60 
House & Garden 
EDGING PLANTS FOR THE PERENNIAL BORDER 
Constant Variety of Color and Form Can Be Maintained by Careful Selection 
of the Different Low Growing Types 
H. STUART ORTLOFF 
T HE most effectual 
method of securing the 
best possible display of 
bloom in a garden bed or bor¬ 
der, has long been to put the 
small plants in the foreground 
and grade up to the tall flowers 
in the background. There are 
many flowers which are low 
enough to be placed in the 
prominent and important po¬ 
sition of edging plants, but one 
should always stop to consider 
other characteristics which are 
as important as the ultimate 
height. 
The habit of the foliage—is 
it fine and delicate, or is it 
coarse? This is important in 
giving the plant its location in 
the garden. The coarse texture 
will look best at a point farth¬ 
est from the eye, while the fine 
texture should be found near 
at hand where the eye can ap¬ 
preciate its delicacy. 
The habit of the plant—is 
it stiff enough to maintain its 
own position, or does it have 
a tendency to flop over and 
sprawl along the ground? If 
it is floppy it will be apt to get 
in the way of the path, and we 
all know how unpleasant it is 
to walk between unkempt bor¬ 
ders with the dew or rain on 
them. And it is impossible to 
plant anything else in front or 
alongside of the edging plants 
to bolster them up. 
Is the foliage persistent, or 
will it lose its effectiveness 
after blooming, or when the 
hot summer sun beats down on 
it? Then, too, we are interested in the 
color of the blossom and the time of bloom, 
so that we can work it out in our scheme 
to the best advantage, assigning it a fitting 
place in the arrangement. 
In planting edging plants it is difficult 
to lay down a hard and fast rule for their 
spacing, because the size of the plants va¬ 
ries and the ultimate growth is different. 
However, it is safe to say that from 4" 
to 6" is sufficient. In the case of a number 
of varieties, such as the Scotch pinks, it 
is possible to secure them in sturdy field- 
grown clumps, in which case it is neces¬ 
sary to allow at least T or 18" for each 
clump, according to size. There should 
be about 4" left between the adjoining 
edges of such clumps of plants to allow 
for their normal and unimpeded de¬ 
velopment. 
The arrangement is more a 
matter of individual choice. 
Long straight lines of plants 
will tend to increase the effect 
of perspective and so make the 
garden look longer, while 
‘“bosomed” groups, as the old 
gardener calls alternately 
spaced plants, are effective as 
color masses of good foliage or 
pleasing flowers. If edging 
plants which form close, dense 
mats of foliage are used, they 
can be planted over bulbs, 
which will push up through 
them in the spring and give a 
very effective display against 
such a background before the 
flowers of the border have 
started to bloom. Such plant¬ 
ing is entirely practical. 
Many gardeners prefer to 
edge their bed with bricks set 
on edge and sunk until they 
are almost flush with the grass. 
Where this is done it is pos¬ 
sible to plant many of the little 
rock plants which will overrun 
the rocks or bricks and will 
not creep out inconveniently 
into the path. 
The following is a list of 
plants suitable for edgings. 
They have been selected from 
various sources with an eye to 
their suitable characteristics as 
to habit, form and color. The 
list is by no means complete, 
but it offers a wide variety of 
choice of suitable members for 
most purposes: 
Bugle Weed (Ajuga reptans) 
The foliage of this plant 
forms dense mats of creep¬ 
ing leafy stems which make a fine 
ground cover. It has numerous small 
blue flowers on erect spikes from 6" to 
12" high. Var. rubra has dark pur¬ 
plish leaves. Var. variegata has leaves 
splashed with creamy yellow but is not 
as good as the first two. Blooms in 
May and early June. 
Golden Tuft (Alyssum saxatile com- 
pactum) 
Dense masses of yellow flowers above a 
spreading mat of persistent silvery 
foliage. One of the best plants for edg¬ 
ing. If the blossoms are nipped off 
after the first period of bloom they will 
bloom again in the fall. Plant about 
5" apart. Blooms in April and May, 
and again in autumn if flower stalks 
are cut back. Propagate by seed or 
by division. 
Perennial candytuft deserves a wider 
popularity than it has as a dependable 
edging plant for borders 
Golden Tuft, Alyssum saxatile compac- 
tum, gives a low, dense mass of yellow 
in two seasons of bloom 
