August, 1917 
23 
To close the season use the best yellow 
pompon chrysanthemums. These and 
goldenrod will carry the yellow of summer 
into autumn days 
creature’s legs or its mouth to the next 
blossom where it adheres to the stigmas 
already awaiting it. 
This butterfly weed or pleurisy root, is 
Asclepias tuberosa. Asclepias incarnata is 
the stately and sweet-smelling milkweed of 
rosy-purple flowers and roadside associa¬ 
tion. The plant is perennial and of easy 
culture, and it is hard to understand why it 
is not more often seen in the garden. 
Some Spike-Flowered Sorts 
There are not as many spike-flowered 
plants among the yellows as in the other 
colors, and therefore it is advisable to use 
as many as there are. The yellow-flowered 
false indigo, or Baptisia tinctoria, grows to 
2' or 2 yi in height, and blooms in June. 
It is not particularly dense in the flower 
spike, but the spikes themselves are very 
numerous and show well. 
The fringed loosestrife is another plant 
of spike-flowered character, growing to 2\ 
Then there is the yellow monkshood or hel¬ 
met flower, a curious departure from this 
plant’s typical color. It is really the only 
tall-growing steeple-like flower in the whole 
list of yellows, reaching a height of perhaps 
4'. It is a pale yellow and blossoms in June 
and along into July. 
Very few will care to include the golden- 
rods, I suppose, in the flower garden ; yet 
when the improvement which these plants 
show under cultivation once is realized, I 
am sure they cannot fail to he popular at 
least in small clumps. The giant of the 
family (Solidago altissima) towers to a 
height of lCK and is in its full splendor in 
October. A clump of this with the 5' Soli¬ 
dago “golden wings” grouped before it, and 
then the dwarf 15 Solidago Virgaurea com- 
pacta spread in front of that, would change 
the average person’s easy tolerance of 
goldenrod into enthusiastic admiration. 
Moreover, a yellow garden ought surely 
to include what is perhaps more character¬ 
istically an American plant than almost any¬ 
thing else in the world. There are two or 
three species of Solidago in Europe and 
northern Asia, to be sure; but of the hun¬ 
dred or so species in the world, the rest of 
And for the early 
spring , the yellow gar¬ 
den without narcissi is 
unthinkable. Of the 
numerous varieties Em¬ 
peror is one of the 
showiest 
them are on this side the Atlantic, and most¬ 
ly in the eastern United States. South 
America has some, and they trail down 
through Mexico and along the Pacific coast. 
I know of few plants that we can claim 
more completely for our own. 
Thermopsis Caroliniana is a plant which 
grows to 3', with spikes of bloom during 
June and July—spikes that have given the 
species its name undoubtedly, for thermop¬ 
sis is interpreted “lupine-like.” Thus you 
have an idea of what it resembles, if you 
do not already know the plant itself. 
Of course, it is unthinkable not to have 
daffodils in a yellow garden—daffodils at 
the beginning and pompon chrysanthemums 
at the end. Here we have a dozen species— 
and still the primrose and the columbine 
and the coreopsis and the stately hollyhock, 
which is never lovelier than in yellow with 
its flowers all crinkled delicately like the 
thinnest tissue paper, and the globe flower 
or trollius are left out. In addition, there 
is the half hardy tritoma of which there is 
a splendid yellow variety ( sulphured ) which 
can ill be spared. Also the tiger lily, and the 
Turk’s cap, the one orange spotted with 
black and the other a reddish orange. 
Obviously, we must have a great deal of 
space in a yellow garden ; or else the list 
must be gone over and the “superlatively 
good" picked out from the very good. Thus 
we come down to daffodils—this time we 
will take them in the order of flowering— 
English primrose, leopard’s bane, Iceland 
poppy, columbine, hollyhock, St. Jolm’s-wort, 
hemerocallis, butterfly weed, yellow aconite, 
thermopsis and the best yellow pompon 
chrysanthemum which is probably “Skibo.” 
Here are the dozen which cannot be omitted. 
Principles of Arrangement 
In the arrangement of these, all that has 
been said as to vertical and horizontal ef¬ 
fects, particularly in the article dealing with 
white flowers, should be borne in mind. 
Yellow is as startling and as showy as white. 
Of the twelve yellow flowers you cannot 
be without, the columbines are unique in 
their beauty of coloring and fragile grace 
of form 
and the lines of the composition are going 
to stand out practically to the same degree. 
Use therefore masses or “fields” of the 
lower material, such as hypericum and 
columbine and the chrysanthemums—these 
are not so dwarf in height but they mass 
horizontally and therefore come into this 
division—and the Iceland poppy. 
Break these with clumps of the vertical 
forms, thermopsis, aconitum and hollyhock, 
irregularly disposed. Use the early flower¬ 
ing Doronicurn Clusii, which averages 20” 
to 24” in height, in at least one big mass, 
scattering at its extremities. Group the 
hemerocallis in two or three places, in fair¬ 
ly large masses. Different varieties of this 
last may be used in one mass with good 
effect, thus extending its bloom in every 
spot where it is planted. 
Finally, introduce clumps of the butter¬ 
fly weed where opportunity offers, with the 
primroses in foreground patches. 
This generalization applies to almost any 
border. If your garden is in such shape 
that space in any part of it may be exclu¬ 
sively devoted to one thing, note that the 
Iceland poppy is practically an all-summer 
bloomer; that masses of the chrysanthemum 
will make a wonderful showing in October 
and November; that the English primrose 
may very well form an edging to a border 
planted entirely of one or the other of these, 
thus ushering the season in as soon as spring 
arrives; and that all the day lilies in their 
successive heights, fronted by columbine in 
either of the two choice yellow varieties— 
Aquilegia truncata or Aquilegia chrysantha 
—will be quite enough to insure continuous 
bloom from May till the end of July. 
Planting a Deep Border 
In a border that is deep enough, the au¬ 
tumn flowering chrysanthemums might be 
ranged next before the lilies, and then the 
columbines before these, with Iceland pop¬ 
pies in front. This arrangement is safe by 
reason of its simplicity, whereas it takes no 
small degree of skill to plant a border in 
general mixture without having it patchy 
in appearance. 
(Continued on page 54) 
