the question down to the consideration of the treatment of 
Columbine in the home-garden, so that it comes under two heads ; 
(a) As a part of the purely spring border, (b) As a part of 
the herbaceous border that must carry the whole flower calendar 
within its confines. 
The spring border with an east exposure is possibly the best 
location for Columbine arrangements, a border that can simply 
be forgotten when it is past blooming. In one such bed, I have 
a successful arrangement of white Arahis, Cottage Tulips, 
Moonlight, and La Candeur. Darwins, Clara Butt and the 
Rev. Ewbank. Double white and mauve Eocket, masses of rose- 
pink Pyrethrum, and Columbines — dwarf-white, hybrids, pale 
pink and yellow, lavender and cream, deep purple and white, 
and lastly by themselves, the coerulea. When that border is 
through blooming, one has nothing to remind one of its past 
glories, it is put away for twelve months. It is in a secluded 
spot in the garden, where spring has an elfin-touch. The summer 
of Poppies and Phlox, Chrysanthemums and Michaelmas Daisies, 
has no place there. The herbaceous border proper, is well fitted 
for the larger varieties, the pure yellow and the most beautiful 
fringed white. The plants are quite three feet tall and bloom 
heavily, a month later than in the spring border and when they 
are gone (in August) the leafy plant is in itself a most beautiful 
back-ground for the annuals in the front of the border. These 
larger varieties are insect proof, while the smaller earlier species 
have to be watched for red aphis. 
The florists' catalogues give very few named varieties, and I 
have found it an excellent plan to order, say of Henry Dreer, his 
collection of Columbine seeds, grow them separately, try them 
out in a nursery garden and then transplant them to their per- 
manent placement. I say permanent, though many of the lovelier 
ones do not divide and do not increase of themselves. But the 
larger, long-spurred ones send out offspring that I transplant 
every autumn. I have found Columbines to be of the easiest 
culture on practically all soils, when started from seeds. I have 
had little or no success with florists' plants, they take too much 
nursing to begin with and are often not inoculated for the soil 
in which they are to be transplanted, so that one loses a certain 
percentage. 
The Columbine is beginning to be very much used in Colorado 
gardens, for it is our state flower, but one finds in the West a 
deplorable ignorance of varieties, other than the native. The red 
and yellow species of New England has prejudiced many enthus- 
iasts against the use of the Columbine under any circumstances, 
but greater knowledge and wider use of the collections gathered 
from all over the world, Siberia, France and China, mil open 
the eyes of many experienced gardeners. 
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