Annuals That Should Be Better Known 
AMONG THE FLOWERS THAT BLOOM THIS YEAR FROM SEED 
SOWN NOW OR NEXT MONTH THERE ARE MANY DESERVING 
SORTS THAT ARE TOO FREQUENTLY OVERLOOKED 
by H. S. Adams 
Photographs by Nathan R. Graves 
D 1 
The helichrysum is 
the best of the 
old - fash ioned 
everlastings 
|ID you ever peer through a gar¬ 
den gate and wish that you 
might go inside? If you have, you 
can imagine the feelings of certain 
dowers. They want to go into your garden, 
but — you haven’t asked them. At this mo¬ 
ment they are looking wistfully from the 
pages of some catalogue or other and hop¬ 
ing that another spring will not pass with¬ 
out the longed-for invitation to come into 
your garden. Won’t you consider at least 
one of these unbidden guests this year and 
offer it a welcome? In beauty it will give 
you out of the abundance of its heart, and 
all it will ask will be decent bed and 
board. 
I have in mind, especially, certain of the 
annuals. Everyone grows annuals as a mat¬ 
ter of course; for no matter upon what plan 
of permanence the garden be budded, there 
always is needed a quantity of these dowers of a single summer’s 
life, to dll in the chinks and add to the glory of color. But the 
average gardener is prone to forget that the common annuals are 
not such because they are the best; the only reason why the list 
is not longer is because some of the others have been so grossly 
neglected that they are not generally known. 
How many, for example, have ever tasted the joys of salpi- 
glossis? I can name two communities in which mine were the 
only ones to be seen. Yet here is one of the most beautiful of 
all annuals. Moreover, it offers a unique and singularly fascin¬ 
ating study on ac¬ 
count of the mar¬ 
velous colors and 
markings of the 
blossoms. It has 
the common name 
of painted tongue, 
which, as com¬ 
pared with the bo¬ 
tanical name, is 
merely going from 
bad to worse. How¬ 
ever, that does not 
alter the beauty of 
the bios s o m s — 
something like a 
petunia in form, 
but a little smaller. 
There are half a 
dozen kinds worth 
growing — rose, 
scarlet, purple and 
white, each with 
The larger centaureas here are sweet sul- xclns anc ^ 
tans, an annual too little seen nowadays also primrose and 
crimson. As forty cents will cover the cost of the entire collec¬ 
tion it is more satisfactory to plant them all, each variety making 
a better display by itself. It is an admirable dower for cutting; 
so any surplus plants may be placed in rows on the edge of the 
vegetable garden or in some out-of-the-way place. The kinds 
mentioned are all the improved type, but there is an Emperor 
strain of mixed seed that makes a still dner showing for specimen 
plants. The salpiglossis has no cultural difficulties; the one thing 
to bear in mind is that the seed 
should be sown early under glass 
— a sunny window will do for 
any annual if there is neither 
greenhouse nor coldframe — in 
order that the bloom may set in 
while the summer is young; it will 
continue until frost. 
Then there is the everlasting. 
Only the other day some one asked 
me if I knew it. Dear me, it was 
in many an old garden when I 
was a lad. It was highly prized 
in those days — in winter as well 
as summer, for it was plucked 
from the garden to adorn the par¬ 
lor mantel when there were no 
flowers outside other than the 
snow flowers. I hope that it is 
banished forever from the parlor 
mantel, but I do miss it in the 
gardens that I wander through. 
What we always called the ever¬ 
lasting in New England is the 
helichrysum, though actually this 
is only one of several kinds of im¬ 
mortelles. It is the best of them 
all for the garden as it is the most decorative. The globular 
straw flowers range from white through yellow to a deep red, 
and are borne high above good foliage. For color it is wisest to 
plant the varieties separately; ten kinds are offered for fifty cents 
in one of the imported collections. A rich soil is best and the 
seed must be sown early under glass to insure the full period of 
bloom. Another good everlasting, plentiful enough in graveyard 
wreaths in winter but little known in the garden, is the xeranthe- 
mum. It grows about three feet high, and the double blossoms — 
rose, purple or white—have an outer row of elongated rays. A 
third everlasting, the gomphrena, always has been called bach¬ 
elor’s button in our part of the country, but fortunately may be 
designated by the less confusing name of globe amaranth. Be¬ 
ware of the “red” variety; it is a rich solferino that will fight with 
anything save white. Of the old kinds the white is the safer. 
The new nana compacta type of either is excellent for edgings, 
as it grows only a foot high; the other runs above two feet. The 
yellow variety, aurea superba, is also a useful annual. If it seems 
desirable to add to the home aggregation of dust-gatherers, these 
everlastings must be picked before the blossoms are fully ex- 
The almost-forgotten globe 
amaranth is worth taking 
up again 
(266) 
