Slimmer Meeting. 145 



clump of the plants to make a start for your friends's garden. Of course, 

 the rule is to take them up for transplanting in the fall or early spring, 

 but they will grow if transplanted with the buds well started, and even 

 v/ith the flowers in full bloom. 



Tulips you will see usually planted in handsome formal rows or 

 beds, and they are good in these plans, but no matter where they are they 

 are woith while. The bulbs run out and need to be removed every 

 four or five years. They are so refreshing in color and spicy in odor 

 that you want some to cut for the rooms. Again, do not forget to use 

 some of the blue-green leaves with the blossoms. They keep well in water 

 and for several days close at night and open again in the morning as 

 though not yet severed from the plant. Do we not all ask with the 

 wonder of the child, who, on first seeing the tulips closed early in the 

 morning, which he had seen open the afternoon before, asked, "Who 

 shut dose tulips up?" With the cut flowers, even when the petals liave 

 dried, they retain their color. The parrot varieties bloom after the plain 

 ones. It is interesting to watch the green petals change to the varied 

 colors of the tropical birds, and their ragged edges add to the grace 

 and novelty of appearance. 



The shrub Forsythia Verdissima disappointed us this year, for the 

 winter was so severe that great bushes eight years old yielded us only 

 tv*o vases of the brown stems, bearing a sprinkle of the single yellow 

 blossoms, and these from below the snow line, but these, too, with the 

 curving leafless stems (for the leaves appear as the flowers cease), and 

 the splashes of canary yellow flowers along their full length — these, too, 

 served to illustrate a Japanese effect and reminded one of the many 

 pictures of the Japanese cherry blossoms. Another variety, Forsythia 

 Suspensa, in a neighbor's yard, proved to be more hardy than the Verdis- 

 sima and was full of its smaller-sized flowers even after this last cold 

 winter. 



The Spirea, commonly know^n as bridal wreath, supplied us with 

 blossoms for an unusually long time, because the days were so chilling 

 that the florets came out slowly, and when they did, could not mature 

 and fall off as in warm weather. The redbud, or Judas tree, did the 

 same. The Spirea von Houtii, which came later, was generous with 

 its branches, bearing umbrella-like clusters of tiny flowerets. The Japan 

 quince this season gave only a few of its bright pink flowers. 



The dwarf irises were welcome because they came when spring 

 seemed delayed and called forth so scant a number of her children. For 

 Easter, April 23, if you could not afford enough of the hothouse lilies, 

 you probably used apple buds, with a full-blown blossom here and there 



H— 10 



