Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-06-24
GROWING PERENNIALS
BY BESSIE L. PUTNAM.

For those who have not much time
to devote to the garden, there is no
class of towering plants more desira-
BILE than the hardy perennials and
herbaceOus plants like the peOny.
These plants require but little atten-
ton.
One does not have to acquire a lib
eral horticultural education in order
to know how to take care of them.
Most of US will do well to consider
the merits of this class of plants, Ieav-
ing the ANIMALS to those who are here
this season and somewhere else next
year.
Not that we would advise neg
lecting ANNALS wholly, however, I do
not want to be understood as meaning
that, but simply that a collection of
hardy plants will be found so much
more satisfactory, all things consid-
cred, under the conditions of which
1 have spoken, that their cultivation is
to be urged in preference to that of
the other class mentioned, which is
not satisfactory unless a good deal
of time and labor is expended on it.
The impression seems to prevail
that ANNALS require next to no care,
and are therefore particularly adapted
to the use of the woman who has but
little time to devote to gardening.
The fact is, that to grow ANIMALS
well you must give them a good deal
of attention, especially during the
early part Of the season, several times
the amount of attention, indeed, that
will be required by a good-sized col
lection of hardy plants.
Another argument in favor of this
class is that, once established, your
plants are good for an indefinite pc
riod. Your garden does not have to
be made every. season.
In spring the plants will need to
be worked about, and freed from the
grass which viii encroach upon their
territory, if allowed to do so; the soil
will require fertilizing, and once in
three or four years the old plants will
be bettered by a division of their
roots
This is about all this class of plants
will ask of you A great many can
be attended to in a day, you will find
And the work is much easier than that
of making beds and pulling weeds.
One Of the best perennials-perhaps
I would be justified in saying the best
is the HollyhoCk. This plant comes
in wide range of colors-white, rose,
crimson, maroon, and yellow. 1t is a
profuse bloomer, and it does well in
almost any soil.
To secure the strongest effects from
it, it should be planted in groups of
from six to a dozen plants. If con-
trasting harmonious colors are plant
ed together like white and pink, pink
and yellow, maroon and yellow or
white, the effect will be very fine. But
don't expect harmony if you put the
pink varieties alongside of the Grim
son or maroon sorts.
We have mostly double HolIyhocks
nowadays, but the single kinds are
well worth cultivation, especially
where a very strong and stately effect
is desired.
If the old flower stalks are cut off
p soon as the buds on them have
developed quite frequently, new stalks
will be sent up late in the season.
In this way one may have flowers
from the HollyhOck until the coming
of cold weather.
A package of seed sown in May.
T,,1x
plants from which flowers can be ex-
pected the next season.
Delphinum, or Larkspur, is an ex-
cellent plant when used in clumps.
We have no other flower Of the some
rich dark shade of blue. l have seen
charming effects result from planting
pale-yellow Hollyhocks close by it
this color and the intense blue of the
other producing a most striking COM
bination.
Where an exceedingly rich show
of color is desired, nothing equals
the Rudbeekia or golden glow
Great clumps of it will be a solid mass
of the richest golden yellow for
weeks. For cutting, We have few
better flowers.
This plant is so aggressive in char
acter that it should have a place in
the background where it can be al
lowed to spread itself.
Dicentra is q most lovely flower,
and has the special merit of being an
early bloomer. The foliage of this