The broad-leaved Megasea Saxifrage will supply a bold, low foliage 
for the edge of the border or for the rockery, with spring-bloom¬ 
ing flower clusters 
Do you know the Geum, with its small scarlet and orange flowers, 
blooming throughout the summer, and its almost evergreen hairy 
leaves? 
Perennials That Should Be Better Known 
FLOWERS FOR THE HARDY GARDEN THAT FOR SOME STRANGE REASON OR ANOTHER HAVE 
TOO LONG BEEN OVERLOOKED — LEOPARD’S BANE, GEUM, BLUE SALVIA AND OTHERS 
B Y H. S. A DAMS 
Photographs by the author and F. A. Walter 
G ROWERS of flowers for the sheer pleasure of the thing 
are, as a rule, singularly unresponsive to not a few of the 
most alluring offers of the enterprising makers of catalogues. 
1 hey are forever prating about wanting “new things,” but they 
are not game when it comes to trying to pick winners of them¬ 
selves. Half the time, when they see something new — that is 
new to them, though it may have been catalogued for a genera¬ 
tion, or more—they take it out in seeing and don’t even ask the 
name for further reference. This is one of the greatest of mis¬ 
takes, for it may be that only the measly sum of fifteen cents 
stands between them and the acquisition of that very plant for 
their own gardens. The result of all this lack of gardening 
gumption is that a very considerable number of really admirable 
hardy perennials are by no means so well known as they should be. 
For example, there is the Leopard’s Bane — Doronicum, if 
you like the Latin name better. Flow many persons who grow 
flowers in gardens can hold up their hands and say they know 
that plant? Not many, I wager. I rarely come across it any¬ 
where and T can name a town that never saw it at all until last 
year. Yet it is one of the most charming of the spring peren¬ 
nials—the more so as it provides a good, clear yellow note just 
when it is particularly welcome. Doronicum Caucasicum is the 
type; but there are named varieties, ranging from lemon to 
orange. The Leopard’s Bane is particularly desirable for mass¬ 
ing in the border or the larger pockets of a rockery, in either case 
in a naturalistic effect. The showy, rayed blossoms, sometimes 
more than three inches in diameter, rise gracefully from a bed 
of handsome, heart-shaped leaves to a height of two feet or so. 
May is its month, but some varieties run over into June. 
Elands up again. Who knows the blue, or false, Indigo — 
Baptism australis? Just about the same few. Early last summer, 
when the Leopard’s Bane had about gone by, I saw a large, 
symmetrical, well established plant of this showy native. It was 
more than three feet high and above the bluish-green compound 
leaves were quantities of the racemes of blue flowers, resembling 
somewhat the lupine, though larger. And all that beauty, of 
genuine distinctiveness, represented an investment of just fifteen 
cents not many years before. Somebody, instead of crying, “Oh, 
dear, I never could hope to grow anything like that!” had seen 
a similar plant somewhere and had immediately set about taking 
time by the forelock. 
Quite as neglected is the Globe Flower, or Trollius, which 
gives the early hardy garden an even finer yellow note than the 
Leopard’s Bane. Like that, the Globe Flower is admirable in 
a small massing of clumps. Personally I prefer the deep orange 
Asiatic type, but the light yellow of Europe is perhaps quite as 
fine in its way. Globe Flowers will stand partial shade, and, 
whether there or in the sunshine, few garden flowers are more 
striking. It should be remembered when planting them that the 
foliage becomes unsightly after the first blooming; there is some¬ 
times a lighter crop of blossoms in autumn. 
Then who knows the Geum ? There’s a little plant that ought 
to be more welcome in the home garden. I think I would use 
it in the border, if only for the tufts of hairy leaves that in my 
garden are virtually evergreen. Scarlet and orange, and shades 
wavering between the two, are characteristic colors of Geum, 
so the plant is worth considering where a touch of such tones 
is needed. The note can never be strong, as the blossoms, on 
stalks a foot or more long, are scarcely larger than buttercups 
and not over-numerous. There are two types, one with rounded 
leaves and the other with long ones, forming a complete rosette. 
Scattered along or near the edge of the border, they are quite 
effective the season through. I have known one of the orange 
varieties to bloom as early as April and as late as November, but 
the summer months are their flowering season. 
And who knows much about the lovely Saxifrages from 
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