122 
The Garden Magazine, April, 1924 
“TAME” BLACK-EYED-SUSANS 
“The most brilliant display of early 
July in the prairie garden comes 
from the Black-eyed-Susans, the 
best garden form being Rudbeckia 
Newmani or speciosa” 
flower and that is to pull them up as soon as the bloom fades, 
leaving only enough for the next season’s supply. Otherwise 
they will colonize all over the garden. 
Much can be forgiven any plant here in the Middle West that 
can successfully withstand the sizzling dog days and bloom 
copiously regardless of periods of drought with which we seem 
reasonably sure to be afflicted at some time or other during the 
summer. Then city water supplies are cut off for gardening 
purposes and the midsummer garden is left to a survival of the 
fittest. 
Knowing full well the likelihood of these periods of dessica- 
tion in a garden such as mine where drought somes so easily—it 
consists of light sandy soil resting on a sandstone foundation and 
drained within an inch of its life at all times, so effectively that 
puddles after a cloudburst are only momentary—yet 1 have, for 
a number of years prosecuted a more or less fruitless campaign 
to grow the ungrowable under such conditions. After June, 
desolation reigns in a garden on the dry side unless ironclad 
plants are used that can resist drought and thrive and give their 
bloom. 1 am showing a glimmer of intelligence in cutting down 
the supply of plants whose growth was only a gamble and 
planting a long bed (75 x 5 ft.) of “sure fire,” after J une bloomers. 
Prairie Brilliance versus Gray Gardens 
S TRANGELY enough, with a wealth of brilliant material for 
just such conditions, the midsummer garden seems to be 
something of a problem, and few gardens are seen really fur¬ 
bished with bloom. Yet our prairies, or such fragments of terra 
intacta as are left for us to study, chiefly along railroad rights of 
way, unfold a seasonal panorama of beauty, each succeeding 
week or month showing a characteristic bloom regardless of 
drought. Nature’s summer color scheme for the prairie coun¬ 
try seems to be Assyrian in its splendor, the composites coming 
in cohorts of purple and gold, gleaming like the ancient armies. 
Lavenders, purples, and magentas, with various tones of yellow 
and orange, and an occasional splash of scarlet guiltless of any 
harshness or crudity under the strong white light of our “high 
skies” of midsummer with whose brilliance they are wholly in 
tune. 
The gray garden so highly favored by Miss Jekvll and by her 
American echoes has no part in nature’s pictures at this season, 
and 1 believe it to be no more desirable in our gardens under the 
usual conditions. However, that is purely a matter of taste. 
The great difficulty I find is to prevent the entire garden from 
turning gray either from drought or dust. In a moist climate, 
where verdure maintains a continuous brilliant green during the 
entire summer, the gray garden, it seems to me, would be restful 
and beautiful, but I find the gray leaved plants only sadden a 
picture altogether too likely to be drooping and dejected. 
However, to Miss Jekyll’s gray garden plan I owe the ac¬ 
quaintance of one of the most picturesque and vigorous plants 
of the midsummer garden—but 1 use it in quite different com¬ 
position. This is the Globethistle (Echinops ritro)—a deep¬ 
rooting, drought-resisting type of plant with exceptionally dec¬ 
orative foliage and handsome blue globes above it. It grows 
very readily from seed and the seed heads must be kept cut or it 
will be found coming up in droves. An accidental seedling of a 
Globethistle growing in a clump of the Purple Coneflower 
(Echinacea or Rudbeckia purpurea) discovered for me a most 
unusual and exquisite planting, both for foliage effect and color 
beauty of the combination. 
1 have alternated groups of the Globethistle and the Cone- 
flower as the main feature of my “after June” border. For 
early July and late June I had an occasional clump of Chrysan¬ 
themum maximum which I consider of better decorative 
effect than the Shasta Daisy, being a much more vigorous 
grower. The white Daisies made a fine companion planting 
for the first bloom of the Globethistles and by the time the main 
crop of bloom was at hand the Chrysanthemum maximum 
clumps were ready to cut down. 
Coo! and Cloud-like Beauty of Boltonia and Spurge 
A T THE back of this border I had planted a row of Boltonia 
asteroides at three-foot intervals, and a little in front a 
row of the Mountain Sage alternating with it. Not that 1 
particularly admire the latter plant, but because it had spread 
and 1 thought by trying a lot of it some effect might be secured 
from the beautiful azure blue of the individual flowers which 
usually are ragged and unkempt in appearance as not enough of 
them open at once to give character. I had not contemplated 
