The erigerons are useful plants to grow, very much like the large-flowered Michaelmas daisies, except that they come in earlier and are of a dwarfer habit; they may be had in orange as well as blue shades.
The funkias are grand plants, grown chiefly for their foliage, which is sometimes green margined with white, or green mixed with gold, and in one kind the leaves are marbled blue and green; they set off the flowers near them to great advantage. In the early spring slugs attack them; these must be trapped and killed (see [Chap. VIII].).
Why are the old Christmas roses seen so little, I wonder? Grown in heavy soil and cold aspect they do beautifully, and bring us their pure white flowers when little else is obtainable outside. One thing against them in this hurry-skurry age is the fact that they increase so slowly; this makes them rather expensive too. Good plants of helleborus niger maximus may, however, be bought for half-a-crown; this variety has very handsome leaves, and is all the better for a little manure.
A flower that everybody admires is the heuchera sanguinea, a rare and lovely species; it has graceful sprays of coral-red flowers, borne on stems from one to two feet high, which generally appear in June, and are first-rate for cutting. Lobelia fulgens is a brilliantly beautiful species, not to be confounded with the dwarf blue kinds; these tall varieties have quaintly-shaped red flowers, and narrow leaves of the darkest crimson; the roots are rather tender, and much dislike damp during the autumn and winter.
Lychnis chalcedonica is one of the unreasonably neglected plants; it has bright scarlet flowers, a good habit, and grows from two to three feet high; it must have a sunny position and prefers a sandy soil.
Some of the new hardy penstemons are lovely, and flower during the whole summer; they look very well in a round bed by themselves, and do not require much looking after; they are rather too tender to withstand our damp winters without protection, therefore the old plants should be mulched, after having had cuttings taken from them, to be kept secure from frost in a frame.
The winter cherry, or Cape gooseberry (physalis alkekengi) is a most fascinating plant; its fruit is the attraction, and resembles Chinese-lanterns; they appear early in September, and make quite a good show in the garden. When bad weather comes, the stalks should be cut, hung up to dry for about a week, and then mixed in vases with dried grasses and the effect is very pretty. Care must be taken when asking for this plant under the English name, as there is a greenhouse plant so termed which is quite different, and, of course, will not stand frost. A dozen plants cost about 5s.; do not be persuaded to get the newer sort—franchetti—the berries are larger, but coarse and flabby, and not nearly so decorative.
Polemonium richardsoni is a very pretty plant, its English name being Jacob’s ladder. The flowers are borne in clusters, and are pale sky-blue in colour with a yellow eye: the foliage is fernlike in character and very abundant. This plant likes a shady nook, which must not be under trees, however, and if well watered after its first bloom is over in June, it will flower again in autumn. The double potentillas are glorious things for bedding, and are most uncommon looking. Their flowers are like small double roses in shape: generally orange, scarlet, or a mixture of both: the leaves, greyish-green in colour, resemble those of the strawberry. Unfortunately, these plants require a good deal of staking, but they are well worth the trouble.
The large-leaved saxifrages, sometimes called megaseas, merit a good deal more attention than they receive. For one thing they begin flowering very early, holding up their close pink umbels of flowers so bravely in cold winds: then their foliage is quite distinct, and turns to such a rich red in September that this fact, added to their easy cultivation, makes it wonderful that they are not more grown. I remember, on a dreary day in mid-February, being perfectly charmed by the sight of a large bed of this saxifraga ligulata, completely filling up the front garden of a workman’s cottage in one of the poorest roads of a large town. The flowers are particularly clean and fresh-looking, and having shiny leaves they of course resist dust and dirt well.
Tradescantias and trollius are two good families of plants for growing on north borders; the first have curious blue or reddish-purple flowers, rising on stiff stalks clothed with long pointed leaves, and they continue in flower from May till September. The trollius has bright orange or lemon-yellow cup-shaped blossoms and luxuriant foliage. It flowers from the end of May for some weeks. Both these plants grow about two feet high.