HOUSE AND GARDEN 
,286 
April, 19 i 
3 
The foliage spread is im¬ 
portant to know before plan¬ 
ning a hardy border or gar¬ 
den, in order that enough and 
not too many plants may be acquired and set out—thus saving 
money at the outset and time spent in unnecessary replanting later. 
Suppose, to get away from the abstract, half a dozen Oriental 
poppies and as many plants of “baby’s breath” (Gypsophila pani- 
culata ) are set out in a home nursery bed in parallel rows, about 
fifteen inches apart, the plants themselves nine inches apart in the 
rows. If the plants are of commercial size they may not seem too 
close together in the row the first year, but in the second year they 
will look crowded, and there will be every sign that thinning or 
complete replanting must be done earlier than ignorance had sus¬ 
pected would be the case. 
Possibly ignorance, had the planting been done in a garden, 
would have taken it for granted that no change would be neces¬ 
sary for years. The second season it is noticed that an Oriental 
poppy is likely to have a spread two feet in diameter, while the 
masses of “baby’s 
breath” in the bloom¬ 
ing season will perhaps 
be twice that distance 
across. Meanwhile this 
will have been discov¬ 
ered the first year and 
will be still plainer the 
second. 
The poppy blooms 
early in summer, and 
soon the plant turns 
brown and dies down 
to the ground, while 
the later blooming 
“baby’s breath” is 
spreading out toward 
it and gradually con¬ 
cealing its unsightli¬ 
ness. It is also seen 
that by the time the 
“baby’s breath” is turn¬ 
ing brown, a couple of 
vines of Thunbergia 
alta, from seed that 
happened to fall, are 
making their way over 
the drying masses — 
1 he plumy bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa ) is an old-fashioned 
perennial, easily grown in places where it is difficult to attain bloom 
In the fall the large blossoms of the peren¬ 
nial anemone provide a variety of color 
partly because to hide ugliness 
is one of the special errands 
on which Nature sends that 
five-foot climber. 
By autumn another thing is noticed; the poppy has begun to 
make a considerable second growth of foliage and, lest this be 
too shaded, there is need of cutting away some of the branches 
of “baby’s breath” or else diverting them to one side. Obviously 
the Oriental poppy and “baby’s breath” form one of those dove¬ 
tailing, perennial combinations which is among the secrets of 
successful hardy gardens and borders. Here, then, are many 
facts, and not all at that, learned by the exercise of a little 
patience in the study of plant character, before attempting to 
bend that character to one’s own use. And the observation of 
th 2 plants was all the easier because they were in a row. 
The only safe general rule for the planting of perennials is to 
allow a space of ground six inches square for each plant known 
to be of dwarf or fairly low habit, and a space a foot square for 
the taller ones. This is a good rule. Unless the plants are seed¬ 
lings or small cuttings, 
and sometimes even 
then the ground will be 
nearly or quite con¬ 
cealed when the first 
summer is well along 
on its course. And 
there will be ample 
room for two, three or 
more seasons’ growth, 
according to the plant’s 
normal rate of increase 
and the way in which 
this is helped or hin¬ 
dered by weather con¬ 
ditions. 
Whether the plants 
are set out in rows or 
in a more or less nat¬ 
uralistic fashion, the 
rule in question need 
occasion no complete 
replanting for a long 
time. This is avoided 
by removing alternate 
plants, or one here and 
(Continued on page 
306) 
In the spring the yellow flowered alyssum 
saxatile keeps pace with the dandelion 
