idea delighted me, a^d not content with seedHngs, I fill gaps ever>-- 
where in the border with small plants of Boltonia, preferably latis- 
quama; Michaelmas Daisies, named varieties, and our own beautiful 
wild Asters, which grow in almost endless shades of violet and mauve 
on our beloved Skokie. There is one in particular of which I am very 
fond, an almost pure white aster with flowers as small as the florists' 
Stevia, and so many, that when cut back and used in the front of the 
border, it has almost the efl'ect of a belated Gypsophila. Many Campa- 
nulas can be cut back successfully, as can all the beautiful Helem'ums, 
but of the latter, beware, for there are few borders that can happily 
assimilate their strong colors. I have not tried perennial Phlox, but 
I have often seen a stalk bloom near the ground when it was ac- 
cidentally broken off, so I think it could be used in clumps, cut low, 
in the front of the border. And what a lovely \'ista such a planting 
opens! How enchantingly we could arrange the soft mauves and 
pinks, with the wonder-purples of the new French Phloxes. Why have 
I never tried it? Perhaps because I have never truly loved Phlox. 
It has always seemed to be just the wrong height to be so flat, and so 
thick. Of course I recognize all its virtues, that it blooms in August, 
that it does not need staking, that it increases with almost too great 
abandon; and yet it leaves me cold. I have seen a Phlox border that 
was beautiful, and I have seen a first year's planting that was a joy, 
but when Phlox becomes estabHshed in a mixed border, there is 
almost always too much of it; it has what I can only describe as a 
"quality of thickness" that I do not like. It is the vice of its very 
virtues. 
So many of the perennials can be bought in pots nowadays, that 
one has the embarrassment of choice. Buddleya can be potted in 
larger sized pots when received from the nursery the last of April, the 
pots sunk in the ground, and if planted in the border on a cloudy 
day, or at evening, and shaded for several days, can be set out as 
late as the middle of June. Thalictrum glaucum, and Thalictrum 
dipterocarpum also come in pots, and though I have never tried to hold 
them late in the season, can be used till the middle of May for filhng 
gaps. 
For fiUing in the Rose Garden, three new roses are especially New Roses 
recommended, and as they come in pots, they can be planted at any 
time in the spring. Columbia, of a most luscious shade of "Raspberry 
Ice-cream pink" blooms well in the garden, and far into the autmnn. 
The stems are long, the flowers and buds of lovely form. The fohage 
is very dark and thick, and for so high-bred a rose, it is unusually free 
from all pests. Do look at the picture of it in Dreer's catalogue, and 
I am sure you will succtmib I Premier, fragrant, long-stemmed, healthy 
thornless, a beautiful pink, and unusually free flowering, — what more 
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