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Plants For The Waterside |
M. alatus will actually grow in shallow water and is very
happy close beside a stream or pool. It has rich violet flowers
on stems which vary from one to two and a half feet high.
M. cardinalis has red and yellow flowers on eighteen-inch
stems.
M. guttatus is the 'common' Monkey Flower, the yellow
blooms having purple spots with purple throat. There are
various forms including tigrinus with prominent spots; luteus,
and a double variety.
M. maculosus, 'Whitecroft's Scarlet', grows only six inches
high and has an abundance of orange-scarlet flowers.
M. radicans is very flat growing and bears small blue and
white flowers.
M. ringens likes a very moist position and produces violet-
blue flowers on stems twelve to eighteen inches high.
Monarda didyma, although very often used with success in
the herbaceous border, is excellent for growing beside streams
and in moist soil. The plants reach two to three feet high
and have mop-like flower heads and rough, dark green leaves.
The variety Cambridge Scarlet is the best-known sort,
although there are pink and white forms.
Petasites is a rampant-growing plant which needs to be kept
in check so that it does not occupy more than its allotted space.
Its large leaves have earned for this plant the common name
of Broad Brimmed Hat. The plants are very early flowering
which in itself, makes them of value in the water garden.
P. japonicus forms a large plant, having leaves several feet
in diameter making it very impressive by the waterside.
P. palmatus or fragrans is sometimes known as tussilago.
Growing from twelve to twenty-four inches high, it thrives in
a peaty soil and produces scented white flowers.
Physostegia. This is a hardy, strong-growing plant reaching
three feet or more when established. It has lanceolate leaves and
square stems on which the flowers are placed at right angles.
These can be moved at will and stay in position, which action
has earned this subject the name of the Obedient Plant. It is
especially valuable since it blooms from July to September.
P. virginianutn Vivid is a particularly fine variety, with deep
rosy-pink blooms.
Polypodium emodi likes shade and moisture. Its arched,
three-lobed foliage has given it the common name of Duck's
Foot Leaf. This changes from a bronze shade to green and
finally to a brownish-black tone. The creamy-white flowers
about fifteen inches high, are succeeded by scarlet fruits which
accounts for this plant also being known as the May Apple.
There is another species with pale yellow fruits.
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