There are blue and white Lupins, and both kinds flower at the same time and require the same treatment. We advise you to choose the white one if you have blue Delphiniums, as they will come out together, and make your garden gay all through June. Slugs are very fond of Lupins, and you often find a fine spike just about to flower half eaten away. Unless you want to increase your stock from seed, you should cut off the flowers as they fade, in order to prolong the flowering season. The plants may be left undisturbed year after year, and will make large clumps that grow from three to six feet high. If you take up a Lupin you will find it has huge tap-roots, and on this account it is not an easy plant to transplant or divide. When you want to move them, you must do it in the autumn, after the leaves have died down. The seeds come up easily if you sow them in a box, and the seedlings flower the second year; but if you have blue and white Lupins, the seed from your white Lupin will produce many washed-out blue flowers.
White Japanese Anemone.
This is a large white Anemone with golden anthers. It begins to bloom in August, and goes on right through the autumn, long after our summer flowers have gone. Any bit of root you can buy or get given will grow, but when once you have planted it you should leave it alone year after year. It hates being disturbed, and will only make the huge flowering clump you want when it is well established. It likes a rich soil, and grows very well in half-shady places.
Aquilegia, or Columbine.
If you gather the flower of a Columbine and look at it upside down, you will see why people say it is like little doves drinking, and how it gets its name of Columbine from the Latin word for dove. In some parts of England they grow wild, but the beautiful orange, yellow, and scarlet ones come from America, and the blue and white Alpine ones from Switzerland and the Pyrenees. In our climate they are uncertain as perennials. You may have a garden where they live for years, or you may find that your good ones die off every year. They like well-drained, well-nourished, rather light, moist soil, and a half-shady position. If you have heavy clay land, you will probably not succeed well with them. Where they are happy they seed themselves easily, and you see a whole colony of tiny plants coming up round their parent; so be careful how you weed near a good Columbine after it has flowered. These seedlings may be left till the spring, and then planted where they are to stand. The best way to acquire a stock is to buy a packet of seed of the long-spurred varieties, and to manage them as we have told you to manage other seeds of perennial flowers. If you sow in June you should be able to plant out in autumn, and one of the great growers tells you to put three plants in a triangle three inches apart, but we think this is too near. As the leaves die down in winter, you should put labels where you set your plants. When you have a great many seedlings from a mixed packet, do not keep only the biggest and strongest specimens, or you may find next summer that you have all one colour. Some of the choicest varieties look rather small and weak when they are young.
Peony.
When Keats talked of the wealth of ‘globèd Peony,’ he was thinking of the old-fashioned red ones that make such a splendid splash of colour in a garden, but were out of favour at one time because they were considered too flamboyant for people with refined tastes. Your grandmother would have looked disapprovingly at a hoyden whose face was as red as a Peony, and she probably thought the flowers very well in a cottage garden, but not in her own. But in these days of hockey and lawn-tennis Atalanta’s face may be as red as she pleases—no one will call her a hoyden; and the Peonies are no longer globed, but wide-open and wide-eyed, like an Anemone, and lovely shades of palish pink and white. You can still grow the old red one if you wish. It is called ‘officinalis,’ and, like all Peonies, should have four feet of space allowed for the bush it will make in two or three years’ time. Some of the most beautiful new ones are half single, with a mass of golden stamens in the centre, and many are sweet-scented. They should not be planted on an east border, because then the sun catches the dewdrops still on the blooms, and converts them into burning glasses. They will grow in any rich soil and in any position, but if you give them moderate shade their flowers last longer and are more intense in colour. It is a good plan to pinch off the buds of your first-year plants, so that all the strength goes into the roots and leaves. You may leave them undisturbed for years, but if you can top-dress them in autumn so much the better. Peonies form large woody roots, with little knobs or crowns on them. They may be divided in autumn by carefully cutting apart the roots, leaving several crowns on each piece. These should be planted only two inches below the soil.
Evening Primrose (Œnothera Fruticosa).
There are a good many varieties of the Evening Primrose, and one of the most common will be described in the chapter on Biennials. The Œnothera Fruticosa is a true perennial, and as it flowers all through the summer, it is a useful plant to have in your border. It grows about two feet high, so it should be placed about the middle, with taller plants behind it. All Evening Primroses like a warm, sunny position, and a good sandy soil. ‘Fruticosa’ is easily raised from seed sown in the open ground in June, and pricked off when large enough to flower next year. It may also be divided in spring or autumn.