Among the most hardy blooms in the fall garden are those of the chrysanthemum. To-day there is an infinite variety to choose from and many 
combinations of brilliant colors 
What to Plant for the Fall Garden 
YOU MAY BE MOST SUCCESSFUL WITH YOUR FALL GARDEN IF YOU PREPARE FOR IT NOW—THE 
IMPROVED AUTUMN FLOWERS OF BEST COLOR, FORM, AND HARDINESS—HOW TO CARE FOR THEM 
BY D. R. Edson 
Photographs by Nathan R. Graves 
W HY is it that most peo¬ 
ple take it for granted 
that the fall aspect of the 
grounds and garden must be a 
melancholy one ? That all 
things must be dead or sere and 
decaying? Now what a mis¬ 
take this is. In reality the fall 
is one blaze of vigorous color 
until frost, and if we are 
thoughtful now, we may find 
that our fall garden is the most 
beautiful of all our planting 
year. Most of the finest sum¬ 
mer flowers are gone, but sal¬ 
vias, cosmos and dahlias are 
here for the early autumn days, 
and there are other hardy and 
beautiful blooms that flaunt 
their colors in the very face of 
frost. 
I have mentioned salvias. 
The scarlet salvias have always 
seemed to me pre-eminently 
autumn flowers. They afford 
that unstinted profusion of 
flowers and boldness of color which harmonize with the spirit 
of the season and are among the most desirable late flowers. 
The original scarlet sage (Salvia Splendens) is still one of the 
best for furnishing a mass of color in the fall, although the newer 
Bonfire gives a more vivid effect, as it grows more compactly, 
and the flowers are held above the foliage more distinctly. Unless 
height is a desideratum, as in planting along a fence, or as a back¬ 
ground for some lower growing flowers, I like Bonfire better. 
Of late years, the flower venders always have salvias bk'oming 
in pots, ready for the garden. But for the fall garden, sowing 
out-of-doors, in a sheltered, sunny place, does very well. But you 
must wait until it is time to plant corn, for the salvia seedlings 
love warm weather, and without it will sulk and do nothing. 
Salvias are frequently used as borders for beds of taller flowers, 
and for this purpose the dwarf growing sort, “Zurich,” is better;, 
but it has always seemed to me that using salvias in this manner 
is like putting gilt and jewels on one’s picture frames; it upsets 
the attention and creates a discord. 
The dahlia is really a fall flower, too, although not at al' frost 
proof. These flowers reach their full glory only at the end of 
summer. For years the dahlia enthusiasts have been working 
overtime. Not only have they, through their special society done 
much to make this worthy flower more popular, but innumerable 
new varieties have been developed and introduced. 
Not only is there an endless number of varieties, but the types 
have grown quite numerous ; the cactus, giant cactus, fancy cactus, 
show, decorative, fancy, peony-flowered, century, collerette, and 
pompon, all being quite distinct in form or marking, although 
there seems to be yet not a little confusion over the classification 
of individual sorts. That, however, does not interest me; my 
The improved cosmos, Lady 
Lenox, is an earlier sort 
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