The Zinnia is an excellent plant where a low hedge is desired. It averages a height of three feet. It is compact and symmetrical in habit, branching quite close to the ground. It is a rapid grower, and of the very easiest culture. It comes into bloom in July, and continues to produce great quantities of flowers, shaped like miniature Dahlias, in red, scarlet, pink, yellow, orange, and white, until frost comes. It makes a most gorgeous show.
Kochia, more commonly known as "Burning Bush" or "Mexican Fire-Plant," is a charming thing all through the season. In summer it is a pleasing green. In fall it turns to a brilliant red, hence its popular names, as given above. Its habit is very compact, and one of great symmetry. If the plants are set about a foot apart, and in two rows,—these rows a foot apart,—you will have a low hedge that will be as smooth as one of Arbor Vitæ after the gardener has given it its annual shearing. When the bush takes on its autumnal coloring it is as showy as a plant can well be, and is always sure of attracting attention, and being greatly admired.
Amaranthus is another very pleasing plant for hedge purposes. It grows to a height of about four feet. Some varieties have a dark, bronze-green foliage, others foliage of a dull, rich Indian-red, while some are yellow-green—quite rare among plants of this class. The flowers, which are small, individually, are thickly set along pendant stems, and give the effect of ropes of chenille. In color they are a dull red, not at all showy in the sense of brilliance, but really charming when seen dropping in great profusion against the richly colored foliage. Our grandmothers grew the original varieties of this plant under the name of "Prince's Plume," "Prince's Feather," or "Love Lies Bleeding." But since the florists have taken it in hand, and greatly improved it, it no longer retains the good old names which always meant something. To secure the best results with this plant, when grown as a hedge or screen, set it in rows about a foot apart, each way, and use some of the dwarf sorts for the front row. Or a flowering plant of contrasting color—like the Nasturtium, or the double yellow Marigold, or the velvety African variety, with flowers of a dark maroon shading to blackish-brown—can be grown at its base, with fine effect.
THE ODDS AND ENDS CORNER
Sweet Peas make a good screen if given proper support, and planted thickly.
"I would like a large group or bed of ornamental foliaged plants on the lawn, but have grown rather tired of Cannas and Caladiums. What would you suggest? I don't want anything hard to grow."
If very large plants are wanted, I would advise, as best of all, Ricinus, better known, perhaps, as Castor Bean, or Castor Plant. This is an annual of wonderfully vigorous growth. It often reaches a height of ten feet, in good soil, with a corresponding spread of branches. Its leaves are often a yard across, of a dark coppery bronze, with a purplish metallic lustre that makes the plant very striking. The best effect is secured by growing four or five plants in a group. None of the tropical plants that have come into prominence in gardening, during the past ten or twelve years, are nearly as effective as this easily-grown annual, whose seeds sell at five cents a package. For a very prominent location on the lawn or anywhere about the home-grounds no better plant could be selected.
The Amaranthus advised for hedge use makes a very showy circular bed on the lawn when grown in large masses, in the centre, surrounded with flowering plants of a strongly contrasting but harmonious color. The Calliopsis, rich golden-yellow marked with brown, combines charmingly with the dull, deep, rich reds which characterize the foliage and flowers of the most desirable varieties of this too much neglected annual. There are new varieties advertised of rather dwarf habit, with golden-green foliage, that could be used about the red-leaved kinds with fine effect.