WHITE WOOD LILIES
The vigorous Sneezeweeds or Heleniums are among the easiest of all plants to grow, and will exist on almost any soil. Like other hardy plants, however, they pay for deep cultivation and manure. They bear yellow[75][76] composite flowers, and grow to a height of five or six feet. H. autumnale is the most generally valuable.
The Cone-flowers, or Rudbeckias, are also handsome American plants, the best being R. speciosus, which bears orange flowers with dark yellow centres, and is a very fine bloomer.
But even more useful and important than Heleniums and Rudbeckias are the various perennial sunflowers, of which Helianthus multiflorus and H. rigidus, with their varieties, are perhaps the best worth cultivating.
All these North American composites are such very vigorous growers that they should not be placed in close proximity to small or delicate plants, and it is advisable—except in quite wild places—to take them up every two years and divide the roots.
The Michaelmas Daisies, or tall-growing Asters, are steadily growing in favour coincidently with the growth of the popular taste. Deep cultivation, moderately rich soil, and division every two or three years, are the conditions of their successful culture. Aster ericoides, A. amellus bessarabicus, A. acris, A. Shortii and A. vimineus are a few good kinds.
Both the white and the rose-coloured varieties of Anemone Japonica should be grown, and are of the easiest culture. They may be rapidly increased by division, and should be allowed to develop into bold clumps. Megasea cordifolia and the Pampas Grass are among the autumnal bloomers, as also are the Crocus-like Colchicums, the even more delicately coloured autumn Crocuses, Sedum spectabile, Sternbergia lutea, the late-flowering Gladioli, and the beautiful Amaryllis Belladonna.
Quite unlike all other autumn flowers—indeed unlike all other flowers—the Japanese Chrysanthemum gives us the latest display of brilliant colouring of the garden year. For border decoration, they may be treated much as other herbaceous plants and divided in the spring. Owing to the season at which they flower and the frequent occurrence of violent storms at that period, it is desirable to grow Chrysanthemums against a wall or hedge. The varieties are infinite in number, so that when ordering plants for out-door use it is advisable to instruct the florist as to the purpose to which you intend to devote them. A few very hardy kinds are Madame C. Desgrange, Lady Fitzwigram, Roi des Précoses, and Ryecroft Glory.
The autumn tints assumed by the leaves of many deciduous trees and shrubs are very interesting and beautiful. Of such, the following short list may be of a little help:—