A Hardy Border of Succession Bloom 
AN ARRANGEMENT OF PERENNIALS THAT YIELDS BLOSSOMS FROM FROST TO 
FROST—THE PLACE WHICH THE HARDY BORDER FILLS IN THE GARDEN SCHEME 
by Antoinette Rehman Perrett 
N OW is the time to think of planting a hardy garden border. 
Have you ever thought of planting one along the front of 
your house ? It can be made as rich in pleasure and color as the 
dooryard gardens of English villages and yet be in the native 
spirit of our own home streets. It can be a civic asset, a symbol 
of flower friendliness in the community, a touch of flower happi¬ 
ness along the street, free for the enjoyment of every passer-by. 
And withal it can be a home pastime full of pleasant recreation 
and full of charming thought. It can be an artistic adventure, a 
problem in esthetics, in massing, in color and in composition, as 
well as an adventure in gardening, one that will give you an under¬ 
standing and interest in growing things and that cannot fail to 
initiate you into much of a gardener’s lore. 
We have a hardy garden border by our front terrace wall. 
We have had it for some years, and it has never ceased to be a 
pleasure, a something that makes us live through the winter in 
anticipation of the first spring flower and that caps repeated flower 
expectations with repeated realizations of bloom. The border 
was started by planting two rows of phlox, a dozen rose and a 
dozen white. The bloom of phlox in August is like the spirit of 
gayety in color. It is neat and erect in growth, and provides a 
mass of good deep green until its bloom is on the wane. This- 
is a great asset to a front border, for one of its chief concerns 
must be not to look bare, patchy, or straggly. When the phlox 
has to be thinned or cut down in early September, it needs must 
have a sturdy successor to keep up its tradition of straight stems,, 
so a dozen hardy chrysanthemums have been planted in front of 
it. Their pink flowers bloom until the end of November, and 
their leaves help to give variety to the foliage of the border, for 
me green of pblox, for all its virtues, needs more various com¬ 
pany to make it interesting. In planning a border, the selection 
of foliage, its various character and its various color are in many 
ways as important as its bloom. To give interest to it, the sword¬ 
like leaves of the iris, for instance, are more valuable than the 
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The hardy border by the terrace wall is a constant source of delight, yielding a long succession of attractive bloom. 
at its best, and its varied colors and erect growth are predominant 
In August the phlox is 
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