February, 1911 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
81 
ing roses, one of the many tecomas, honeysuckle, wisteria and 
grape are the most desirable covers. Part evergreen and part 
deciduous vines insure a good screen in summer, when it is most 
needed, and a partial one in winter, when the sunshine filtering- 
through will be appreciated. 
Such an arbor will add beyond 
words to your garden, not mere¬ 
ly in beauty, but in practical 
value as a place for outdoor 
meals and relaxation. Simple 
benches and a table may be 
made of redwood obtained from 
the nearest lumber yard and 
stained. Redwood is a good 
weather-resister. 
As to the plants themselves, 
our experience is that practically 
everything that grows in the 
Eastern garden may be grown 
here, besides much else, though 
the radically dififerent climatic 
conditions on the Pacific Coast 
—especially the long rainless 
season from early spring till late 
autumn—necessitate, in many 
cases, different treatment. This 
means the devotion of nearly the 
whole of one’s time to the gar¬ 
den, or the maintenance of a 
gardener. For those whose cir¬ 
cumstances do not permit either 
of these alternatives, the prob¬ 
lem is the practical one of find¬ 
ing out what plants will pro¬ 
duce the best continuity of ef¬ 
fect the year ’round, with the 
least outlay of time and money. 
For ourselves, we have accord¬ 
ingly simplified our floral scheme 
little by little, until it is rep¬ 
resented by the following list. 
These are flowers that enjoy 
this climate as much as we do, 
and behave accordingly; are 
practically free from disease 
and insect pests; and, excepting 
the first three, are by no means 
conventionally commonplace in 
California. Of course the list 
might be extended, but I am 
writing of personal experience: 
1. A few roses, planted in a 
sunny bed by themselves. To 
have fall bloom, water must be 
withheld during July and Aug¬ 
ust, and this is not practicable if 
they share the bed with other 
plants. 
2. Geraniums. They are 
constant bloomers at all seasons 
and in our garden the pink ivy 
geraniums have a special old 
stump to clamber over. For winter effects it is safest to group 
them where the shade of a non-deciduous tree or of the house, 
keeps them in shadow in the early morning, but permits sun 
upon them later in the day. This prevents frost damage in cold 
spells of weather, which are by no means infrequent here. 
Nasturtiums—also year-’round bloomers. Our winter beds 
of them are at the west side of the house, protected by generous 
eaves, and on the north side of an orange tree. This protection 
is needed to keep the plants from 
being nipped on frosty nights. 
With us, though the tenderest 
plants on this list, they weathered 
the exceptionally cold winter of 
1909-10, when the mercury sev¬ 
eral times was as low as 28° at 
night. 
4. Gaillardias. We give them 
a bed to themselves, in full sun¬ 
light, anu they bloom perennially. 
5. Sweet alyssum. We use 
this for bordering some of the 
beds, for which purpose the Little 
Gem is best. Seedlings come up 
in odd corners all over the gar¬ 
den and, summer or winter, this 
charming little flower is never out 
of bloom or its perfume absent 
from the garden. 
6. Verbenas. They grow like 
weeds, are always more or less 
in hloom, and are good drought- 
resisters. 
7. Mignonette. We keep a 
bed of this going in the shadow 
of a tree, which affords it partial 
shade in summer and frost-pro¬ 
tection in winter. 
8. Foxgloves. We have a 
few of these plants growing in 
odd corners and beneath trees, 
for the sake of their stately ef¬ 
fect when blooming. They ap¬ 
pear to be perennial with us; at 
any rate, the plants live until so 
overgrown as to make it desirable 
to replace them with seedlings. 
9. Salpiglossis, or Painted 
Tongue. Blooms from spring till 
Christmas and re-sows itself; but 
for best results it is advisable to 
sow freshly each year. The 
plants grow from five to seven 
feet tall and the bloom is a great 
show all summer and fall. 
10. Violets. The staple bloom 
of winter. To do well they must 
be kept out of direct sunshine, 
Our best results are from a bed 
on the north side of the house and 
from one under the shade of an 
orange tree. The latter situation 
is most to their liking as they 
get morning sunshine and are 
shaded entirely from the hot rays 
of midday. The “Princess” va¬ 
riety is deliciously fragrant, and 
when the beds are well fertilized and the plants thinned out 
each summer, the flowers will be long-stemmed and as large as 
small pansies, the blossoms appearing from December until April. 
(Continued on page 120) 
The square of turf before the porch-steps, is Lippia rcpcns, 
a Sicilian plant that will live for months without water 
April in a Southern California garden, with stock, foxgloves 
and sweet alyssum in bloom 
In gardens where space permits, there is usually a corner given 
up to cacti, these curious children of the desert 
