Whenever Plants Massed at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

WHENEVER plants massed PLANTS are massed together it encourages the presence of pests. Aphids a the main pests and must be controlled bef they reach plague proportions by spraying the plants several times throughout summi with a systemic insecticide. Spraying plants with an insecticide froi an environmentally friendly aerosol or through a hand-held spray are popular methods of using chemicals. An alternative way is to insert small sticks impregnated with insect-killing chemicals into the compost, so that roots absorb the chemical and make plants toxic to insects. These are best used in long-term plants grown in lobbies, porches or indoors.

The colors are truly blatant—brilliant oranges, red, purples, and yellow—and too many cockscombs can detract from every other flower in the garden. Cockscombs are useful fresh-cut or when dried. They were great favorites in Victorian parlors, massed like ostrich plumes in heavily decorated vases. Look for the cultivar 'Apricot Brandy' with rich color and a short stature, some 8 inches in height. Place plants 9 inches apart in the garden. They need full sun and are half-hardy annuals.

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) is also known as the fennel flower and is another plant that has been in cultivation for over 400 years. The name refers to the pastel-colored blooms that hover just above a tangle of light green, fern-like foliage. Plants are especially attractive when massed in the front of the border. 'Persian Jewels' jves flowers of rose-pink, light blue, or white. Its ripening seedpods nflate like balloons crowned with jester's caps. Love-in-a-mist do not transplant well and should be sown directly in the garden or tarted in individual peat pots. Plant 8 inches apart and use succes-ive sowings to have flowers all summer long.