“IT’S JULY IN MY GARDEN; AND STEEL-BLUE ARE THE GLOBETHISTLES ” 
So writes the poet Vernede of this wildling Echinops from southern Europe which has become one of the ornaments of the Amer¬ 
ican mid-summer hardy garden. (E. ritro tenuifolius shown above; see description on page 122 of its use in Mr. Duffy’s garden) 
PLANTING FOR “AFTER JUNE” BLOOM IN THE 
FLOWER 
SHERMAN 
Midsummer Flowers that Defy Drought Chosen 
i rgyjl IF world is full of weak intellects trying to do some- 
"jlflNp thing they know they can’t do. Out of sheer contrari- 
fU'-li ness or persistence or stubborness, whatever you wish 
to call the quality of mind, they won’t do what they 
know they can do well if they can help themselves. I fear I 
am one of them, a confession forced from me with the completion 
of the annual autumn garden pogrom, the garden paths being 
strewn with the corpses of those “wandering Jews” of the 
flower world, Perennial Sunflowers, Boltonias, weedy Perennial 
Asters, that seedy tramp the Mountain Sage (Salvia azurea), 
and others. These 1 know will grow and bloom generously, but 
I have scorned them in the past and kept on manfully trying to 
grow the gorgeous Phlox which invariably becomes a gaunt and 
leafless victim of red spider, Platycodons that dry up. Lilies that 
BORDER 
R. DUFFY 
Chiefly from the Wealth of Our Native Prairies 
function perhaps once and never re-appear (with the exception 
of the faithful Tiger), Funkias, Japanese Anemones, Dahlias, 
and other prizes of late and mid summer. 
Each year when the annual slaughter of these plants is com¬ 
plete, I have vowed never again to permit them to gain a foot¬ 
hold, then have relented and left one or two so that each suc¬ 
ceeding year these nurseryman’s delights—self-starters that 
require no hired help in the propagating department—again 
appear in numerous quantity. I am becoming reconciled to 
using them and making the most of them instead of battling to 
make things grow that just naturally won’t thrive under the 
conditions in my garden. To be used in a garden of small pro¬ 
portions most of these plants need rigorous curbing, and there is 
just one way to handle such subjects as Boltonia and Sun- 
121 
