Clarkia
Hardy Annual
Eighteen inches to two feet.
Flowers July to September. White and several shades
of rose, crimson and salmon-pink.
One of the best and most easily grown of the
hardy annuals. There are several varieties; pulchella,
elegans and integripetala; the last is the finest,
and should be chosen before the others. The type,
when well developed, is a stout, self-supporting
plant with willow-shaped leaves and single flowers
of a light crimson or rosy purple; but there are
white-flowered strains, and strains with double
flowers, both crimson and white. One of the most
beautiful kinds is a comparatively recent introduction
which goes by the name Salmon Queen, a double
flower of rather a peach-blossom colour than the
fish-tint which is so often employed in garden
descriptions. Clarkias should be sown with the
rest of the hardy annuals from the 20th of March
to the 10th of April, according to season and
latitude, in patches in mixed borders; they are
also worth growing in mass, where space can be
afforded. The handiest way of sowing all the smaller
annual seeds is to make a patch of good soil fine
and level, sow the seed thinly, cover with an
eighth of an inch of sifted potting soil, and
pat down lightly with the spade. Thin out the
plants until they stand six to ten inches apart.
Clarkias may also be sown in the beginning of
September; they will stand any ordinary winter,
and will flower earlier and make stouter plants
than the spring-sown specimens.
CLARKIA
Family ONAGRACEAE
Clarkia species
Annual
A race of annuals native to California and among
the most showy of garden flowers.
Clarkia elegans has oval leaves with stems of a ruddy
glaucous hue of one and a half to four feet, if
well grown, and many round flowers, half an inch
or less across, that are purple in the type, white
in the form var. alba, salmon-pink in var. salmonea
and ranging from white to blood-red in forms of
garden origin.
Clarkia pulchella is native to the west coast of America,
from British Columbia to California. It does not
exceed one and a half feet high, and has lilac-coloured
flowers with the claws of the petals toothed.
There is a white variety, Clarkia pulchella alba.
Easily grown in any well-drained soil in full
sun, the seeds being sown in April to June where
the plants are to flower. Both species and the
many beautiful varieties of garden origin are
valuable for providing bold masses of colour in
the flower garden. There are a number with double
flowers.
Propagate from seed.
The flowering season is from July to October.
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