HOUSE & GARDEN 
34 
HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW? 
Is It to Be Perennials or Annuals or Biennials This Year?—The Advantages ot 
Each Type —- Combinations for the Best Effects and the Least Labor 
GRACE TABOR 
In this group 
are four of the 
five leading 
p e rennials: 
iris, peonies, 
larkspur and 
lilies 
Iris can be 
planted effect¬ 
ively both in 
clumps or in 
field planting 
such as this 
Lillies and lark¬ 
spur make an 
excellent com¬ 
bination for 
the border of a 
garden of per¬ 
ennials 
I S it like the garden of contrary Mary, or is it less well 
ordered than that historic spot, with its cockle shells and 
neat comely rows? Does it run to bare spaces and to periodi¬ 
cal fits of sulks, or does it grow sweetly and bountifully? 
Does it, in the last analysis, behave exactly as you would have 
it; exactly as a garden should behave, with plenty of flowers 
always in bloom from early spring to late fall, and no ugli¬ 
ness anywhere? 
All gardens are supposed to be up to this ideal, of course; 
and all garden makers always plan to bring their own gardens 
up to it. But so many things interfere that one is peren¬ 
nially excusing this or that defect, and forever promising that 
it shall be corrected “next summer.” 
Now is the accepted time, however, right now is the time 
to go over the garden’s deficiencies carefully, and correct 
them for this summer. Actual outdoor work is not possible, 
of course; but 1 venture to say that your garden may be 
all that you want it, this very summer, if you will start indoor 
work upon it now. 
The Garden on Paper 
Map out now, therefore, a schedule for what is to be done 
when you can begin work out-of-doors. This is the first 
thing. Plan it so that each operation will come in logical 
order or sequence, and each thing will be taken up at the 
proper time to lead on to the next thing. For example, if 
something is to be shifted because it is not favorably located, 
or because a different color or type of flower is wanted where 
it stands, such transplanting should precede the planting of 
new material, even though such new 
material is going elsewhere—unless it is a 
peony or some early flowering plant which 
you purpose moving. If this is the case, 
it should have been done last fall; and must 
go now until next autumn. 
Decide now what you can put there for 
this summer, in the place where the peony 
is to go when fall comes. This will avoid 
a bare, unfinished spot, even for a single 
season—which must always be guarded 
against. Let this something be an annual— 
a one-summer flower only. Then you will 
not have a double shifting to do, when the autumn moving day 
finally arrives. 
Annuals and Biennials 
The mention of annuals brings me to a point which I want 
very much to emphasize so that there will be no doubt left 
regarding it. There is a class of plants that are neither annual 
nor perennial, which proves disappointing to the garden be¬ 
ginner who expects all plants to fall under one or the other 
of these two heads. These other plants are biennials—plants 
that grow from the seed one year, live through a winter, blos¬ 
som the second summer, and then die out completely, as soon 
as their seeds are matured, and their life cycle thus com¬ 
pleted. Their being bardy or tender has nothing to do with it; 
it is a matter quite independent of climate or outer conditions. 
There are not many biennials commonly used in our gar¬ 
dens, and they are not a numerous class, anyway. But there 
are enough, and the ones that exist are sufficiently popular to 
cause a great many seeming failures. The seeds germinate, and 
the plants grow; but as the summer advances and no flowers 
appear, the gardener who is unaware of this peculiarity, be¬ 
lieving possibly that he has sown an annual, gives it up as a 
failure, and next summer plants something else in its place— 
thereby destroying it just at the time when it is about to 
justify its existence. Then he tells his friends that he cannot 
seem to succeed with pinks, perhaps, or foxgloves, or what¬ 
ever it may have been. 
The same thing happens, only a little differently, if he has 
put the seed in the ground under the impression that it is a 
perennial which may not bloom until it has 
had a year in which to grow. In this case, 
he is satisfied to wait for the flowers until 
the second summer; but when the plant dies 
at the end of this time, and appears no 
more, he wonders what ailed it. 
Learn What the Plants Are 
Before it comes time to go at the garden 
actually, therefore, I would advise becom- 
things 
you purpose planting. Make sure that the 
annuals are annual, and that the perennials 
