The Garden Magazine, August, 1924 
407 
AN INTERESTING DIVERSITY OF LEAF AND COLOR 
Azalea, Andromeda, Rhododendron, Leucothoe, and Box in a massed planting whose 
cool greens are refreshing in summer and carry in winter a heartening note of life 
that is preferable to the sponge-like texture that appears in so 
many plantings of the more shrubby conifers. They do not 
have the variety of leaf color to be found in the conifers and for 
this reason should be planted carefully with admixtures of deci¬ 
duous materials or conifers. Berried plants like the inevitable 
and indispensable Japanese Barberry, Cotoneaster horizontalis, 
Cotoneaster Simonsi and possibly others; green and red-twigged 
shrubs; the semi-evergreen Japanese Azaleas, especially the 
familiar Hinodegiri and the less well-known Yayegiri, which 
should not be near neighbors, however, as the brilliant cerise 
and flaming light scarlet do not keep happy company; all these 
and others provide the necessary foil to the green of the ever¬ 
green, which, paradox that it may appear, can at times become 
too green even for the most summer-loving gardener. 
OUR BEST BLUE FLOWER 
JOHN L. REA 
Larkspur in Superlative Strains from Seed and Cuttings—Blight-resistant Plants Through Hybridizing 
S ^HE Larkspur (Delphinium), our best blue flower, bar 
vh none, needs no herald to trumpet its virtues. These 
jfe are known. What is needed, as 1 see it, is more drastic 
and discriminating measures in its treatment. We 
want better Delphiniums, longer flower spikes, lovelier color 
combinations, and perhaps larger individual flowers. “ How are 
we to have them?” Well, the first thing is to throw away the 
poor ones. One must be utterly heartless in the matter. 1 
have myself become so ruthless that 1 can with perfect com¬ 
posure root out a plant even in full bloom and consign it to the 
rubbish heap. In the second place we probably must have 
Delphinium exhibitions along the lines of other special shows. 
“Yes,” someone says, “but that means named varieties and 
divisions, and everybody says seedlings are so much healthier.” 
There’s the first bugaboo to be laid. I have grown thousands of 
seedlings and hundreds of divisions and I defy any one to tell 
the difference in their second year and later behavior in my 
garden and numerous borders. Given equal chances there is no 
difference. Seedlings are easier to produce, and you will notice 
that it is the people who have plants to sell who are loudest in 
their praise. Oh, the skuldugeries of the seedsmen and 
nurserymen! 
The trouble is that Larkspur seed rarely comes true and, al¬ 
though you may sow seed saved from the very best specimens, 
the vast majority of the seedlings will turn out to have very 
ordinary characteristics. I once had my fifteen by seventy-five 
foot Delphinium testing patch filled with a thousand or more 
strong seedlings grown from a particularly fine imported strain. 
When they were in full bloom 1 began selecting plants with which 
to make replacements in my garden. And there was no trouble 
in picking out the dozen or fifteen best things in the lot. 
There was the nearest to a real pink, for instance, in which the 
inner pink petals quite overlaid the outer row of blue ones and 
gave a decidely pink cast to the whole spike. There was the 
