Nicotiana Sanderae: half-hardy, 2 to 3 ft., white, crimson,
scarlet, &c.
Nigella hispanica: hardy, 112 ft., pale blue, white or dark purple.
Oenothera odorata: hardy, 2 to 3 ft., yellow; fragrant.
Omphalodes linifolia (Venus’s Navelwort): hardy, 1 ft., white.
Papaver Rhoeas flore-pleno: hardy, 2 ft., scarlet and other colours; showy.
Papaver somniferum flore-pleno: hardy, 3 ft., white, lilac, rose, &c.; petals sometimes fringed.
Petunia violacea hybrida: half-hardy, 112 ft., various colours; sow in heat.
Pharbitis hispida: hardy, 6 ft., various; the many-coloured twining Convolvulus major.
Phlox Drummondii: half-hardy, 1 ft., various colours.
Platystemon californicus: hardy, 1 ft., sulphur yellow; neat and distinct.
Portulaca splendens: half-hardy, 6 in., crimson, rose, yellow, white, &c., single and double; splendid prostrate plants for sunny rockwork.
Pyrethrum Parthenium aureum: half-hardy, 1 ft.; grown for its golden foliage, and much used for bedding.
Reseda odorata (Mignonette): hardy, 1 ft., greenish, but exquisitely fragrant; there are some choice new sorts.
Rhodanthe maculata: half-hardy, 112 ft., rosy-pink or white; larger flower-heads than the next.
Rhodanthe Manglesii: half-hardy, 1 ft., rosy-pink; a drooping everlasting.
Salpiglossis sinuata: half-hardy, 2 to 3 ft., yellow, purple, crimson, &c.; much varied and beautifully veined.
Sanvitalia procumbens flore-pleno: half-hardy, 6 in., golden yellow; procumbent.
Saponaria calabrica: hardy, 6 to 8 in., bright rose pink or white; continuous blooming, compact-growing.
Scabiosa atropurpurea: hardy, 1 to 2 ft., rose, white, lilac, crimson, &c.
Schizanthus pinnatus: hardy, 1 to 2 ft., purple-lilac, prettily blotched; curiously lobed flowers.
Schizopetalon Walkeri: hardy, 1 ft., white, sweet-scented at night; curiously fringed petals.
Senecio elegans: half-hardy, 112 ft., white, rose or purple; the various double forms are showy.
Silene pendula: hardy, 1 ft., bright rose pink; very showy in masses; var. compacta forms close dense tufts.
Silene Pseudo-Atocion: hardy, 1 ft., rose pink; free-flowering.
Specularia Speculum: hardy, 6 in., reddish-violet; free-flowering.
Sphenogyne speciosa: half-hardy, 1 ft., orange-yellow, with black ring around the disk.
Statice Bonduelli (Sea Lavender): half-hardy, 112 ft., yellow.
S. Limonum: bluish purple.
S. sinuata: white, blue, yellow.
S. Suworowi: lilac.
Tagetes signata: half-hardy, 112 ft., golden yellow; continuous blooming, with elegant foliage. The French and African marigolds, favourites of some, are allied to this.
Tropaeolum aduncum (Canary creeper): half-hardy, 10 ft., yellow, fringed; an elegant climber.
Tropaeolum majus (the nasturtium of gardens): hardy. There are two races, dwarf and tall, various shades of red and yellow.
Waitzia aurea: half-hardy, 112 ft., golden yellow; a showy everlasting.
Xeranthemum annuum flore-pleno: hardy, 2 ft., lilac-purple; floriferous.
Zinnia elegans: half-hardy, 1 to 2 ft., various colours.
Hardy Biennials.—Biennials live through one winter period. They require to be sown in the summer months, about June or July, in order to get established before winter; they should be pricked out as soon as large enough, and should have ample space so as to become hardy and stocky. They should be planted in good soil, but not of too stimulating a character. Those that are perfectly hardy are best planted where they are to flower in good time during autumn. This transplanting acts as a kind of check, which is rather beneficial than otherwise. Of those that are liable to suffer injury in winter, as the Brompton and Queen Stocks, a portion should be potted and wintered in cold frames ventilated as freely as the weather will permit.
The number of biennials is not large, but a few very desirable garden plants, such as the following, occur amongst them:—
Agrostemma coronaria (Rose Campion): hardy, 112 ft., bright rose-purple or rose and white.
Beta Cicla variegata: hardy, 2 ft., beautifully coloured leaves and midribs, crimson, golden, &c.
Campanula Medium (Canterbury Bell): hardy, 2 ft., blue, white, rose, &c. The double-flowered varieties of various colours are very handsome.
Campanula Medium calycanthema: hardy, 2 ft., blue or white; hose-in-hose flowered.
Catananche coerulea: hardy, 2 to 3 ft., blue or white.
Celsia cretica: hardy, 4 to 5 ft., yellow, with two dark spots near centre; in spikes.
Cheiranthus Cheiri (Wallflower): hardy, 112 to 2 ft., red, purple, yellow, &c.; really a perennial but better as a biennial.
Coreopsis grandiflora: hardy, 2 to 3 ft., bright yellow; the finest member of the genus.
Dianthus barbatus (Sweet William): hardy, 1 to 112 ft., crimson, purple, white or parti-coloured.
Dianthus chinensis (Indian Pink): half-hardy, 1 ft., various; flower earlier if treated as biennials; must be protected from frost.
Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove): hardy, 3 to 5 ft., rosy-purple or white; beautifully spotted; the variety called gloxinioides has regular, erect flowers.
Echium pomponium: hardy, 4 ft., rosy-pink.
Hedysarum coronarium (French Honeysuckle): hardy, 2 to 3 ft., scarlet or white; fragrant.
Hesperis tristis (Night-scented Rocket): hardy, 3 ft., dull purplish; fragrant at night.
Lunaria biennis (Honesty): hardy, 2 to 3 ft., purple; the silvery dissepiment attractive among everlastings.
Matthiola incana (two groups, the Brompton and the Queen stocks): hardy, 2 to 212 ft., white, red and purple.
Meconopsis. Charming members of the poppy family, of which M. aculeata, purple; M. grandis, purple; M. heterophylla, coppery-orange; M. nepalensis, golden yellow; M. integrifolia, yellow; M. simplicifolia, violet purple, are grown with care in sheltered spots, and in rich, very gritty soil.
Michauxia campanuloides, a remarkable bell flower, 3 to 8 ft. high, white tinged purple. Requires rich loam in warm sheltered spots.
Oenothera biennis and O. Lamarckiana (Evening primrose): hardy, 5 ft., bright yellow; large.
Scabiosa caucasica: hardy, 3 ft., blue, white.
Silene compacta: half-hardy, 3 to 6 inches, bright pink; clustered as in S. Armeria.
Verbascum Blattaria: hardy, 3 to 4 ft., yellowish, with purple hairs on the filaments; in tall spikes.
Hardy Herbaceous Perennials.—This term includes not only those fibrous-rooted plants of herbaceous habit which spring up from the root year after year, but also those old-fashioned subjects known as florists’ flowers, and the hardy bulbs. Some of the most beautiful of hardy flowering plants belong to this class. When the length of the flowering season is considered, it will be obvious that it is impossible to keep up the show of a single border or plot for six months together, since plants, as they are commonly arranged, come dropping into and out of flower one after another; and even where a certain number are in bloom at the same time, they necessarily stand apart, and so the effects of contrast, which can be perceived only among adjacent objects, are lost. To obviate this defect, it has been recommended that ornamental plants should be formed into four or five separate suites of flowering, to be distributed over the garden. Not to mention the more vernal flowers, the first might contain the flora of May; the second that of June; the third that of July; and the fourth that of August and the following months. These compartments should be so intermingled that no particular class may be entirely absent from any one quarter of the garden.
Before beginning to plant, it would be well to construct tables or lists of the plants, specifying their respective times of flowering, colours and heights. To diversify properly and mingle well together the reds, whites, purples, yellows and blues, with all their intervening shades, requires considerable taste and powers of combination; and ascertained failures may be rectified at the proper time the next season. The one great object aimed at should be to present an agreeable contrast—a floral picture; and, as at particular seasons a monotony of tint prevails, it is useful at such times to be in possession of some strong glaring colours. White, for instance, should be much employed in July, to break the duller blues and purples which then preponderate. Orange, too, is very effective at this season. On the other hand, yellows are superabundant in autumn, and therefore reds and blues should then be sought for. The flower-gardener should have a small nursery, or reserve garden, for the propagation of the finer plants, to be transferred into the borders as often as is required.
As a rule, all the fibrous-rooted herbaceous plants flourish in good soil which has been fairly enriched with manure, that of a loamy character being the most suitable. Many of them also grow satisfactorily in a peaty soil if well worked, especially if they have a cool moist subsoil. Pentstemons and phloxes, amongst others, succeed well in soil of this character, but the surface must be well drained; the former are rather apt to perish in winter in loamy soil, if at all close and heavy. The herbaceous border should be a distinct compartment varying from 6 to 10 ft. in width, and perhaps backed up by evergreens under certain conditions. Such a border will take in about four lines of plants, the tallest being placed in groups at the back and in the centre, and the others graduated in height down to the front. In the front row patches of the white arabis, the yellow alyssum, white, yellow, blue, or purple violas, and the purple aubrietia, recurring at intervals of 5 or 6 yards on a border of considerable length, carry the eye forwards and give a balanced kind of finish to the whole. The same might be done with dianthuses or the larger narcissi in the second row, with paeonies, columbines and phloxes in the third, and with delphiniums, aconitums and some of the taller yellow composites as helianthus and rudbeckia at the back. Spring and autumn flowers, as well as those blooming in summer, should be regularly distributed throughout the border, which will then at no season be devoid of interest in any part. Many of the little alpines may be brought into
