| Name |
Tender
or Hardy |
Colour |
Height |
Remarks |
Aster
Most reliable varieties—
Truffants
Victoria
Queen Of Market
(very early)
Comet
(quaint and artistic)
Emperor Frederick
(best white)
Hohenzollern
(new large flowers.) |
H.A. |
All shades of blues, purples, and pink up to deep blue, also white. |
18 in.-2 ft. |
Asters are the standby of the late summer and autumn garden, and for this
reason it is better to sow them in the outdoor seed bed than to attempt forcing. They require
light, rich soil, mixed with old manure, as fresh manure breeds many aster ills.
Two enemies—lice at the root and black goldenrod beetles on the flowers—must
be guarded against—the first by digging sulphur powder, unslaked lime, nitrate of
soda, or wood ashes into the soil both before sowing the seed and again into the place where
they are transplanted; the beetle must be dislodged by careful hand picking. Cover the seeds
with half an inch of soil, and in transplanting set the plants from a foot to eighteen inches
apart, according to variety. |
Sweet Alyssum,
Variety Maritimum |
H.A. |
White, fragrant |
1 ft. |
A cheerful little mustard-shaped flower borne in short, thick
spikes, useful for edgings or to supply the white setting necessary to
groups of party-coloured flowers. |
Balsam Camellia flowered |
T.A. |
White, peach, carmine, lavender, rose, scarlet, spotted, and straw |
18 in. |
A rapid-growing, tender annual from India, and while rather stiff in form
of growth, very decorative for the summer borders surrounding a sundial. The flowers, like
compact, double roses, are very useful for set table decorations and may be used in many ways. |
Calendula—Pot Marigold
Calendula officinalis grandiflora
Calendula Pongei. fl. pl. |
H.A. |
Yellow and orange
White |
1 ft. |
Showy flowers for summer beds, not good for cutting, as they grow
sleepy indoors and in cloudy weather. |
Candytuft
Iberis Coronaria
Rocket Candytuft |
H.A. |
White, fine erect form |
1 ft. |
A sturdy white flower useful for edgings in the same way as sweet alyssum.
May be sown in fall for early flowering. |
Cornflower
Centaurea
Centaurea Margaritæ, fragrant
Sweet Sultan |
H.A. |
White |
1-2 ft. |
One of the most satisfactory of the taller growing annuals, the
flowers having some of the qualities of an everlasting, and making fine buttonhole flowers
or house bouquets. The Sweet Sultans are delightfully fragrant, and the Cornflower one of the
finest of our blue flowers. They should be sown in borders or large beds where they are to
bloom and while the Sweet Sultans must be spring sown, the Cornflower if sown in October will bloom
in May. |
Suaveolens
Moschata
Cyanus—Emperor William
(Rich blue cornflower)
|
|
Yellow
Purple
Deep blue |
|
Cosmos
Giant fancy |
H.A. |
White
Pink
Maroon |
4-8 ft. |
A beautiful autumn flower if they are on their best behaviour and bloom on
time, but like the little girl with the curl—when they are bad, they are
horrid.—They take a great deal of room during a long season which can be
often used to better advantage—planted with asters. |
Dahlia
Single and cactus, mixed varieties |
H.H.P. |
Various |
3-6 ft. |
If sown either indoors or in a frame, these Dahlias may be as cheaply raised
as any common annual—with the chance of growing many beautiful and new varieties.
The roots may be stored in sand in the cellar during winter like other bulbs.
I class this seed with annuals from the fact that it must be sown in spring and cannot
be left over winter in the hardy bed though it is a half hardy perennial. |
Gaillardia, called Blanket Flower
from its habit of
covering the ground with bloom
Gaillardia, picta Lorenziania |
H.A. |
Red and yellow |
1 ft. |
Fine daisy-shaped flower for colour-masses or picking. May be sown in
in the borders after bulbs have died away, and will and will bloom until hard frost. |
| Ipomæa |
T.A. |
|
10-15 ft. |
Our most beautiful annual vines. The common morning glories should be kept
from seeding in flower or vegetable gardens, because before you know it the strong tendrils
will have twined about vegetables and flowers alike and strangled them. |
Ipomæa
Ipomæa, Mexicana grandiflora alba—Large white moonflower |
T.A. |
Satiny white |
15 ft. |
An early variety of the of the popular moonflower. |
| Ipomæa, Northern Light |
T.A. |
Pinkish heliotrope |
15 ft. |
|
| Imperial Japanese morning-glories |
T.A. |
White, rose, crimson, all shades of purple |
30-40 ft. |
One of the most artistic flowers of the modern garden, the seed must be
must be sown early, preferably in a hotbed, and extra precautions taken to insure its
germination, as the coverings are exceedingly hard. It is best to soak them over night
in several changes of warm water or else very carefully notch the shell of the seed with
a knife. This last performance is rather risky, if the knife slip ever so little, and it is
best to trust to the soaking. For those who are in the country only from June to October
and have little room for vines, these morning-glories will prove a new experience, for in
flower and leaf they present an infinite variety of shape and marking. The flowers
are both self-coloured as well as marbled, spotted, striped, margined, and fringed. |
| Mignonette |
H.A. |
|
1-2 ft. |
These three species of mignonette I have found perfectly satisfactory.
If quantity is desired rather than quality, the seed may be sown thinly where it is to remain. But
for specimen stalks to come up to catalogue descriptions, each plant must have individual
treatment, like the asters. |
Miles Spiral
Giant Pyramidal
Parson's White
|
|
Green and white
Green, deep
White and buff |
18 in.
9 in. |
Nasturtiums
Tall
Make your own
mixture by buying the twenty named colours offered and blending them. |
H.A. |
All shades of reds and yellows, chocolate, pink, and salmon |
|
A showy climbing or trailing plant, useful for outdoor decorations and the
clean-smelling flowers being equally valuable for table decorations.
Should be either planted on a bank, wall, or in front of a fence, stone or otherwise.
If stone, a thick support of peabrush should be given, set slantwise toward the wall.
Be careful not to place nasturtiums where you will look over them toward beds containing
pink or magenta flowers or where they will form a background for the same, as in spite of
some beautiful tints of straw-colour and maroon, the general nasturtium colour is dazzling,
uncompromising vermilion-orange. |
Phlox Drummondii
Best colours in tall flowering class |
H.A. |
|
1-1/2 ft. |
A thoroughly satisfactory flower for the summer garden, whether sown
broadcast to cover beds left empty by spring bulbs or sown in a seed bed and transplanted eight inches
to a foot apart, when if the dead flowers are kept well picked off, they will make sturdy, compact
bushes. |
Alba
Coccinea
Isabellina
Rosea
Stella Splendens
Atropurpurea
|
|
White
Scarlet
Light yellow
Pink
Crimson
Purple |
|
Drummond Phlox
Snowball
Chamois Rose
Fireball
Surprise |
|
White
Pink
Flame
Scarlet edged with white |
6-8 ft. |
The dwarf varieties make charming edges for hardy rose beds or shrubberies. |
Poppies
Shirley, the most
satisfactory of poppies for outdoor decoration or cutting |
H.A. |
All shades pinks and reds |
1 ft.-18 in. |
Poppies are gorgeous flowers, but in our changeable climate, as a
class, are too short-lived to pay their way, except in summer gardens where a
brief period of bloom suffices, or in a garden so large that there need
be no economy of space.
Shirley is sown in May and again in August for spring flowering.
Even under adverse conditions the Shirley is always dainty and never makes a disagreeable,
soppy exhibition after a rainy period like the carnation and peony flowered varieties. |
Portulaca
Buy the separate colours and mix them yourself, as in the commercial mixtures both
scarlet and pink appear in tints that set the teeth on edge |
T.A. |
Red, white, pink, crimson, yellow |
6-8 in. |
A most useful "filler" for sunny nooks,—rockwork,—
for covering bulb beds, and concealing mishaps and disappointments. Its fat, uninteresting
foliage, that makes mats a foot broad and proclaims it first cousin to "pusley," is covered
during bright sunshine by a wealth of gay flowers two inches across and of satiny texture.
Heat, and plenty of it, is what Portulaca craves, backyards agree with it, also dry banks, and even
seashore sand if there is a foothold of loam beneath. |
Salvia Splendens—Flowering Sage
Bonfire |
H.A. |
Intense flame |
2-2½ ft. |
The familiar flower that sends up its spikes of flame from August until
frost—should be sown in seed beds and set out from one to two feet apart.
Watch out and do not put your salvia where it will come in competition with the crimson-hued hardy
phlox tribe. Scarlet geraniums and the crimson rambler rose in conjunction are not more painful. |
|
Sweet Peas, twelve good colours |
H.A. |
Various |
6 ft. |
If sweet peas are to be grown in any quantity, they should be sown after
the manner of tall garden peas and the colours kept separate. This is a great
aid both to their gathering and artistic arrangement. |
Apple blossom
Black knight
Boreatton
Coquette
Crown jewel |
|
Pink
Maroon
Deep Crimson
Primrose
Cream, violet veins |
|
Duke of Clarence
Firefly
Gorgeous
Mrs. Kenyon (very large)
King Edward VII
Mrs. Dugdale
Navy blue
Primrose
Senator |
|
Claret
Dazzling scarlet
Orange and rose
Primrose-yellow
Very
fine crimson
Best rose-pink
Rich dark blue
Light yellow
White, purple,
and maroon striped |
|
Mont Blanc, very early
Stella Morse |
|
White
Primrose flushed with pink |
2 ft. |
Sunflowers
Henry Wilde
Primrose-coloured
Cucumerifolius hybridus fl. pl., a fine mixture of
new varieties, decorative and good for cutting |
H.A. |
All shades of yellow |
4-8 ft. |
Cheerful flowers to line up against fences or at the back of shrubberies,
whose seeds, if left to ripen, will secure the company of many birds for your garden through the
autumn and early winter. |
| Single Russian (The Henyard Sunflower), large head heavy with seeds |
|
|
8 ft. |
Verbena
Defiance, scarlet bedder
Candidissima
Auriculæflora, various, with white eye |
H.A. |
|
1-1/2 ft. |
The best summer-bedding plant that is raised from
seed, which must be well soaked before sowing. The mammoth varieties are the
most satisfactory, and among them are to be found shaded tints of rose
and lavender that have decided perfume. |
| Mammoth, mixed, large flowers, often fragrant, of many beautiful colours. |
|
Red, white, blue, purple, crimson, pink, striped |
|
Wallflower
Paris single annual |
H.A. |
Gold and brown |
1-1/2 ft. |
While the most beautiful species of wallflowers are in this climate so tender
that they must be wintered in pits or cold frames, this single species, if sown in spring and
transplanted, will bloom until Christmas. It is one of the most valuable and characteristic
plants of the bed of sweet odours and can be used to fill odd nooks, against stone
walls, or the foundation of buildings. |
Zinnia (Crabbed age and Youth)
Salmon
Snowball
Sulphur
Golden
Fireball
Rose |
H.A. |
|
1-16 in. |
Bedding annual, of brilliant colours and vigorous growth. If room
is lacking, the dwarf varieties are best unless the soil is very poor. It
is best to buy the seed in separate colours, and when transplanting from the
seed bed, combine as required. Avoid the purple and magenta shades, they are
quite impossible. |