A LL other plants might 
disappear and the 
perennials would give the 
garden supreme loveliness, 
expressed in hundreds upon 
hundreds of individual 
forms. No one knows how 
many kinds are in cultiva¬ 
tion; if any calculation 
were made it would be good 
for only a day, so rapidly 
are species emerging from 
the realm of botany to the 
garden and new varieties 
appearing on the scene. A 
glance at a British list of 
iris, primula or campanula 
species alone, is enough to 
stagger one. 
The special value of per¬ 
ennials, however, lies not 
more in the marvelous va¬ 
riety of form and color 
than in the distribution of 
their blooming season 
through the greater part of 
the year. Without counting the bulbs, which it 
is the trade custom to catalogue under a separate head, the herba¬ 
ceous perennials have a range of bloom that has not begun to be 
realized by amateurs — as the meager representation in the aver¬ 
age garden in both spring and autumn demonstrates clearly 
enough. W ithout any coddling at all, they can be made to furnish 
an uninterrupted stretch of bloom for approximately nine months 
of the year, a thin showing at both ends, it is true, but neither 
quantity nor variety is everything in the flower garden. With 
coddling, it is possible to extend this stretch through December, 
January and February, making a complete circle of the year. 
Perennials as a class bloom only once a year, and most varieties 
adhere to this rule with absolute rigidity. The exceptions usually 
are early spring flowers that a mild autumn causes to bloom 
sparsely a few months ahead of time, or summer flowers that have 
a second spurt, often because the first crop of seed has not been 
allowed to mature. The average period of perfection of bloom is 
not long; sometimes it is lamentably brief, and a perennial is 
rarely so prodigal as the 
plumy bleeding-heart, Dicen¬ 
tra formosa, which has blos¬ 
soms from spring to autumn. 
The actual time of bloom is 
fixed only so far as the place 
where the plant is native is 
concerned. Even then the sea¬ 
son, especially an early or late 
spring, will shift normality a 
little one way or the other. In 
gardens a similar inexactitude 
of time, but more of it, is to 
be noted. Comparatively few 
perennials are cultivated in 
regions where they grow nat¬ 
urally. Not infrequently there 
is a marked change of alti¬ 
tude, with a corresponding 
Photographs by Graves and Jones 
Arabis in its early growth has decorative value, its feathery whiteness 
making an excellent color combination with red tulips 
change in the time for blos¬ 
soming. For example, a. 
primula native to the moun¬ 
tainous heights of Switzer¬ 
land will bloom earlier in a 
New York garden, because 
there the snow disappears 
earlier. Again, climate dif¬ 
ferences are such that gar¬ 
den normality is by nO' 
means the same every¬ 
where in spring and early 
summer; the German iris is 
likely to be in full bloom in 
northern Virginia in the 
last week in April, while in 
southern New England it is- 
not to be looked for until 
May. 
In the matter of hardi¬ 
ness — the withstanding of 
the winter’s cold without 
artificial protection — there 
is no fixed rule once a per¬ 
ennial leaves its habitat. 
Perennials are wonderfully 
adaptive in this respect, often enduring patiently 
more cold and more heat than at home, and quite as often giving; 
no sign of minding at all a drop of a mile or more in altitude. 
But with a fairly large number— and these include, unfortunately,, 
some of the most charming species— the slightest degree of hardi¬ 
ness positively prevents the grower of flowers from moving them.. 
Such perennials must either have protection that amounts to cod¬ 
dling, or, perhaps, be taken up every year and stored all winter 
where they will not freeze. They are largely responsible for 
making certain features of hardy gardens of southern Britain 
the despair of northeastern America, where winters are colder 
and summers hotter and drier. 
Where a plant’s local hardiness has not been tested by cultiva¬ 
tion, it is a good plan to look it up in an authoritative reference 
book before deciding about planting. First see how closely the 
native and the proposed conditions tally; then, if the book does 
not give the result of tests in the United States, ascertain whether 
the plant is catalogued by reputable American houses. The per¬ 
ennials that they offer are a 
very much abridged list as 
compared with the British 
ones, and in general they are 
either reliably hardy as far 
north as Boston, or relative¬ 
tenderness is plainly indicated. - 
All of these things should 
be clearly understood before 
any definite attempt to grow 
perennials is made. Such un¬ 
derstanding is absolutely es¬ 
sential for determining the 
special value of perennials,, 
not merely to the garden 
world, but narrowed down to- 
the province of your particu¬ 
lar garden. What you want 
to know above all, is the worth] 
(284) 
