The perennial forms produce much handsomer flowers than do the annuals. All of our garden perennial forms, including _grandiflora_, are varieties of _G. aristata_, and, being natives of Texas, are not always hardy in the Northern States.--See page 4 in the text. It is a rather sprawling plant, growing naturally some two feet high, and hard to stake, but may be pegged down. Use common long hairpins. It requires an open situation in full sun, and thrives best in a sandy soil, well drained.
Quite a hardy border plant, rather low in its foliage, but throwing its flower stems up fully eighteen inches, blooming more or less all summer. _G. coccineum_, with scarlet flowers, and _G. Hederichi_, are both good.
An admirable plant for use where most other plants would fail. It does fairly well in semi-shady places, at base of shrubs and in between them in open spots. Plants grow three to four feet tall, of bushy form when treated well, bearing pinkish flowers in June and July. There is a white form.
All are good, strong growers with narrow iris-like foliage, producing flowers in tones of yellow. _H. flava_, the sweet-scented, deep lemon-yellow-flowered form, is the best and must not be confounded with the coarser-flowered _H. fulva_, the tawny day lily.
All the mallows are good, from the "crimson eye" to the new mallow marvels, moderately late, upright-growing and hardy. The colors run from pure white to pinks and reds.
A low-growing very hardy plant bearing freely yellow daisy-like flowers, always presenting a neat appearance.
On account of the prevailing hollyhock disease--a disease of the foliage hard to combat--it is best to grow one-year-old plants, as they are less affected than the older ones. The singles are the most charming.
This is a large group, from the bulbous Spanish and English iris, which bloom in June and then die down to reappear next season, and may therefore be planted in open spaces between other plants, to the magnificent Japanese iris, _I. Kæmpferi_. This latter one is somewhat fickle and does not last long. The best for general planting are the German, _cristata_, _pumilla_ and _Sibirica_ varieties. _Pallida Dalmatica_ is exceedingly fine.
[Illustration: The tall-growing hardy phlox is a garden mainstay through August, September and October. Beware of the magenta colorings]