Your Backyard Garden Information Source
PENTSTEMON – Bearded tongue (From Greek for five stamens, the fifth is sterile and bearded) Persons who are familiar with the Gloxinia Pentstemon, Pentstemon gloxinioides, already know its beauty; to others who are not, we would say that the price of a packet of seed is entirely out of proportion to the pleasure of bringing these flowers into bloom. The […]
PANSY The Pansy, it would seem, is one of the most alluring of all garden flowers. It’s little faces make most of us laugh when we look at them. The English have given the Pansy many nicknames, such as Call-meto-you, Love-true, Three-faces-under-a-hood, Pink-eyed-John, Tickle-my-fancy, Bird’s-eye, Jump-up-and-kiss-me, God-father, Godmother, Love-in-idleness, Kiss-me-in-the-buttery, Rob-run-the-street, and Heartsease. With such names, it is not strange […]
Were an artist to look upon a Petunia and wish that it had a delicate pattern traced upon its petals, he would create in his mind the Salpiglossis. The funnel-shaped flowers are borne upright upon slender but strong branches two feet tall. The flowers of Salpiglossis sinuala are crimson and gold, yellow and white, darkest maroon, scarlet and gold, violet […]
Where to plant. Blue flowers are rather rare among annuals. This is one of the reasons for the great popularity of the Ageratum houstonianum (mexicanum). The flowers are dainty and feathery, often delightfully fragrant, and usually completely cover the plants. There are attractive dwarf, tufted plants as well as tall, upright growers. The dwarfer sorts appear to produce much more […]
LOBELIA (Named for M. L’Obel, botanist and physician of King James I) Clear blues are found among the annual Lobelias. The varieties of the Edging Lobelia, Lobelia erinus, the common species, are of two sorts-those which produce compact plants four inches tall, and trailing forms, which hang down for two or three feet over the sides of a pot. The […]
PERILLA Perilla is mentioned here because in years past it was a great favorite as a foliage plant. The leaves are dark purple and have a metallic luster causing the plant to resemble a Coleus. It grows about 1/2 feet tall. The pinkish flowers, in form like those of Catnip, are inconspicuous. Perilla frutescens is the species but there are […]
PETUNIA (Named from petun, Brazilian name for tobacco, to which Petunia is allied) Every one has some room for Petunias because they are the most profuse flowering of any annual. Few other annuals produce so many of such large flowers. The colors have been improved to such an extent that there are now varieties to please us all. Recently nearly […]
PHLOX – Texas pride (Name from Greek for a flame, perhaps first applied to another plant) The brilliance and clean colors of the annual Phlox, P. drummondi. make it a favorite in the garden. The flowers range from white to pink, primrose, scarlet, crimson, rose, and lavender, some being perfectly clear while others have dark or white eyes. An interesting […]
There are some annuals with showy fruits and among them none is so much admired as the Chinese Lantern plant, which produces large, inflated, orange-red, lantern-like pods containing small, fleshy fruits much like Tomatoes. The flowers are inconspicuous, being borne in the axils of the leaves, and it is after the leaves have fallen that the fruit is most showy. […]
PORTULACA (Rosemoss) (Sunplant) (Seven-sisters) When one visits an old lady’s flower garden, no matter how small it may be, Portulacas are generally seen encroaching on the wide walks and in other little out-of-the-way places where the dry conditions would support few other plants. The dazzling, glossy-petaled flowers are clear yellow, white, scarlet, crimson, orange, and rose. The double sorts are […]