CHAPTER XIX THE HARDY GARDEN

Is a permanent investment, possible only in the permanent home. It adds dignity and charm attainable from no other form of planting. It is to the outdoor life of the home what the possession of colonial furniture and family heirlooms is to the indoor life, and yet is neither expensive nor tedious in its inception. It may be acquired fully grown, as it were, by an order to the florist for ready grown plants of blossoming size, ready to give seasonal bloom, or it may be developed in a few months, inexpensively and most interestingly, by procuring the seeds of as many desirable varieties of hardy perennials as one has room or inclination for and planting them in the hotbed in early spring, and transplanting into permanent positions when large enough or, better still, by planting the seed in cold frames in274 August or early September and growing them on until cold weather when they should be protected for the winter and in the spring planted out where they are to bloom. Every hardy perennial set out in one's garden is an asset that will increase in value each succeeding year. Many have the root formation that admits of divisions—as the Shasta daisy, a single two year old clump usually dividing up into from six to ten blooming-size plants. English violets, English daisies, polyanthus, and many other plants may be divided annually until in time one owns large colonies of them, and this is a point well worth understanding,—that a large number of one kind of plant is much more effective and worth while than a large number of kinds of plants, of just one or a few individuals. Many plants which are inconspicuous or ineffective singly or in small groups, surprise one with their beauty when grown in large masses or long rows. The ulmaria—a variety of spir?a of deciduous growth—is a notable example of this. Planted singly it is merely a rather pretty flower; grown275 in a long row it is a mass of snowy white in late June and July that compels one with its beauty. Its congener, the spir?a fillipendula, a lesser but most graceful growth, also pleases one especially when grown in long rows in front of taller plants. And right here is a point well worth considering in planting a hardy border—the arranging of plants in rising tiers of bloom so that a bank of bloom may be produced. One effective bed that gladdened my heart for several seasons and rose in tier after tier of gracious bloom through several weeks of early summer had an initial planting next the front of tritomas, whose scarlet torches of flame did not come into bloom until late summer, but from then until frost made a brilliant band of color. Back of these was a fine planting of columbine, next a row of scarlet lychnis alternated with white feverfew, and still further back a full planting of the garden spir?a whose feathery heads of pinky-white flowers stood four or five feet high and in turn were topped with fine clumps of physostegias; the whole planting making a beautiful bank276 of bloom and one not commonly seen. This was a permanent planting requiring little care beyond the removal of all weeds and grass in the spring and an occasional thinning out of the plants when they became too crowded. The physostegia increases rapidly by root division and the lychnis, feverfew and aquilegias all self-sow so the bed practically never ran out or needed renewing and the cost, except for the tritomas, was that of a few packets of seeds—probably a total of fifty cents for some one hundred and fifty square feet of loveliness, and there are many, many combinations as happy and as easily acquired as that.

Lacking the convenience of hotbeds and cold frames, the vegetable garden is a most excellent place in which to start hardy perennials for a permanent garden. Flowers planted in rows among vegetables always seem to do better than anywhere else, the reason being that they are not crowded—usually being in single rows with a foot or more of open space at each side through which the hoe and cultivator can work freely, and277 where they will receive regular and constant attention throughout the growing season. In a garden of say fifty feet in width, several varieties of flowers may be grown in short lengths of ten feet or more. They should be covered somewhat more deeply than when sown in the hotbed or cold frame and the ground firmed well above them, especially if the weather is dry at the time of planting; when the seedlings appear they will probably need thinning in order that they may not grow spindling, but will not need the room they will require when in permanent quarters. Many kinds of hardy perennials will give some bloom the first year, though, of course, they will not be at their best, but they will be sufficiently pronounced to make it possible to select those most desirable for cultivation. Delphiniums, for instance, will give small spikes of bloom, probably a foot high, the first season and if the Gold Medal Hybrids have been planted some very lovely blooms will result. In the fall the plants may be lifted and set in permanent positions, or they may be left in the ground until278 spring and then transplanted; probably this is the better treatment providing the ground is not to be ploughed too early, as some of the perennials die down in the fall and may not appear above the ground in time for very early transplanting.

Evergreen boughs make the best winter covering, especially when rested against some support with the tips downward, so as to shed rain. They do not mat down into a sodden mass as do leaves which have a tendency to smother and rot plants with an evergreen crown of leaves, but protect from sun and cold winds, at the same time admitting sufficient air to the plants to keep them in good condition.

When immediate effect is desired from hardy perennials which must be produced from seed, considerable time may be gained by planting the seeds in flats in the house in early February, giving them as light a position as possible, a south window being preferable, and transplanting the little seedlings to the hotbed when that is started in March or early April. This will often force along the blooms and will certainly produce279 strong, well developed plants by fall, plants that should stand the winter and come out in spring in fine condition, ready for a notable season of bloom.

While hardy perennials are generally thought of in connection with such herbaceous plants as die down to the ground in fall, reappearing again in spring, and the few that make a crown of winter foliage, like the hollyhocks and delphiniums, no perennial garden could be considered complete without an abundance of lilies. These may be planted here and there, singly and in groups among the perennials and shrubbery and will need little attention, increasing in numbers year by year. This is especially true of the candidum or annunciation lily, which once planted continues to increase for many years, but should have the clumps broken up once in three or four years and spread out to give more room. Failure to bloom successfully always calls for investigation of the condition of the bulbs. Usually it will be found that decay has set in or that worms or ants have invaded the bulbs. In either280 case the bulbs should be lifted and cleaned and all diseased scales removed, saving the scales for replanting; reset in clean soil, packing a handful of clean, sharp sand and a pinch of charcoal about each bulb. Candidum lilies should not be set more than an inch or two below the surface of the ground, but most other lilies, especially the auratums, speciosums, Brownii, and giganteums should be planted six or more inches deep and well padded with sand. A little pad of sphagnum moss under each bulb is excellent as it supplies the necessary drainage. Auratum bulbs and bulbs of the Japanese lilies are not as permanent as the candidums and tiger lilies, usually lasting a maximum of five years, if left undisturbed.

It is not much use to plant lily bulbs, tulips and hyacinths in ground infested with moles. The moles should first be eradicated, and then bulbs may be planted safely but it is little satisfaction to make an extensive and costly planting of bulbs only to have them become food for the moles and ground mice. I have known plantings281 of several hundred tulips to be entirely destroyed during a single winter. In one such planting of five hundred bulbs only three appeared above ground the following year. A good mole trap is invaluable where moles are in evidence.