A Garden Invitation
A printed invitation card reached me the other day with two words written on the bottom left-hand corner—Michaelmas daisies. The flower, which is very late this year, is just begin- ning to come to its best. In the garden in question they are grown in a bed by themselves, and doubtless this is how they are best seen ; but in the smaller garden a whole bed cannot be spared for such a mass effect ; and happily some of them, especially the newer sorts that have added greatly to the range of the species, will consent to a happy relation with other flowers. There are dwarfs, growing into gloriously stout round bushes, which make an admirable edge. Most people grow the attractive yellow Luteus in the rough border, as well as the large-flowered semi-dwarfs. Some good gardeners hold that the way to grow the tall sorts, such as the adorable light blue " Climax," or the pink Edith Ballard, is to limit the root to a shoot or two, and certainly such single branches have a rare individual grace if they do not add to the mass effect, and doubtless the worst of common faults is to permit the presence of a wide raft-like root which in the end pauperises its own flowers.
*
Previous page
