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NEW MIDSEASON PERENNIALS 
STEPHEN F. HAMBLIN 
Instructor in Horticulture Harvard School of Landscape Architecture 
Enlarging the Circle of Garden Friends—Newcomers from Seed 
Editors’ Note: Even the traditional favorites of “Grandmother’s garden” at some point in far-away times exchange their garb of sentiment for the sheer 
charm of novelty—incredible as it may seem the Hollyhock and its contemporaries, for generations interwoven through story and song, once had “news value”! And 
discoveries in the plant world march along with progress in general so that our gardens need never suffer the paralysis of staticism, for which boon the saints be 
praised—a thing finished is a thing dead, so far as interest or enthusiasm is concerned. 
Among flower novelties many may prove mediocre, and a few superlatively good; but all have the allure of the unknown quantity, and one of gardening’s chief- 
est thrills lies in testing out the stranger-at-the-gate for permanent admittance or rejection. Much preliminary sifting has already been done for us by Mr. Hamblin, 
so that only the selected best comes to notice in his notes and thus our readers get the benefit of appraisal by a disinterested critic and friend of plants—a happy 
opportunity for advance information about flowers and herbs often as yet unlisted in general catalogues and too newly arrived to be found in the still more con¬ 
servative records of books. 
All who try out new garden flowers are asked to send in estimates of their values in the garden and experiences in their culture, giving some history of their in¬ 
troduction and advising the Editors of present source of supply. Thus we shall have a clearing-house of information and publicity that will widely increase the use 
of really desirable plants. If some do not come up to advertised virtues, let us frankly state their failings. To be truly helpful, personal observation only should 
guide our discussion. Errors in names may be quite excusable, for the same plant is sometimes bought under different names, and different plants under the same 
name, especially those not well known in the trade. All must help to clear away this confusion everywhere and whenever we can. 
i^^INCE these new herbs can be imported only as seed, 
and most of our seed houses offer chiefly the common 
L J,; things, it is not easy always to find new seed to try. 
Apparently no American seed houses offer many new 
seeds of rare species, though each may feature one or two every 
year. To try the new ones means searching all the spring cata¬ 
logues—a pleasant hunt, indeed! Seeds of American wild flowers, 
common or rare, are difficult to obtain, unless you gather them 
yourself. If a border plant, the seed dealers carry it; but if not 
a “best seller’’ it is hardly worth while to keep packets on the 
shelves. Some of the dealers in native plants offer some seeds, 
as Edward Gillett and Frederick Horsford, but they have ap¬ 
parently rather given up the idea. Carl Purdy used to gather 
seeds of California wild flowers on his fishing trips; but either 
the fishing or the demand for seeds has played out, for the 
combination seems not to be working any more. There should 
be some way to get into the soil the seeds gathered by botanists 
and collectors for the Smithsonian 1 nstitution, Gray Herbarium, 
etc., beyond the few plants seen in our botanic gardens. The 
new plants of this and other lands should be seen alive and grow¬ 
ing as well as glued to sheets of paper. 
Sutton and others in England list some new plants each 
year, but the longest list is that of Thompson & Morgan whose 
offerings will keep you busy for several years. Seeds of alpines 
and similar plants can be gotten from Henri Correvon in Swit¬ 
zerland; and Damman & Co., of Italy, have introduced many 
novelties through seed. 
Something New in Poppies 
M OST Poppies are annual or biennial, or short-lived peren¬ 
nials at least, like the Iceland Poppy. The Oriental 
Poppy and its twin (P. bracteatum) are the only truly perennial 
Poppies that are common. The newest prospect is labelled 
“ Papaver from Thibet,” and has been growing at least three 
seasons in a nursery at Dedham, Mass. It is a sort of giant 
Iceland Poppy, its leaves all at the base in a rosette, the stems 
leafless, slender, about 2 feet tall, bearing large, solitary, deep 
yellow flowers like Tulips, all summer. Its roots may not be 
as permanent as the Oriental, but it is easily grown from seed. 
1 quote from a letter received on asking the source of this plant: 
“ The seed of the Papaver was secured from the Kew Gardens 
by the late Mr. John K. M. Farquhar on his last trip to Europe. 
It originally came from Thibet. We find it is perfectly hardy, 
and we hope to be able to offerit to the public in the fall of 1923 .” 
1 have an ultimate ambition to grow Papaver pilosum, which 
is supposedly hardy. Three lots of seeds last summer (Sutton; 
Thompson & Morgan; and Fottler, Fiske & Rawson) gave no 
germination. Plants are offered by Wolcott Nurseries, Jackson, 
Mich. Has any one any luck with the thing? 
Salvias of Sorts 
S EVERAL Salvias are procurable as seeds from dealers in 
Europe. Salvia turkestanica grows very readily from seed. 
So many came from a small packet that I was sure it would be 
a weedy thing. 1 still think its greatest charm is its ease of cul¬ 
ture. It is similar in habits to the wild Meadow Sage (Salvia 
pratensis) of England, about 2 feet tall, branching, with leaves 
mostly at the base, wide, thick, leathery, dark green, coarsely 
irregularly toothed, in large rosettes. The small white flowers 
in long spikes last in succession from June to August, each little 
cluster with long, showy, pink-purple bracts, paler at the edge. 
These bracts give the spikes an indefinite mauve effect, and as 
a border plant at that time it does very well; but in August it 
goes to seed and gets weedy, and should be cut to the ground 
to clean up the mess and prevent its seeding itself. I fear it 
will be ultimately a wild garden subject. 
In the same group I put S. verbascifolia from the Caucasus. 
The big rosetted leaves are very mullein-like, heavy white felty 
below, and there is an ultra-mullein or mephitic odor when the 
leaves are touched. The large purplish flowers are notwonderful. 
So also S. digitalioides, of which I have two seedlings, is another 
of the Meadow Sage group, with broad basal leaves gray downy 
below and green downy above. 
The Salvias with narrow leaves, few at the base, of which 
S. azurea is the most common, appeal more to me as garden 
plants. They stand from 3 to 6 feet tall, slender and leafy, 
requiring staking for neatest effects. They bloom from August 
to frost and are the best blue perennials for the border in Sep¬ 
tember. My chief difficulty is to tell them apart, and plants 
obtained from dealers are frequently changed to S. azurea grand- 
iflora, which seems to be the most popular one. 
At present 1 tell them apart as follows:— 
Leaves gray-green, smooth; fl. large, deep blue, calyx green — S. azurea. 
Leaves ash-downy, rough above; fl. large, pale blue to white, calyx gray 
downy — S. azurea grandiflora (S. Pitcheri). 
Leaves dull green, smooth; fl. purple to violet and white, calyx purple with 
white wool; stem mealy above — S. farinacea. 
Leaves bright green; fl. deep blue to white, calyx smooth, pale; stem green 
—S. uliginosa. 
(The leaves of all are narrow, finely toothed; the racemes long, slender, dense, 
and well above the foliage.) 
The first two are perfect/y hardy and becoming common; 
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