, there must be plants 
hardy enough to outlive a New England winter, 
strong enough to obtain a living between the 
Poppy roots, and enterprising enough to push 
above the foliage before its heavy spread shuts 
off the sunlight. After due deliberation and 
much consulting of catalogues, I made choice 
of the white Phlox Mrs. Jenkvns, a strong, 
When the Phlox is in full bloom during late June and July 
(compare with photographs on following page) 
tall variety with immense flower-heads, for 
background planting, with the earlier Miss 
Lingard, also white, and the rather dwarf 
Frau Antoine Buchner, for fore-effect. With 
these Phloxes I alternated Platycodons and 
auratum Lilies. Very early spring bloom is 
provided in this colony by Emperor and Van 
Sion Narcissus and the lavender-blue Cash- 
mire Primrose, followed by the Darwin Tulip 
Pride of Haarlem. A few groups of pale pink 
Chrysanthemums and lavender and white 
hardy Asters furnish fall flowers. This sec- 
tion of the garden, as at present planted, has 
thus seven distinct color-effects and periods of 
bloom with flowers practically from spring to 
frost: 
1 — Blue and yellow: Narcissus and Primroses. 
2 — Carmine-rose: Darwin Tulips. 
3 — Scarlet and white: Oriental Poppies. Japan Snowball in 
background. 
4 — Blue: Platycodons. Delphiniums in background. 
5 — Blue and white: Platycodons (last flowers) and Phloxes. 
6 — Lavender and white: Hardy Asters. 
7 — Pink: Hardy Chrysanthemums. 
Another border that formerly gave me much 
anxious thought is still in process of evolution, 
from pink and white Hollyhocks as a back- 
ground for pink and white Shirley Poppies, 
it has become thickly inhabited by several 
different families of perennials all dwelling 
together in peace and amity. 
1 — Emperor and Empress Narcissus. 
2 — Late Tulip Yellow Gesneriana. 
3 — Delphiniums. Chrysanthemum maximum Princess Henry. 
Gladiolus Baron Hulot. 
4 — Hollyhocks, pink and white. Chrysanthemum maximum. 
5 — Delphiniums (second-flowering). Chrysanthemums. 
A walk through the centre of one part of my 
garden is bordered on either side by a bed 
forty feet long by fifteen wide. In these beds 
the perennial planting is arranged for a suc- 
cession that I have found one of my greatest 
garden satisfactions. The walk is edged each 
side with pink and white Pyrethrums (Pyreth- 
rum roseum hybridum grandiflorum), so that 
in late spring and early summer one seems to 
walk through a flowering lane. This effect 
is very beautiful. After their period of flower- 
ing the Pyrethrums are cut back to within a 
few inches of the ground, their pretty foliage 
and symmetrically rounded form making them 
a pleasing summer edging plant. On the left 
of the walk, clumps of German Irises in 
lavender and pink (Her Majesty) are fol- 
lowed without a break by masses of pink Dar- 
win Tulips. The Darwins are subsiding when 
the pink Oriental Poppies (var. Masterpiece) 
come into flower all along the line, the great 
silver-pink blooms lifting themselves grace- 
fully and graciously above the lane of pink 
and white Pyrethrums that about the same 
time break into flower. A row of white, flesh, 
and pink Peonies afford background. The 
next effect is blue — all shades frorh purple to 
porcelain, with here and there masses of 
relieving white. Against a mass planting of 
English Delphiniums, fifty clumps of named 
Japanese Irises, in plum, purple, indigo, azure, 
and porcelain shades, unfurl their wonderful 
flags over the graceful foliage. Rose, pink, 
and white Hollyhocks, and rose, pink, and 
white Phloxes then take up the tale, with 
foreground planting of Gladiolus America 
