Plants That Grow Tidily

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 66, 19 March 1938, Page 17 (Supplement)

Plants That Grow Tidily

THE incorrigible untidiness of *■ otherwise fascinating hardy flowers must have caused uneasiness and heart-burning to many sympathetic gardeners. How miserably some favourites fade an die when their blossoming season is over. And what a blank they leave! One of the biggest problems the Hower grower has to face is that of making good the blanks the blossoms leave behind them. By their gross untidiness when they have given of their best they ought, in all conscience ami by all the rules of gardening for there is none that condones real untidiness— to be pulled up and thrown away. Their bewitching beauty prevents one from laying hand" on them and the evil remains. -;X lag i iri f 86 Btap<l k '£ h in the of ydy plants. Xot only do thev not . e / t r p f ( , fron ! the charm of the border after they have flowered, but actually

they add to it. Their grey-green leaves that neither wither nor wilt in the sunshine form ii admirable foil to the gaudy flowers that come with the riot of summer bloom. And these masses of grey have a distinct charm of their own. Everyone knows the lovely Day lilies— or, to give their botanical' name. Heme roc-all is, and are chiefly in shades of orange or yellow. Hie Potentillas form very neat tufts, and after the dead strawberry-like bios soms are cut off they seem neater than ever. J lie Burning i'ush (Dictamnus fraxinclla and its white variety) also deserve inclusion, tor the leaves retain their iie.-hness and the clumps remain presentable for weeks and weeks after the flowers are over. Many of the Campanulas, or bellflowers. claim recognition as tidy plants. I-ew, if any. excel Campanula' grand is that makes bold tufts, each tuft composed ot many separate plants, and tirou* up 2ft high stems smothered in large sky-blue blossoms in early summer. When the flower stalks are cut off the leatv tufts remain, fresh and attractive, the summer and even the winter through.

The peacli-leaved bellflower is quite different in its growth, but it deserves to be included, for in addition to its fairly presentable appearance after the chief blossoming is over, it possesses the additional distinction of continuing in flower more or less throughout the summer, if the dead blooms are picked off. This is one of the plants of which the flowering stems should not be cut down: the blooms as they fade should be picked <jff singly. The giant chimney Campanula, C. pyramidalis, is a noble border plant that is quite hardy. Seeds are sown in September to provide plants that in December are big enough to plant out in the border where they are to bloom. It. is true that for the first season they have only leaves to show, but these are large, lustrous and fresh, and form handsome plants. Meadow sweet (Spiraea filipendula) has exquisite leafage and would be well worth including among tidy plants even if it did not bloom at all. Even when the flowers have faded and the stems are cut down, the graceful, feathery foliage remains as fresh as ever.

/ The delightful little Heuchera sanguinea that nearly everyone knows produces small, bright-red blossoms profuseiy in November. Japanese stonecrop (Sedum spectabile) charms with its thick grey leaves as much as by its pale rose-coloured flower heads that open in February and March. Shasta daisy or summer Marguerite (Chrysanthemum maximum) is without doubt to be classed as a tidy plant, for if the flower stalks offend the eye when the big blossoms have faded it is a simple matter to cut them down, thus exposing to view the fresh green leaves beneath. One of the neatest of all plants is Polemonium Richardsoni and P. officinale. The exquisite blue flowers come in summer, and having blossomed, leave perfect little clumps to keep fresh. Plantain lilies (Finikin), that bear, chiefly, lavender-coloured flowers in summer, are valued almost as much for their foliage as for their bloom. Everlasting pea keeps quite attractive until autumn. A plant or two trained— or, rather, allowed to ramble—over a fewsticks in the border will always be presentable.