and though it is late to speak of them, I can't resist singing the praises 
of a few old and a few new favorites. Have you Alcazar, that loveliest 
of dark Iris? It is a blue purple, but luminous, and so tall and large as 
to quite dominate the garden. Alas, with me, it is not enduring, but I 
constantly replace it, for I cannot be without it. The little purple 
Iris Pumila is not seen often enough. In my garden it is planted with 
the primrose yellow Hyacinth, and makes a "spot of joy." I also love 
Isoline, tall and stately, and of an indescribable opalescent orchid 
pink, but "she dies on me" as the gardener says, and I must give her 
up, as I cannot have too many temperamental plants in my border. 
Anyway May Queen and Her Majesty are somewhat near the color, 
and, if you have not seen Isoline, are indeed a marvelous pink -mauve. 
As for Peonies, I have lost my heart to a new one, Therese, a huge shell- 
pink beauty, of lovely form, with foliage like Festiva Maxima, Could 
I say more? Still very expensive, but I am told it grows so rapidly 
that we may soon hope to have it within reach. 
This summer I am most grateful to Liatris for blooming as it has 
done. I have always known it, but never grown it before, but I find 
myself yearning more and more for the up-standing, spikey things, 
that give the garden such variety, and in my search for them, I came 
upon Liatris. Early last fall I planted twelve of them in my border, 
and this summer they have each sent up from six to ten spikes of a 
lovely rosy purple bloom, between three and four feet high. Never 
a leaf has wilted in the sun, and they have bloomed serenely through 
a month of our dryest weather. This spring I planted a second dozen 
in the same border, and of the same size. None have been more than 
30 inches high, and all have been weak and wobbly, so that staking 
them has been a problem. Spring set phlox has suffered greatly this 
year, except the always dependable Miss Lingaard who has bloomed 
much longer than usual, both when newly set and when estabHshed. 
I have never planted phlox in the fall, but I shall do so this year, just 
for experiment. 
One of the most charming flowers that I saw this summer for the 
first time is the Lychnis flos-cnculi plennissima. It is the same lovely 
shade of pink as the Lychnis flos-cuculi, but is not only double, but the 
petals are cut to the fineness of fringe, and give the plant an inde- 
scribable lightness that so many double flowers lack. Near it, but 
not too near, was a lovely color of Helianthemum, a true apricot. 
The Helianthemum has won my regard this summer, for it evidently 
liked our weather, and rewarded us with a far longer season of bloom 
than I can remember. Do grow it, it is worth it. It comes also in white 
and a good pink, and clear yellow, and blooms all through June. It 
is in either of its colors, a delightful flower to plant with masses of 
Nepeta mussini, or with the spring-flowering Veronicas, known as 
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