Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1915 — HOME TOWN HELPS [ARTICLE]

HOME TOWN HELPS

SHRUB SHOULD PROVE BOON

Possibility That Plant Long Sought For Has Been Discovered In Western Texas.

Most flowering shrubs have their short season of bloom, and though at that time they are of great beauty, the flowers last only a short time. Then we must be content to look at the green foliage, and attractive! though that is, we wish for a longer!

season of bloom. The wish is met in the discovery in the mountains of western Texas, in the semi-arid regions, of a shrub which bears the name Salvia Gregii. We all know the alluring beauty of

the annual salvia splendens. At a- sear son when flowers are scarce it clothes Itself in a splendor and keeps up the proce|Bion of beauty until arrested by the frosts. Now if we could clothe a shapely shrub with this radiant profusion and have i,t in bloom a long time, we would have just what we have been looking for for years. The Salvia Gregii is a shapely shrub three or four feet tall, well branched and often of a globular form. It commences blooming early. It clothes itself with a splendor of glowing red for about two months. Then it slacks up a little, but as autumn approaches, and most other flowers have gone, it puts on its scarlet robes again, almost

overwhelming the plant with the splendid flowers. Probably no shrub ever discovered is more attractive. The question comes up as to whether it will stand the northern climate. Florists have not been in haste to disseminate it. They have sent it to several of the northern states, where it has proved hardy. During the awful drought of last year in Kansas it stood the test bravely and kept right on blooming. In Massachusetts and Pennsylvania it came through the winter all right. Because its habitat is the high, dry portions of the West, it will doubtless prove well adapted to the heat and drought of Kansas and Nebraska. It certainly has the power to resist heat and drought and will withstand the winter. *