This section is from the book "Town Gardening", by Mary Hampden. Also available from Amazon: Town Gardening.
Perennials that will live. Bedding Plants for shady Gardens. Drip from Trees. The hot, enclosed Town Garden. Perennials that will live. Plants for Heated and Unheated Glasshouses. Old and New Floral Schemes.
AS seeds, roots, trees, shrubs, bulbs, etc., have to be bought, perhaps ordered from a distance, the first task in town gardening is to decide what to cultivate. Choosing cleverly is half the battle against adverse circumstances and three parts of the conquest of Triumph.
Is the back garden tree shaded, and enclosed by high walls ?—If so, plants that will live all the year round, and do well each year, include the following:—
Blue. Tall.
Yellow. Tall.
Purple-blue. Dwarf.
White or pink. Tall.
(Anthemis tinctoria).
Yellow. Med iiDii.
White. Dwarf.
(Asters Nova>Anglia and Novi-Belgii). Of many shades of blue, violet, rose, lilac a)id white. Tall.
Majcnta - rose. White. Tall.
Violet.
Medium.
(Corydalis che^ilantbifolia). Yellow.
Fern-like leaves. Dwarf.
Pink. Deep rosy red.
Medium. Dwarf.
Purple. White. Tall.
Gold. Tall and medium.
(Funkia Fortunci robust a).
Silvery lilac. Handsome foliage.
Med iuni.
Yellow. Medium, but spreading.
Gold. Medium.
Violet, Blue, Gold, Bronze, Lilac, Crimson, White, and blends. Medium.
Yellow. Tall.
(Lysimachia mini 1 in 1 laria).
Yellow. Trailing.
Gold. Tall.
Purplish rose. Tall.
Yellow, Medium.
Whitey green. Tall.
Primrose yellow, or coloured hybrids. Dwarf.
(Pulmonarias augustifolia and saccharata). Blue. Rose.
Medium.
Whitey pink.
Medium.
(Solidagos spectabilis and serotina lepida). Gold. Tall. Very tall.
Lavender blue. Trailer.
This list does not exhaust the plants that will thrive in shade ; there are other families, such as the cultivated blue-flowering lettuces (latucas), the crowsfoots (ranunculuses), meadow-sweets (spiraeas), ragworts (senecios), perennial phloxes (phloxes decussata and suffruticosa), hardy maidenhair (thalictrums), and spidersworts (tradescantias), for example, that are quite likely to do well, as will double paeonies and single hollyhocks, unless the tree shade is ubiquitous. Many plants thrive without more than glimpses of sunshine, but cannot endure drip from overhead branches.
If any shrubs are wanted in tree-shaded gardens, privets, euonymuses, berberis aquifolium, common elder, common laurel, are the safest to choose. In open spaces the following should be tried :—
Blue - purple.
White.
The purple-stemmed dwarf willow.
Rosy red.
White.
White ; autumn tinted.
Splendid autumn tints.
 
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