Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 139, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1913 — COMBINATIONS FOR THE FLOWER GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COMBINATIONS FOR THE FLOWER GARDEN

(By EBEN E. REXFORD.)

Every season 1 get letters from •women who love flowers, and take great pride in their garden, asking if I can’t tell them about “something new” in the way of beds, or of some new and desirable plants. They want something “a little different” from what their neighbors have. Now there are always new plants, "novelties,” the seedsmen call them — and almost invariably these plants are Introduced with a great flourish of are used in describing them are quite sure to be in the superlative degree, and it 1b not to be wondered at that any flower-loving person’s curiosity is excited "by what the dealers have to say about them, nor is it at all strange that many persons ate tempted to investing in the m. Of course one cannot say anything as tb the merits or demerits of these plants until they have been tested. Some of them prove to be valuable; but, as a general thing, they are of so little merit that we never hear anything about them after the second season. Therefore, I have to say to those who ask advice about putting their money into “novelties,” don’t do it, unless you have so much that you would not mind the loss of what you invest. Here is a suggestion for a bed that ought to “work up” well: Fill the center with “Crimson Feather” Celosia. Edge it with Uadome Sallero Geranium. The green and white foliage of the latter ought to bring out the brilliant coloring of the Celosia with telling effect. Such a bed as this is easily made, and is a little out of the common.

Here is another suggestion that will, if followed out, give you a wonderfully brilliant bed. In ordet to secure the best effects from it, it phould be given a prominent location. Center of bed, scarlet salvia. Surround this with calliopsis, rich golden yellow and brown. Border the bed with scaflet and yellow coleus, setting the colors alternately, or using a row of each. A bed of this kind will fairly blaze with color at midsummer. The annual phlox adapts itself to gome lovely combinations. Use the pale pink, the delicate yellow and the pure white varieties together, and have a veritable poem of harmonious colors. These can be arranged in rows, in circles, or planted in masses, to suit individual taste. It will be readily understood, I think, that I am fonder of harmonious color effects than I am of a wide variety of color. A package of mixed sweet pea seed will give you red, starlet, purple, carmine, pink, blue, \yellow, lavender and white flowers. But if you prefer, instead, exquisite chordß of color, you will have to get packages of seed in which each color is by itself, and select from these the colors which combine most satisfactorily. An extremely brilliant bed can be made with the petunia. But don’t use seed of mixed colors if you want the best results. Fill the center with the .crimson or violet sorts, and edge the bed with white varieties. In this way you heighten the effect of each color by contrast. If the two colors are scattered over the bed* in haphazard fashion, the effect will be too bizarre to be pleasing. The foliage Bhould not be cut off when green, but allowed to wither and then be removed. Transplanting otr any division of the bulbs is best performed in July or August. If this aperation is delayed until the fall more or less injury or check to the new growths must take place. Narcissi are hardy. They live in al-

most any soil or climate, and may be left alone for several years after once being planted. A rather deep and somewhat stiff soil is preferred—that in which the bulbs succeed best; and if the position is one particularly shaded from lots of sunshine in the spring the flowers of some of the species retain their beauty for a much longer period than they would if exposed to all the light and sunshine possible. The usual mode of propagation is by off-sets, which should be collected from the parent bulbs and planted out separately for a year in order that they may grow sufficiently large for flowering. The majority of the species increase somewhat freely by this method and permanent clumps may be lifted, and their offsets removed, should there be a danger of injury caused by the flowering bulbs being overcrowded, ensuing ,from their multiplying. The process of raising plants from seeds is a slow one, but is practiced for raising new varieties. Seeds should be sown soon after )>eing collected, in pans of sandy and rather loamy soil. Young bulbs should be planted in a prepared border, and do not require more than one inch of space. (Copyright, 1913.)

Canna and Salvia Form a Brilliant Bit of Color.

Bed of Chinese Peonies.