MIDSUMMER is a season of pause between the gay opulence of May and June and the rich procession of late summer and fall. The weather is often hot, dry, and dusty. Few native plants bloom, and many European importations fail under the blazing sun. How to provide for bloom at this time has always been a problem. There are many plants less well known than they should be, to provide color for July and early August.

To begin with, the garden must be so planned that there is adequate space for midsummer plants. Perhaps your enthu siasm for bearded iris and other June perennials, or your interest in phlox and chrysanthemums for late summer and fall, has filled up your borders. Perhaps you have relied to confidently on early bloom from annuals. Seldom do they get a quick enough start in our cold rainy springs to flower prolifically before the middle of August, unless you sow and carry them along for quite a time in coldframe or greenhouse.

There are a few exceptions. Sweet alyssum, forgetmenots, and California poppies will flower quickly from seed sown right in the open ground where they are to bloom. You can use these at the edges of the border to cover spaces occupied by early spring bulbs, or among the perennials which, by mid summer, have gone by.

Foliage Values

Foliage is important in midsummer. When a planting looks barren or gone to seed, it is usually because of the dying foli age of spring-flowering plants, which have been arranged in too large groups to be effectively masked by later-blooming things. Plants whose foliage is poor after blooming or likely to disappear altogether, should be used in very small groups, or in long narrow drifts among other plants with more luxuri ant foliage. Bearded iris, Oriental poppies, bleedingheart, and lupine are among the worst offenders, but even such plants as delphinium, early lilies, hollyhocks, and biennials leave holes when they are cut back or removed after blooming.