GARDEN FLOWERS FROM THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAINS 
HAZEL ANDREWS 
Without Honor in Their Native Land, Lovely Alpine and Subalpine Plants 
from Our Great Divide Are Prized Guests in Gardens Across the Sea 
f S ARTISTS seek new colors and new forms, so gardeners 
are ever looking for new plants to add to the beauty of 
the garden. In past years Europe, Asia, and other 
distant lands have supplied the plant novelties, but now 
Quarantine 37 has closed these sources to us, so we must turn 
to the little known things of our own country. And it is quite 
possible that we shall be 
pleasantly surprised when 
we learn how much the var- 
ious portions of the United 
States have to offer 
The mountains of Colo- 
rado for example, have hosts 
of wild flowers which are un- 
known to eastern gardens, 
yet as deserving of a place 
there as the most favored 
exotics. Especially will the 
rock garden and the wild 
garden, which are increasing 
so much in favor, find in the 
Rocky Mountain plants wel- 
come guests for their rich 
pockets of soil, mossy banks, 
crevices, and gravelly, dry 
places. The fact that most 
of these plants have never 
been tried in the East lends 
an additional interest to 
their culture, for here is a 
new field open to experiment 
English gardeners in years 
past have grown plants from 
the alpine and subalpine regions of Colorado with pleasurable 
success: and this augurs well for their good behavior in the 
eastern United States. 
Rich in color and variety is the springtime flora of the western 
foothills. As soon as the snow has vanished from the south 
slopes the advance of flowers begins, and until the killing autumn 
frosts the processional continues. Not only does this seasonal 
succession exist, but also the kinds change as one climbs from 
the plains through the foothills to the peaks, with their snowy 
caps. It is not possible for everyone to spend a season in the 
Rockies, but all those lovers of rare flowers who are so fortu- 
nate as to do so will long to transfer a part of this mountain 
floral beauty to the East. Happily, this is possible. 
O NE of the favorite flowers of the mountains and foothills 
is the Wild Patens or American Pasque Flower (Anemone 
patens, Nuttalliana or Pulsatilla hirsutissima) closely 
related to the European Anemone patens. Its color is the 
deep lavender or bluish tone which the Hepatica of the 
Eastern woods sometimes shows, enriched with purple or 
pink which the latter flower lacks. The American Pasque 
Flower indeed is not unlike a giant Hepatica, the flower 
forming a deep cup of lavender or purple which encloses 
the brilliant yellow stamens — and these last are an attractive 
pollen store for the wild bee who ventures forth in early spring. 
If vou desire this in your garden, plant it in deep, gravelly 
soil, containing humus from decaying vegetation. Give it a 
little shade, inasmuch as it is accustomed to the less sunny' j 
north slopes in the foothills. You will enjoy watching the 1 
pinkish, gray-green woolly buds come up out of the ground 
early in the spring before any leaves appear. You will like the 
flower too, borne on a silky stem above a perianth of green. 
Later the soft, finely divided leaves will surround the fruit, 
which is a head of silvery- J 
plumed seeds. 
Related to the Pasque 
Flower is the Douglas Cle- 
matis (Clematis Douglasii) n 
which blossoms at about the 
same time. The plant forms 
a low bushy clump from a 
foot to eighteen inches high, 
with luxuriant foliage of 
finely cut leaves, not unlike 
those of the Pasque Flower. 
The flowers are nodding lav- j 
ender or purple bells formed 
of four thick sepals with re- 
curving tips of rich deep 
purple. They are followed 
by plumy seed balls which 
last for a long time. This 
Clematis will enjoy a place 
on a north slope in the rock 
garden, or in a semi-shaded 
place. Give it a deep, well- 
drained loam and it will 
thrive and repay you well 
for your care. 
In eastern gardens 1 have 
seen carpets of Phlox subulata, fragrant and bright in varying 
colors, but to my mind a more lovely Phlox is the Colorado 
Moss Pink, Phlox multiflora, which too, fills the air with 
delicious perfume. In the Mountain Phlox the flowers are 
THE WHITE COWSLIP OR MARSH MARIGOLD 
Finer than the Marigold of the eastern marshes, and less 
rampant in growth, therefore a delightful streamside plant 
A CREEPING EVERGREEN SHRUB RELATED TO THE ROSE 
High up on the mountain peaks grows the low, white-flowered Dryas octo- 
petala, which bears its flowers on stems not more than an inch in length 
308 
